Advice and support - new DFW

firesidemaid

well done you on posting and on being so honest.

give yourself a weekly budget for spends, so that once you have spent it that is it!

i now cannot remember life before mse and i can't buy anything unless it is value for money. ie. if i want something that is expensive i will wait until it becomes cheaper or on a good deal or meanwhile i will have 'got over it' anyway.

i have a love of charity shops, and you can get some quality goods for small prices if you take your time and look around.

re. the bag - have you tried the demotivator tool on here. ie. how many hours will you have to work (after deductions) to pay for it?

i will never buy books new - either from charity shops or borrow free from the library. also look out all year for good sale items to use as presents. handmade cards are lovely, but you can buy cards for so little now ie. 29p - i don't know how many cards your £14 would make?

you are right about things being cheaper out of london - although there are some amazingly cheap places to eat there.

good luck x

Keeping_Positive

Hello

Welldone for posting,you sound as if your doing alot of the right things already and maybe a bit like me in that its the need to constantly monitor the other spends that can add up.

I was really nervous about posting an SOA because its a lot of personal info. Im glad I did though,seeing it in writing does help.

meema

wendy24g wrote: »

Hello

Welldone for posting,you sound as if your doing alot of the right things already and maybe a bit like me in that its the need to constantly monitor the other spends that can add up.

That's exactly it I'm very good at making up plans and budgets...but it's sticking to it that I need help with!

andan

Hi Meema, was just wondering how you are getting on with your budgeting and taking care of your finances?

meema

andan wrote: »

Hi Meema, was just wondering how you are getting on with your budgeting and taking care of your finances?

Hi Andan,

thank you for asking, that's really considerate Things are going quite well. Not sure I'm going to manage the march shopping challenge but we'll see!! Otherwise, I've almost managed to get my whole lloyds credit card onto 0% balance transfers. I haven't gone out for drinks or meals & haven't bought any bags! I've bought quite a few birthday presents, but I've bought them well in advance and taken advantage of play.com's £5 sale with free delivery. This'll stop me doing my usual race around the shops of the day of the person's birthday trying to find anything suitable and not worrying too much about cost.

I've also sent off my application for clubcard plus, and billions of free samples of cosmetics.

I'm also thinking about setting myself a 'thesis challenge' as that's one area that could really do with some extra motivation

Well..I'm off to ebay to put my new phone up for sale! Thanks again for asking!

meema

Hi, just thought I'd post an update as things aren't going so well. I had planned to update just at the end of every month but I think I need more supervision than that

As you can see, the Grocery challenge did not go very well at all. I think the main problem is that I've started writing up my thesis and that's diverted my attention from moneysaving. I'm starting to buy groceries from the tesco metros because it saves time but they're really expensive - this has really opened my eyes to how expensive they are!

But it's not just food shopping..there have been other 'incidents'...I've decided to 'fess up to my sins of the last two weeks (tho' only the money related ones) to save myself from slipping back into random guiltless splurging!

Library, coffees and snacks £10
Library, fines - £20.10
Out for dinner - £36
Clothes - £30
Pens - £12.30
CD - £10

Total - £118.40

So, nearly £120 on things I really didn't need to buy..I'm glad I posted this, I didn't quite realise I'd spent that much! There's a textbook I've wanted for ages but haven't bought because it's £60, to think I could have bought it with this money is quite sobering!

On the positive side I've stayed away from credit cards (because I've cut them into tiny pieces) so I haven't gotten more in debt, but I could have added this towards it.

I've made £160 extra in the last 2 weeks, through tutoring and selling on ebay..I think that's probably how I justified the extra spending. But, the whole point of earning extra money was to get out of debt quicker.

meema

Just wanted to post a quick update so I can keep myself on track! As can be seen from my signature..my debt is still the same as when I originally posted my SOA!! However..I'm feeling pretty pleased that it hasn't gone up as in the last few months I've moved, bought a car (need one for new job) & have gone without a salary for 2 months while waiting for my new job to start!

I'm gonna post a new SOA as soon as I get paid & will need lots of advice/support to help keep me motivated to start bringing my debt down again. In the meantime, I have to live the whole of next month on a credit card!!

Thanks to this site, I knew that I should absolutely not spend on the 0% balance transfer cards. However, I was declined for new credit cards. Again thanks to this site I got a free credit check and figured out the reason was that my old Lloyds credit card (the evil 26% APR) was still active and had an extremely high limit..so it looked like I had loads of credit I wasn't using. I called up Lloyds and told them to cancel the account unless they could give me a lower interest rate, and they brought it down to 6%!!!!! But only for 6 months.

So, if I use it wisely, it's a bit like a low interest rate loan. It's the wisely bit that's a problem. I'm very good at budgeting when I'm scared stiff and think I haven't got quite enough to make ends meet..but when I find a solution I start to relax AND SPEND!!!

I decided to post today because when I was out yesterday to visit family I very nearly stopped off to go clothes shopping on the way!! I'm still feeling tempted....

meema

Hmm..I could've been better behaved this weekend! I spent nearly £20 on wool on Saturday and then went in a huff with OH as he said we couldn't afford to go out for a pub lunch!!

He was right of course, and I came to my senses a while later and didn't spend anything else all weekend.

I start my new job tomorrow so at last I'll have plenty to occupy me that doesn't involve spending!!!

LittleEmms

Well done Meema - (from a newbie too!) Sounds like you've actually done quite well with the debt not going up, despite new car and no salary for 2 months. That's an achievement in my opinion!!!

Can't give advice as still learning on this myself.... but I will be here for mutual support!!!
:beer:

meema

OMG!! Look at my signature...the debt is properly going down instead of up

This is amazing!

I think I'll post a new SOA soon to see if any suggestions on getting it down a bit more.