I keep falling off the wagon, how do you stop the cycle?

Horace

The £10 challenges help keep you focussed. On another thread in another part of the forum I was asked how I cope getting £60 JSA and paying all my bills - I get £372 HB but I have to find the rest every month as my rent is £525 a month.

I dont go out and if I do have to go into Birmingham for whatever reason I will either go on the bus (£3 daysaver) or the train depending on the part of town that I am going to. If I want to go into Northfield which is about 2 miles from my home I walk and carry my shopping back.

I write lists of what I need and stick to them, I buy meat at my local butchers and veg/fruit from the greengrocer - sometimes I might actually go directly to the farm.

I buy the odd bit of furniture from a charity shop and buy glassware to sell in charity shops (recently picked up a set of victorian plates for £1.49 but they are worth between £30-40). I just muddle along doing what I can, doing without if I have to.

I have debts and I am paying them off - in fact I am dealing with Amex as I write because I have written to them about the RPI they applied to my account that I have been paying like a ninny since 2003:eek: I am hoping to get it all back:D

I am trying to save £1250 to do a residential course for a week after which I will be licensed to teach it myself (handy for the business that I am setting up), sure I could pay it with my credit card but don't want to add to the debt so I just do carboots and do the £10 a day challenge. Anything to save the money to do it - one thing I wont do is sell my body (its a tad saggy these days:eek: )

Good luck to those trying to save money and not spend it.

floss2

if a troll called multi_millions posts, just ignore & report him!

flippy178

I found it did take quite a long time to get into the money saving mindset. A lot of my debt came from spending lots of money on little things, ie cappucinos, magazines, books in charity shops, going round the supermarket buying lots of extra things I didn't really need etc. It took me a long time to realise that buying a book for £1.50 in a charity shop is not necessarily a way of saving money.

Now I try to use cash and think every time I buy something, do I really need this? Why am I buying this? Am I just letting money slip through my fingers? I still buy cappucinos but do it once a week, rather than every day, and make sure I go to Caffe Nero where I get a loyalty stamp. Now I feel that I have stepped back from this culture where we are all encouraged to spend every day. At Christmas I was so broke I spent about £20 and thought I would feel terrible but I actually felt hugely relieved that I wasn't part of the madness.

Craftyscholar

Another thanks for starting this thread.
I cleared my CCs from my lump sum when I retired full of good intentions.
One year on I realise I am NOT living within my income - not by much but even a little will creep up over time. So I need to get myself under control - need to do a SOA even if just for myself and probably a spending diary.
First step I have amended my sig so I have to admit what is happening.