Confessions of a Serial Spender.

newyorkcitybride

Hi Lucy,
Just read through all your post and I think it ehoes a lot of people's feelings toward their debts.

I was a regular poster on here, but I changed my username in order to help myself get back to basics. Sometimes its easier posting your position as a total newbie than asking for help as someone who "knows what they should be doing"... I just found that made me feel quite guilty so I hid my head in the sand about it...

But the important thing is you've recognised it.... How about taking the £120 out of your savings for car tax now, keeping it in an envelope ready to pay off and then use £100 to pay toward the credit card.
That way you've taken car of car tax, paid a significant proportion of your c/c off and then still have a little buffer in your savings...

I would also ask the c/c company to lower the credit available on your credit card, say to something like £500 which shud cover any emergency that might happen to your car, but you will also be aware that you only have £500, and therefore mentally you'll compute that you cant then go spending on it, in case something did happen to your car...

Maybe in terms of the compulsion to shop, a little time away from everything, just sitting out in the warm weather, and having a good long think about what drives you to spend, how spending makes you feel, what you feel ahs caused you to feel the need to spend, what you are trying to achieve by the spending etc will allow you to address the root cause of your spending, and whilst tackling the physical manifestation of this by controlling the debts, you are also helping yourself to deal with the deeper issue...

I hope that's not a bit too personal to suggest since this is my first post to you, (under this name) but we often neglect the reasons why, because we are so caught up and often stressed out over the resulting impact...I found I did that for a long while in my stage of my journey to becoming debt free, and then because I had never faced up to the issues I went a did it all over again, not with quite so much vigor I'll admit, but I still made the mistakes that I regretted the first time round and then beat myself up for not learning...

But you can take, and will learn from this experience, and there is light at the end of the tunnel

Stay positive, keep focused and always post, night or day, happy or sad, support is what we need on our debt free journeys.
Take care xx

Lucy1982_2

Ok

Total spend for today is £30.61p :mad: Which isn't good.

But did involve an early morning trip to the supermarket which will stop. It also includes Lunch, which will be brought from home in the future, and made up the night before so even when I 'can't be bothered' I have something ready to take with me.

I need to get petrol on the way home, which is £20 of the above. But I need this and hopefully this will last me a week.

And I am going to try and get something listed on Ebay this weekend.

Lucy1982_2

Hi NYCB!

I think that is a very good point. I will sit down and brainstorm why I do the things I do and then hopefully I wont beat myself up so much and I will be able to change how I react to things!

But it is all a learning curve isn't it.

jak

Try a spending diary. Also can you meal plan. THat helps enormously with the amount of food you buy aas you end up getting only what you need.
Good luck
J
X

Lucy1982_2

Well it is Sunday evening and I thought I would Post the weekend!

Saturday:

I had my hair done, so £20 spend, but I knew that was happening and managed to get a free bag out of my hairdresser :cool: (and I am safe in the knowledge that if hairdresser wasn't a family friend, the cut and colour would have cost about £120 :eek:)

So no more spends there.

Today:

Total spend - £3.20! Did loads of gardening, including a trip to the tip and then met my cousins in our local for a drink which was really nice.

So really £23.20 for a whole weekend is good for me. Still not wonderful but ok.

I have some sunburn :eek: but all in all have enjoyed myself. I've ironed everything for work tomorrow and I have made up a salad to tomorrows lunch I just need to work out what's going with it, but that can be done in the morning.

But I am really pleased with how things have gone. I've not been to the bank and thought I would see how long I can last. I have my slimming class on Thursday so I am hoping I can make it until then.

sophie27

Hi,

You sound just like me! I'm ok paying my debts off but I will have weak moments and just buy a load of rubbish. Cut and colour for 20 is amazing, lucky you have a friend who can do for you. I just paid uummmmmmm 100 to get mine cut and coloured but it does look lovely. Lol.

Sophie

Lucy1982_2

I am really lucky and he is fabulous!! I have summer beach blonde thing going on at the moment!

I've managed not to go shopping which can only be a good thing.

sophie27

Me too! I just need to find a beach to go with it!

I bought a summer dress with a Topshop giftcard so I'm not counting it as 'proper shopping'.

Lucy1982_2

I bit like my shopping at the garden centre early, someone elses money!

I will find that beach someday!

Ninnins

NYCB - What you've written could have been about me! I was going to post a thread about how depressed I feel that I have gone over my monthly spend budget for what I call 'personal sundries'. These are my treats to myself; a body lotion, new lippie, etc and whereas I used to spend a fortune, I am now limiting myself (and sticking to it!) to £20 a month. This month I've already spent £46! It's too much, and even though I have not spent any money going out and drastically reduced my food bill, I feel it's all in vain if I am going to spend on 'invisibles'. Incidentally, the reason I spent so much is that I am going through this experimental transition phase at the moment, and some of what I bought previously was not suitable and just got binned. Help ...