Put away your purse & become debt-averse

I've decided to start a diary to show that it's possible to change from a terrible money waster into a a bit of a budgeting ninja. OK, I'm not perfect....we all have slip-ups now & again....but I am proud that by my budget efforts & our surprising willingness to change from big silly spenders (we really were a pair of narnas!) to really quite sensible people, we managed to become debt-free. We paid off around 35k & really, just learned how to live differently And you know what? We really enjoy it! Turned out that all that spending & having to have stuff immediately didn't really make us happy. Who'd have thought it?
Pre-LBM, my principles for money management were:
1) Buy pretty much whatever I wanted when I wanted. Overdraft was seen as another word for 'more of my money'.
2) Open bank statements, look at the balance through semi-closed eyes, carefully fold & replace in envelope & put in drawer.
3) Tell myself bank balance is fine because it's only 3 weeks till pay-day.
4) Always withdraw useful wodge of cash the week before pay-day just in case that pesky bank was planning to show me up in the supermarket by stopping my debit card.
5) Never budget - why waste time on this when my own system worked so well?
6) Tell myself not to worry about savings. They would be nice, but I 'didn't earn enough'
That was about it, really. I didn't budget at all & made no effort to spend within my means. I lived outside my means from the age of 19 & didn't become debt-free till my 40s!
The LBM was huge. I had it first & my partner showed initial signs of resistance, but when he saw my debts disappearing, he soon wanted in on the act & is now like a different person with money.
Two years ago, we borrowed a modest sum to help us buy a car, We always knew this would happen & we made sure we saved up a good deposit. It was always our intention to re-pay the loan early & we did manage a nice overpayment of £2000 last year. However, our 2nd overpayment was almost ready to pay in when we had a string of expenses which we didn't want to put on credit cards, so we used our loan overpayment money to pay those. Last year was difficult in many ways & although we didn't return to our previous naughty spendiness, I think I started to lose some of my focus. Before Christmas, our Loan Pay Down Fund (LPDF) was down to just £60. Now it is already up to £421, really just from little savings, selling a few bits & bobs here & there. One thing I'm going to be really BIG on this year is 'Shopping from home', as in doing that first, to see if a spend can be avoided. I've got off to a really good start with that, starting with my new year de-cluttering & have found all sorts of useful stuff that will save me money further down the line. I also intend to do a full kitchen cupboard audit. Although I'm a DFW 'Small things' regular, I've never done a DFW diary before, so I'm going to use it to focus my efforts & get that LPDF up to £1000, then the next £1000, etc, asap. If you are the sort of person who gets excited about the contents of other people's cupboards & the satisfaction of saving a few quid here & there, then do join me for sharing ideas, laughs & moans, & I promise to throw in a few tales from my Spendy Decades - I have kept a journal for a lot of my adult life & I absolutely wince now, reading some of those diary entries about my cavalier attitude to money. I suppose they show that if I can change, anyone can! Oh well, onwards! I loved being debt-free & just a small amount of effort will mean that I can soon be again.
F x