New Mission, New Diary

A question about : New Mission, New Diary

I've been using this site for a while to give me ideas and motivation to become debt free, but have never really stuck to anything permanent and am constantly in a cycle of clearing a few hundred pounds on a card then using the credit again.

But as it is a New Year I have decided that 2015 is my year to clear it all, once and for all. I'm fed up of always paying debts off, always worrying about the level of debt and feeling guilty about anything I buy. We aren't struggling for money & on paper we should have a healthy surplus every month, but we just seem to spend money on things, not anything important, just things. This is what got us the debts in the first place, as in the past we've just bought things on credit, instead of saving. 3, 5, 10 years later that 'thing' we so desperately needed (apparently) is now in the attic/given away/sold for a fraction of the original price, but we're still paying debts.

Also long term I want to start overpaying our mortgage again and although my car is currently fine, it is getting old and has high mileage on it so I don't think it will be too long before I need a replacement. I want to be able to buy one without having to use credit, so savings will also be a goal of mine in the next 12 months.

So the debts are as follows

cc1 1904.06
cc2 5255.41
cc3 1671
next 3114.87

I have a DD set up for the minimum on cc2 and then an extra standing order of Ј80 per month also going to that.

I requested a DD mandate from the bank for cc1, received the letter saying mandate enclosed, but no mandate! So I've requested this again and will get that set up as soon as it comes through.

I have a DD set up for cc3 for Ј100 fixed amount (minimum monthly is around Ј40).

I pay Next by debit card every month but am literally rounding the minimum payment up to the next pound or so, as the minimum payment is really high at the moment.

My plan is to keep this payment method up for all accounts, but then at the end of every month I will see how much money I have left over to then overpay something. I know all about snowballing but the interest rates are all more or less the same for each of my debts, so I want to split any spare money between the cc2 and Next, as these are the debts that bother me the most because they are so high.

I'm also trying hard to cut down on spending. Previously I would buy lunch every day which was around Ј3-Ј5 per day! Plus I would go out to buy this lunch just to get out of the office, so using up diesel in the car.

But this week I have brought food in every day so am cutting down on the fuel I'm using and also not spending money. I'm also eating a little bit healthier because of this, so hopefully should lose a few pounds too!!

Grocery shopping is a massive failure of mine. We easily spend around Ј150 per week on groceries (there are 4 of us!). So my target at the moment is to get down to Ј100 per week and then trim that a little further where I can.

Today I do have to spend some money because my daughter goes to Rainbows so I have to pay her fees today.

After that payment today though I am going to try and have 3 days a week of spending no money. I've had 1 so far, which was yesterday, tomorrow should be another day of no money and possibly Friday.

Best answers:

• That post was long so I wanted to post it so I could read it and then set my goals for the week and the rest of the month.
  It's looking like at the end of this month I should have about Ј150 left over so I am going to split that in half to pay the cc2 and Next.
  There are 17 days left in this month, 12 of them are working days. I'm aiming to have 7 more days where I spend no money on the working days and then for each weekend I want 1 day of no spending per weekend. There is no point me saying no spending at all on the weekend because I have to do our weekly grocery shop for packed lunch items.
  So in total that should be 10 more days this month (or 9 if I do my grocery shopping on Saturday 31st January instead of Sunday 1st Feb).
  I will update as I go along and then when statements are updated I will keep updating my debt totals.
• Didn't pay the Rainbows fees yesterday as I only had Ј20 (which it usually is) but this term it is Ј35!! The extra is for the rent or something, I need to read the letter to see what it's for.
  Unfortunately the opportunity of a day of no spends passed me by as I had to go to the supermarket to get a few top up bits. I was very disciplined though & only bought what I went in for.
  I won't be spending any money today though which is good because it means I am keeping on track with my no spend days.
  I've done an SOA too & the surplus money is almost exactly what I had worked out in my head. I've just got to start cutting down on the grocery shopping and also keep track of the silly spending.
  My goal tonight is to come up with a shopping list based on what we already have and what sort of meals we enjoy, then break that down to 4 weekly shops. Top up shops are another downfall of ours because we go in just to grab bread, end up spending Ј40 and still not really got anything substantial.
  Another goal of mine which will go hand in hand with the above is to try & use up what is in the freezer.
• I've logged on 3 times to update & ended up not being able to finish because of having to do something else, my internet explorer crashing, or internet going down.
  So I'll try to keep it short for now & update properly later.
  First week went ok. Good points were I had lots of no spend days & also had some cashback payable on Topcashback, so that's Ј50 I can put towards payments.
  Bad points were my Next balance is higher than expected. I was estimating the amount based on what the current balance was, plus a few things I had ordered ages ago & were on reserve minus some stuff I'd returned. The stuff that were on reserve came & I very sensibly sent most of it back, but 2 of the items were something my daughter needed for school (proper running trainers & a sports bag). I was tempted to send them back & get elsewhere but my daughter desperately needed them & was worried she'd get in trouble in school without them, so I kept them but sent everything else back.
  Also another bad point was I forgot I needed to pay the window cleaner Ј60.
  I've done that though & keeping track of our joint account & my own bank account. Everything is fine & there is enough money in for the last remaining direct debits for this month, then I'll see how much money is left over.
  Fingers crossed everything will be ok now this week & by the end of the month I'll be able to make some sort of extra payment to something.
  Back later to talk no spending & targets for the next few weeks.
• Hello and welcome to the forum. Its such a great place. Keep on coming and updating, even if noone comments. Its your diary and a place to log info and spill your thoughts to the world.
  Well done on getting your thinking head on. Its all about thinking positively and smashing down the door to a better future. I am in debt myself but after joining this website im in a better position already. No needless spends.
  In relation to your credit cards, are they all 0%? I would throw every spare penny at the bigger % so you save interest.
  Also, few points I picked up on. Window Cleaner??? Ј60??? I will drive to your house and clean your windows for that. What is the chap using, liquid gold haha. Thats a massive saving right there, along with smashing that grocery budget.
  Have a look in the debt free challenges. There are some great ones to save some money and ways to bash down that debt.
  All the best and good luck
  MrCF
• Thanks MrCF, I will keep coming back. It's mainly to help me stay on track & read back in future to track my progress.
  I do feel better just reading through other people's stories & have been getting inspiration from other people's money saving ideas.
  As for the window cleaner, its actually only Ј12 every 6 weeks but because I'm never home when he comes I owed him 5 payments. However, I will be cancelling this because at the moment it is just a luxury. It's nice to have clean windows, but I think i'll leave it a few months and reinstate him when I have room in the budget. I can then use the Ј12 to go towards debts. For the time being I will try & clean them myself as best I can.
  I'm happy to report that I did have the Ј150 I had estimated would be left over at the end of the month. First time I've had money left over for ages! I did check interest rates a few months ago & I think my cc3 was the highest, which I was surprised at because I thought the Next account would be the highest. So I'm going to pay the Ј150 on that credit card.
  I managed my target of no spend days, which I was really pleased about. I can be terrible for going out at lunchtimes & buying a baguette or sandwich, so I am happy that I did so well in this area.
  One thing I have been so pleased about is how much fuel has come down! My car is a bit of a gas guzzler & used to cost almost Ј90 to fill up, but I filled up the other day & it cost Ј58. I know this is still a lot compared to smaller cars, but I actually wouldn't be able to afford to buy a new car at the moment anyway so I just have to bear this cost at the moment. I have been looking at smaller cars so that when we have got the money to replace my car I will get something more economical.
  My grocery budget has been looking good & I've not spent much at all this week. I've got plenty of food in the fridge, freezer & cupboard. I will need to do a small top up shop this weekend but I have budgeted Ј20 for this as there really isn't much to get. I have started roasting a chicken on a sunday evening & using the chicken for meals during the week. This has worked well & we've had various meals then from this chicken.
  Will be back later to set new targets for February.
• Hi, and welcome!
  Good luck with your debt busting.
  Have you thought about transferring and consolidating your debts on a 0% credit card?
• Hi PiggyBankShaker, thanks for popping in.
  I have some of it on a 0% but did apply for another 0% card to transfer the other balance & got rejected. I won't try and apply again just yet because I know it looks worse the more applications you make.
  It's payday today so I've checked the account balance, got all the DD's and SO's written in my diary so know how much I need to cover bills and some groceries and it looks like I've got around Ј500 to last me the month. That's a really good amount which I know in the past I have just frittered away without really knowing I'd spent it. But I am a new woman & will be keeping track of every penny this month
  I have enough fuel to probably last me now until Monday 9th February, then I will need to fill up again. So I've budgeted around Ј80 for fuel for the rest of the month. It sounds a lot but I'd rather overestimate & then have money left over. I'm budgeting around Ј150 for groceries, again overestimating because my husband will also put in his share for groceries, but I would rather overestimate again.
  So this leaves me with Ј270 for the month. I'm hoping again to have Ј150 leftover to put towards a debt. If I can do that I will be happy, anymore I'll be ecstatic! I know I have a few expenses to pay out this month otherwise I would be trying to keep Ј200 back. Next month I should be able to do this & hopefully when I learn to trim the grocery budget down I will be blasting these debts
• Happy Sunday! I enjoy Sundays, it's usually my lazy day. I tend to spend the day doing some housework, laundry & just preparing myself for the miserable Mondays. It's sunny where I am today so might take my little one out for a walk to get some fresh air.
  I did a small shop on Friday after work. It wasn't a great shop, spent nearly Ј20 but not much to show for it. I bought a whole chicken, which I am going to cook today & then keep for the week. I also got pasta bake sauces for Fridays evening meal, I had all the other ingredients. I also ended up buying a few other items that if I'm honest we didn't really need. But onwards & upwards, at least I recognise that I didn't need them & hopefully next time I will remember this & put those things back.
  My plans for today are:
  Cook the chicken
  Order some groceries (budgeted for)
  Sort tomorrow's lunches out
  Come up with meal plan for the week
  I think that's it for today.
  My February targets are
  Ј150 overpayment on debts
  Have 16 no spend days
  Find 2 new recipes to add to our meals. We always end up eating the same things, which gets boring, which means we will go off track & order takeaway. If we come up with some new meals we might be able to resist the takeaway temptation.
• I have read an idea on another diary that I am going to use. I give credit to DaisyChain1 for it.
  The idea is that each month is a moneysaving month but focus on one category this month to get the hang of it, see where things stand with money & then the following month focus on another category, while still keeping track of the things learnt & saved in the previous category.
  I think it's a great idea because by focusing on one thing at a time I think the savings will be better than if I was trying to save everywhere at once. Don't get me wrong, I will still be very careful about spending money, but I will spend a lot of time this month focusing on the category I've chosen.
  The category I've chosen this month will of course be groceries. In the diaries I've looked at & even the budgets people have put up for advice, it's very clear that groceries is a massive issue for so many people which makes it possibly the biggest area of opportunity for cutting back. I have spent some time looking back at last years bank statements & on average we were spending around Ј700-Ј800 per month on groceries! I bet most people reading this would have recoiled in horror after that, but I feel it's important to identify this HUGE overspend & I am determined this will not ever happen again.
  Sure, I will spend more in certain months, due to parties, Christmas etc but the main point will be that I will budget for these instead of just freely spending as much as I want to.
  My budget for groceries this month is Ј300. I think this is a good budget because we've actually got a lot of things in the house, for instance our toiletries & most of our household cleaning items are fully stocked so nothing needed there. Actually Ј300 is probably generous considering I have all these items already, but I think if I set my target too low then I will be really disappointed if I failed. If I stick to Ј300 then next month I will set a little lower.
  I've just put our chicken in to roast so we can have chicken curry for tea & will also have chicken left over for the week. I do need to order some shopping today but all budgeted for, hoping to not spend anymore that Ј60 today because it's just the vegetables, fabric softener & pasta we need.
• Chicken was cooked & I have put all the chicken in the fridge now. I was going to make a curry but my husband had bought one of those meal for 2 ready meal things from Tesco a few days ago which needed eating so I cooked one half of that instead for my one daughter, I've saved the other half for my husband to have & I made waffles, egg & beans for me & the youngest.
  But this means I can have the curry another night, which I am really looking forward to.
  I also did the grocery shop. I'd been pottering around the house today doing various bits of housework & new things we needed kept popping into my head, so I was making a shopping list throughout the day. This was a great move because I had the list, knew what I needed & didn't get anything that we didn't need. In fact I took some things out of my basket, swapped some for cheaper alternatives & in the end I spent Ј51 of our Ј60 budget, including delivery.
  The leftover Ј9 will be kept for any emergency top ups we might need, but I really do think we're covered for the week.
• Hi MM2015
  I've finally got around to reading your diary. I'm so glad you went with the little monthly money saving challenges. How's the grocery one going? I've just put up a list of other possible challenges for the months ahead on my diary so have a look and see if you can think of anymore.
  DC1
• Hi DC1, thanks for popping in. I've set my grocery budget & my first week went well. I will keep updating & hopefully this will focus me on keeping on track with the debt busting.
  I will check out your diary later to see what other challenges you're thinking of, might join you on a few.
• Hi MM2015!
  Sounds like you're doing really well so far! Groceries has been a big downfall for me in the not-so distant past! I'm finding meal planning along with actually checking the cupboards/freezer is really helping me cut down! One question - is there a reason you get your shopping delivered? Not sure how much delivery is, but if you could go to the store and do it yourself then surely that's an instant saving (noted you said you have a gas guzzler so if delivery isn't that much then it could even out if you live far away from the store).
• Hi twiggy, thanks for your post.
  In answer to your question, I don't usually have my shopping delivered. I've had it delivered a few times, but usually go to the store. The reason I did it this time was because my daughter was unwell all weekend & my husband was away so I couldn't go out, so I ordered it instead.
  However, I do find that when I have it delivered I am much more likely to stick to my shopping list. When we go shopping ourselves we always just put whatever catches our eye in the trolley. This is why we were overspending so much on groceries. The amount I calculated we'd spent is an eyewatering amount! I'm definitely going to be more strict on us now, maybe take cash instead of our cards because then we have to stick to the budget.
  As I've now set the groceries as my challenge for this month I am open to any suggestions for saving money.
  Out of interest, when do you do your meal plan? And do you just do a weekly meal plan or do you plan further ahead?
  I'd like to get in to this as one of the things I find really frustrating is getting in from work & having to think of what to cook for tea. Then sometimes I decide what I want for tea & find I've not got an essential ingredient One of my tasks I've set for myself as an ongoing monthly task is to think of 2 new meals to add to our list, because although we will eat almost anything & have a long list of recipes we really love, some of them are time consuming so in the week I just need quick, simple dishes that we can throw together quickly, but I need enough of these that we don't have the same thing too often & get bored of it. That's when we go off track & start ordering takeaways!
  Any help is greatly appreciated!
• I tend to do a weekly meal plan. I start writing it on a Friday starting with any meals that we didn't use the week before or stuff that needs using, then move to what's in the freezer and then anything else I fancy. I then write my shopping list and go shopping on a Saturday. I love that I can decide the night before what I want from the meal plan (I just have a list of meals rather than Monday X, Tuesday Y etc), take anything necessary out the freezer and voila! Rather than coming in from work and trying to come up with something!
  I also try and do a batch cook of at least one thing on a Sunday particularly of things that are more time consuming but freeze well. I know if I came in and had to start slaving over the cooker for an hour I would resort to takeaway instead! I currently have a freezer full of cottage pie, lasagne, thai curry, bolognaise/chilli sauce!
  Also, I have an envelope in my purse with the shopping budget in there so I know exactly how much I've got left and how much I've spent. All top ups etc come out of the envelope. I do cringe slightly at the checkout when I have to get my envelope out though!
• Oh and if you're brave enough - I also womble receipts! (Again I do cringe slightly as I do this!) If you shop at Tesco you can gain clubcard points or money off next shop, asda you can do the price guarantee (although I've never got lucky on this!).
• Sorry - one more thing! You said when "we" go shopping - not sure who the we is, but could you go on your own? I NEVER take my OH shopping as he is a sucker for "it's only a pound"! Generally at least twice as expensive when he comes with me! I tend to be more disciplined at sticking to my list - although I cant deny the occasional wobble!
• Thank you so much for the help twiggy. I'm going to spend my Friday evening of this week doing a stocktake of my cupboards & then come up with my meal plan & shopping list. I have a small list of meals to start me off with.
  The 'we' is all the family, me, OH & our 2 children. I do prefer going on my own actually, so I might lay some subtle hints this week
  I haven't heard of wombling receipts. Is it picking up receipts that other people have left behind & adding the points on if they haven't used a reward card? If so, I have done this a few times in the past but only if I've used the self serve checkouts in the supermarket.
  I've got one of those wide purses that has a few separate compartments so I could probably get away with putting the weeks shopping budget in to one of these compartments & keep the rest of the months at home n an envelope, then just restock my purse each week.
  Thank you, it's helping already as I am finding all these tips & for once I'm actually taking the steps to take action!
• I know what you mean about coming home from work and not having a meal organised. The last thing you want to do is come home after a busy day and spend ages in the kitchen.. This will be another advantage of meal planning I guess. Not only saving money but time and energy too.
  Have a good day