The Diary of a Reformed Spendaholic

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I've got to get a new job..or have I?
2008-03-28 14:50:00
I've hinted before about my dislike for my job, well this week its hit a peak. I've had one of those weeks, that we all have sometimes, where I could of walked away at the drop of a hat. The pressure of 170 employees, staff absence and armed robberies, (I kid you not) has all got a bit much.On one hand I need to find another job, on the other I need to pay off my debts. I do not have a go to hell fund or I would of quit yesterday. What do I do?I could get another job tomorrow but not one paying me as much. At the moment I get over £30k, a company car, and the potential to get another 35% of my salary in bonuses. I'm realistic enough to know that these jobs do not grow on trees when you are past forty. I also have a certain amount of job security having been with my firm for over 15 years.I could sit tight for the next 21 months, as I intended to do, clear my debts and work on my business idea. This would mean me finding a way to be happy while being in this role.If ever there wa...

Falling off the wagon
2008-03-25 07:42:00
Last night the urge to go out for dinner was too much. I was adamant that I needed to go out for dinner. Dh tried to talk me out of it, but no, I was going. The cost £30.43 at Pizza Hut for four of us. It wasn't so bad as I had £15.00 of vouchers towards the cost, but still I shouldn't of gone. I eat 2 small slices of pizza and some salad, I wasn't even that hungry when I got there.The cause of this little episode was work stress, I'd had a bad day. In future when I feel like this I will ring dh on the way home so that he has the evening meal in the oven before I step through the door!
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March Debt Update - progress
2008-03-23 09:35:00
My debt balance is now down to £20,978. This is due to some snow flaking from my extra money challenge. My No 1 loan balance is now at £9,200 and I keep receiving letters from the loan company with the revised last payment date, which is a good thing, but not for the environment. I'm going to phone them on Tuesday to see if I can stop them, as the settlement date will be coming forward another 26 times before the end of the year. I'm focusing on this loan with 'gazelle like intensity' as Dave would say.I will be sub £20,000 in April which will be another milestone passed.Further reading: Paying it down
More About: Update , Debt , March , Progress

I've applied for a credit card!
2008-03-19 17:28:00
Now before you all pass out, its for work expenses and work expenses only. I currently use one of my personal credit cards, submit my costs for the month, work re imburse me and I pay off the full balance incurring no interest charges. Now I was thinking that I should get a cashback credit card, especially after reading this blog post over at Rocket Finance, and get some money back from a credit card company.I've applied for an American Express Platinum Card which gives you 5% cashback for the first 3 months and 1.5% thereafter. I applied through a UK Cashback site Quidco, so if I'm accepted I'll receive £33.75 cashback as well.Over the years I've been a credit card company dream, paying my bills on time and never ever missing a payment. I've also never been refused credit. How ironic would it be if I'm refused this time, now that I have no credit card debt whatsoever!If you liked this post then please subscribe to my RSS feed. Email or reader.
More About: Credit , Credit Card , Applied

Taking the rush out
2008-03-18 15:29:00
I used to be one of those people who would rush all over the place trying to get a million things done. Well not anymore. With the debt clearance has come a sense of calm. I still have the odd bad day of course, but in general my life is calm and organised. I now have a week planner, a simple laminated excel sheet that I made myself, that I stick to. It may seem boring and routine to some, but to me its a lifeline. I have so many things I need/want to do, family, work, blogging, making extra money to pay of debt, that if I wasn't organised, I would run around like a headless chicken and not achieve anything. Reading sites like Zen Habits and Put Things Off has helped, I've learnt to prioritise and automate in order to achieve results.Some of the things on my planner:Bills - Everything is automated, the only thing I have to do is send any snowflakesFood - Menu plan, I am working on a better system thoughBlogging - Reading and Posting, has a time slot dailyGPT - Cashback clickthroug...
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Children and finances
2008-03-16 07:55:00
My eldest daughter is 21 next week and I think I must have shaken my head about twenty times yesterday in disbelieve that I have a daughter that age. When people tell you that children grow up really quickly you need to believe them, because its true!She's off to university in London in September and is very excited about it. Before that she's going to Thailand for eight weeks in April. She has not a care in the world and not a penny in the world either. All the money she's saved over the last nine months since returning from working and travelling in Australia has been used to fund the trip to Thailand. Now I don't begrudge her any of this as two years ago she had a brain virus and we thought we where going to lose her, so anything she does now is fine by me.There is however one thing about her that I do worry about and that's her total ambivalence to money. In some ways this is a very good thing, she has no interest in material possessions so doesn't spend loads of money she...
More About: Children , Finances

Debt Slave
2008-03-13 09:28:00
There is a guest post over at Smart Spending written by JD Roth from Get Rich Slowly that sums up my entire feeling on my financial situation.For 15 years, I felt like a slave. Debt was the dominating force in my life.My choices were limited by the fact that I owed tens of thousands of dollars.For a long time, this burden only weakened me further -- I took on more debt ina futile attempt to ease the pain with more stuff.Eventually I realizedthat what I wanted was freedom -- freedom to work and live where I wanted,freedom to travel, freedom to retire early -- and that the only way I couldachieve this freedom was by eliminating debt. My nonmortgage debt is gone now,but this desire for freedom remains my primary motivation. It's why I'm willingto live frugally. It's why I want a huge emergency fund. It's why I want to payoff the mortgageLink to post: What motivates you to pursue smart personal finance I will get there! I will get there!
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Extra Money Challenge - March Update
2008-03-11 21:44:00
I'm having a great month so far£8.70 Cashback site£83.57 Amazon£57.21 Ebay£96.38 Blog£0.63 Interest£12.71 Misc£44.99 Postage and Expenses. Includes jiffy bags, faxing and purchase of Domain name (http://www.nomorespending.net/)Total extra money made so far £214.21I've listed all but 5 of my books on Amazon and my entire DVD collection. All the clutter from downstairs has been eBayed, with upstairs still to go.I've snowflaked some of the money to my loans already, the rest I'll send at the end of the week when it arrives in my checking account.My debt is decreasing weekly which is the best thing about snowflaking. I'm getting really close to sub £20,000 which I'm very excited about.Further reading:Earning Extra Income Challenge If you liked this post then please subscribe to my RSS or Email Feed
More About: Money , Update , March

Link Love
2008-03-09 21:07:00
Here are some of the great blogs I've discovered since joining the Snowflake Revolution over at Paid Twice :An American girl living in France with her Prince Charming- Small CentsShanti living in Seattle blogging about finance and self-improvement - Antishay VentenneShana on smart and easy ways to manage your money better - Smart Easy MoneyOne woman's fight to survive through tough times, get out of debt and save money - Oh My Aching DebtsWhy not visit the full Snowflake blog roll, there are lots of great blogs to read. Thanks again to Paid Twice for starting it.
More About: Love , Link

Analysing your budget
2008-03-08 07:25:00
How often do you do a budget for the month, write it down or post it on your blog, and then realise that you got it so wrong? I do most months. I usually under estimate stuff and end up overspending. I'm not sure there has ever been a month where I've stuck to my budget completely, or had the figures 100% correct. I need to do work in this area. I think that there are still big savings to be had in my (our) expenses, personal and household, so I'm going to start analysing each one.Firstly though I want to re visit my March budget and see where savings could be made.Loan payments £490.48 - Fixed amountBills account £600.00 - Need to break this down individuallyGrocery and Fuel £250 - Variable, but needs to be a fixed amountInvestments £100 - Fixed amountHaircuts £30 - Reduced to £25.40, £16.40 for cut and blow dry with junior stylist, £6.00 for an eyebrow wax and £3 tipSports subs £20 - Reduced to £10, some games cancelledDaughter mobile £37 - Fixed with 12 month contr...
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Treat yourself for £1 ($2)
2008-03-07 17:56:00
When the urge to spend takes hold, buy a bunch of flowers.£1 and a real mood lifter.
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More debt repayment and communities
2008-03-06 07:31:00
Today I've sent the extra payment of £257.93 accounted for in my budget to my loan account, I'm also looking at snowflaking another £180 when all the money I've made from eBay and Amazon hits my checking account.Blog News:I'm so happy to have joined three networks over the last few days, The Snowflake Revolution, Frugal Hacks and Money Hacker Network. Joining these three has exposed my blog to more readers and increased my site visitors, thank you. A lot of work goes in behind the scenes to set up these communities so thank you to all involved.I've also given the blog its own domain name, nomorespending.net, still on blogger but without the blog spot in its address. This makes no changes, all traffic still comes here. Eventually I hope to move onto my own website, however I'm so nontechnical, I need to learn a lot more before that happens.I now have 30 subscribers which is amazing to me, when I started out on this journey I had no idea that I would come this far, I'm so gra...
More About: Debt , Communities

My commitment
2008-03-04 13:01:00
As a sign of my ongoing commitment to getting out of debt I have listed my Alias Box sets on Amazon. I'm a huge Buffy fan but Alias is my favourite so this is a big deal for me. There's definitely a 'girl kicking butt attitude' somewhere inside me!I went to see Jennifer Garner in Cyrano (a gift) on my honeymoon in New York, afterwards dh paid $100 to charity for me to meet her and have my photo taken with her, so selling the box sets saddens me, but it is only TV and I am an adult now!! Also it should net me about £50.If you like this post then please subscribe to my RSS feed.This post is tongue in cheek, I can live without a TV programme! (I think)
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March 2008 Budget
2008-03-02 08:45:00
To make myself fully accountable this is my current checking account balance £704.74. I'm expecting the following in comings and outgoings this month.In:Wages £1700Child Benefit £120.80Out:Loan payments £490.48Bills account £600.00Grocery and Fuel £250Investments £100Haircuts £30Sports subs £20Daughter mobile £37Magazine Sub £17.90Daughters 21st £70Meal Out for above £60Misc £25Loan over payments £257.93This will leave me with a balance of £567.23 on March 31st. Any extra income will be snowflaked to my loan account. I'm not giving myself any room for manoeuvre. There is already enough extra expense this month anyway.
More About: Budget , March 2008 , 2008

February 2008 - Net Worth (+£1,597)
2008-03-02 07:44:00
I've moved my net worth over to Net worth IQ as its easier. Boston Gal (thank you) explained how to post an excel sheet as a photo however it kept going wrong so I'm on Net worth IQ. The only trouble is the amounts show as dollars and mine are pounds sterling.Our Net Worth in February went up to £33,560. This is a 5% increase on January mainly due to mortgage over payments and loan payments.-Dh and I both contribute to a Final Salary pension at work and there is no way of showing its worth on the chart. This will all change in July when we go onto a different scheme.-We have transferred £600 into a Unit Trust ISA and have set up a £100 monthly contribution. The value of this has already fallen to £576, however as its a long term investment we are not worried.-We are now 8.39% towards our target figure of £400,000
More About: February 2008 , 2008

The little things......magazine addiction
2008-03-01 15:17:00
Does this look like a home owner with a magazine addiction? Yes, I thought so. Today I've cancelled the two most expensive subscriptions saving myself £68 a year. I'm considering cancelling them all, but at the moment I'm taking one step at a time:) I know I'm not the only one who likes magazines as plonkee recently discussed her struggle not to buy them and got 33 comments, so its a popular subject.Further reading:My addiction
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No credit card debt
2008-03-01 02:25:00
I've realised today that I've now had 3 whole months without credit card debt. Surprisingly I don't miss it!The transition has been painless, I don't even think about using credit cards anymore. I could put 10 cards in my purse tomorrow and I still wouldn't use them. This is progress.I try not to reflect on the fact that it took over 20 years to get to this point. But better late than never I say. Now I need to cut the frivolous spending on my debit card and I'm home and dry:)
More About: Credit Card Debt , Card , Credit , Debt , Credit Card

February Spending v Budget
2008-02-29 10:40:00
February highlights and low lights: Loan over payments - I only paid an extra £162 this month, I have money in my account for more but I need to wait until the regular Direct Debit has gone through or it messes it up Magazines - £26 in subscription charges Birthday - £100 on new clothes, new lamp and going out. I did have £120 in gifts so this covered it all Fine - £59 the less said the better! Misc Expenses Joint - £75 Dehumidifier for a bedroom in our house, £60 Electrician to fix a fault, £34 Books on Portugal Grocery - £318 I lost all control :( February was not my best month and I will have more control in March. The extra spending will be on my daughters 21st birthday.
More About: Spending , Budget , February

Money Hacks Carnival #1
2008-02-27 22:49:00
The very first Money Hacks Carnival is over at Prime Time Money today. Thank you for hosting Prime Time Money.The Money Hackers Network was started by Pinyo at Moolanomy and is a great place to discover personal finance blogs. The Carnivals will be hosted by members of the Network every Wednesday and next week its Lynnae's turn at beingfrugal.net

The daily challenge
2008-02-27 21:30:00
When you are paying down a large amount of debt, which can take years, its important to keep yourself motivated along the way or you can get very bored and give up. One way that I do this is by setting myself little challenges. I challenge myself, its a game I play against myself.Some of the challenges I set:Make £200 extra income every monthSpend less than £50 on grocery per weekHave a no spend dayHave a no spend weekBuy no books for a monthBuy no clothes for 3 monthsSell 10 items this week on eBaySometimes I fail a challenge, sometimes I beat it hands down, whatever happens I never get bored. I don't have time. I'm making the debt pay off fun for myself.
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Spending to save
2008-02-25 22:08:00
Today in my quest to reduce the money spent on grocery in our house I've purchased some new containers that you can use in the freezer and microwave. I used to use old Chinese takeaway cartons and then I used freezer bags. The Chinese cartons have now had it and as we never have take out anymore I can't replace them. Freezer bags I find annoying to fill and empty. The containers should pay for themselves quite easily over the next few weeks.Sunday this week will be a big cooking day. I'm aiming to make at least 20 family meals for the freezer. There is nothing better after a long day at work knowing that the dinner is already prepared and all you have to do is add some vegetables. This stops spending on take out!Today's spending:£15.98 - Plastic containers
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How I make extra money to pay off my debt
2008-02-22 09:57:00
I get off my butt and get pro-active. My debt will not get paid off quickly if I do nothing.We have the ability to increase our income in lots of ways, all of which have been blogged about numerous times. In an ideal world I would have all kinds of passive income streams, dividends, rental income, however I don't currently live in an ideal world so I need to get creative and get alternative income streams.I eBay anything and everything, I sell on Amazon, I do car boot sales (similar to yard sales), I mystery shop, I click through cashback sites for 40 minutes a day (!), I blog, I live frugally and I work hard at the day job to achieve bonuses.I set myself a target of making an extra £200 a month throughout the year and so far I'm achieving it. I'm getting rid of the debt while laying the foundations for the future, a future which will include passive income streams.Anyone want to buy some old blinds?Further Reading:Earning Extra Money ChallengeIf you liked this post then please ...
More About: Debt , Make

Birthday Gift
2008-02-20 16:15:00
It's my birthday this week and dh is giving me £50 to buy anything I like. The question is what do I buy? He insists that I buy something, and not put it towards my debt, which I wasn't going to do anyway.I'm torn between spending the whole £50 on books to feed my book obsession, buying some new jeans or buying that really nice lamp that I've been looking at for six months.I will probably buy the lamp as its a symbol of how far I've come in my debt free journey. To wait over six months to buy an item is a new thing for me, its a sign that I've reformed, that I can control my spending and that I'm a different person now.
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Make £200 Extra Money Challenge
2008-02-18 07:33:00
February has been tougher than January however my eBay sales picked up a bit at the weekend and I managed to sell a few little things. If it's not nailed down in our house at the moment, it gets sold! Extra money made so far this month,£21.28 Cashback£78.88 eBay£62.45 Amazon£8.93 Mobile phone recycled£4.40 Misc and Interest£7.98 PostageTotal = £167.96I quite pleased with this, this month as I didn't think I had much to sell, but I'm doing a great de clutter of our house. I've been selling stuff on eBay and Amazon for ages now and I thought that I lived quite a clutter free lifestyle. However when you really look into everything, every drawer, every cupboard, it's amazing just how much you are hoarding. I'm re evaluating every item we own in the house and if we don't need it, it gets sold on eBay, goes in the car boot sale pile or goes to charity.
More About: Money , Challenge , Make

Meal Planning again..
2008-02-17 07:50:00
I know the subject of meal planning is much discussed however I need to discuss it again. I'm having real trouble sticking to my plan and my budget. Food prices have definitely gone up and its getting harder to stick to my £50 a week target.In January I overspent by £6 and in February I know I'm going to overspend by about £50! There are a few reasons for this:Changing meals at the last minuteBuying convienience foodNot going to the supermarket consistently/going too muchGetting home late from workNot being preparedLazinessI'm also worried that our meals have got less healthy since I've been trying to cut the costs. Paid Twice, one of my favourite bloggers, is currently working through a 12 week meal plan that her husband is following as he is being sponsored at work to eat healthier. Now I've been thinking of adopting the 12 week meal plan idea. I think for our family it makes sense although it's going to take some organising. I can bulk buy items when on offer, I can mix ...
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Updating My Price Book
2008-02-14 09:30:00
I've reached that time of the month when I've paid all I can off my debt and I'm now waiting for payday to arrive next week. This is the time when I, and probably most people paying off debt, get the most frustrated as you just have to wait and be patient. I've got some items on eBay that finish on Sunday and I have an Amazon deposit on it's way but until the money arrives in my bank account I have to sit and wait.I'm going to spend the time at the weekend updating my very much out of date Price Book . I've gathered all the grocery receipts from the last few weeks and I'm going to update as many prices as I can. In my price book I have every possible thing I might buy priced as an item and priced per weight. Eg: Aldi Frozen Peas 907g = 0.85p = 0.093 per grammeTesco Peas 1.2kg = £1.49 = 0.124 per gramme This can take a little time when you're first getting started but once its done it's easy to keep on top of, if you don't leave it as long as me. I find it invaluable when...

Another unexpected cost
2008-02-10 09:17:00
Last month it was some reading glasses, this month its a fine for driving in a bus lane! I didn't know that the road layout in this part of the city where I work had changed or I wouldn't of driven down it, but there I am on camera commiting the offence:(Its cost me £60. Another £60 that can't go towards my debt pay off. This week will be a no spend week apart from budgeted grocery costs. I can feel the budget slipping away and I need to stop it. I'm already behind on my debt clearance in 2008 and this can't happen.I need a stern talking to!
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Investing
2008-02-07 06:31:00
After much deliberation and discussion with dh we have transfered the £600 EF money into a Unit Trust (ISA). We went with a Legal and General fund which has a Morningstar Rating™ of 4 stars. I've set up an automatic transfer of £100 a month into the account.I've placed £100 into my cash ISA to start rebuilding my Ef. I have a goal of £500 by the end of June.As well as clearing my debt we are now actively moving towards the future with at least 15% of our gross income going towards it. £600 mortgage overpayment, £100 Unit Trust, £100 Isa and £240 pension contributions. Whether this is the right way or not remains to be seen. Once the debt has been paid off all the money that is going towards payments will then be assigned to the future. My spendaholic days are over, all I think about is financial security.
More About: Investing

Debt Update
2008-02-06 21:17:00
Just a quick post. The loan that I'm working on clearing this year is now less than £10,000. My last little snowflake took it to £9,999. For some reason this has made me really happy.
More About: Update , Debt

I spent money!
2008-02-06 07:44:00
I've spent £30 on a new shirt for work yesterday. Tomorrow is the first day that I attend a working party with three Senior Managers and I want to create an impression. I've done lots of background work and feel really ready to contribute to the meeting. I consider the new shirt an investment towards my future goals.I will be doing some eBay selling at the weekend to try and get the money back as I've already snowflaked the £52.19 extra income I've earned in February to my loan.
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