The Diary of a Reformed Spendaholic

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May 2008 - Net Worth + £1,234
2008-06-01 12:09:00
Our Net Worth went up to £38,590 in May, an increase of £1,234 and 3.3% on April's figure.- No mortgage overpayment made yet this month due to re mortgage currently going through.- £600 placed in e-saver until able to make overpayment- £771 cleared from my debts- 9.647% towards our target Net Worth for 2012
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I want it gone!
2008-05-30 15:14:00
My No 1 personal loan that is. The balance outstanding is £7950, and the minimum monthly payment is £295.25. I work nearly a whole day every week after taxes etc, at a job I don't like, to pay this minimum payment and I want it gone. This is the reason I'm doing the challenge, to eliminate this loan.

Eliminating a little bit more spending
2008-05-30 14:14:00
As part of my preparation for the 6 month challenge today I have:-Cancelled all my magazine subscriptions. This will save me at least £17.90 a month.I have so many magazines stored, most of which I've hardly read, so what I'll do is choose a few every month and read them from cover to cover.-Switched my hair cut and blow to a wet cut. This will save me £5.40 every six weeks. I've decided that haircuts, with my job, are a necessity however getting it washed at the salon is not.-Swapped my daughters mobile contract. This will save me £15 a month. She has swapped services with her older sister so now her bill is £20 a month instead of £35.Only one day left now, I'm tempted to go to Starbucks!
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The six month challenge
2008-05-24 07:30:00
Ever since I've been on this debt journey I've done two things, reduce my outgoings and increase my income. I totally agree with this post by Brip Blap that spending less than you earn is the wrong way to think and this post at The Digerati Life on becoming a 'frugal capitalist'. To increase your wealth (or reduce your debt) you have to spend less and make more.For the next six months, from June 1st to November 30th I will continue to try and increase my income every month at the same time as not spending any money on non essential items.Over the next few days I will establish some guidelines for myself, as well as determine what items are essential and what items are non essential. There will obviously be things that crop up along the way and I will deal with them as and when.Follow me on the challenge by subscribing to No More Spending by email or by RSS feed.
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Non Essentials
2008-05-23 16:15:00
This could be a long list, so far I have-Make Up-Magazines, I'm cancelling all my subscriptions-Paid for meals out, I have some free vouchers-Books-Stationery, including birthdays cards and wrapping paper-Clothes, non work-Starbucks or any other coffee house-Flowers-Household items-Alcohol-Cd's, although I don't buy these anywayI'm going to add to this list as I go along. Any other items you can think of?
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A six month challenge?
2008-05-23 14:49:00
I'm mad at myself, really mad and I'm considering drastic action. I've been thinking of challenging myself to no spending, except on essentials, for the next six months. I know this has been done before by other bloggers/writers for longer, but it might be what I need to get me back on the straight and narrow and nearer to my goal. I'm getting so close to the end of this debt free journey, 19 months to go, and the key to my success so far has been constantly challenging myself along the way. I have to stop myself from becoming jet lagged.If I do this, the problem I will have is deciding whats essential and whats not.
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Stop blogging = Start spending
2008-05-22 11:47:00
Confession time. I've not been blogging much lately due to work commitments and launching my new business. When I stop blogging I start spending. This is fact.I've spent too much money this week and here are the details.Birthdays x 3 : £126.31Flowers: £5.49Real Simple Magazine: £3.75Planner: £8.00Handbag: £40 !!!There is a lesson to be learnt, don't go to Borders/Paperchase/Monsoon when you are feeling a bit tired and low.
More About: Blogging , Start , Spending , Stop

Reduced mail
2008-05-18 00:43:00
I've realised today just how much my postal mail has reduced in the last few months. Some of the reasons:No more credit card billsAll household bills on Direct Debit/Paperless billingAll checking accounts paperlessReduced magazine subscriptions No more miscellaneous Internet purchasesGood for the environment and my wallet.
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Mid May update
2008-05-13 20:53:00
-Planning to spend money and actually spending it are two different things, the suit I had my eye on is out of stock and now I've lost all motivation to look for another. I did buy four t-shirts though.-£350 is set to be snowballed to my loan account from my wages tomorrow, this will take the debt down to £19,442-I have 7 items listed on eBay, three with bids and the others all with watchers-I've sold some more books/cd's on Amazon and have made £55.79 in extra income so far in May-The long awaited car boot sale takes place this weekend. The house is de cluttered to the max and my youngest daughter is booked to be my sales assistant, lets hope the sun is still shining and I make some money.Debt repayment sure keeps you busy!
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I'm going to spend some money
2008-05-11 09:08:00
My wardrobe clear out and the good weather here at the moment in England has resulted in my realising that I need some new clothing items. In the winter I could wear my very smart coat all day and this would hide a multitude of sins on the clothing front, now this is no longer the case and I do need to look professional at work.I'm going to give myself a budget of £160 this month for new clothes. Out of this I will get the following items, which all fit into my current wardrobe.A suit4 t'sA summer macThe suit at £105 is not the cheapest out there, however it's good quality and will last me for at least a year. I've tried to buy cheaper suits before and they don't last, I'm in and out of my car all day so I need something that can withstand this. The t-shirts jazzed up with a necklace are great for work and the mac is for those days when I just wear trousers or its raining.What I love about all this is the fact that this is planned spending for a reason, not 'lets go to the ...
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Wardrobe de clutter
2008-05-10 15:24:00
I'm streamlining my wardrobe today, de cluttering and organising it. The saying about it 'getting worse before it gets better' is so true, I can no longer see the bed or most of the floor!This has led me on to thinking about capsule wardrobes and how many items of clothing does one person actually need. Time to do some research and thinking.
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The Carnivals are up
2008-05-08 22:00:00
The 3# Carnival of Snowflaking is up at Antishay Ventenne this week. My post What a Difference a Snowflake Makes was included, so thanks to Shanti for that and for holding the Carnival.The Snowflake Carnival is getting bigger every week!The Money Hacks Carnival #11 is also up this week at Save and Conquer. There are some great posts and some great photo's. Go on over and have a look.If you're visiting No More Spending from the Carnival then please look around. If you like what you see then please subscribe to my blog by email or RSS feed for regular updates.
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My make-up budget
2008-05-05 08:41:00
Shanti recently did a post about her budget busters and one of the items on her list was make-up. This got me thinking about my budget and how I never even budget for make-up, and yet I wear it! Admittedly I don't wear alot, but I do wear it.I only have five products that I use without fail, anything else is generic and bought from the supermarket with my grocery shopping. Make -up is not that important to me, growing up in the country, surrounded by animals, I never really got into the whole make-up thing.My 5 products:Maybeline Great Lash (£4.99)Clinique Foundation ((£18.50)Clinique Concealer (£15.00)Clinque Moisturiser (£26.00)Body Shop Coconut Butter (£12.00)Annually, I will use 3 mascaras, 2 foundations, 3 Cocoa Butter and 1 of everything else. I use it all sparingly. I try to get the butter as gifts for my birthday or Christmas, all my family know I love it.Now the reason I haven't budgeted for it, is probably that I have a secret stock of it in my wardrobe, bought in Ne...
More About: Make Up , Budget , Make-up

What a difference a snowflake makes
2008-05-03 16:30:00
I've been playing around with the debt reduction calculator today, putting in different scenarios and checking that I'm on course to be debt free by December 31st 2009.-If I only paid the minimum amounts on my loans (£500) it would take me 48 months to clear the debt and would cost me £3,811 in interest.-To clear the debt by the target date, which gives me 20 months, I need to pay off £1,100 a month. The interest payments in this time will cost me £1,491.-Currently I can snowball £400 a month into the loans from my salary however the other £200 needs to be snowflaked. The snowflaking will save me £385 in interest and 5 months in loan payments.I failed to achieve my monthly extra income earned snowflake challenge of £200 in April, I only made £136.76. I need to get serious about this now, I will not allow myself to have any consumer debt after December 2009.Ways I currently make more money:Blog income (small amount)Selling my stuff, eBay, Amazon, car boot salesCash back (G...
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April 2008 - Net Worth + £1,522
2008-05-01 09:22:00
Our Net Worth in April went up to £37,356 an increase of £1,522 and 4.25% on March's figures.- We overpaid the mortgage by £600- I cleared £521 from my debts- We are now 9.34% towards our target net worth figure of £400,000Previous posts:March Net Worth
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If at first (or second, third and fourth) you don't suceed, try and try aga
2008-04-30 05:16:00
I blew my no miscellaneous spending challenge in April. I spent £13.86 on a book and some stationery, £65.45 on meals out and £13.69 on lunches. A total of £93.00, with a budget of zero!The grocery budget for April, £200, was overspent by £36.34 as well. I've joined the May grocery challenge over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks with the hope that this will encourage me to stick to the plan. I have a target of £200 ($400) for four of us.Looking at these figures makes me realise that I still have a lot of work to do on the food spending in my budget.

Closing old credit cards
2008-04-26 10:13:00
In my effort to totally simplify my finances, I'm trying to close an old credit card that I've not used for over 2 years and its a slow process. This is part of the email I've received from the company,We're sorry to hear you want to close your Egg Card. We've started the closureprocess for you. We wanted to take the chance to remind you of some of thebenefits that attracted you to Egg Card in the first place. If you change yourmind about closing your account, let us know in the next couple of days: Whyit's worth sticking around Great anniversary offer. Special deals with selectedonline retailers. Internet shopping guarantee. Active fraud monitoring. 24 houronline account management. 24 hour customer service line, just in case you needus.It should take 17 working days to close your Egg Cardaccount but may take longer if you've used your account recently or you've got abalance outstanding which needs to be repaid.We may be in touch in the next 14 days to discuss your request....
More About: Credit Cards , Credit , Cards

Progress update - I'm getting there edition
2008-04-22 17:00:00
My debts are now officially under £20,000:After a snowflake I made yesterday the new balance is £19,852. Loan Number one is now £8,360 and I want this gone as soon as possible. I'm very behind on my goal of £15k paid off this year, but I'm focusing on the good, not the bad.My make £200 extra a month challenge is behind this month:The current total is £136.76, so I need to really focus on extra money making over the next 8 days.My post got included in a Carnival:My post on my very simple method for organising my paperwork, over at my other blog Move To Portugal was selected by The Happy Rock for the 149th Carnival of Personal Finance - Chasing Dreams Edition . Thank you Rock!Please visit the Carnival there is lots of great reading.My mortgage is slowly decreasing:Dh and I have made over payments totalling £2400 so far this year and we are on target to achieve our goal for 2008.I finally feel like I'm really getting there. This blog has helped beyond words, it makes me accoun...
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No more credit
2008-04-20 17:53:00
In March I posted about how I had applied for a cashback credit card with the intention of using it for work expenses. This post drew some comments for and against credit card use.When I finally received the paperwork for my application with a request for some proof of identity, I hesitated in sending it back. I had actually still not returned anything this morning.I've come to a decision this afternoon, that although I would earn some cashback, I no longer have a place in my life for a new credit card. The paperwork has been shredded and my application withdrawn.If you liked this post then please subscribe to No More Spending by email or RSS feed.
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You can turn your life around
2008-04-20 16:42:00
I've been tagged by Jo at Me and My Marbles for the six word memoir meme that is going around the blogosphere.My memoir or my tag line is/would be: You can turn your life aroundThe rules of the meme are:1. Write your own six word memoir - Done2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want - Done3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post - Done4. Tag at least 5 more blogs - Naughty, haven't done5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play !
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My April payday budget
2008-04-17 13:01:00
My 4 weekly salary payment is in the bank and these are the figures I'm working with.£100.68 Balance BF£1,682.41 Salary£140.98 Expenses payback£120.80 Child Benefit£2,044.87 Total£29.95 Charity payment£600.00 Bills£162.18 Over Payments£490.48 Loan Payments£200.00 Grocery£115.00 Petrol £7.00 Magazines £65.00 Child, phone, sports subs£50.00 E-Saver for dh birthday next month£20.00 Misc£55.00 Passport renewal due to name change!£14.50 Gift£235.76 Saving£2,044.87 Total
More About: April , Budget , Payday

April payday
2008-04-13 23:40:00
Its payday this week and I'm so excited as it means I can pay more off my debt and take it to below £20k!I will also have some snowflaking to do as I received a cheque for £50 this weekend from a survey site. Once this clears at the bank I will send the money straight to my No 1 Loan.Net target sub £15k.
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Loan problems
2008-04-12 18:00:00
I sent a snowflake payment of £201 to my loan account too close to my automatic Direct Debit payment and this caused the loan company system to mess up my payments. It thought that the £201 was the set payment and that I had defaulted on my loan this month, even though the set payment has been sent as well. I even received a letter saying that my bank had sent back my Direct Debit payment, which was rubbish.This has taken two emails and two phone calls to ensure that everything is put right. I didn't want a missed payment mark on my credit file. This is not the first time I've done this, in future I will make all my snowflakes to this loan at least two weeks before the Direct Debit payment. I'll be glad when I no longer need to deal with this company.Good news is the balance on this loan is now £8,761.
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Over spender = Over eater
2008-04-09 09:21:00
Over the last few years my weight has fluctuated to point of four different sizes in my wardrobe. I've lost count of the amount of times I've bought something thinking I would get into it when I've lost some weight. This something would then get sold on eBay for a small amount of the purchase cost and would then end up costing twice as much due to the credit card interest. I once read in a Suze Orman book that very often people in debt would come to see her and they would be overweight as well. I think the two tie together nicely. I would spend more money to compensate for the fact that I was overweight and then eat more because I was in debt! It was a vicious circle.This year has been a turning point for me, I'm slowly losing the weight following this diet and I feel much better in myself. I think I needed to get control of my debt first and then get control of the diet.I've started to do the most frugal exercise there is, walking, and I can feel myself getting fitter by the w...
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April progress
2008-04-08 21:00:00
No miscellaneous spending - So far so good. I'm tempted though, its like dieting once you can't have something the more appetising it looks.April £200 Challenge - I've made £75.45 so far. A mixture of eBay, Amazon, cash back and interest.Work - I've decided to stay with my current job for the time being. I had a long meeting with my boss and she was eager to keep me. Hopefully things will be a bit better now that I've got all the problems off my chest. This little episode has made me even more determined to clear my debts and get a large emergency fund.Further reading:Earning Extra Money Challenge
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Mum to the rescue
2008-04-06 05:33:00
My work shoes take some heavy wear and tear due to the nature of my job, I'm walking or driving most of the day. I often get them re heeled or re soled to make them last a bit longer. My mum sent me some new wedge shoes to see if they are more resilient. (?) I think they were really a gift to cheer me up but she used the excuse of 'experimenting with a wedge heel'? Bless her.
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Selling your stuff - problems
2008-04-05 08:38:00
I've sold things on Amazon for at least 2 years and never had any problems. This week I've had somebody ask to return some DVD's as there were Region 1 and she needed to get Region 2 and didn't know there was a difference and I've had two cd's, that I posted last Thursday, not turn up at their destination.The customer is always right obviously, but apparently its my fault that she bought the wrong region and didn't know there was a difference, although Amazon clearly states all the formats :)If the cd's haven't turned up today I should start to trace them with the post office, a long process and probably not worth it for £4.35 so I'll just refund the money. Right now I don't have time for any extra jobs.I need to get out of retail, my grumpiness with the day job is now transferring to my private selling!On another note, I still haven't completed my March spending or set an April budget. I'm not spending anything at the moment, apart from grocery, so I'm not sure I eve...
More About: Selling , Stuff , Problems

March 2008 - Net Worth + £2,274
2008-04-02 08:42:00
Our Net Worth in March went up to £35,834 an increase of £2,274 and 6.78% on February's figures.- DH moved some money over to an ISA- We overpaid the mortgage by £600- I cleared £1,043 from my debts- We are now 8.96% towards our target net worth figure of £400,000March spending still to come.Previous posts:February Net Worth
More About: Net worth , March 2008 , 2008

Goals Progress 2008
2008-03-31 18:18:00
Pay off £15k of debt - Paid off £2,052 so farDouble EF to £1000 - £100 so far, goal changed to £500Increase pension contributions as company scheme changing - Not an option until JulyIncrease income by at least 10% - made £754.35 in extra income, more than 10% of net incomeTake at least one external course - not yetLearn staff training plan inside out in order to diversify my role - DoneGet chosen to be on a second working party - not yetBrainstorm my business idea - work in progressBe ready to start business in 2009 - work in progressI so need to re focus on my goals for the year and not let the negative aspects of my job ruin the good things I'm doing with my finances and my future life.
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More No More Spending Challenges
2008-03-28 21:30:00
I've closed off the March challenge and the final total was £236.42. This means so far this year I've made £754.35 of extra money from various sources.Making money in April will be a bit tougher, although I plan to do a car boot sale and I still need to de clutter the bedrooms, so I should find some more items to eBay.I'm planning a no spend April. As from Tuesday I will not buy anything apart from grocery for the whole month. There will be no miscellaneous spending, there will be no book buying, (March book spending confession coming at the week end) there will be 30 no spend days.
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