My finances are shocking

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
24,291
I've just worked out my outgoings in an effort to curb my spending, work out what I can cut out, and... sort myself out.

If I didn't have all this crap and debt, I could have a massive flat.

Grrr. It's a joke.

Anyone else genuinely surprised at what they've gotten themselves into? This is nothing I can't handle, I'm not in trouble, but I've seriously managed to stunt my life progression with this. At least if I was in trouble I could fake my own death and start over!

Req: get rich quick schemes
 
A couple of years ago I got into the situation where I was going well into my overdraft a day or two before my pay would go in. It gradually became a few days, then a week. When I actually sat down with Excel and worked out all my outgoings, I was shocked at how much money I was whizzing up the wall.

I thoroughly recommend writing down all of your outgoings so that you can see it in front of you. You can then pick and choose what you do and don't need and remove them accordingly. By doing this along with setting myself a limit for spending on nights out I ended up saving myself in excess of £300-400 a month. I have just had a rejig of my finances again and with a move of house I'll be saving almost the same again on top.

Write it all down and the cash haemorrhages will stare you in the face.
 
The most shocking amount of money spent is on lunches and coffee. It is literally obscene.

If you spend £4 a day on lunch and coffee, thats £20 a working week, over £80 a month and over £850 a year. It's crazy.
 
Scuzi said:
A couple of years ago I got into the situation where I was going well into my overdraft a day or two before my pay would go in. It gradually became a few days, then a week. When I actually sat down with Excel and worked out all my outgoings, I was shocked at how much money I was whizzing up the wall.

I thoroughly recommend writing down all of your outgoings so that you can see it in front of you. You can then pick and choose what you do and don't need and remove them accordingly. By doing this along with setting myself a limit for spending on nights out I ended up saving myself in excess of £300-400 a month. I have just had a rejig of my finances again and with a move of house I'll be saving almost the same again on top.

Write it all down and the cash haemorrhages will stare you in the face.
Click to expand...

good advice, bang everything on a spreadsheet then cry, then sort it all out
 
What outgoings do you have?

afer my food/rent is paid i have about £950.... but out of that i pay phone/car insurance/petrol/internet/phone line/ etc etc

usually end up with about £300...then after a week about £80.... like now :(
 
Scuzi said:
I thoroughly recommend writing down all of your outgoings so that you can see it in front of you. You can then pick and choose what you do and don't need and remove them accordingly. By doing this along with setting myself a limit for spending on nights out I ended up saving myself in excess of £300-400 a month. I have just had a rejig of my finances again and with a move of house I'll be saving almost the same again on top.

Write it all down and the cash haemorrhages will stare you in the face.
Click to expand...

I have, that's what prompted the post. Most of it is sadly unavoidable, being me paying off debts, of which I have many and very little to show for it - but that's done. All I really can do is make the most of what little I have left and try to pay this stuff off quicker.

I can get hot food and drinks and stuff for work for about £8 a week, and to be honest that'll go in with the family shop anyway so effectively free. Going to make a big effort to give up smoking, I don't go out as much as I used to, etc etc... I just have to make the most of my pretty small remainder after my massive, unavoidable outgoings.

Some outgoings will shrink, some are due to stop soonish, so it will get better as it goes along. Going to be a dull few months, I reckon.

I'll do it, I have to. I want to move out with my girlfriend, and it's not happening anytime very soon because of this, and I did it to myself. My stupid spending has mostly stopped, and has been better for some time, but I still have to fix the mess I made. I've just got to grow up and do it.
 
Andr3w said:
What outgoings do you have?

afer my food/rent is paid i have about £950.... but out of that i pay phone/car insurance/petrol/internet/phone line/ etc etc

usually end up with about £300...then after a week about £80.... like now :(
Click to expand...

Mostly debts. There's the normal stuff - bike insurance, phone bill, contact lenses, but a lot of debt. In fairness, I'm paying them off quite fast, but they're really eating in to my money.

I have currently about £450 a month - before cigarettes (going to have to stop), before feeding myself at work, before GETTING to work...

I can make it work, it just won't be easy, especially at first.
 
You already know it, but just think about what you could buy with the money you spend on the fags... about £50 a month...or do you smoke quite abit?
 
Well, you've taken the first step which is 'admitting you have a problem' <groan> :)

The way I look at it, making short term cut backs in order to reduce debts doesn't have to mean less fun (in the medium term). The quicker you cut your debts down, the less you'll have shelled out in interest payments. Say you normally have 6 nights out a month, if you cut that down to say 4 nights out one month, you could probably afford to have more than 8 nights out the following month, if it avoided racking up huge charges on credit cards / overdrafts etc.

I work with a guy in his early 30s who is on a reasonable salary but literally lives from one paycheque to the next. It'll reach the 10th of the month and he'll be like "I've only got £50 left to live on until payday", and when he says £50, he means £50 above maxing his overdraft out. I've tried pointing out that he could benefit greatly in the medium term by paying off some of those debts (39.9% store card, anyone?) but then he'll say stuff like how he doesn't want to pay off his credit cards because then the banks will cut his limit and he'll "never get that money back".... :(
 
Not sure if anyone is interested in this but I made a spreadsheet that allows me to type in my wage each month + outgoings, it works on a daily bases. If there is something out of the ordinary coming up I can put it in the spreadsheet and instantly see how its going to leave me in a week/month/year.

Its pretty simple but it works, I've been using it for 3 years and every payment I've ever made is recorded. ATM its as far as January next year, although that's obviously a prediction. A few of my friends now use it and swear that its helped them plan out their finances a bit better.

If anyone wants me to mail them a copy use my trust and ill get one sent ASAP.
 
We had a problem like this. When we wrote down our outgoings it appalled us how much we were spending on food - and how poorly we were spending it.

My wife suggested doing our shopping around meal plans rather than just buying whatever we felt like in the supermarket. It really brought our monthly outgoings into line, and helped us to eat better as well. We now waste less food, always have decent meals, and spend far less on food than we used to.

Don't know if that will help your situation too, but thought I'd pass on my positive experience with that idea.
 
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