£163? On Milky Bars? Oh, alright then….
Friday 16th May, 2008 - £9,443.29 in debt…..
Imagine you’re having a quiet drink with Paris Hilton, discussing the usual things: make-up, pedicures and handbag-sized hounds. Suddenly, you throw in a question about particle physics: imagine the expression on her face.
Multiply all that confusion, panic, sadness and resentment by one million. That is exactly the expression I was wearing fifteen minutes ago, when I completed the budget planner from Martin Lewis’s website.
It’s not that the planner is hard to use – quite the opposite. The problem was that, when I got to the end, it told me that I was in a positive financial situation. In fact, at the end of an average month, I apparently have £163 left to spend on Milkybars or throw out of the window or whatever.
This is clearly not the case, so I went over it again with a couple of bank statements sitting next to me. And here’s where I realised why I am in so much debt: I just don’t notice the money going out of my account.
The edited highlights:
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I spend at least £20 a month more than I think I do in Boots.
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I think that my boyfriend and I spend £100 on food in a month, but the actual figure is closer to £200.
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And since when did anyone pay £150 a year to maintain an eight-year-old car? My last MOT bill was easily double that.
The fact that I don’t know what I’m doing with my money isn’t entirely unexpected. But the fact that I spend £235.15 more than I earn, EVERY SINGLE MONTH, was a very forceful punch in the face.
The moral of the story is: If you’re thinking about getting out of debt, given the current climate and what-have-you, download the budget planner from www.moneysavingexpert.com and prepare to be brutally honest.
It’s the first time I’ve ever taken a serious look at what I spend, and it’s been a huge eye-opener. Which is why, when the cheques for two of my Ebay sales cleared today, I transferred the £42.25 straight onto my NatWest card within seconds. And it’s also why I’m hyperventilating with panic.
