Since i got sober 500+ days ago ive been systematically working on areas of my life that i need to improve on/sort out…first year i worked solely on my sobriety, next was my health which ive managed to get a decent grip on…so next is finances…i admit to being and am notoriously bad with numbers and anything monetry…on paper i earn enough to manage but im terrible with keeping track on what i spend, i have 2 credit cards that i racked up to the limit when all i cared about was being able to buy booze, 2 small personal loans for the same reason…so does anyone here that is good with their finances have any good pieces of advice for me? Il be grateful for any advice because im pretty clueless but would really like to start having a clue lol
Hi Kelly! Congrats on your sober time!! So it’s important to understand your debt to income ratio, this is how much money you make versus your bills. If it were a bank they wouldn’t look at utilities, groceries etc but your personal scenario I would. Take the monthly debt and divide by your monthly income and see were you land and you can go from there as to perhaps consolidate or other things. If you want my opinion after that I would be happy to help. Hope this was helpful!
6 Likes
Oh thank you Ami, i will certainly do that, right now i kind of just live pay day to pay day getting by n if i cant i lend small amounts from family and friends which i always pay back but im not getting a grip on stuff…my groceries for instance…i kinda buy as i need and im thinking itd be better to do 1 full monthly shop then im not in and out of the supermarkets as often…
5 Likes
My suggestion is to find out what you’re dealing with first and just estimate what you think you would spend monthly on groceries. I am becoming a one step at a time kind of gal versus solving it all at once 
I think if you get on a budget you’ll be surprised the extra cash you eventually end up with.
5 Likes
Ok il get on that thank you 
1 Like
One suggestion Kelly. If you have access to Uber Eats….Monday is 50% off fruit and veg from coop, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose to name a few. It’s super cheap to get all your veg and fruit on the day and use the freezer to store proteins to compliment as and when you see deals. We do it most Mondays and spend £25 to £45 for a huge fridge full of veggies each week. We don’t eat much meat and batch cook a lot of stuff like bean and squash stews, veggie lasagnes. We then portion leftovers into foil containers to reheat up for lunches. We use a Ninja rather than the entire oven for reheating, and if we do use the oven then we batch roast trays of veg at the same time.
It’s a small thing, but saves so much money.
Also, I can say Marcus (Goldman Sachs) is a high savings yield here in uk currently for anything you might be able to pop away. You apply online and it’s all very easy. I think my interest is about 4.9% ish.
Write down any subscriptions and have a think whether you need them all.
If you buy magazines separately don’t bother, get Readly the app for a monthly fee and read tonnes there, so much range.
Consolidate debt to low annual no fixed fees and keep changing them as it comes up to APR transition.
Write down when any insurance dates etc are up and shop around, don’t take the same again.
Don’t overpay mobile contracts, mine is £24 a month for the both of us as just one fee, including all data and calls etc. we have no landline. Our BB is like £22 for full high speed fibre.
Shop smart, don’t accept the face value.
Any advice, let me know, I’m ridiculously organised with all this stuff.
8 Likes
I realise now this wasn’t one suggestion 
5 Likes
Oh this is super helpful thank you so much!! Im quite rural so im not sure about the uber eats but il check for sure, my mobile is 35 and my BB is 40 something so il look into that too, i think im gonna get a notebook out and start writing everything down my incomings and outgoings ive tried doing it on apps but im not very tech i think id fare better with pen and paper lol ive been in touch with step change for advice too
4 Likes
Mobile I’m sim only…bought outright an Android that’s as good as a well known brand but pennies in comparison. I hate Ama***……but they do payment plans interest free to buy a handset outright. try Vodafone for a sim free deal. My phone is three years old I barely change it. Get one that’s unlocked to all networks
Plusnet fibre, very good, very cheap.
2 Likes
All this info and suggestions from you and @IamThechange is exactly what i was looking for, thank you so much both of you 
i will get all my stuff down on paper, keep referencing this thread and probably vome back for more advice if thats ok…
3 Likes
I’ve read the excellent replies you’ve received and your responses, and what I have to say will overlap quite a bit, but I still want to put it forward in case it is useful in this format.
It’s great that you are going to write things down, which was going to be the core of my suggestion but some people are very adverse to doing so. Before you can make massive changes, you need data. You need a very good idea of where your money is going and why your money is going that way.
So first you write down a list of your set expenses. This is your overhead, the expenses that don’t change. Rent/mortgage, utilities, etc. Some utilities in some areas will have a program to allow what you pay to be a set rate. If you haven’t signed up for that, I recommend it.
For the next month, you save all your receipts, even printing them out for online purchases if you can. You want to write down the total of these in their own categories. Right now we’re not making changes, we’re just gathering information. At the end of the month, you will review all of this information. As an example, you may find you go to Starbucks 5 times a week (this is just an example), which is clearly not a needed expense.
But it isn’t enough to know that, but you need to figure out why you are spending that much money there. In our example, if it is because you are often running late, then budgeting time to make your own coffee at home will save you money. Maybe you like a specific drink they make. Okay, well, maybe you make the one time purchase of a machine that will do the same thing, which in the end will save you a lot of money.
The same with buying groceries, for example. You can look at the receipts to figure out what you are actually buying, and maybe you will realize some of it you don’t really need, or that you can buy those things cheaper somewhere else.
Once you know how much money you spend on important things that fluctuate in cost (groceries, gas, etc), then you can figure out where you can make adjustments and how much you can reasonably budget for those kinds of expenses.
The next month, you do what you did the first month, but this time working to follow your new plan. At the end of the month, you review.
7 Likes
You can do it Kelly. With an open mind and persistence, you will get there. It’s just like learning anything new (just like learning to ride a bicycle: once you get past the initial nerves, you learn to balance and you never forget).
This magazine has a lot of helpful strategies, including lots of stuff about the basics; take a look, you will probably see some helpful tips:
4 Likes
Hey Kelly
Good for you for “grasping the nettle”
All of the ideas above are fantastic and you should consider how each of them suits you.
If you haven’t already, I would look up Martin Lewis - money saving expert. The man has devoted his life to helping all of us normal folk with everything financial and his website has so much accumulated wisdom it is wonderful. His resources on the site could immediately help with cheaper mobile and BB. If you read up and make 2 phone calls you can halve both of those I reckon.
Saying that, the first and most important thing you need to get control of is your debt situation. No one likes to do it, but it sounds like you’re ready… you have to look up the terms and conditions of your two credit cards and your two loans and work out what interest rate you’re paying on what amount. There will almost certainly be a way to consolidate that debt into a single loan and save you some debt interest every month. Citizens advice is also useful on this front.
I’d be happy to help you further with specifics if you’d like. I mean, if you can trust a recovering alcoholic! 
for context I have my own small financial firm advising corporate clients (never individuals), but I take a keen interest in helping anyone get out of the clutches of debt. I hate the financial industry for the ease it lets ordinary people get into debt which is so hard to get out from under.
Stay strong… keep this positive stone rolling! It IS possible and not as hard as you might fear.
4 Likes
This is brilliant! Yes yes yes…i will start gathering all my info …this makes so much sense thank you so much i am a gatherer by nature so this will work for me for sure
2 Likes
When I got sober I had about $30,000 in unsecure debt (credit cards, fines, etc). Within 3-4 years it was $0.
First thing I did was get a true copy of my credit report, not just my score. It listed every single debt I had, including some I was not aware of. I contacted my debt holders to see if they would take a reduced settlement. Almost all of them did. This save me approximately $20,000.
From there I created a budget, and I stuck to it. I listed out every single monthly expense, and all of my income. I had very little disposable income for a while so I definitely had to live within my means. So this means I bought off-brand items and often times went without items that were unnecessary. I did not buy fancy coffee, or eat out that often. I still had money for fun activities, but I had to be smart with it.
Since that time my income has increased a lot, but I still practice these principals. I am able to save money for family vacations or buy cars, etc.
8 Likes
Oh wow, thank you James …recovering alcoholics are some of the best people ive had the pleasure to know so absolutely i do trust you! Im going to mull all this over, gather my info and get a plan in place.
3 Likes
I think it was you somewhere along the line that said something like …the thing that you dont want to be doing is the thing that you should be doing…well for me its sorting this out…gone are the wha whaas of me feeling sorry for myself over the money situation i created myself and time to face it, educate myself and sort it
6 Likes
Thanks Matt i will have a good read of the link, sobriety has taught me perseverance so i think with that in mind il be able to get a handle on it all
3 Likes
I draw up a realistic budget in categories on Google sheets(online excel), then I track everything I spend and adjust the budget accordingly, I use an app called spending tracker and everytime I buy something I add an entry, it auto puts them into categories.
I also break my budget down into weeks in the app, takes effort but worth seeing as we don’t realise how quickly a small thing here and there adds up in a month.
4 Likes
In the UK the Open University is offering a free course " managing money for young adults". It’s meant for students who need to learn this stuff before moving out of the parents home. But it’s never to late to gain those skills.
4 Likes