Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Mollymop5

Oh my!!!! this is either going to be the best week for me or the most dissapointing.After yesterdays debt letter which came from Aktiv kapital for a debt I had with a curry's store card that ended up with them, I received another letter today from Thames Credit Limited which took over my barclaycard debt which is now down to £1600.They are also offering me the chance to clear my debt with a full and final figure of £150! This again is great but has a limited availability and it's going to take me a while to get the 1st £150 together.I've looked through my debts and I also have 2 more that are now through Thames Credit limited.If they offer the same over the next couple of days what do I do????? To clear £3100 of debt for £300 is a great offer it's just finding that money.now if I hadn't gone on holiday..................................

Frugaldom

MollyMop that is AMAZING! Hang on in there because it certainly sounds as if they are planning on selling on their debtor lists and are recouping what they can. How is your weekly budget looking right now if you don't spend another penny other than absolute essentials - could you live for a month on pasta, for example? If you do a complete list of everything you have in the house - food, toiletries, laundry & cleaning stuff and then tally up everything that's due paid within the next month, could you survive?
We all need to get our heads together to make sure you don't miss this golden opportunity!
Come on guys, let's get the thinking caps on...

Do you list on online auctions?
Have you checked for cashback payments you may be due?
Have you anything lying in PayPal, PPPay type accounts?
Have you vouchers (eg from Pigsback) you could sell?
Loose change in piggy banks, even sealed ones (sorry Mumzy, this is an emergency situation)
Empty lemonade bottles with 20p deposit on each
Does anyone owe you money?
Can you have a 'whip round' among friends & family?
Could you get a few hours work without doing lie time?

You can join my September500 mini challenge with September300

GOOD LUCK!

whitewing

mollymop, sounds wonderful. Don't panic - do the best you can to get some extra cash. Sell, sell, sell. Babysit. Anything. Could you ask family for money now instead of xmas pressie this year?

Say yes to their offer, but say it at the last moment. Then worry about how.

whitewing

Do you have premium bonds you can cash in?

Skint_Lynne

Mollymop5 wrote: »

Oh my!!!! this is either going to be the best week for me or the most dissapointing.After yesterdays debt letter which came from Aktiv kapital for a debt I had with a curry's store card that ended up with them, I received another letter today from Thames Credit Limited which took over my barclaycard debt which is now down to £1600.They are also offering me the chance to clear my debt with a full and final figure of £150! This again is great but has a limited availability and it's going to take me a while to get the 1st £150 together.I've looked through my debts and I also have 2 more that are now through Thames Credit limited.If they offer the same over the next couple of days what do I do????? To clear £3100 of debt for £300 is a great offer it's just finding that money.now if I hadn't gone on holiday..................................

Warning about these 2 companies Mollymop, they usually only chase you if the debt is over 6 years old and therefore statute barred. Make sure everything is in writing with them, that you get receipts and that it is upfront and you won't have someone else chasing you for the same debt in a couple of months time. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, check them out on here, I think there are some threads about them and also google them. I just think it's actually unusual to get 2 letters like this in the same week. If I remember correctly, they might actually be the same company/group. Just tread very carefully before you part with any cash.

SL x

P.S. I've just searched Thames Credit on the forums here and quite a lot of people have got the same letters, I would post up the link, but I'm not sure how to do it.

Frugaldom

I can't believe what I am seeing again! I live in a national book town and can see the village green from my upstairs window. Right now, there are booksellers unpacking boxes upon boxes upon boxes of books, old books, ones nobody could sell, ones nobody wanted or would pay money for. They are being laid out around the edge of the park in what I am assuming is a maze, as they have done this for the past 2 years.I find it incredibly sad to see I mean REALLY SAD! It's like a literary wake! The first year this happened, they had a lone piper!

What's making it worse is that this is the first day of sunshine we have had in some time, so there are quite a few tourists, visitors and locals beginning to gather, reading the covers of the books and then picking them up and taking them away before the maze is built. It's utterly amazing to watch, but so sad tha the books that don't get rescued will get pulped or burned at the end of it. I'd forgotten how sad this time of year can be for all those unwanted and unloved old books I can count about 60 boxes waiting to be unpacked now! If it didn't feel like sacriledge they could make some ideal winter fuel for someone - I haven't the heart for burning books.

Going to take a photo, back soon.

OK, here's what's happened so far... it's a free for all on books.

BlueFleur

Having all those free books would be my heaven! I live to read. I'm reading three different ones at the moment, and I'm also doing a few home learning type things. Teach yourself x from a book kind of thing. I'd also read anything so free books would be perfect for me. When I eventually pay everything off and have my own house I want to turn a room into a library Ultimate nerd but happy with it!

I've been quite good today. I just want my next pay day to come round so I can play with the next pot of money! I'm going to try and work out what my ideal budget would be. How much do you guys allocate for gifts per person? I'm never sure what seems 'right' and end up asking my mum

Frugaldom

BlueFleur wrote: »

How much do you guys allocate for gifts per person? I'm never sure what seems 'right' and end up asking my mum

My 4k budget includes £400 for all gift buying - I only buy for immediate family, so have 15 to buy for in total to cover birthdays, anniversaries, special days and Christmas. I've allowed £15 per person for Christmas (£225) plus I'll have the contents of my sealed bank plus any vouchers accumulated throughout the year for extra special gifts.

Update - all that's left on my 'to do' list for today is tomato packing and apple stewing. In lieu of 'make £50' I transferred birthday money and bingo winnings to my housefund as part of my September500 challenge plus entered a couple of free draws. My September500 balance will reflect only the amount that has already reached my account so I don't get confused

Marru

Hello everybody!!!

Hurraah, I don't feel as tired as I have been feeling lately!! On Fridays we have our practical session in the college and today our subject was aquatics. As the space where the fish tanks are is so small not all of us had enough room to work there so I got to handle and clean these:



They are African Giant Land Snails and it was so cool to work with them!!! :cool: And I found some eggs from my box so I was feeling like an archeologist with my spoon searching for more eggs.

Tried to do a mystery shop today but the place was too busy so nobody served me. I need to try to contact the mystery shop company and explain what happened and see if I can reschedule it. It is always so annoying as I have paid parking now for nothing (except got some bargain bananas, apples and strawberries from street seller while in town so that helped).

Sophiesmum - nice that you were able to pop in here and good to hear that things are as good as they can be. Cats are great healers so having the family cat around must be a fabulous thing for your brother.

BuerFleur - I have an idea, I need to go to the study tour in April, why don't you come and toddler sit (take DD to nursery in the morning, pick up in the evening, feed her, wash her and put to bed). While she is at nursery/sleeping you can freely read any of my books (I've got 7000 of them).

Oh - forgot to tell that this morning my car acted up again. Started ok when left the house, started ok after dropping DD at nursery, didn't start after walking The Dog. RAC to the rescue and they came in 20 mins and sorted the problem in 2 mins. :T This was third time in 10 months I have needed them and can't even imagine how I would have coped without the breakdown cover.

This weekend I will:

Sort out my finances i.e. total spent up to date and preliminary budget for 2009
Do some MBing
Cook more stuff into the freezer
Continue to work on my tax return for 07-08
Get some spreadsheet work done for my client
Catch up with washing (nightmare to get anything dry)
Get some sleep

This weekend I won't:

Go near the shops especially if I have my purse with me

Have a great weekend everybody!

Marru

BlueFleur

That is a big snail :eek: I'm not scared, but it'd take me a while to hold it like that

I've drawn up a mini budget for next year, and I've run out of ways to make it any smaller! It is at £3996 at the moment, without rent/council tax. I've not managed to fit birthdays/Christmas spending in there though! I figure that I still have a learning curve ahead in the next few months. And anything I save in month will be a bonus. It seems scarily tight!