My S.O.A.

Effy

Well its been a awful while since i have been on here which is very bad of me but heres an update as to how I'm getting on.

I passed my driving test! yay! 5th time lucky so thats one less expense i spent £220 quid on driving in one month alone :eek: but as one expensive door closes another appears to open. My flat mate is moving out in february so I need to fins somewhere to live and the money for a new deposit I have thought this one out and decided rather then saving the money I have a new goal to clear my credit card by then it should still be at 0% so I can use that for the purpose and you never know if i get the job i want it come s with a flat or I may find someone to move in with me which again means I may not have to use the card but I do need it as a back up! Im sad I cant attack the overdraft more but I think considering my circumstances this is the best possible option I need a contingency plan after all!!

The spending diary kind of went out the window eeek! So I will start a new one this month I have however learnt for the time that I used it that smoking roll ups means I now spend under £50 a month on cigarettes (over halfing my addiction bill!) and that I soend way more on food then I thought (eating out even cheaply when I am too lazy to shop this has to stop!!) I am starting a new budget for this month too as last months budget has kept me right on track and for once I am getting paid tomorrow and I still have a fiver in the bank....this is momentous for me!! Again payment a day has not happened bit of a fraud with that and if Im honest I cant see me sorting that out. At least I have some stuff to work on. Im still cleaning which is paying for my tobacco and due to the possibility of a move in february I will clean out my cupboards this month and either go to a car boot or get ebaying!!

Anyway hope everyone is well here and more disciplined then me!! :rotfl:

Effy

Well just has a stonker of a gas bill in :mad: naively thought the credit crunch wouldnt affect me much due to my lack of savings/mortgage, for once was quite smug about being in debt :rotfl:Anyway my flat mate tends to deal with all that as everything comes from her account but i have said if she gives me the bill i'll a. check if its estimated and if so read the meter and get a new bill and b. look for a cheaper supplier. Is it me or is £87 for one month for a 2 bed flat a little excessive!! We barely cook and the heatings hardly on! We now have resolved to buy a boiler suit each and sit in that til christmas! only switch hot water on if having shower or bath (which we do anyway!) .

Apart from that got a work bonus which i put straight on the old overdraft before i spent it on lovely shoes instead and need to update my signature as im now under the 5k mark WOOHOO!!!

gonna restart spending diary again next month i dont know why im so unable to write down what i spend! in spite of that im still on budget for this month which im very pleased about even with the gas bill but i still really want to do the diary to see if i can skim anymore of my spending and maybe get back into the payment a day challenge which i think i have only dine for 3 days in as many month s :rotfl:

I saw my nana at the weekend she gave me £20 bless her which although i should have put on c/card i spent on 2 pairs of shoes in matalan....but if you would have seen them you would have got them too!! they are beautiful and were only £12 each thing is with my new budget and lack of social life im gonna have to troop around the flat with them and my thermal boiler suit on else ill never wear them :rotfl:

Jesthar

Hi Effy,

Just HAD to post and say thank you - the phrase 'kamikaze cucumber' is now permanently etched in my euphimism bank! :rotfl:

Congratulations on getting under the 5k mark! :T A real milestone - keep going, you're getting there!

£87 does seem rather excessive for a 2 bed flat - I have a one bedroom house and pay around half that (and I'll be looking to get that cut, too!). Good call on checking to see if it's estimated - last time that happened to me, they were about £12 a month out... :mad: One question - do you have curtains and draught excluders? If you do, great! Use them and draw the curtains as soon as it goes dark (and especially when the heating is on), as nasty draughts at windows and drawers can cost you a lot in lost heat. If not, draught excluders can be very easily made if you do have draughts - at the very simplest, just roll up a cheap towel and put it against the bottom of the offending door! Curtains are more expensive, but I have improvised very successfully in the past with a blanket slung over a cheap shower curtain pole... There are probably other methods, too!

Yup, spending diaries are a Good Thing. As are occasional treats like your shoes, but it's a good idea to have a limit. I may not have debt (mortgage and student loan aside), but I still keep a basic spending diary to keep me careful!

Keep going, Effy - you'll get there!

Effy

Thanks Jesthar! Never thought of draught excluders worth a pop thou it was flippin freezin this morning and most unpleasant trapsing around in the cold only to walk in the kitchen and find the washing machine has peeed out cold water everywhere :mad:

My Friend who now lives in cornwall and whom i have'nt seen in a year called me yesterday to tell me he was in london for one evening only as he had a meeting today, so I ditched the exercise class (naughty naughty) and went to meet him in Camden for a "few drinks". Sweet moses I must have thought I was rockafella the way I was knocking back the vodkas and suggesting places we could go for another (instead of staying in the cheapie lloyds bar!) ended up being a bit of a crawl. I got to say I had the best time and even though today my mouth is like gandhi's flip flop and I look like the night of the living dead it was worth it. Now I could beat myself up about being a bit of a wild woman (the fact that a night out these days makes me wild is amusing!) but instead I thought I'd do some productive today to make up for it! So phoned Halifax and have changed my current account I now get 5.12% credit interest when im in credit (for about 10 mins when my pay goes in) and have reduced the interest from 19.5% on my overdraft to 15.9% ...its a small victory but Im happy I managed to arrange something!

Have been dialling and dialling british gas customer service which is always engaged! wonderw why??! so im gonna wait til eastenders is on and try them then (normally works for phoning anywhere like that!) only disadvantage is instead of using work phone using my own ho hum!! decided to overhaul the old finances tonight am sadly excited about this no stone will be left unturned watch outr britsh gas i will take no prisoners!! :rotfl:

Effy

Meant to ask quick bit of advice my 0% on my credit card runs out on 1st november which is a tad disturbing, im highly likely to get refused another 0% card anyone have any hints/tips/ideas as to how i can avoid interest for as long as poss ??? I should have paid the card of by feb(short of a miraculous win on the lottery of course!!

ajaney

Gas Bills are normally for 3 months of usage? Perhaps it has been estimated for a few months then actually read by them, meaning a shortfall?

Keep going tho, you're doing well & your posts make me laugh! I have funny visions of thermal boiler suits!

Effy

Victory mwah hahahahahaha!! :rotfl: Well not quite but after phoning the complaints department of British gas I have got our bill knocked down from £87 per month to £65 which is betterthen a kick in the teeth!

Re: February impending move, friend has offered me somewhere to stay so if I have'nt sorted myself out by then I don't have to refill the credit card with debt awoohoooo I just need to pay her rent!! I now feel I have room to breathe:T and that I should change my debt free date to October 2009. I have been lurking and reading other folks diary and people with similar debt to me reckon they can do it by then (they may have different circumstances) but if they can do it so the devil can I!

applied for an abbey zero card not sure if they will accept me if not ill have to grit my teeth and pay the interest with mint though i will still try calling them and getting them to lower it. Might do some ebay stuff this weekend have a very lazy mood on ....dangerous cos i'll end up spending hence the visit to here to keep me in check.

Have started exercise classes as if i didnt i would have had to cancel my gym and having gym membership makes me feel that i can eat unlimited cakes without guilt (regardless of whether i actually go!) but anyway new mission get legs not to resemble sausages stuffed in condoms and remove dimply orange peel pasty !!!! flab, I still hurt from one of the classes so hope it works....dear jim please can you fix it for me to have the body of eva mendes, kind regards effy. Exercise is making me feel good about myself though not when im doing it mind but after i feel all proud, feel like my confidence is back after loosing a lot of self esteem and myself through past relationships....effys back!!!:rotfl: Im generally in a happy mood at mo..maybe i left the lid of my nail varnish remover too long and its gone to my head ???! Very motivated will clear debt, will be a little boom ting!! lol

hope everyone else is feeling chipper )

Effy

Wanted to write about my dfw weekend, I was very good! I spent £5 in all and that was on wkd for sat night! I went round a friends fri which was lovely and relaxing and did the same saturday however i learnt something new about my friend spank, she is a budgeting ninja! Courtesy of her I will soon have excel produced spreadsheets that calculate stuff for me, a Christmas budget sheet and ideas for new second jobs to take, she's my new hero! It so strange that I never knew this about her before. This spreadsheet sounds like a wonderful majical thing that will calculate stuff but also act as a spending diary, Im so useless at excel myself that I was overjoyed at her offer to send it to me .....what a saddo! :rotfl:

I also have developed a habit which is a little disturbing, well it is to me. Its kind of online window shopping. Basically I go on say topshop.com look at the clothes put them in my virtual basket then lkeave it at that, its strangely satisfying, I virtually spent £150 quid last night! The thing that disturbs me is i stop myself putting some stuff in my basket cos i think well that wont go with anything i got?!:rotfl:whats that about
even in a pure fantasy shopping scenario i still feel guilty about going over the top!!

Anyway thats my news i have dance class tonight, ytou know your getting the steps wrong when everyone else in the class is all of a sudden facing you, hopefully this week ill have got a bit less cack handed and managed a modicum of coordination though frankly i doubt it!

Flower08

Hi Effy - just come across your diary and your motivation is very inspirational and very funny aswell.

I too am trying to clear 2 credit cards and an overdraft, so trying despertaly to decrease my spending to get them cleared as quickly as possible!

I will be following your diary to see how you get along.

Good luck!

Effy

Thank you flower!:D I'm not always so motivated I find this website has helped a great deal its fantastic.

Dance class was marginally better then last week i managed to get about 2 of the steps right woohoo and i have mastered running forward with my arms in the air so its not all bad though i did walk into the girl next to me once! I have boot camp class tonight which i really don't enjoy I desperately need to get myself a sports bra i nearly knocked myself out last week and its most offputting trying to hold your boobs together rather then them bobbing around madly in different directions :rotfl:
When I get paid im allowing myself a sports bra and a new pair of tracksuit bottoms as mine have holes in and big bleaches stains on them i look like a right !!!!!!

Im very tired to day had a middle of the night text argument with the ex oh joy, he is back and wants to see me I wanna see him too but i got aload of stuff off my chest about how i felt that i have never said before stuff to do with the constant let downs etc and in spite of being shattered today i feel better for it. Im being stubborn though he has to come to me and if he can't be bothered then its obviously not meant to be. Apart from anything else my new money saving ways will not allow me to spend 20 quid on a train ticket to get to him so there!!!

Went to the pub last night had 1 diet coke at £1.40 very good for me considering i really wanted a very large southern comfort. Well as with the ex he works nights now so i should expect a response to my last little rant this afternoon so ill no doubt update this tomorrow. I think the world of him but we never had it easy he seems to have sorted himself out now but i need some kind of gesture in proof of that i.e. him making the effort to come see me, i shall remain sceptical but also really hopeful i love him too bits but im not going to be a mug!

Anyhoo now that everyone knows my life story im going to have a little lurk around on here!