The ultimate incentive to get debt free, can I do it by New Years?

poddle911

Hello! I have just polished off the last of my HUGE easter egg from my OH - I only got one, but it was worth it

Good deal on the Wii, Cinny! I go to my mum's to play on her Wii fit (I'm sure that's the wrong way round) and it's always rude to me! At least my Wii age is now in my 20s!

I love the fact we're all on tenterhooks waiting for Dinah to check in with all her holiday gossip. I'm pretty sure she'll be impressed with our MSEness:T Hope everyone's not finding it too hard being back at work! Good luck on the proposal, Lara, I bet you can't wait for it to be sorted.

PS. If anyone wants to open an ING savings account and pay in £1 by the end of May then let me know - they're offering £25 to both me and the new customer! Am I allowed to say that here?!

Tete_en_l'Air

I think you're allowed to say that Poddle, or is that what the referrers board is for? I don't really understand much on this site outside of DFW!!

I saw a thread on here earlier about MSE weddings and it's set me off, I've spent the morning researching and have decided on a theme and wedding car! And I haven't even been asked! Eesh, if I could put as much effort into my work I wouldn't be surrounded by piles of paper.

Off for my lunch and a Wispa for after out of my Wispa egg

N.I.M

Hey ladies guess who

Were back, I'm brown now as is she.
Pyramids would have cost us £160 each for a one day trip and 14 hours on a bus so we didnt do that.
I've not asked her to marry me...yet. Sorry to disappoint.
I'll let her tell you all the good news.

Oh congrats Lara, although now I'm under...pressure
Sorry about the job Poddle.
And Birdie what you guys gonna do about the flat, if anything?

zigmeister

N.I.M wrote: »

I've not asked her to marry me...yet. Sorry to disappoint.

Nooo!

I'm so lame, I'm a secret lurker on this thread. And I've been waiting to find out whether you had proposed! It's like a soap! Anyway, I'm gonna go and carry on hiding now!

Dinah93

Having spent yesterday and this morning catching up on the thread, I have reached the inevitable conclusion that I am a bad influence on you all. So much money talk while I have been gone!

Apologies this is in no order at all, just a tumbling of thoughts. I didn't let myself post until I had caught up on everything said while I was gone.

Landed very late on Sunday. Journey back was ... very.... Egyptian. Got to the airport and told to go to gate 8. Gate 8 said Newcastle over it, so far so good. So when they told Gate 8 to start queing we did, only to be told that it was now a queue for Gate 6's Gatwick flight! So we sat down again and watched as the board over the gate went from 'on-time' to 'departed'! Eventually we got on the plane, and the pilot told us we were in a queue to power up our engines, we were told we were second in the queue, but that he was doubtful we were the traditional second that comes after first. Sure enough 40mins later we all believed him!

Overall Egypt was a great time for NIM and I, good break and romantic. However it wasn't relaxing, too many people hassling you. NIM got very burnt, and I found the people quite rude. There was also very little to do, and it was a LOT more expensive than we had expected. Snorkelling was great though and the beaches really nice. Going to try to work out how to set up the public photo thing for a few of them on Facebook later so I can show off the camels. We're now kind of in the holiday mood, NIM has an interview at 5pm today, hopefully he'll get it enabling us to pick our next holiday. Going to Ireland for a long 4 day weekend in May, then maybe either Paris or walking in the lakes for a couple of days around our anniversary in June. We're then thinking either 2 weeks in Florida in September, or maybe New York towards Christmas.

However the everything more than we thought has come at a huge cost. Namely we now have nearly £800 on CC1. So we're hitting Ebay like devils to try to clear it, hoping it won't be too hard since we have the two laptops to sell, which should be at least £400 between them.

Alliance & Leister wrote back while I was away basically saying stuff off, we're not compensating you for our mistake. So financial ombudsman it is.

Really sorry to hear about the issues with the flats being sold to the LHA Birdie, I'd be gutted too. But most new blocks are nicely designed and are often mixed tenure anyway, and many people don't know the proportion of private/LHA residents before they buy anyway. Only time will tell how they affect the estate, but if things start looking like they're going to go downhill then you might have to think about moving before the value of your flat drops. To be honest I would very seriously considering approaching the new LHA too, it could be fine but I guess the expectation of problems must be a real worry. It is mortally wrong but not legally wrong, so think very carefully before suing as you don't want to put yourself in a worse position fighting something you have almsot no chance of winning. Unfortunately the reason they don't keep them together on one 'crummy estate' any longer is exactly that, it creates communities of deprivation. For this reason now a modern development will usually be at least 25% LHA or joint ownership properties, to create a mix of wealth and tenures. In housing schemes you can usually play spot the LHA properties as they are a completely different style, and of very bland design! Sending dodgy hugs. Chuffed your job is now safe though, that must be a weight off your mind.

Cinny – where have the numbers in your sig gone to?! Ipoints give out free amazon vouchers too for your camera. You just reminded me, we requested £30 of those before we went away, wonder if they arrived yet?! The camera we bought was dire, most life we got out of a set of new batteries was 14 photos!

Didn't get any eggs this year, sort of missed the whole Easter thing through not being here, although mum has ordered NIM, brother and I a hotel chocolat one each now they are half price.

Cinny – credit rating. Yes, buying one thing a month on CC and paying it off will give you a better credit rating. Is there anything you buy each month that is always the same amount ie a £10 phone top up? If so set up a direct debit from a bank account to the CC for say the 5th of the month, for £10, ensuring it is always paid on time. Or most CC companies offer to set up a direct debit to pay off the full balance monthly as an in house option for free. Even if you don’t buy something specific monthly, I’m certain you spend something every month, so just pay something each month on the card, then pay it off online or in branch. Unfortunately a credit check only shows credit on a person, not savings, so even if you had £100,000 in savings, it wouldn’t be known to the person deciding whether or not to give you a credit card, current account, mortgage etc. Credit cards really aren't scary if well managed, so I wouldn't put it off as the longer and more comprehensive your credit history is, the better rates you will have access to when you need them.

Very sorry you didn’t get the job Poddle, hopefully something bigger and better will be right around the corner.

Well the sickness before Egypt, and the gym and the slightly upset tummy while I was there have all clubbed together to do great things for my figure. Jeans that were too tight to do up before I left are now so loose if I don't wear a belt they end up round my knees when I tackle stairs! The other not a diet diet I feel...

Congrats on engagement Lara, that's a real shame your dad and sister haven't picked up the phone to congratulate you, it's a big event! Any chance they just haven't got the message yet? Glad your MSF has good taste, I'd want my OH to choose for me too, I've always thought that if a guy knows me well enough to be marrying me, he ought to know what I like by now! Also really pleased to see your totals in your sig have changed and you've made a start on the uni savings.

Where does it say how many times you have thanked people?! Birdie mentioned it a few pages back but I can’t see it!

Think you need to convince your OH you can go to more than £200 each per year on trips Birdie, there is a big wide world out there and you’ll miss out on exploring it on such a limited budget. This is the time to travel, before you get kids and it becomes a hassle, now you’re free to try everything (not camels, they’re evil).

Tete, don't do Sharm. While you won't roast as there is a strong desert wind to keep you cool, it's culturally devoid, and it could be a resort anywhere. Except for the camels in the tourist tat shops, it could have been majorca, costa del sol, anywhere really. Never been to a resort before, only to random hotels or villas, and to be honest I can't say I liked it. Needed a lot more to do than lie about and turn my skin to leather. £150 each for a hotel a night in Paris is insane! When I last went we stayed in a gorgeous place just down the road opposite from the moulin rouge (appears to be the defining line for where the road goes from nice to smutty!) for £90 a night for the two of us!

Back in the moneymaking swing quickly, mum actually got me a MS while I was away tonight for a supermarket on my way home! So thats a tenner, and NIM is supposed to have 9 jobs on Army bases tomorrow, but so far its going badly as one woman hes supposed to arrange a base pass with is on holiday, so thats 2 jobs down, and another base is closed until next Monday, so thats another 3 down!

NIM and I also spent most of yesterday in the garden, tidying the huge shed, and digging out more stuff to sell. Have about 4 bin bags full in the lad who lives with us's room, he comes back next Tuesday so need to get it all listed by then!

Cinny, your week of doing nothing sounds lovely, I would never be bored at home on my own. I'd kill to work part time but I could never justify how much further away it would take my dreams of owning my own house. That said my potential houses I'm looking at are more than a bit bigger and more expensive than your cute one! Still I have returned determined to devote Friday nights to painting, and to get a few of my paintings online somewhere to see if they sell.

I'm afraid I really don't get how you saving money is an issue, your sister is clearly going to get herself into money troubles later along the line, where you are learning to budget and give yourself a firm grounded and you should be very proud of that. Your mum needs to be careful what she wishes for, a dress will be pretty for a short time, but by saving for things you really appreicate the value of them, and get to know you really want them rather than it being a passing fancy. I think it's partly jelousy on your sisters part, she knows you can save and have this emergency fund, and thats a bit of a gall to her. To be honest reading your posts you seem to spend a lot more than many of us on here, and treat yourself a lot more, if I go to the shops twice in a month I consider it extravagant and unnessisary! Saying that you bought a Wii on a whim, so that should silence their impulse to tell you to spend recklessly for a while!

Is it sad I just got excited that mine was the first vote in this weeks weekly MSE poll?!

Where did you find out about the £25 for you and the new customer offer poddle? I'm already with ING for savings, but my mum, dad, brother aren't and all of us could REALLY use the money atm. They'll let you off for saying it in here I think so long as no one reports you, it'd be if you started a new thread about it there would be an issue.

As NIM says, no proposal, so Tete's going to Paris soon, can we bother her next instead please?!

Really missed you all x

Dinah93

Nice to meet you Zig, going to have a gander at your diary now. Turns out all the work computers went kapoot while I was off and I've lost everything since Feb 23rd. Slowly ploughing my way through my emails now. Was hoping to have lots of work to come back to, but only one new case. Which brings my caseload up to a staggering two.....

zigmeister

Dinah93 wrote: »

Nice to meet you Zig, going to have a gander at your diary now. Turns out all the work computers went kapoot while I was off and I've lost everything since Feb 23rd. Slowly ploughing my way through my emails now. Was hoping to have lots of work to come back to, but only one new case. Which brings my caseload up to a staggering two.....

Hi The diary isn't very interesting! Or very long lol. I've been reading yours for a while, it's funny! You do so well with paying off your debts! Wish I had that kind of determination.

You can do my work if you like! I have a load of uni work to do before next week :rolleyes:

Good luck paying off the holiday spending (not that you need luck!)

Zig x

moneymaker2

Hi Dinah,
Well done on everything that you have achieved so far.

You are truly an inspiration to us all.

Laura

Lara44

Woo glad to see you both back :T

So glad you had a nice relaxing and romantic time. It's hard to find out how much cool or cultural stuff there is to do with beach holidays, isn't it? That's why we usually end up going to cities, but then it doesn't feel like so much of a relaxing time.

Poor old NIM getting burnt - did you get a nice tan, Dinah? After all that debt-busting my goodness you don't need to worry about the extra spending on the cc. Thanks for the congrats, me and OH are really pleased. In the end I called my Dad and my sister rang (eventually). I find as the youngest I have to scream for attention sometimes, and my sisters having kids always seems to 'trump' any of my news. BUT I also got away with the most when I was young so I can't complain.

I looked at the Hotel Chocolat eggs too - YUM. That will more than make up for being away at Easter!

Good luck NIM for your interview!

Today I decided to paint the small corridor/room we use as a study the same grey colour as the kitchen. But I'm painting on top of bright buttercup yellow, so it's coming out as lilac. Hmm, not sure OH will be too keen.

L x

Tete_en_l'Air

Welcome back the wanderers! Have just been getting very angry trying to scan stuff and came back to my desk to that long post to read, so I'm now calm and zen and at one with all things electrical.

Can't believe NIM didn't pop the question, sheesh!! Does he not realise how many thread-ites he's disappointed? Erm, and it won't be happening for me in Paris I can guarantee that!

Can't believe it's so expensive to go to the Pyramids!!! I really want to go to them as well I know what you mean about beach holidays, our Cuba one last year was a bit boring by the end (bar the three days in Havana), but I agree with Lara that you get back from cities feeling like you need another holiday to recover! Not sure what your £150 paris hotel comment referred to Dinah, we're paying £145 each for three nights, plus £87 travel so £230 altogether