Help - Im sick of being skint!!!

Horace

No worries about the tip re glucose tablets - if memory serves me correctly they are called Dextrosol, my diabetic friend carries them around as they are a handy sugar boost (I ate one once - they are really sweet).

Sorry to hear about the ovarian problem - you have my sympathies especially with regard to allergies to medication, I am allergic to 99.9% of antibiotics so I know where you are coming from.

It is definitely the WAP that is racking up your phone bill - I have WAP on my phone but never use it, I had the phone because I use the other features but I never look at the WAP because of the expense.

The challenges on here to help and in a strange way you become quite proud when you have managed an NSD.

Good luck.

Hatster

I have a friend with really heavy periods, and she swears by a combination of a Mooncup and pads. Of course, the Mooncup is expensive to buy, but you'll certainly be saving money in the long run - perhaps its worth starting to put aside a little money towards that regularly? (In my experience, they are much more practical and comfortable than tampons.)

POSSETTE

payday loans work like this dont they..you get paid say on 1st...money ran out on 14th so you borrow £300 that day, and when you next get paid on 1st you pay the £300 +INT back???
can you not just bite the bullet for 1 month and not go to them??

i had facebook for a while on home pc, and realised that i was wasting sooo much time on it doing pointless things like slinging poo at friends and sending fish for tanks and flowers for gardens..that i thought "what the hell am i doing this cr4p for?"..gave it up 2 month ago...never missed it since..certainly would not pay wap for it...

Mrs_Ryan

I love my facebook and myspace!! Couldnt be without them but could most certainly wait till I got home!!!!

Unfortunately its the case with me I pay em back and then have to reloan straight away cos it takes a massive chunk of my wages! But with any luck in the next few months I can clear it. Im going to go for the Lowell Financial one next - this one is 10 years old can you believe!!! I actually managed to clear another HSBC debt in one go last year for the same amount so maybe the money that I save on the phone can go towards this.
I will certainly think about the Mooncup - I use pads as tampons are too uncomfortable for me - but probably just at home at first. but thanks for the tip!
Ok - here's my mobile use today....
No WAP (cos i've been at home today)
1 text
1 x phone call (to my mate in a bit - grand total 30p!)
Spoke to Mum on landline this morning as her and Dad are flying to Turkey this evening (lucky them!!! her doc suggested sunshine might help her, wish mine would say that to me!!!!!)

Jesthar

Well, that's a great start to the No Mobile Day challenge - a resounding pass!

Oh, Mrs_R, I understand the Payday loan thing now - what a cycle to be stuck in! I think it's safe to say that's the thing which is mainly helping keeping you skint - it's costing you an extortionate £89 in interest every month! Until you can break that, paying off your other debts is going to be much harder. On the other hand, if you can stop having to take these loans, you could clear some of of your small debts completely in just a couple of months with the saving if you chose!

If you genuinely can't do what Possette suggested and just stop going to them, could you perhaps manage to borrow less next time, say £250 instead of £300? Looking at your SOA, the money you save on your mobile bill and perhaps buying any clothes for one month should save you that much. You also said that you reloan straight away - do you absolutely need to do that, or could you wait until later in the month and only do it if necessary and for as small as amount as possible? Forgive all the questions, I've never encountered this kind of loan before! Here's to hoping you get a good amount of overtime this month so you never have to go to these parasites again!

Now, does anyone have the address of these Payday people? I have a colony of fire ants I'd like them to meet... :mad:

Mrs_Ryan

Hi everyone.. I've been working such crazy shifts this week I've not had time to update! but here I am. Doing really well on the mobile front, I topped up on Saturday (just gone) and I've worked out Im going to be able to make it last until Thursday (next week, the 30th!!) when I get paid... today's diary...
4 x text messages (and i used my free online text messages for some more!!)

That's it!! My mate is away so I havent had to use the phone!

Im really hoping that in the next few months I can get rid of the payday loan. It may even be this month, as I didnt do all that much unsociable hours last month and got a whacking great 200 quid payment for it, and I have nights, (including weekend nights, double time I think, 9 hour shift at 14 quid a hour - oh yes!!!) plus a bank holiday and a fair few lates so I should get a really good payment this month.
I really want rid of the Lowell debt, and the Money Shop one so Im really going to try hard to get rid of those two. I've bought all my Xmas pressies as well (arent I organised??? ha ha) so that's one big thing I dont need to worry about.
You can gladly have their address Jesthar... I would love to see them meet your fire ants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesthar

Hi Mrs R,

Thanks for the update - looking good! Really hope you can ditch the payday loan, that will save you SO much. Is it possible for you to not take another one out straight away, and only do it if you really need to later on in the month? Perhaps for a smaller amount, too? If you can ditch it completely, you'll halve your monthly deficit in one go!

Regarding your debts, if you know the interest rates on all of them you can use the handy little calculator here: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx to work out the cheapest order to pay them all off. As a general principle, unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, throw any spare cash you have at the one charging the most interest first until that is cleared (whilst still making the minimum payments on the others), then the next highest and so on. Once a debt has cleared, you'll then have more money free to throw at the next one, hence the term 'snowballing.'

And wow, how organised are you, getting all your Christmas presents sorted? I haven't even thought of most of the things I'm going to buy, yet! :rotfl:

Now, where did I put that fire ant charming book...

~Jes

Mrs_Ryan

Hi everyone :hello:

I fell off the wagon and had to top my mobile up today

But its all good though. I bought OH a Playstation game for Xmas, and when it came I was sure it was the wrong one, so I had to show him

But not only was it the right one, he felt so bad I had gone to all that trouble he insisted on paying me for it!!! So he topped my phone up for me, bless him. And he also gave me another fiver towards it so thats my bus fare for the week... phew! thought I was going to end up walking :j I also needed some bubble bath today, so we went to Morrisons and I traded in my copper collection for a bottle of anti-stress bubble bath - result! wasnt really spending money as my copper collection was just gathering dust so I thought I may as well use it for something useful!!!

I've only actually used the phone once today! I used the work phone to wish my mum happy birthday but the boss was fine... she even asked me did my mum get anything nice for her birthday!!!

Just a bit of a moan though...
I sent mum some flowers (I ordered them months ago in advance, cost £30!!! I know that sounds a lot but that includes delivery etc, as my mum lives at the other end of the country) and she said they were beautiful. But my older sister came over today, and brought my mum several very expensive presents. She always does this - she always manages to give amazing, expensive presents and whatever I buy, no matter how I hard I try, it never comes near.
Her husband has a very good job as a housing advisor to local government, and she is a supervisor in the Civil Service. They have two children, (my gorgeous beloved nephews... love them to bits and their auntie spoils them rotten) and they are a lot more well-off than we are. Consequently, thats how I'm in so much debt trouble, desperately trying to keep up with them so come Christmas I dont look like a cheapskate next to them. (I have spent a lot of money on both my parents) but no doubt she will have managed to outdo me again!!!
I get quite upset by this - my mum has told me not to be so silly, its the thought that counts, and not to spend lots of money on presents, but I know fine well if I didnt and just gave them one cheap present each my mum would complain and say' oh, your sister gave me this, this and this!!' or 'i bought you all this and look what i get back!'
(She does it with my brother, even though she knows he's in a lot of financial trouble)
My dad couldnt care less, but it seems I cant win with my mum! My mum is very good to me, and I couldnt be without her, but in this situation I find myself getting upset again - I do every Xmas and birthday! I know it should be the thought that counts but this is driving me insane :mad:

*rant over*

carrottopsuk

Mrs Ryan, have you seen the Christmas & special occasions board on here. They may give you some good ideas re Christmas presents that are inexpensive but look fabulous.

Good luck

ajaney

On the pressie front:

I end up in competition over the 'Mother in Law' with my OH's ex (the mother of his son). She always buys expensive pressies (probably using the maintenance that we give her grrrr!) so I try to be inventive with mine. Last xmas, OH's ex brought a cashmere sweater, perfume & a scarf. I know MIL likes Apricots so I brought a wicker hamper & filled it with all kinds of apricot stuff - chocs, biscuits, fudge, bubble bath, creams etc. She was so appreciative of the effort I had put in. I have never seen her wear the sweater & a few months back, i was in her room& the sweather was still in its bag!! Try to be creative, people remember that.