Can Edinburgher be debt free and a mortgage holder by 30?

edinburgher

A couple of weeks ago I decided to switch to Scottish Power for one of their market leading dual fuel tariffs. The application went through Quidco as usual, netting me a £62 cashback.

My GF asked me when they were going to switch and I checked my e-mails only to discover that there was nothing from them sitting in my inbox. At first I thought that I was going mad, but I called them only to be told that there was no record of an application.

As I was annoyed they offered to put through the tariff on the 'phone. Over the course of the next hour I spoke to five people, all of whom told me conflicting information and nobody who was able to complete the switch. My favourite was one numpty who spent ten minutes looking for me on a computer before going 'oh - don't you have an account with us?' No dear, that's why I was trying to switch :mad:

In the end I went with Atlantic, who while not quite as cheap should still save us £170 a year. I chose them as they have the best ratings for customer service on all the comparison sites that I trawled through.

Life is too short to speak to call centres, but if we have to it should be a painless experience!

Quiet day on the DFW front, so I'm scurrying back offline. Won't it be funny if they pay the cashback and I'm not a customer

edinburgher

Managed to get another couple of Dooyoo reviews posted and am creeping closer to a £10 Amazon voucher. I already have a £10 voucher from my Valued Opinions surveys and am awaiting for the eventual arrival of £35 promised when I switched our utilities last night. That's £55 and counting towards the cost of Christmas, at no cost

Not doing any actual reviewing today, but will definitely return some ratings for the kind folk who actually bother to read my stuff (which includes some DFW regulars).

Following up on a tip from Slig I've loaded £5 onto my prepaid credit card to sign up for the Virgin Bingo free scratch and I'm also considering signing up for a Pret a Manger card for the free coffee. I'm not a big coffee buyer as it's a ripoff, but the thought of a free cup appeals for our once weekly office trip to Pret (which is just a skive in disguise).

Was checking our sealed jar last night and it's getting very heavy I'm looking forward to opening it up in October.

edinburgher

Eek - had my first go of bingo and like all gambling things, I found it somewhat too involving Went from my intial £5 to £15 and then back down to £9 before giving up! Ah well, £4 profit :rotfl:

The reason I played on was because I thought that I registered through Quidco and that I'd get £5 back for wagering £5. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have tracked, which is a nuisance. Still, at least I made a profit - I've never won anything gambling before.

Managed to write another Dooyoo review today and the couple that I have stored on my laptop should see me clear to my next voucher.

Looking forward to being debt free and am also very excited to see that there are a possible 3-4 jobs that my GF and I could apply for back home (Glasgow, despite the name), as we work in the same field. We will need to get started on those applications at the weekend.

Had a nasty experience on the usually friendly DFW forums today, after I was essentially flamed for saying that someone might not need to write out a spending diary. Does anyone else ever get the impression that some of the forumites get a bit rabid about debt management techniques at times?

doodledo_2

Tut tut you been upsetting people again :rotfl:

edinburgher

doodledo wrote: »

Tut tut you been upsetting people again :rotfl:

Hardly - some people just open fire before they read what you've actually written...

doodledo_2

Just off to find out just how naughty you have been young man!

doodledo_2

Well I am shocked, disgusted and appalled.

You gave advice! Silly silly boy :rotfl:

edinburgher

You gave advice! Silly silly boy

That was my first thought - God forbid that anyone would try to help anyone else

Today will need to be quiet on the DFW front, as I'm buying my weekly coffee, a lottery ticket and my lunch. I'm sure I'll be blackballed at the DFW club for this but the odd treat never hurt anybody.

Planning a cost effective weekend of visiting one of London's largest Victorian graveyards, making rillettes (think fancy pate) and reviewing.

edinburgher

Made a payment into my online savings account and was chuffed to bits to see that my savings are now greater than 1% of my debts. This might not sound like much, but I'm hoping to make a !!!!!! offer once I have 50% of my total debts saved up.

I'm currently paying £105/mth towards the debts and about £200/mth towards the savings - hoping that all my graphs are accurate and that the two meet in the middle at the start of 2010.

Debt free by 27? That would give me just under 3 years to save that house deposit

doodledo_2

Evening

I have no doubt you will get that deposit sorted by the time your 30, and by then I will be approximately 105