Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

moo2moo

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

3 have started ringing me continually as my contract is up for renewal at the end of June but I'm ignoring them as I'm a sucker for a new phone, and don't want to get into any lengthy contracts until the economic climate is better.

Not too sure what I am going to do for a phone though....

Why? Is the one you're using now broken? Whats wrong with sticking a pay as you go sim in it and transferring your existing number across (free of charge!) then simply paying for what you actually use rather than using it all the time because you've paid for several thousand minutes. You can always go back to a contract if it works out that its costing you the same or more than a contract would.

Bear in mind though that I'm not necessarily the best person to advise on mobiles. My current phone is a prehistoric brick (with one previous owner) which lives in my pocket and sees the light of day for less than a minute each week when I phone home to report I'm running very late. I last put credit on it vaguely around February 2008. Being a big spender it was a whole fiver. It gets worse. OH and I both have Virgin phones. Texting him costs me 3p. So I can eek out my fiver even longer. Worse still... his phone flags up who the caller is before answering. Hes trained not to answer it before its rung three times. If it rings twice around 6:15pm and is hung up then I'm running late. I know I know I really am a cheapskate.

Lurker1972

You may find that 3 will reduce your monthly payment without the need for new contract or anything - I was with them & if I remember correctly at the end of my contract I could have continued with same bundle indefinatley, but for less than I'd been paying as I didnt want a new phone...

Intergalactic_Floozie

Sorry, I shouldn't have put "don't know what I am going to do for a phone". I should have written something like "am undecided what to do about the phone" (meaning, the contract).

DS1 has a contract which is 150 minutes + 100 texts per month and it's £11.74 per month. He rarely uses it to call or text (mainly just for receiving calls from me making sure he hasn't been abducted by aliens) so we are definitely not getting moneys worth out of that. I did think of taking over that however I don't think 100 texts will be enough. It wasn't very money saving taking it on in hindsight but I also got a new phone with it....so gave him my old one, and kept the new one for myself. (said I was a sucker for new phones).

Intergalactic_Floozie

Okay - bit the bullet and rang 3. I think I have got a very good offer. Apparently I use less than 100 minutes per month and send 300-400 texts per month, so they have offered me £9.78 per month for 100 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited 3 to 3 calls (meaning when I ring DH or DS1 or my brother who are the main people I call, it wont come off my 100 minutes allowance). Also if I do use more than 100 minutes per month I can always start using DS1's as a back up, so this will save me £19.58 per month. I'm very pleased with this. I don't get a new handset and the contract is a 30-day one, so no lengthy contract. He did say at any time if I wanted a new phone I could ring to get the next contract up which would be £14.68 per month for 300 minutes. I dont think that is a bad offer either, but am so pleased with what I have got.

natsplatnat

Hi IF!!! I think thats a brill deal!!!

Intergalactic_Floozie

8 days to get through until next pay day. £42.63 to last. Am not panicking because I still have £50 to come from Paypal, and £5 child tax credits next Thursday. I would have been using my credit card for a few days at least already before lightbulb moment.

Spent £5.79 in McDonalds yesterday as DS2 had a friend sleeping over.

The rest was spent in Asda and Morrisons - look at my grocery budget, shot to pieces I tell ya! There'll have to be some major miracle to be under budget this month.

DS1's friend's mum sent him home yesterday with some bits of uniform that his friend had grown out of so I wont have to buy the summer tops or all-year-round trousers in September so that will save me some money!

We went to M&S today to try and get DH some shoes. Unfortunately we didn't get him any because he didn't like them, but we did get him a pair of jeans (he also needed some of those). I didn't spend money though as I had £50 of M&S gift vouchers in the kitchen cupboard. I just can't bring myself to pay their prices for anything for myself so they have been sat there gathering dust. However DH tends to hold onto stuff for years so I can get away with paying slightly more for his stuff. He's happy to wait until next pay day for shoes and trainers though.

Still no sales on Green Metropolis and E-bay is the same as yesterday although I do have another watcher for Rosemary Conley, so hopefully that will go tomorrow before it ends.

PS - also had a letter from DH from the dole office. He's signed off now (as he started new job on 18th May) but the person he spoke to said he should probably be entitled to job seekers from 6th May to 17th May however his letter came today saying he was only entitled to it from 4th June so he can't claim it because he was working then! I'm really annoyed because it's not his fault it took them so long to process the claim and I am disgusted that they don't backdate it.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Spending Diary: Saturday 30th to Friday 6th.

Entertainment:
£3.30 - weekly newspaper bill.
£1.69 - Sunday newspapers.
£20.00 - Given to DH for his own leaving do.
£1.69 - bottle of apple vodka. Taken around to neighbours last weekend, so classed as Entertainment rather than personal spending.

Takeaways:
£11.77 - McDonalds x 2

Miscellaneous (not budgeted)
Postage: £6.50
Game: £5.86 (cost of having 2 x scratched games buffered).
Sweets: £1.00 DS1

Personal Spending:
£0.39 - stamp (letter to pen pal).
£1.00 - Lotto subs.

Presents:
£10.99 - card & present for DS1's friend

Haircuts:
£5.00 - DS1

Clothes:
£8.81 - Primark - 3/4 jeans for DS1

Grand Total: £78

Intergalactic_Floozie

7 days to get through til next pay day. £32.63 to last plus £6.40 in my purse. I went to Morrisons yesterday evening and took out a tenner on rubbish food as I was craving sugar badly! I'm starting my moderate-crab-low-sugar diet today which should hopefully put pay to the sugar cravings

Still no sales on Green Metropolis. I think I might have a look at completed listings on e-bay and see if any of the books I have, have sold previously and list them on there and also try Amazon too.

It's rotten when Royal Mail get more money than we do from a sale! They killed the sold of books online when they re-jigged their pricing strategy. I remember when I used to be able to sell a slim paperback for 56p second class, now it's loads more.

E-Bay: handcream is still only item with bids with five hours to go so I can't see that going any higher. The DVDs still have watchers but no bids.

Got £4 today by doing DS1's paper round. It's easy money as there are only 14 houses and it only takes 25 minutes. You might think I am being a meanie taking £4 from him, but come on - he gets more of my money than I do!

I've asked my mum if she wants to come and see two shows at the Theatre with me, the Take That musical in July, and The Sound of Music in September. I'm going to buy the tickets tomorrow out of the emergency fund and then pay the emergency fund back. Not too sure how much it will be until tomorrow. Mum's paying for her own ticket though. I reckon I'm looking at £60. I feel a bit guilty as it seems frivolous but I'm justifying it by saying I don't smoke, I don't go out drinking (not often, anyway), I haven't bought myself any new clothes or make up since mid-April and I'm being a super budgeteer now!

I hope Pay-Pal money appears on Monday and makes my everyday money look a bit healthier!

mooomin

Don't buy through Ticketmaster if you can help it - I saved £13 on two tickets by going to Box Office for my last theatre trip!

Intergalactic_Floozie

No, I'm going directly to the box office. I still have to pay a £1 booking fee even by doing that - bleeding rip off - but if I pay on line it's £2.50 booking fee.