Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

Intergalactic_Floozie

This doesn't really concern me anymore, but HSBC have written to me informing me that my overdraft (currently £1450) is to be reduced to £250 on 22nd January. Thankfully I am always in credit in this account (but this wasn't always the case). I remember last year they sent me a letter at the same time informing me it was going to be whipped away from me. They gave me 12 months to pay it off at £125 per month, and thanks to some PAD-ing, and a win on the pools of £400, I had it paid off by April. To add insult to injury they told me it would be reduced by £125 each month (which it wasn't) so I needn't have killed myself doing it anyway.......however fast forward a year and it's gone.

So - that's me resolution, to try and not go overdrawn again because they can just whip it off you with a moments notice.

moo2moo

Any further thoughts on the challenge alluded to on !!!!!! thread?

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

Any further thoughts on the challenge alluded to on !!!!!! thread?

Uhm. I'm still thinking. It's a big think. I'd possibly have to chop off my 'chip and pin' hand......

I'll do some figures....

am getting carried away with the full stops....

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 23
Money in bank balance: £480.23
Money in purse: £1.10
Grand Total: £482.00

Money spent since last update: £17.00 (AND I HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT THE HOUSE TODAY!!!!)
£7.00 - to DH for project Scalextric.
£6.00 - to windowcleaner. Comes once a month but it's been that long since I saw him I forgotten I had a windowcleaner
£3.00 - to DH to buy goodies to take into work for a buffet
£0.23 - to copper jar
£0.77 - to copper account.

Am off on my fourth Xmas do of the season, but thankfully it will only be the price of a taxi home as I'm off to my friend's house.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Blimey I've really confused myself today and don't know where I am with my money. I've made debit card payments today and then transferred from savings to cover, I've borrowed out of my busfare/kids activity money (£20), owed DH money etc...I think I've worked it out right...if not, I'll have to sort it out later when I have a clearer picture. OH, and DH didn't get paid today (ARRGGHH)

Days to payday: 22
Money in bank : £452.82
Money in purse: £2.60
Grand Total: £455.42

Money spent since last update: £26.58
£7.00 - taxi fare home from friends house.
£9.99 - sledge
£0.99 - bin liners
£0.51 - sent DS1 to shop for above and he kindly spent the change!
£7.41 - groceries
*seem to be 68p missing...but I've really confused myself today with spending from the savings account, then transferring over, then owing DH some money...oh well if it's wrong, I will find out later

Spent quite a bit from the savings
£14.00 on lager
£56.97 on 3 x last minute wii games (am kicking myself)
£36.50 - 2 x perfume sets reduced in sale. Daisy from £45 to £22.50 and Ghost 'Cherish' down from £21.00 to £14.00. They're my two favourite perfumes

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £114.83 spent / £165.17 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £52.50 spent / £57.50 remaining
My bus fare budget: £39 / £9.00 spent / £30.00 remaining
Everything else budget: £297.67 / £94.92 spent / £202.75 remaining

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 20
Money in bank : £452.82
Money in purse: £3.11
Grand Total: £455.93

Money spent since last update: +0.51 (GARRGGH why do things never add up? Oh well, it's better to have more money than less)

Grocery budget: £280.00 / £114.83 spent / £165.17 remaining
Petrol Budget: £110.00 / £52.50 spent / £57.50 remaining
My bus fare budget: £39 / £9.00 spent / £30.00 remaining
Everything else budget: £297.67 / £94.92 spent / £203.26 remaining

Hi everyone, hope you had a good Festive Season. I had a really nice Christmas Day. I didn't go overboard with the kid's presents this year although they did seem to have plenty to open but nothing was 'carp' and they loved everything. We had an MSE lunch by going to my parents house and very nice it was too.

I'm glad I bought the emergency presents now (the one I could have kicked myself for) because it turned out one of them was utterly brilliant (Just Dance) for the Wii. I can't recommend it enough!

Okay - so I have decided to stop moving my spare coinage across to the savings account cos it's confusing the heck out of me!!! I say I do it on here, then forget to do it as I'm not logged in etc...I'll just concentrate on spending as little as I can get away with.

I've joined the £365 in 365 days challenge too, to try and save up for the kids Christmas presents next year, and I'm going to attempt to buy a Christmas present for one relative each month. No more leaving it til the last minute for me, oh no!! The kids are usually easy enough to buy for, but I'm useless at buying for other people!

I've changed the name of an A&L savings account from 'everyday money' (as I don't use it anymore) to Christmas 2010 and will try and transfer the equivalent of £1 per day across (but it will probably be in bits and bobs rather than a quid per day). I've got 11p so far LOL which is interest from when it was used.

When I empty my copper jar at the coinstar machine and use it to pay for my shopping, I will transfer the equivalent over to the savings machine. 10p's and less will go into the copper jar along with any other money I find on the floor, in pockets etc..

I'm going to try and PAD to it by - for example - not having a breakfast butty when I really, really want one. £1.85 can get transferred etc...

Any overtime can go over etc...

Not saying I wont need to touch it before Christmas but I'm going to try and make it one challenge that I can stick to.

PS - also want to try and save as much of £80 from my 'everything else money' as it's DS2's 7th birthday in February (before my Feb payday) and he wants a party.

sparkleisshopping

I have read this thread from start to finish and I would like to thank you Floozie - your diary is really inspiring! You should be so proud of yourself in the way you've really turned your finances around over such a short space of time. Your diary has inspired me to sit down and really sort my finances out, something that I've just spent the last 3 hours doing! I'm going to start a diary thread on here and hopefully I'll be able to be as organised with my money as you are and use the diary to keep track of my spending.

Thank you again for sharing your diary and your financial ups and downs - you really are an inspiration

moo2moo

You weren't kidding about the snow then. The drive over to you was awful. Round about Scammenden Reservoir visibility was down to about 15 metres, you couldn't see the bridges over the M62 and rather scary police warning signs about animals on the road kept appearing out of the fog. Took considerably longer than anticipated to get from us to just down the road from you. Turns out the gritters couldn't make it as far as my parents so the road there was like a skating rink by x-mas eve. By the time we left two days and several lots more snow fall later it was downright scary.

But to have snow to play in on x-mas day was fab. Granny demonstrated the art of making snow angels and grandad made several snowmen. Rather glad to be home though. There are only so many "ooh you'll never guess whose funeral we wen to last week" conversations I can take.

Changing the subject somewhat.....Surely you have a friend with an account at HSBC where the Coinstar is free or you could bribe the DSs with 5% of the contents which would still be cheaper than Coinstar. Seems daft giving Coinstar money for doing nowt.

Am now tempted to find Just Dance for the Wii. Have RSI from playing Guitar Hero 5 already. Am enjoying it very much though, even the Johnny Cash songs which OH knows all the words to.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Moooo!!! I've not seen snow like the amount we have had for many years. I live on quite lowlying ground and it's been bad even round here. We got a sledge for the kids (and me hah hah) and had a whale of a time sledging in the nearby fields (which have hills - I have pictures of my two making snow angels LOL, I'd have died of fright if my mother had been the one demonstrating). The roads round here have been kept gritted but the pavements have been horrendous. I'm just back from DS1's paperound and we've been slipping and sliding everywhere, it's horrible not being able to control it. I've not done any driving in it though, I'd have been a nervous wreck.

I actually have a HSBC bank account (everyday money) and I haven't seen a coin machine in there, but it's a long time since I have been in, so I will go and investigate on Tuesday (pavements permitting). Too right if I can get away without giving coinstar 7% (not 5%) I will!

Just Dance is cheaper on Amazon by about £8! Mine was a last minute, full-priced present from Morrisons.

Intergalactic_Floozie

sparkleisshopping wrote: »

I have read this thread from start to finish and I would like to thank you Floozie - your diary is really inspiring! You should be so proud of yourself in the way you've really turned your finances around over such a short space of time. Your diary has inspired me to sit down and really sort my finances out, something that I've just spent the last 3 hours doing! I'm going to start a diary thread on here and hopefully I'll be able to be as organised with my money as you are and use the diary to keep track of my spending.

Thank you again for sharing your diary and your financial ups and downs - you really are an inspiration

Awwww thanks! Hopefully I can be more inspirational in the next year than I have this year. I've not paid off much money, but have been trying to get to grips with budgeting and living within my means. I'll definitely be reading your diary, if you start one...