Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

Intergalactic_Floozie

Why is it that when you get a bit of money in one hand, there's always some ********* waiting to take it off you with the other? I'm flaming well fed up of it.

British Gas are just a set of robbing gits. I cannot believe the conversation I have just had with them. Despite paying a final combined bill of £220 for 3 months at the beginning of December, they sent me a final final gas bill of £108.25 for payment by Wednesday!! (I had a dispute with the final meter reading and now it looks like its been resolved). Anyway to cut a long story short I cannot believe the conversation I had with one of their collections staff!!!

Me: Hello, I'd like to try and arrange to pay this bill.
Her: What can you offer?
Me: payment over six months?
Her: No, that's too long. I can authorise payment over three months.
Me: (that was secretly what I was hoping for tee hee) - right well I can make the first payment on 15th Jan when I get paid,
Her: No, sorry I need £9.25 now, then you can make three more payments of £33.
Me: No, I can't afford that. I don't have any money left in my account, so my debit card will be declined.
Her: It probably wont be, so if you want to give me the number now...
Me: EH? So when it goes out, I will then get charged £35 by the bank for going overdrawn!!!!!!!!!!!
Her: Yeh, but at least you will have made a payment to your gas account

I had to slam down the phone on her in a rage as I couldn't express the words!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Also, I still haven't done anything about the A&L loan, or transferring the MBNA balance.

I applied for a Halifax Loan just after Xmas through a Quidco link for the full amount of the MBNA balance, it said I had been accepted in principal but I had to ring a certain number. I rang it, and they said there wasno trace of the application!!!

I therefore tried again yesterday through Quidco (£50 cashback), again got agreed in principal, then when I rang them, they said there was no trace of the application AGAIN! And there must be a problem with the Quidco link and I would be better off applying directly through the site or over the phone. I think I had to ring them because I wasn't taking out PPI. So I don't know if I dare attempt to apply for it again.

Can anyone have a look at my previously posted SOA. I'm really stressed out and need to get my debts paid off.

mooomin

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

My wage: 1080
Partner's Wage: 1718
Child Benefit: 125.20
Child Tax Credits 40.52
Total Income: 2963.72

Money out:
Gas 100.00 Jeez! Gas central heating?
Electric 48.00
Water 34.20
TV Licence 11.99
Virgin (phone/broadband) 43.00 Could you combine phone internet and telly?
Sky (TV) 50.00 Eek! Seems high to me - I have Virgin telly phone and 20mb internet for £56
Council 80.00

Mortgage 464.00
House Insurance 19.15
Life Insurance 21.34

Mobile (3) - me 30.00 (I can get out of this in June 2009 – I tried to reduce it but they wont let me)
Mobile (3) - DH 35.00
Mobile (3) - Dh's old one. 28.00 (we got this for a free Nintendo wii but he decided he didn’t like the phone after a few months so he got another contract with a blackberry – I can get out of this contract in February 2009 – I tried to reduce this but they wont let me. In the meantime eldest son has been using it)Call up this month to cancel it as you will normally find they need 30 days notice.
My car insurance 34.60
Website subscription. 9.90 (weight loss resources – an online calorie counter, weight loss support group)

A&L Loan (conservatory) 135.16 (paid off in March 2010) 6.9%
A&L Loan (my car) 236.00 (paid off in October 2011) 7.9%
Natwest Loan 137.90 (paid off in December 2011) 10.9%

MBNA CC 200.00 (£9700 @ ? % - looks like 24.9% from statement)
Tesco CC 83.00 (2718 @ 16.9%)
Tesco CC 75.00 (2500 @ 16.9%)
HSBC CC 30.00 (950 @ 16.9%)

HSBC Overdraft 120.00 (£685 to go, so paid off in five more payments)
Additions Catalogue 60.00 (I only actually owe £90 so could pay this off in January)

DH’s pocket money: 400.00 (this is non negotiable, he pays his petrol (£120) and buys his cigarettes (£4.50 per day) out of this, and even though it sounds a lot each month, he doesn’t have a lot left).

Grand total: 2486.24

Leftovers for me: 477.48

Groceries: 80.00 per week
Petrol: 40 per month

Leftover for everything else = 117.48

So, as you can see, there’s not a lot leftover for ‘everything else’

When DH’s car insurance comes due in May, I’m gonna have to put it on a credit card as I don’t have anything put aside, and no savings.

It’s alright saying “put x aside for this, and x aside for that” but I’m not that organised. What I would really like to do is be able to put X amount a month away in a separate account ready to dip into when we need to but I don’t have the resources to do that. You could open an online savings account with a different bank to the one you bank with and just send money as and when you have it spare. I do the Payment A Day thing into an account with A&L and it's normally £1-5 per day I send - I have been doing this for 6 weeks and have saved £175 without really noticing.

And yes, British/Scottish Gas are useless. T'other half worked for them (in the debt department) and quit because he fely like he had sold his soul to the devil.

You'll get there chuck, chin up

Intergalactic_Floozie

Thanks FF

£100 - Gas - yep, really it is. Downstairs is quite open plan and really I could do with getting a joiner in, to put a door on the conservatory/kitchen and a door on the lounge/kitchen to try and trap a bit of heat in as even when the fire is on in the living room, the heat still gets lost, so I end up putting the heating on to compensate (hah).

£50 to Sky - this is for the top package (£22), Sky Sports (£18) and a set top box in the conservatory (£10). We do watch SS a lot but I could cancel three of the mixes we don't use, and the extra set top box saving £13 a month. In fact, I am going to do that now.

£43 - to Virgin. I can't get any other broadband without a BT Phone line. I rang BT and was told it was £129 (or something) to get a BT line put in. She said they had no special offers for Cable customers or new customers at the moment although they did do sometimes. She also said I would have to pay the installation fee over two months which would be a stretch. I rang Virgin and they said they could put my Broadband to £18 per month from £26 (so saving £8) then my line rental is £11 and my phone calls usually costs £4+ per month. I only ring 0800, 0845, 0870 numbers from the landline and try to use my mobile for landlines and other mobiles, although eldest son sometimes forgets and rings his mates to see if they are in. He doesn't have long conversations but the connection costs all add up.

I think my problem is grocery shopping, my bills average £80 weekly which is £320 out of my surplus spoken to, but I like eating nice things (imagine this said in a whiny, whingey tone).

Intergalactic_Floozie

Right - Mission accomplished, I have rang Sky and my new bills with them will be £37.50 per month (£12.50 less than budgeted for)

I also rang 3 this morning about the contract that is nearly up, and I have to ring back to cancel it on 21st January as I am under contract til 21st February, so that will save me £28 a month

So things from March should look a little better (as my additions bill which is now £90 will be paid off by then), then I have a payrise due in April. I'll have to make the effort to spend less on shopping and do more overtime.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Spends for today:

£1.79 - ready made Salad from Morrisons
£2.00 - DS wanted to go to the snooker hall with his mates.
£3.79

The next few days should be NSD's though.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Heh heh, have joined one poll, and got £2.50 for signing up, and done two surveys one for 5p, the other for 10p....that £40 payout looks a long way away LOL.

Verbatim

Hello IF,

I love your posts, very positive and jokey tone!

i see you want to get the cost of your groceries down. I haven't read back over your thread so excuse me if this has been covered, but are you menu planning and writing shopping lists to the plan? Obviously that's the easy bit, it's the sticking to the plan in the supermarket that's the difficult bit. As in , "Now how did that smoked salmon jump off the shelf into my trolley"?

Intergalactic_Floozie

Right - have taken bull by horns! Evil MBNA credit card bill arrived today and has shocked me into action.

Last month's balance was £9691.40
This month's balance is £9693.75

This is £2.35 more than last month DESPITE having paid £199.10 and having NOT SPENT ON IT! To add insult to injury they have even INCREASED my credit limit by another £800. Bloody credit card balances are meant to go DOWN not UP when you have paid what you owe.

I need to get rid - NOW!!! So, I have phoned the Post Office Credit Card who have done a balance transfer for £1900 + 2.9% Handling = £55.10). As my MBNA payment isn't due until 21st Jan, I don't have to make a payment to them this month which will save me £206.45 in minimum payments from my 15th December wage. My first payment to the Post Office will be 3rd February from my 15th January wage.

Secondly I have signed the Natwest Loan Forms (although I haven't posted them yet) and the loan is for £7600 and will cost £173.78 over five years. It's not flexible so I wont be able to pay it off any earlier but at least it means I wont be paying as much in interest to MBNA. I don't like the thought of having to take out a loan to consolidate but while I have other credit cards and I am having to pay those, plus my overdraft, plus the extra money to the Gas company, the capital of MBNA wasn't getting paid off anyway, so hopefully it is better in the long run

So (adds up) £9693.75 + 209.66 interest to be added - 1900 and 7600 = 403.41 still to be paid off but that will soon be paid off.

I will move the "free" payment of £206 that I should have paid to MBNA this month over to my HSBC account. I can still use this account as the agreement is that the overdraft will be reduced by £120 per month, so the money is there if I need it, but its being there means I don't have to pay interest on £206 of it at least

Talking of HSBC overdraft is now down to £513.27 (woohoo - From £1450 on 1st November). I withdrew £56 in Quidco money, and I closed an old credit union account that I had £57 in, and that has gone in today so not long now before that will be gone (Definitely by May, hopefully before).

So, feeling a bit more positive today.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Verbatim wrote: »

Hello IF,

I love your posts, very positive and jokey tone!

i see you want to get the cost of your groceries down. I haven't read back over your thread so excuse me if this has been covered, but are you menu planning and writing shopping lists to the plan? Obviously that's the easy bit, it's the sticking to the plan in the supermarket that's the difficult bit. As in , "Now how did that smoked salmon jump off the shelf into my trolley"?

Hello Verbs

No, I am not writing menu plans and that is going to be my plan for the week. I'm terrible for buying "what I like to eat" rather then "what is nice to eat". Also Husband likes "proper" food so I have to buy a lot of meat which all adds up. If I gave him something like a pasta dish he'd be like "err what's this?". He does like the 'cheaper' meats like sausages and mince though. I'm going to go to Farmfoods one work day per week, then on Saturday when I do my full supermarket (Tesco or Morrisons) shop I know what "accompaniments" I need to go with them.