Flying out of debt (Hopefully!) One Fresian's adventures...*Now with SOA!*

Gemmzie

Keep going with the diary, it'll make you think before you spend.

As for the phone contract, don't forget Quidco! And make sure you need all those minutes/texts, they aren't as "free" as they sound - the cheapest contract around (that I've found) is £10 for 150 minutes and 300 texts and there's several PAYG offers where you top up £10 and get varying amounts of free credit/text/minutes.

Fag_ash_lil

Hi flying_fresian

Just popped in to wish you all the best with your debt free diary .....

I'm sure a few of us from PAD will be following your " adventure " ......

Have you tried to get a mobile phone deal in with your Virgin Media package .... they quite often have some good deals ..... they also do a sim only deal , with " no tied in lengthy contract " .....



Keep smiling

terri

mooomin

Good morning internet

My day has started well - made my PAD to reduce the debt. Although my budget claims I have £200 spare each month, it hasn't felt like it before. Since starting PAD I have paid in £70+ to my debt without really noticing it. It's amazing how much the tiny amounts help. Anyway, this morning I paid:

£6.50 to Barclaycard
£1.50 to my overdraft fund

I'm off into town later on this morning to do the last of my Christmas shopping - I have £20 Love2Shop vouchers from Ipoints and £20 book tokens from my dad (He also knows that Every Little Helps!) and am hoping to finish the shopping off with these. If not, I have £10 left in my Christmas 2008 fund - Christmas was paid for with 2 months of not-smoking money and I'm now three months and counting!

If I have time before I meet my friend for cocktails, I am going to go and investigate a new mobile contract. I know I should go for the cheapest possible option, but the thought of a free Ipod Touch is quite lovely...I will try and be strong

Have a lovely Saturday all!

flying_fresian

tomtombeanie

morning - have a good shop!

quick thought on the phone - is it your main source of phone (ie do you also have a landline or do you make all your calls on mobile?) i have a lovely little pink samsung phone that has an orange pay as you go sim card. if i top up by £10 a month i get 300 free texts. i have yet to use all those free texts, the money rolls over until it's used so some months i end up not topping up and paying for texts until my balance reduces! so costs me no more than 100 quid a year and probably even less...

this obviously won't work for everyone, i am not a heavy user! but here's the link for the packages they do, if any use...

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/payasyougo

xxtomtombeanie

edinburgher

Morning Flying_fresian - congrats on the PAD (something I really should be doing, but I already have so many other DFW schemes afoot!)

Keep going with the non smoking policy - it's the best decision you ever made

piglet39

Hiya Flying Fresian

Love your thread and all the smilies!

I am with Virgin Media too. I phoned them earlier in the year - went through to the disconnections section and threatened to go to Sky! They advised me that they have a 'customer retention package'. Knocked my bill down to £45.50 for TV XL, phone 24/7 free calls to landlines and broadband L and 2 digi boxes. This was from £75 ish (can't remember exact figs.

The key to getting the better deal is saying that you are going to a different provider and qouting their prices!

HTH

Piglet

mooomin

Got bored this morning waiting for t'other half to get out of bed, so paid £10 into my bingo account and played online for a while. Naughty me.

I have withdrawn £30 so far and still have my original tenner

Even Gala must know I'm a DFW...:rotfl:

mooomin

I had a real lesson today in how far I have come in a short while in terms of how I view my money...



I went to meet my friend for a few cocktails at lunchtime and we sat in one of Edinburgh's nicer bars for a couple of hours and had two cocktails each (Vanilla French Martinis, yummy yummy!) She wanted to have a third, but I was conscious of the funds in my purse and declined and asked the waiter for the bill. It was £23.80 for four cocktails :eek: I nearly had a heart attack!! Luckily, I had £34 in my purse before I met her, and had paid in £14 to the bank to ensure my PAD's are covered until I get paid on the 19th, so I had enough to cover my share.

I think that the next time we meet up it will be in a less classy establishment :rotfl:

On the better side of my spending today:

I took the £12 remaining of my Christmas budget to the shops along with my £20 book tokens and my £20 Love2Shop vouchers, with the aim of getting the last of my Christmas presents.

I bought -

• Earrings @ £5.85 (Cash)
  
• Books @ £10 (Book tokens)
• Chocolates @ £4.49 (Thorntons has 25% off this weekend if anyone's looking!)

So I spent my £10 book token and £10.34 cash which leaves me with £10 book tokens and £20 Love2Shop vouchers to use in the January Sales. Yay!

Dinner tonight will be yummy chops from the freezer with tatties that my dad brought me, so nice and cheap there too - quicker and better than my usual Saturday night takeaway.

Is it wrong that I'm getting such perverse pleasure from saving pennies here and there?

Enjoy the X Factor final folks :rotfl:

flying_fresian

mooomin

*shameless copy and paste from What Small DFW Things Have You Done Today thread*

Good morning all

Today I will:

• Check online banking (Done, all is well)
• Make my PADs - Done, £9 total paid into card and overdraft, signature now looking quite nice!
• Have a birthday lunch at my friends house instead of us all going out for a meal - it was her birthday yesterday and mine tomorrow, so we're combining!
• Break into my birthday card from my mum early as it should contain an M&S giftcard. Head to their foodhall this morning and pick up a meal for a tenner and use it for Christmas dinner.
• Yet more washing at 30 degrees
• Tidy up the house a bit and try and find some stuff for Ebay
• Send t'other half into the loft in search of the Christmas tree. I'm not going up there. There be spiders

*****

In addition to this, I would like to note that the balance of my Barclaycard should be around £1040 by Monday - why their Faster Payments don't credit at the weekend is beyond me! I think that I might get it below £1000 by the end of the month especially as my statement has just been produced and I will have to make a payment of £21 (minimum) as well as the little PADs I have been doing. When I get paid I am going to crunch some numbers and see how things have gone this month, I think quite well!

When I go to M&S today I will have one little unexpected expense...I came back from Christmas shopping yesterday filled with [STRIKE]festive cheer[/STRIKE] cocktails and showed t'other half the earrings I had bought for his sister. "They're nice, but to be honest they are more you than her". That'll teach me to shop when I have had a little tipple So I will need to buy another Christmas present for her (While wearing my nice new earrings!)

Have a lovely Sunday all.

flying_fresian

mooomin

flying_fresian wrote: »

Today I will:
[STRIKE]Check online banking (Done, all is well)
Make my PADs - Done, £9 total paid into card and overdraft, signature now looking quite nice!
Have a birthday lunch at my friends house instead of us all going out for a meal - it was her birthday yesterday and mine tomorrow, so we're combining!
Break into my birthday card from my mum early as it should contain an M&S giftcard. Head to their foodhall this morning and pick up a meal for a tenner and use it for Christmas dinner.
Yet more washing at 30 degrees
[/STRIKE]

• Tidy up the house a bit and try and find some stuff for Ebay I am a bad and lazy Fresian
  
• Send t'other half into the loft in search of the Christmas tree. I'm not going up there. There be spiders

Not a bad day all in all for doing what I set out to. I didn't tidy the house as I got back later than expected from my friends house and I'm about to go and make dinner just now. The Christmas tree isn't up yet as t'other half isn't well and I didn't want to make him scale a ladder and fight spiders

I got mega bargains at the M&S foodhall though:

• Dine in for £10 - a chicken which weighed in at nearly £8, a bottle of wine, ciabatta and chocolate sponges. Mmmm...
• Pizza on buy one get one half price, which is dinner for tonight as the chicken is for Christmas Day
• Bucks Fizz @ 2 for £4. Going to drink a bottle of that with my friend tomorrow before we go to the movies as it's my birthday. Yay for getting tiddled on £2 plonk

So I spent £18ish, made savings of around £8 and didn't spend any actual money as I used a gift card, so I have been able to declare a NSD, and have put £1 into my Sealed Pot.

Yay!

Have a lovely evening all.

Flying_fresian