It's another month til payday diary... Shazzers quest continues!

shazzer22

Right, well I'm a whole four days in now and feeling quite positive still....

Here's the next few days worth of mini challenges added onto the original list....

27 December - [STRIKE]Complete court expenses form and post for when I had to appear as a witness last month [/STRIKE]DONE! £21
28 December - [STRIKE]list at least 3 things on e-bay[/STRIKE]Done! 3 handbags!
29 December - [STRIKE]pay in coppers and coins and use it to make extra payment on barclaycard bill[/STRIKE] Part done, I've paid in £14.00 in coppers but not sure Barclaycard is the best place to make my overpayment... It might do me better to leave it where it is but will have a proper look later on, when at work!
30 December - List books for sale on amazon/green metropolis
31 December - [STRIKE]dig out old mobiles from dusty drawers and get envirofone prices [/STRIKE]Part done already! 27/12 one phone via Quidco/cashinmyphone - £16.60
1 January - day with boyfriends family, I'll settle for a no spend day!
2 January - make sure SOA is finished and accurate (gulp) - I know its the most important but it'll scare me off if I do that just yet!
3 January - Cancel free trial of credit file thing
4 January - find all my mystery shopping log-in details and attempt to find some and post ebay sold items - hopefully!
5 January - Do a complete store cupboard and freezer check, only food shop for essentials, online using free delivery codes (need to find some) and via Quidco...
6 January - List three more things on ebay
7 January - got through all of my shifts and work out where there is any possibility for me to do overtime
8 January - find somewhere free for me and bf to go on our four days of together (9/10/11/12th)

And also aim for three NSD's....

I've got a meeting at 1400 about my job with the Head of Department, it should be just to give me my three months notice, hopefully they wont spring anything else on me but nothing surprises me at the moment so we shall just wait and see!

Karmacat

Hi shazzer - I like the way you've spread out the jobs too, that looks a really good idea. Best of luck with the meeting today.

shazzer22

Thanks... small but manageable chunks! Hopefully at some point it will pick up even more pace and I'll see the money rolling in! (wishful thinking at the moment perhaps!)

Well, just added two items to Playtrade, although it says 10 free trades until 31 January I can't find the T&Cs... not sure if it is just during the month of Jan or from now. Never mind, I've still put two items on and just checked my ebay and had a couple of bids on my handbags already so chuffed about that!

shazzer22

Well the meeting went ok, no major surprises, I still haven't had my exact redundancy quote but should have it by close of business tomorrow. They confirmed that I wont hear anything about the two internal jobs until week beginning 12 January which is a bit pants but never mind... in the meantime I shall be looking for as many jobs and researching as many options as possible!

Ooo, and my friend bought me lunch today so no spend so far, and as the fog seems to be rolling in there wont be any planes going anywhere so I'll be so busy dealing with grumpy passengers I wont have time to eat... so much for my early finish tonight

shazzer22

Hello, well little achieved today but I did manage to trade in one mobile already so not feeling too bad. Can't believe its a New Year tomorrow already!

Best wishes to everyone and I'll update tomorrow evening!

Happy New Year

shazzer22

Morning everyone!

Well, I'm kind of jumping ahead of myself today, signed up for three mystery shops - wasn't going to look at them til 4th, but was clearing out my emails and found the link so thought I'd take a look. Glad I did too as there are two very close to me and one at Gatwick, which will come in handy when I drop my Gran at the airport next week!

Going to update my SOA today and post. Had a good long chat with bf and we are gonna move in together in March/April time so that we can be together (saving us lots of petrol money!) and what's better is we think it might save us both some money if we are clever about it!

shazzer22

Well, I said I'd do it today and here goes, I may need to stop and update later but we'll see how I get on.

Income Net Figure - £1453.00 (this is worst case without any overtime)

Rent - £375
Bills - £94 - Includes Sky+, Cleaner, Council Tax, Water & Sewerage, Phone and Broadband - I have no control over this as live in a shared house everything is split 4 ways
Gas/Electricity - £35 - We spilt this between the four of us each quarter so this is the average
Contact lenses - £15.96
Car Insurance - £34.64
Food - No real idea but I'm gonna guess at about £150

Total £704.60

Debt Repayment

HSBC Loan - Balance £4712.16 - Monthly Payment £98.17
CapQuest - Balance £236.36 - Monthly Payment £40.00
Egg Card - Balance £3865.88 - Monthly Min. Payment £104.06
MBNA - Balance £2904.88 - Monthly Min. Payment £78.14
Barclaycard Balance £2624.77 - Monthly Min. Payment £59.00
Loan from friend - Balance £11,500 - Monthly Payment £250.00
Owed to another friend £2500 - not currently paying anything
Total Debt - £28,344.05
Total monthly spend on debt - £629.37

I haven't factored in my overdraft anywhere, its £1500 and I'm always in it... mostly over it and getting charged

Total monthly outgoings come to £1333.97 but nothing factored in for the following as yet:
Going out - probably quite big
Fuel - probably about £75.00 a month maybe but not sure
Clothes - minimal but need to put it in somewhere

And no big spends like holidays, Christmas, car maintenance or tax.

I do have a pension which deducts about £65 a month from my salary, its in a final salary scheme and I don't want to stop those payments to be honest, its probably one of my more sensible financial decisions, plus I wouldn't get anything back on it as I have been in the scheme for nearly 3 years already.

I have student loans with SLC and about £80 gets deducted from my salary.

Any help or advise gratefully received...

Keeping_Motivated

Hi well done on posting your SOA, probably scary but definately makes you feel more in control of things. Do you know the interest rates on your debt, might be a good idea to post these along side the monthly payments so you have them listed but also to see if there is anything you can do to lower any high ones.

Can you look back on your statement for the last couple of month to get an average monthly petrol and food figure? Look on the oldstyle board if you haven't already to get food ideas, loads of savings to be made if you are savvy. Also try and work out how much you were/are spending on food at work and try and save on that through the month too.

Have you joined Quidco and also checked you have the lowest quote on your car insurance?

shazzer22

Thanks, yes did my car insurance via quidco last time around, still waiting for the £75 cash back from Sheilas wheels which has been saying December for payment for ages... its just changed to Jan this morning!

I shall dig out all my interest rates and post too, thank you.

I've been through my fuel receipts and it seems to be averaging approx. £80 a month, is there a way I can work out a figure for fuel per mile or is that just a silly thing to do?

I'm not really getting much done today, been addicted to MSE all morning! Must get on as back to work Sunday morning and have a mountain of washing to do... plus getting a bit peckish now!

shazzer22

Ok, well received a call to say that my applications for the internal vacancies have been successful so far so I am due to do an assessment centre and interview on 16 January for both roles. So fingers crossed and toes crossed!

Not done a great deal today but having a free evening at my friends, no spend for me today and don't need to put any fuel in the car until tomorrow!