Ghostmadlittlemiss' first diary! Wish me luck!

ghostmadlittlemiss

Hello, I'm Kayleigh and this is my first DFW diary. I've had a glance through a few diaries on here and thought I might start my own to (hopefully!) get some motivation to get my life in order, keep a record of what I'm spending as it's proving impossible to do a SOA at the moment without guesswork which would kinda defeat the object, and get some advice along the way. So here's a bit about me.

I'm 19, female (screen name might make that obvious, but you never know!) and a student. I'm originally from Scarborough and now study and live for most of the year in Bath. I'm unbelievably disorganised and the one thing I'm best at in life is putting things off! I have approx £1300 worth of debt. Doesn't sound like much next to other people on here but I've just had to give up my job due to a change in my uni timetable so I now have only student loans/grants/whatever they're calling them this week and a uni bursary to live on. This gives me about £7500 a year, rent is £3000 a year. So I owe around about 1/4 of my earnings once I've got a roof over my head. I know there are people on here in much worse situations than me, it just feels like such a mess though.

So, on to the good stuff. My LBM happened in about Oct, right about the same time it started to sink in that we were having a recession. I found this site about a month ago and finally started to learn about money. One of the biggest revelations was that having huge amounts of debts may be as much of a student cliche as getting drunk every night, but that doesn't mean I have to do it. So, my goals are to be debt free, pay off my overdraft, have said overdraft reduced from the whooping £2500 it is at the moment to £500 and build up savings in proportion to my current overdraft as I drop it (ie, each time I get £100 in savings, reduce my overdraft by £100) by the time I graduate, which will be June 2010.

My main motivation for doing this is my boyfriend, James. Some people might think I'm too young to know he's 'the one', but I disagree. When I'm older and have a job, I know he's the guy I want to spend my life with. I also know that I have no right to saddle him with the mess I've made of my life. He hasn't got the money to do it now (he's a student too), but I've told him that I don't want him proposing to me until I've done all of the things above. I don't want to have a financial link with him while my money's as it is (yes, I know, getting engaged doesn't cause a financial link, it's more a symbolic thing for me there). So I want to get my life in order for him.

So, priority no 1 is to find another job. I think that'll probably be a bit of a waiting game at the moment so I'm going to try and cut back in the meantime. Once I have a job, I then need to keep it until the summer when I go home, then get another one at home and work all the hours I can get. Then when term starts again, get another job in Bath and repeat.

Anyway, thats my first marathon of a post. I'll post my list of things to do very soon in a minute. Let's hope this diary goes well. Thank you for reading.
Kayleigh
PS Please, no hassling me for a SOA. I know how much it would help if I had one but I honestly don't know enough about what I'm spending to do one at the moment. That's what this diary's for. Thank you.

ghostmadlittlemiss

I'm going to see James in tomorrow and then going home for a fortnight. TalkTalk still haven't sent my dad his router so I don't know when I'll be able to update. Anyway, here's my first list (and insight into the chaos that is my life )

Things to get done today (ie, before midnight)

[strike]Book National Express coach ticket for tomorrow.[/strike] Done.

[strike]Print off Pizza Express voucher for tomorrow's dinner in London.[/strike] Done.

Wash pots as my housemates won't be happy if they sit there growing mould for two weeks.

[STRIKE]Finish packing bag for next fortnight.[/STRIKE] Done

Things to do before next update

Finish writing very long overdue uni essays.

So, that's my list to start. I'll let you know how I get on.
Kayleigh

KellsBells

Hi Kayleigh, nice to see you! (so to speak) Congrats on starting your diary, good for you!!
I think it's great that you've decided to tackle your debts head on at such a young age, and while they are at a manageable amount. That's really admirable and a very responsible and mature thing to do. I applaud you :T
As for being too young to know James is 'The One', nonsense. When you know, you know.
Don't worry too much about the SOA just yet... get your head around what you want to achieve and how you propose to do it, and then think about soa's. You might want to start keeping a track on here of what you spend daily though, and each week look over it to see what you spend weekly. Good starting point.
xxxxxxxxx

KellsBells

ghostmadlittlemiss wrote: »

Book National Express coach ticket for tomorrow (best do that in next few mins as it's a e-ticket and my housemates'll whine if I use the printer too late)

Have you thought about booking online and going through quidco? you can get between 2 - 5% cash back. Real cash!!!

xx

ghostmadlittlemiss

KellsBells wrote: »

Have you thought about booking online and going through quidco? you can get between 2 - 5% cash back. Real cash!!!

xx

I've already booked it now, but thanks. I visit him quite a lot so it'll come in handy for next time. I've just checked Quidco's website though and I can't find National Express on there. Any chance of a link please, if that's ok?
Kayleigh

ghostmadlittlemiss

I'm now on the train to London and getting dangerously close to throwing my laptop out of the train window. I know the wifi on here is free, which is great, but I swear my first ever dial up connection was faster. :mad:

The pots never got washed so my housemates won't be happy with me. All of the rest of the list for that night got done though. Over the last two days, I have spent £1.50, which was my bus ticket to London (Funfares are the best invention ever!). I meant to pay for dinner last night but since I couldn't work out how you leave a tip when paying by card, I talked James into paying in exchange for lending him my Oyster card for two weeks since he's lost his. I love him to bits but he's even more disorganised than me! I'd have lent him it anyway though. I'll be buying train tickets to see my mum this weekend in the next few days, I just need her to remind me when she wants me arriving and leaving first, but she's paying me back for them. I won't have to buy any food for my first few days in Scarborough since my dad's ill so I'm staying at my grandparents' instead. So all in all, very little spending lately.

If only it could always be like that though. I just bought a new car about a month ago and the £500 my family lent me towards it is due to come out of my bank any day. I also have to post this month's rent off to the letting agency in Bath, which is £300. Hopefully, I'll get another job soon or I'm really going to struggle.

Things to do by tomorrow evening

[STRIKE]Post rent cheque for £300 to letting agency.[/STRIKE] Done.
Post refund form for my internet to the DSA place in Darlington.

Quite a boring entry for today but not much has happened since I last wrote. I'll update again as soon as I can get a internet connection in Scarborough.
Kayleigh

Merlinexcalibur

There is also another bus service (though I wouldn't recommend it because you never know who you might end up stting next to) called Megabus. Mind, it's the same with National Express.

ghostmadlittlemiss

Merlinexcalibur wrote: »

There is also another bus service (though I wouldn't recommend it because you never know who you might end up stting next to) called Megabus. Mind, it's the same with National Express.

I just checked their website and it's more expensive than National Express, though I will keep it in mind for other journeys. Thanks though.

I don't know where your post about my screen name went but no, that doesn't mean anything to me. I picked that name because when I was at secondary school, I was totally obsessed with the paranormal and one girl wrote in my Leaver's Book, "I'll always remember you as the ghost mad little missy." Only that's 1 letter too long for most forums so the y on the end got dropped.
Kayleigh

Merlinexcalibur

Well, it was because of someone else I know who is also 'ghostmad'. And has the same name. My mistake.

Megabus more expensive than National Express? Mmm. Usually it's the other way around as MB is the coach equivalent of Easyjet ... Maybe it's because of checking at such short notice. I was able to travel to and from to London (booking in advance) for £3.50 and £4.50 including the booking fee.

I simply refuse to pay the racketeringly extortionate fees on rail travel. If rail travel was more decently priced I would begin to use them again. Right now, no way I am paying £60 advance. I could travel to London for £27 return with a reserved seat once. These days, not a chance. Mr Branson can just make his fortune off someone else. Cos it won't be me.

ghostmadlittlemiss

Merlinexcalibur wrote: »

Megabus more expensive than National Express? Mmm. Usually it's the other way around as MB is the coach equivalent of Easyjet ... Maybe it's because of checking at such short notice. I was able to travel to and from to London (booking in advance) for £3.50 and £4.50 including the booking fee.

I suppose for a normal booking, it would be cheaper but I get National Express Funfares, which makes it £1 each way with a booking fee of 50p. But that's only for certain buses so if I can't get the funfare, I'll keep Megabus in mind.
Kayleigh

ghostmadlittlemiss

Sorry I haven't updated in so long, my dad still hasn't got the internet. The router TalkTalk was meant to send him finally arrived, over a month late, and didn't work. :mad: :mad: :mad: So they're sending him another one. I'm at James' now so I can finally get some stuff done.

First of all, I'm really annoyed with myself. I left my debit card in the pin machine at Scarborough train station so I've had to ring up and cancel it. Thankfully no one spent anything on it but it meant that my coach ticket home (£12! :eek: Bit of the shock after the normal £1.50) had to be paid for by credit card. That's the first thing I've bought anything on a cc in 5 months. The phrase "Two steps forward and one step back," springs to mind.

Two weeks later, after two warning e-mails off my tutors, the overdue essays still aren't done. That seems to be my latest thing. Instead of burying my head in the sand about money, I'm doing it about uni work. Which is just as self-destructive, I know. So I'm going to have to work through the night tonight to get work done.

For those of you who haven't given up in disgust by now , there is some good news. My mum has a few hundred CDs that she wants rid of so I said I'd sell those for her on MusicMagpie and she said I could have the money for them! So that should help a bit at least. My grandma's got a load as well, but I won't be able to get to them until Easter.

So that's pretty much a summary of the last few weeks. Btw, if anyone can think of ways I can make this diary a bit more interesting then please tell me. I'm kinda aware that it's a bit dull and boring to read, basically a list of what I've spent, what I've got to do and me complaining about the above. I guess I'm just not in a very good place with myself at the moment and it kinda shows.

So, on to the boring list.

Things to do today/tomorrow/Mon

Finish essays!!!!

Things to do just on Sun/Mon

[STRIKE]Call mum and get barcodes for the CDs she wants rid of and list them.[/STRIKE] Changed my mind, I'm listing them on Ebay instead.
Wash pots
Tidy room
Do clothes washing

So yeah, I think that's it for the time being. Me and James are going down to the canteen at his halls to see what horrors they're serving in the place of food today and if they'll let me have any. So I'll get back to you when I've got some more done. Like I said, any advice on how to make this less boring, let me know.
Kayleigh