Shellgirl's Smart-price Value No Frills budget

shell_girl

Yaaaaaay :T

shell_girl

Morning all!

Checked my mobile phone contract yesterday (I've been out of contract for a looong time not MSE I know- should've negotiated as soon as I was out!) and found that I was eligible for a cracking phone for free. V happy with my contract, so have ordered the phone. If I like it I'll sell my current phone (currently going for around £30 on fleabay) or if it's a bit too techie for me I'll put the new one up for auction... currently going for around £350 on fleabay. £350 for a phone???!!! Mental. But if people are willing to pay it- who am I to argue??
The benefit of the new phone is I can access internet through it- and as OH also has an internet phone we could use our phones for gaming rather than the rubbish house connection.

Bit worried however as I used my phone while abroad quite a lot (was missing the OH v much!!) and although I'm set up for roaming, OH thinks that cos I was out of contract at the time this may affect the bill?? Yikes... If it's huge I may HAVE to sell the shiny new phone to pay it:rotfl:
Ah well- will jump off that bridge when I come to it. If it is a biggie however I may try and get it split over my next few bills- does anyone know if the mobile company that's also a fruit and a colour somewhere between red and yellow will do this??

Plan for today- clean flat, have a wander round the charity shops locally, then do some batch cooking. Made a base for a cottage pie in the slow cooker overnight with a load of yellow sticker mince picked up yesterday yum yum.

Have a very MSE day all:D

shell_girl

**Slinks in quietly**
We had a spend last night... we bought ourselves a bottle of vodka and mixers. The good news is that we actually had the money to do it- even though it's nearly pay day we've still got some cash left. Bad news is OH's hangover!!! :rotfl:

I don't feel to guilty about spending to be honest. We didn't go out and spend a ridiculous amount of cash (which we would have done without question pre MSE and diary days). But we did fancy doing something together, so we got drunk and put the world to rights, ranted about everything, downloaded dodgy tunes and practised our salsa dancing.

Great fun. and gave us a bit of a boost. The difference between now and the bad old days is that we won't be going out for a 'hangover breakfast' this afternoon or a 'hairy dog' later tonight. We'll just get on with saving money and paying off our debts. Yes the £20 could've gone towards the OD, but it was spent on some 'us time' and I think we needed it. LeChuck seemed to enjoy himself last night... but today he would probably argue that he was co-erced into it and that I poured the vodka down his neck, and that he never wants to see vodka again...:rolleyes: good job really- cos it's a treat these days rather than a staple of the weekly shop:o

Fire_Fox

Glad to see your disappearance wasn't through falling off the debt-busting wagon, but rather was cos you were too busy being MSE to post!! Enjoyed LeChuck's update.

shell_girl

Fleabay was quite good over the weekend, clawed in about £40 towards the overdraft. Still waiting on cheques from Music Magpie though, so although we will clear the OD, we may have to use more of my wages to do it by the deadline, then pay that back when the cheques clear.

New phone has arrived, it does too much for me... OH is in love:rotfl:mentioned selling it on fleabay and he made the type of noise a very loving dog might make if it's owner suddenly kicked it.

Not great yellow sticker deals tonight, average about 40% off. I like my yellow stickers to say 9p, or at a push 19p, but I suppose you can't have everything. Treated ourselves to two salmon steaks and a packet of prawns (all for me yum yum- OH doesn't eat them... why don't boys eat prawns?) for a grand total of £2.60 and I'll knock up some thai rice with it.

One week till payday- 7 days left of the OD- 168(ish) hours left of halifax owning my soul:j

shell_girl

Oops- is there a diary protection charity? If there is- please nobody report me for neglect...

Had a couple of small setbacks- it turned out that one of the things we sold on ebay didn't work as well as we thought it did, so that was a refund and extra to post back. Also the music magpie cheques took much longer than we though- the first one only arrived on Saturday! So OD stands at minus £88. It was supposed to be withdrawn at the end of August, but available balance still shows full amount, and OD limit states £750

Maybe they've decided to let me keep it cos I'm such a valued customer :rotfl:lol. I'm checking it every day and the second the OD limit says zero I will transfer money from bills account to bring the balance to zero. I know technically I could do that anyway, but then I'd be clearing it and possibly going back in again to pay a bill if you know what I mean? Much better to clear and close I think, even if it does take a little while longer.

Other news is the phone bill:eek: OUCH :eek:. I'd not heard about marine roaming before- that'll teach me not to do my research. My September phone bill is for TEN times what I usually pay for my contract- no wonder they suddenly decided I was eligible for the shiny new phone!!! Called Orange- interesting advice from them- 'cancel the DD, then call our collections team when they send you a letter, and work out a payment plan that'll clear the bill and keep your phone active'. Not interested in working something out before the bill is due at all, very strange . I'm planning to call them the day my bill is due and pay a good chunk off it, then arrange a mutually agreeable rate to clear it- hopefully before Christmas. Lucky I've finished whacking £200 a month on my OD really isn't it?!

Finally the car. LeChuck mentioned our woes- it's still mothballed as we're now in needing new MoT and Tax stage as well as a new windscreen. We can't risk popping home on the train one weekend in case it can't all be done in time to drive back to work for the Monday morning. Luckily LeChuck has got a week off in October so he'll go home and get it all sorted out then- I'm sure most garages are now accepting peanuts as valid payment?? We'll sort it somehow anyway- we have to! The train fair to work between us is nearly £8 per day- you can imagine what that's doing to our £300 per month budget!

More ebaying needed I think... Breathe in folks, I think the next couple of months are going to be tight...

LeChuck_2

Oops- is there a diary protection charity? If there is- please nobody report me for neglect...

You've just been reported!