Robot's dream of being debt free.

daisyisarobot

I'm currently £5600 in debt. I've just finished my SOA and I know what I need to do but I think keeping a diary on here will keep my focused.

Main expenses are purely due to lack of planning!! Because I'm in mid-distance (he's about 70 miles away) relationship I tend to buy a load of food then stay at the OH's for a couple of nights leaving the food to rot. Also because of the distance the cost of petrol is quite high, around £100 a month.

Today I arranged a schedule with him which means I'll only being going to see him on the weekends and he'll be here midweek, should work out rather well and this also allows me to sort out the food situation. I'm also driving a couple of friends into work and they're contributing towards petrol...woohoo!

I need to make lunches, currently buying 'meal deals' for £3 a pop everyday and it's adding up.

Now no one is banging on my door demanding the money and I know if I focus I could have the bulk of this sorted out by Xmas so I just need to do it and feel FREE again!!!

I'm going to make a pasta salad for my lunch tomorrow which is pretty boring so if anyone has any yummy and healthy (going on a diet to coincide) suggestions for cheap lunches please let me know!!

Sorry for the waffle....back tomorrow, planning a no spend day

PS - On the flipside my OH is amazing with money, saving £500 every month!!! I'm hoping it'll rub off on me

claire0788

You sound like you have got it sussed out well done

urg123

Hi Daisy

Happy new diary. I know what you mean about wasted food. Why don't you have a look at the oldstyle board for meal plan ideas.

Good luck

urg x x

daisyisarobot

Thanks guys. I know what I have to do just need to keep this motivation going!! I'm going to try and make it fun (almost!), like a crazy hobby.

daisyisarobot

Been offline for a few days as I've had a blooming migraine.

Today hasn't gone well at all!! Got into work to find an email from Halifax confirming my secure password had been reset, quickly logged into my account and £300 is missing! I called them, the first person was useless as was the 2nd. I think they presumed I had spent it in Topshop or something!!!

The 3rd person was great and actually cancelled my card then told me they had 10 pending £15 charges and a bunch of £1/£2.50 pending payments, along with the £300 so I've got to fill in a claim form. What a day!!!

On the up-side I haven't spent any money for 3 days aside from £35 on petrol to fill the car for the weekend and due to this fiasco my funds are limited until payday so it's become a bizarre saving scheme!

Ooo Masterchef...

TheBex

Hi Daisy,

Happy New Diary.

What a rubbish start, I'm so sad for you. Really pleased you're looking at it positively. It would be so easy to get depressed and let it become a proper set back!

I always make my lunch. It's always a cheese and marmite sandwich and some yoghurt, this is mostly because I can't be bothered to think about lunch in the mornings. On the days when I leave said lunch on the kitchen table I used to pop to Sainsburys and get a half baguette and a pot of tzatziki. It's not exactly "well balanced" but it was lunch for about £1.50 - just a first thought.

I'm going to subscribe to this thread to follow your progress, I reckon you will be done by Christmas, you sound like a determined lady

Bex

daisyisarobot

Thanks Bex. I was in a bit of the state this morning but it was so comforting to speak to someone at Halifax that knew what she was talking about!!!

I bought a load of wholemeal pita breads last week (buy1get1free). I've been having 1 a day stuffed with lambs lettuce, onion chutney and olives. They are DELICIOUS! Plus I bought a bottle of squash instead of get cans from the machine at work so I've only spent £4 on 5 lunches so far.

Fingers crossed for being debt free by Xmas!! Just found out today we're getting a bonus in August so that's def going to help!!

TheBex

Ohh, your lunch sounds yummy. Good call on the squash too, and perfect in this heat! (well, maybe not this week!) £4 for a weeks lunch is really good, saving £572 a year compared to your old meal deals. (that's 10% of your debt!!) :T

Sticking on the lunch theme have you thought about cooking Sundays? Where you cook a different meal every Sunday and freze into lunch sized portions. Then you rotate what's in your freezer to keep some variety. Another bonus is the lovely chilled day pootling about in the kitchen. I am a bit of a geek and also quite lazy when hungry so this is the only way for me (except I do dinner not lunch). You can enjoy it with your boy too if you ban all non-apron clothing

Your bonus is really good news, I'm so happy to hear it. :beer: I guess that kind of makes up for the mess with Halifax?

Bex

daisyisarobot

Thanks Bex.

Another problem with Halifax though, I checked my account yesterday and it's been emptied!!! So I called into their 'customer service' and apparently it's been transferred to another Halifax/HBOS account and it's a 'system error' NOT fraud and it should be back in my account this morning. It's not.

The woman I spoke to said it was the 3rd phone call she had about it. Brilliant.

So so sick of the Halifax!!!!

daisyisarobot

Phew... it wasn't a 'system error' it was a 'ghost transaction'. All to do with the original fraud & the money has now been freed up. Thank gawd.

Off to the supermarket at lunch for a food shop for the week. I've just had a big bowl of cereal so I'm not shopping on an empty stomach for once. Horrah!

Fire_Fox

Do you know how your Halifax account was accessed in the first place? Have you changed your passwords on your e-mail account, or any other online banking that might have the same password as Halifax?

Also have you checked your computer hasn't been attacked? The Techie board is ace at telling you how to do all this stuff - I'd delete all cookies and browsing history (CCleaner is good for this), then run a full scan using your virus protection and another using Malwarebytes (update after downloading). If you are using the Windows firewall, Internet Explorer and Microsoft virus protection they are rubbish.