A Fool and Her Money- CAFCGIRL's Debt Diary

slowlyfading

a no go in what way?
nicola x

CAFCGirl

oh its suhc a rubbish story to explain!

Basically my comp is pants and wont connect anything to USB hubs, problems with memory and drivers.

I'm a woman and dont know technology. Friend of mine said its not worth the money to fix, I may as well buy a new one!

slowlyfading

lol okay, fair enough
Nicola x

CAFCGirl

see you can tell I'm a woman, I dont deal with technology and all that fluff about mpegs, and doo-wibs and the assorted whatever!!!!

CAFCGirl

OK peeps.

Got a rotten cold so haven't had the most productive day, lounged a lot, but did some laundry and some cleaning so not dreadful!

Latest news is that...............
My Nan (bless her) has lent me £800 for my new flat deposit, and it is happily sitting in my account waiting for the call from the agent to tell me my credit checks were all ok.

Plan after that is to talk to Landlord.
Friend left me a cheque for £300 for her share of Marchs rent. What I am going to do is offer my landlord that £300 and I move out at the end of the month?
The deposit which is tied up with my current flat was £825 when we first moved in. Now I owe landlord £150 so that will come off, I also burnt a hole in the carpet so I'm guessing he'll take a little something out for that too.

However my mum only put in half of that deposit (£412.50) the other half was from my first flatmate who signed it over to me when she moved out. So really all I truly care about is gettin the £412.50 that my mum actually parted with.

So really it all depends on what my landlord is happy with. I'll be a bit stumped if he says he wants a months notice i.e in rent. Plus I'm out of tenancy at the moment too, so I'm not sure how it stands.

Obviously I dont want to leave it on bad terms because he's been a pretty good landlord.
Best thing is for me to talk to him and see what he's happy with. He might be happy to take the £300 half rent and just give me back my £412.50 deposit, and that pretty much breaks it all even.

Getting excited now too. Going to spend sunday (my next day off) tackling one room and seeing what I want to get rid of and making up some charity piles, since I dont have time for ebay/the means to ebay. Not much else I can do with it, and I guess charities do miss out a bit now with everyone selling their stuff on ebay instead!

So I feel like I'm doing a good thing in that respect!

Going to spend my evening continuing my meal planning so I know exactly what I will need to survive for the immedate future, as I know things will be a little tight but I'm optimistic and prepared.
If I can i.e dont have to get rid of my internet, I'll keep everyone posted on how easy/hard it is, and what the budgets are looking like...........

Another SOA to do, theres something else to be excited about!!!

slowlyfading

That's so nice of your nan to give you the deposit and I hope you get everything else sorted. Yes, bung up your SOA and lets see if you can cut back any further
Nicola x

CAFCGirl

I'll find my bit of paper with my projected budgets on it and I'll post it..............

when I find it...............
Havent even started packing yet and can't find anything!

CAFCGirl

Hi Di Hi Neighbours!

Another no spender for me, that makes two days running
Also making dinner totally out of cupboard contents!

Right so far this eve' since finishing work I have:
Written letter to Orange regarding documentation to proove when I signed up for upgrade etc.
Written letter to GE Capital to request credit amount on account to be sent to me by cheque and account closed. It's in credit because I over-paid on it so now I want my money back!
Written letter to Abbey regarding cancellation of PPI on loan.
Now this throws up a few other questions. I'm rubbish with numbers so I'm not sure how much money they owe me for what I've paid for the PPI, since this also has interest paid on it too. So if anyone is any good with that kind of thing, could they maybe PM me and I can send you all the numbers I know.
This is so that when Abbey (no doubt) send me the standard fob off I can send one back saying look mate you owe me £x..... Super appreciate it if anyone can.

I've also had a quick look at what else I can knock off my monthly outgoings.
I had an offer from Sky come through on my email. Basically Sky 3 deal. You get unlimited evening and weekend calls (01 and 02 numbers only!), Sky package (which I currently pay £18 for) and sky broadband. For £26.
However you still have to pay BT £11 for your line rental.

At the moment I pay BT £35 a month for line rental and broadband. I then pay Sky £18 for package.
I'm tied into a contract with Sky till July (phoned up and found out), however my contract with BT is now over a year old.
Is it worth finding out if I am going to be able to get this new Sky deal in my new place.
That will mean I pay £26 to sky, and £11 to BT. Equaling £37
I pay currently £53 (if I've added that up right?)

Is this worth looking into do we think? I have a tendency to think I've found a super deal only for Peaches to actually explain it to me, and figure out that I got it all wrong! lol
Freeview is currently not available in my area until summer 2008. Otherwise I would have just got a box and never got into sky. Now I do watch Sky a fair bit, and it's not like I go out much, and I watch quite interesting things rather than Pop X New Model Cant Dance whatever type things.

So I guess what I'm saying is the internet and sky are basically like my social life, and it stops me spending money buying DVD's to watch or going out and comfort shopping because I'm bored.... well it half stops me!

SOA to follow shortly

CAFCGirl

And here it is:

Some of these figures are projected as I'm awaiting confirmation of exact amounts, and possibly switching some services::::

Rent £525
Council Tax £70 (this is predicted due to waiting confirmation of tax banding, and then get 25% off)
Utilities £50 budgetted. Again predicted as I am making a solemn vow to being ultra careful on this. The joy is I'm moving into a basement flat, so heating will be less due to being quite enclosed, and moving into doubel glazed property, and it's only me. Plus its a studio so I'm not paying to heat un-used rooms.

Food £100 (After researching on OS, should be easily achievable, and I'm therefore including toilettries and cleaning products)

Sky £18 (currently)
BT £35 for line rental and broadband (see previous post for idea on that one)
Mobile : £45 (am tied into contract till June, so am be very limited with use, on lowest tariff available, and am cancelling insurance)

Debts:
I.F Card
Balance £1200
APR 4.95% LOB
Minimum repayment :£24.02
Repaying £25

Abbey Card
Balance £1430
APR 22% (I do believe)
Minimum Repayment : £38.05
Repaying £40

D.P Card
Balance £558
APR 22.9%
Minimum Repayment : £24.32
Repaying minimum via DD
Repaying £25 in store per month

Abbey Loan
Balance £2900
Minimum Repayment £134.18
Repay £134.18

So all debts added up comes to £249 give or take some pennies.
And there we have it, what have I forgotten?!
P.S Told family and friends they're not getting xmas/bday pressies for near future while I'm getting into swing of being totally financially responsible for flat! Glad they're happy with that

ZTD

CAFCGirl wrote:

And there we have it, what have I forgotten?!

Is water included in rent or utilities?

Dentistry? Holidays? Clothing?