A Fool and Her Money- CAFCGIRL's Debt Diary

bargainbetty

You are really doing well, so hang in there! :beer:

Have you thought about calling the lower APR card issuer and asking to raise your limit? Ask for a specific amount (no more than £200 over what you need to do the balance transfer) and get it all together.

I had a card from one place with a lower limit, made two good monthly payments and then they agreed to up it so Icould get all my debts into one place. Made it so much easier to handle.

How much does your flatmate contribute to your household bills? Sorry to be nosy, but it occured to me that some of that BG bill would have been from 'current' usage as opposed to the previous tenant. Does she pull a full half? If so, you might think about starting a household account to pay all the bills from. Do it with with Alliance and Leicester and you get £50 cashback for opening it - have your flatmate open one for herself using you as a reference and you get another £50!

BTW, I had that problem with London Elec at an office once.... a year of little estimated bills followed by a whoppy great £1000 .... my fault for not checking the meter and now I do it every time, even though I'm on direct debit

CAFCGirl

The bill from BG wasnt for current usage. New flatmate has only been here 2 months so it's a bit mean to ask her for too much.

She's really good though and gives me £100 a month for household bills. We pretty much share food shopping, since we've got limited space we do a weekly shop. So thats £45 for council tax and then the rest goes on bills.So if I'm honest she probably is paying a bit of that BG bill too.

I had ask lower APR company for increase in credit limit but they said due to credit rating etc they wouldnt be able to do it for a few months yet, which is fair enough.

CAFCGirl

OK, just sat down for my sunday evening me time and have worked out a plan for June!

Going to take out £100 from current account (Abbey) tomorrow and put it into my other current account (Halifax). So that's my spending money for the month!
This is to include food and clothes and the such like.
The only thing coming out of Abbey is bills.BILLS BILLS BILLS!!!
Am hoping that this way there should be a little something left in Abbey account at end of month/toward end of month.
Then I'll be looking at where this should go!

So far to come out
Rent
Mobile
Broadband
CC1
CC2
Loan
Household bill
Council Tax
House insurance
Store card

There should be enough food in the house to last me 2 weeks I think.Lunches to work are easily done.I don't mind having the same sandwich every day!

Flatmate's money needs paying in so that should help.
I'll keep peeps updated on how the £100 works out

CAFCGirl

Well first no spend in some time for me!

Have worked out that I have a meal in cupboard for each evening till weekend, so thats a good thing!

Paid in flatmate's bill share into account, plus £20 that I had sitting in my purse from previous to payday. So I've still got £10 in my purse........

Can I make this stretch the week? New challenge.
Obviously other things will be paid out of account, like bills but thats it!
OK Here it goes

Total at start £10!

CAFCGirl

Quick update:

Paid off this month's council tax bill £83
Claimed back £7.50 in expenses from work trip last week, that I didnt think I could so that was good.

Spent £3.84 on 12x 1st class stamps. To send off new job application
Spent £3.99 on beading book for inspiration, thinking of taking this back tomorrow though, do I really need it?

And to cap my day, I got £50 from work. I found some money (100 euros) on floor in building, and kept it for period of time in work safe, but sicne hasnt been claimed we got it changed up (£64.68) and manager let me have £50 of it and the rest we're gonna use for some nice biscuits for everyone.

So that was great! Didnt think I'd get anything!

Now have weekend off and really want to be good.
Haven't been to Tesco's all week, have made all my dinners etc out of the shop I did on monday. And theres still plenty to go!!!

However still need to pay water bill and both cc's. Am witing for account balance to even it's self out as I'm a bit lost with how much is actually in my account.Will check again tomorrow!

LookingAhead

Nice one re: the £50/euros! What a lovely bonus! Perhaps you could use a little of it to stock up on a few store cupboard essential food-y items to get you through another lean period if it comes along?

CAFCGirl

What a great idea!

Am really proud of myself, aside from the 2 items I spent on today, I haven't actually spent any of my wages on unnecessary items for myself. Thats why the book is playing on my conscience I think :S

Might allow myself £10 for some essentials to make some new meals. I think I could still last another week on what I've got, so that fills me with a lot of hope!

christabell

Dear CAFCGirl.
Good for you girl for starting sort your money out! I discovered that when it comes to gas bills, it is a good idea to send in a reading EVERY three months, that way an accurate bill is created and they do not overestimate your account.
You are doing well ( in my opinion) just ensure you are on the best rates for mobile/broadband etc. Switch from BG asap. Do you pay your Council Tax monthly? AND when you go to Tesco are your collecting your Clubpoints?
Good Luck with the job hunt.

CAFCGirl

Thanks for the support Christa'

I've got clubcard in purse as well as key fob attached to my doorkeys. One if not both are always with me!
Just found out the salary offering for new job is at least 2k more than I'm on now so if I got it, I'd be well chuffed!
Am trying to find out who to switch my gas supply over to, but I can't seem to find out which comparison site to use, there's no one that stands out and is problem free!
Another problem is we dont have regular access to our meter, we're in a 1st floor flat above a shop and it's all a bit complicated to explain, but I know I should make more of an effort to do this in the long term!

Task for the weekend is to pay off money on CC's and to phone Abbey and see if they can tell me how much is remaining on my loan.
I always feel like I've achieved something if I can actually update my sig and it go down!

LookingAhead

Just a thought....I switched electric & gas (from British Gas) after using uswitch via QuidCo.com. And earned some cash in the process!

I am on NPower Juice now as it was the cheapest (according to the calculations I did) and - importantly - it is green energy too. They put back into the national grid, the same amount of electricity you use after a set period, which comes from tidal power.

(Excuse me if 'tidal power' is not the right expression but I snoozed off earlier for an hour and haven't long woken up...I feel really dozy!)

Or was it wind power....? I can't remember (!!!) but I know it was a green/renewable source anyway and it is backed by Greenpeace.

So gets my vote.