Diary of an Ex-Spendaholic - Sorting it out in 2010

carlos*the*mackem

Well done on all your DFW efforts so far; you should be very proud of yourself for being so motivated! :T

I'll be reading your diary with interest (subscribes)

Ex-Spendaholic

Very little to report, in fact nothing to report.

I'm hoping to hear back from the 2 Visas this week regarding the CCA thing. I want to make Full and Final settlement Offers. The balances are £6674 and £4452. I have £7K to play with. It would be brilliant if I could get these cleared with the £7K but I'm not sure that is realistic. If I can do this it will free up £200 per month which I will put in a separate account for use on Full and Finals to the 4 smaller creditors on my DMP (collectively they are owed less than £1500) so this should be very achievable quite quickly.

On a happier note my online banking looks really tidy now with a lot of the bill payment options being removed. :rotfl:

So targets for the week:

Set up the Amazon Seller account - tried to do this last week but my touchscreen phone was a nightmare when I did the phone confirmation thing. - Done

Relist the hoover and CD set on ebay once again and also list on Amazon. - Done

Kick DH's !!! until he sorts out the alloy wheels we are going to sell locally.

Quidco payment of £10.57 due. I'm going to put this in the sealed tin for next Christmas.

Really pleased though that I am no longer buying rubbish for the sake of it, not spending on lunches, not using the debit card etc. It does make a big difference. I think I'm turning into a MSE nerd. :eek::rotfl:

carlos*the*mackem

Quote: I think I'm turning into a MSE nerd. :eek::rotfl:

And there's nothing wrong with that!:D

Ex-Spendaholic

Just checked my lottery ticket and I've won £10. :j Better than a poke in the eye with a big stick. :rotfl: Going to put this aside towards my son's school trip. Only £260 to go. :rotfl:

Have relisted the DVD set and hoover. Maybe just maybe I'll get shot of them.

Ex-Spendaholic

Collecting my new car today. Hopefully it will be more economical than the current one. I have £100 refund to get on the tax for the current one. :j OH has agreed to sell his car. It just sits in the drive (he has a van for work). That will save £500 per year on Tax, Insurance and MOT. It doesn't use much on petrol as it is never driven. Will hopefully get in the region of £1600-£1800 for it. :j

Ex-Spendaholic

Don't you just love the first day of the month?

Bills all paid :j

Electric, gas and petrol topped up :j

Groceries in for the week :j

School dinners paid for the week :j

A little pot with £1 coins and 50p coins sitting in the new car ready to hand to the kids as they go to their various activities :j

Car Tax Refund applied for. :j

Cash in pocket to use between now and Sunday but planning to have 2-3 No Spend Days :j

New Comping month. did loads yesterday for the month end. Hope to see some rewards soon. Keeping with my 50 a day pledge for February. :j

Chucked £3 into the sealed pot this morning. :j


Still waiting on word on the Visa CCAs. :mad:

Ex-Spendaholic

Set up my Amazon Seller Account at last. Will now be rumaging about for things to sell. :j


Contacted Tax Credits. Due to OH's redundancy payment we have an overpayment for this year. :eek: This equates to about £520 at most as we were getting £40 a week. The good news is however that once April arrives and I ring them again it looks like we should be entitled to £64.68 per week. That will be £258.72 in the account every 4 weeks, I assume the overpayment is to come off that. :beer: I hope they are right as this will sure come in handy in my debt busting efforts. :beer:


Off now to order new Electric Top Up cards as I'm sure the shop is fed up with me handing them my mobile phone with the number stored in it. :rotfl:

Ex-Spendaholic

Well thats the electric cards ordered. May not appear to be Moneysaving but I can now send my son to the shop to topup rather than me explaining about codes etc. In essence this will save money as I'll just give him the money he needs rather than me spend £10 on other rubbish while I'm there. :eek:

Have just renegotiated my O2 tarrif. As I'm 9 months into my contract apparently I was entitled to do that. I am now on the £10 per month package instead of £20 per month. This is after the alleged £15 per month loyalty discount I get. Usually my spend is £35 to £40 per month with O2 which is largely due to the number of 0870 numbers I ring when dealing with banks and the like. This stops now. From now on if I need to ring these people I do it in work. So here is the new me with the mobile phone. Its £10 per month from 17 Feb and not a penny more. This will free up £25-£30 per month which could be put to better use. :beer:

Ex-Spendaholic

I'm now on the look out for a decent prepaid card for OH to use on ebay. At the minute I do his buying to get the quidco and then pay via paypal (linked to the bank account). OH gives me the cash to put back in. However I'd rather he hand over hard cash to paypoint to top up a card then he can have the psychological pain of parting with money before the transaction rather than me chasing him for a few days. He thinks something costs only £5 but forgets to add the £3 postage. In fairness he doesn't spend money in shops, he just buys tat. If he gets birthday, xmas money etc he spends it on ebay.

Ex-Spendaholic

Just opened an O2 Money account each for myself and OH (not sure why I'm getting one as I don't spend money any more but what the heck it was free) :rotfl:

Looks good, free to get one and no transaction costs. Should be here in 5-10 days and then OH can buy what he likes without making the bank account untidy. I hate seeing a balance and an available balance and not knowing what is still to come out due to debit card transactions. As we don't use the debit card in shops any more this is definitely the way forward.