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

Ex-Spendaholic

Have phoned Tax Credits. Apparently their system will tell them in 48 hours what the award is. I'll chase them up on Monday. :rotfl:

OH has now bought the small part for the car - £11. Once this is fitted we can finally advertise it. I'm just going to stick a for sale sign on it and park it on the main road with my details and also list on gumtree. I'll try those free options first before I get robbed by Autotrader. :eek:

Have decluttered some stuff on freecycle - 2 printers and 2 pictures.

Eldest child has just gone to the cafe with his mates. They have a piece of cake and a hot chocolate for the rip off price of £6.50. :eek: Needless to say he is using his own money. :rotfl:


Have been entering hundreds of comps so hopefully something will turn up soon.

Ex-Spendaholic

Some good news. Have just phoned Tax Credits - couldn't contain myself. :rotfl:

We've been awarded £3452.06 per year. As we have an overpayment from last year our payments will be £197.36 from now until November and then they will increase to £265 from November. They are also paying us £7.80 on 14 April. :j I'm well pleased. :j

Now what to do with this money? Increase the DMP payment? Save it for Full and Finals? Create an emergency fund? - I've always wanted one of those. Either way it is going to be fantastic and it will be put to good use. :j

Ex-Spendaholic

Some targets for week commencing 12 April:


Advertise the car - one day, one day, one day!!


Buy the kids summer school uniform - not at all MSE but it will save on ironing :rotfl: - Done

Potty train DD - will save nappy money :beer: - in Progress

Get the big bag of clothes out of the bedroom and into the school for the collection - will save me falling over it :rotfl: - all ready to go on Thursday which is their collection day


Reduce weekly food spend even further. Was at Asda today and only spent £42.78 :j

Continue to contribute to sealed pot and not buy rubbish

Ex-Spendaholic

Kids back at school so expenditure should start to fall again. :j Well that is apart from the usual Monday morning layout for dinners, swimming etc.


BBQ season has arrived so bought a load of meat today in the butchers to keep us going for a few days. We are such carnivores in our house.


Started the potty training, it is going nowhere at the minute. Will have to persevere. :rotfl:


The car is having its new bit fitted tomorrow night and then it will finally be advertised. It is costing £50 a month just to sit there unused so really does need to go ASAP.

Ex-Spendaholic

Not a lot to report. Received £7.08 from Tax Credits today. Have transferred the £7 to the Principality esaver. :j

OH's business is not doing well at the moment at all. Placed an advert for him in another local paper today. Lets hope something comes of that.

Have been offered a !!!!!! from one of the creditors on my DMP. I owe £408 and they are willing to accept £205. Tried to get them lower but they aren't budging. I should be able to scrape this money together so may take them up on it.

Ombudsman have been in touch to say that the are awaiting a response from Egg on OH's charges. :eek:

carlos*the*mackem

How's it going? Have you advertised that car yet??

Ex-Spendaholic

Not a lot to report.

Car still not advertised as it is pulling to the left now. OH hasn't had time to sort it out. :mad: Have 3 sets of wheels to advertise too if he could ever get me a photo of them. :mad:


Eldest child's school trip is now paid for so at least that is sorted.


Gas consumption down to £10 a week and electric down to £20 per week. :j


Awaiting first tax credits payment this week. Haven't had the award notice yet so a tad sceptical. :eek:


Son's swimming lesson cancelled today so the £3.50 went in the sealed tin. :j Shrapnel jaris almost full now so need to get money bags for it. :j


Waiting on mileage claim from work of £60 - will put that to good use. :j

Have been decluttering a bit. Did eldest daughter's room yesterday. :j

Ex-Spendaholic

The potty training went nowhere so the nappies costs continues for a while.

OH still hasn't had time to sort the car so we can sell it. :mad:


On the plus side:

Received first tax credits payment of £199.70. :j

My main focus now is to get rid of direct debits. Currently house insurance, 2 sets of car insurance, van insurance and TV licence are on DD. I'm saving money to the principality esaver so that when these are up for renewal I'll hopefully be able to pay them in full. Should save a few quid on interest too. :j I've also arranged with o2 that I'll be paying them myself now each month via the online banking bill payment service rather than by Direct Debit. I hate all these organisations having control. Once I get all these things sorted we'll just have DDs for mortgage, Virgin Media (they charge £5 if you pay any other way) and 2 life insurance policies. :j


Targets for week beginning 3 May 2010

Get money bags and count up the shrapnel jar

Kick DH's !!! until he sorts the car for selling.

Ditto the alloy wheels

Declutter the living room which has become a bit of a nightmare recently

Have 2 NSDs

carlos*the*mackem

Sooo, did you reach your targets for the week?:)

Ex-Spendaholic

Haven't been on for a while. With regard to my targets.

I counted up the shrapnel jar. There was £110 in there. Rather than do something sensible with it I gave the OH £50 to treat himself and I kept the other £60. I'm putting it towards a new phone at £100 (Fonebank are paying me £40 for the other one). Yes I know this wasn't the most sensible use for the money but hey you have to live sometimes.

The car has finally been advertised as have the 3 sets of wheels. So far no joy but as I've used only free advertising so far at least I'm not out of pocket. Next week it looks like Autotrader. :eek:

Did my decluttering. As a result I freecycled many items such as laptop cushions, pictures etc. All have gone to good homes so I'm happy.

Have had several NSDs due to the fact that I was a bit sick last week and off work. :j

Today we've had a letter from Westcot saying that Mint are willing to offer a reduced settlement on the credit card debt. Will persue this in the next day or 2.