My shiny new diary!

runmichellerun

Hi Sarah, just wanted to reply as you're in such a similar position to me. I'm constantly living just out/in my overdraft. I try every month to budget enough for everything I'm going to spend but it so rarely works out the way I plan, and I have to take money from my savings to cover day to day life.

I was wondering how long it is till payday for you? Hopefully not long. I'm surviving on just over £5 for the next week until I get paid!

sammey90

Hi michelle

I think pay day may be slightly early this month, cos we were paid early in December (part of the problem), but it's usually 28th of the month

i don't have an overdraft or savings, and i went overdrawn the other day (grrrrr) so now I have no money. I have a £5 clubcard voucher for petrol next week, a freezer with enough in it until then, and I've resurrected the bread machine! still, not as bad as last January, so i guess things are looking up

sammey90

A friend lent me the £30 for the parking ticket, which, although it is more borrowing, does mean i save £30 (it would have been £60 next week).

I popped into tesco on the way home, got £6.79 of bargains, did pretty well, pizza, bread, sausages,flour for HM bread, milk for slow cooker rice pudding mmm..., philly, sultanas, sugar cubes (cheaper than bags!), 9p(!!!!) biscuits, I'm sure there was something else, but i can't remember!

Hey ho - i was chuffed!!

sammey90

Payday is in sight! Thank blooming goodness!

The parking ticket's paid, the overdraft is still brewing and the bank wrote today to tell me that ANOTHER £40 will go out next month because a DD has been refused while I was overdrawn. One part of the charges - £15 I think - is just because it was refused.

QUESTION : is it reasonable to charge £15 for saying 'NO'?

Stooooopid bank. I'm only overdrawn because of their dumb charges.

Any how, glad it's the weekend, payday on monday, and should be service as normal next week.

Oooh, funny story - a child dodged some of my lesson today, but was out on the field, below my classroom window! When he finally arrived, he apologised, saying 'Sorry I'm late, I woke up late', and the class just laughed at him - they'd been watching him too!!

I guess you had to be there....

sammey90

OMG! I have just won £23.22 on the bingo!!!

Not a huge amount you might think, BUT - it was free!!

I was bored the other night, and thought i'd have a look for some free bingo games. Got to one site and found that they'd added £2 (not sure why!).

I played a few 5p games, then switched it all off during the last game that I played.

Logged in a few minutes ago, thinking I'd use up the last 60p and found that I'd won!!

I've withdrawn £20, and will play a bit more with the rest - you never know, this could be my week!

sammey90

OK, time to get things in order!

I was paid today (well, technically 11.30 last night, but hey!), and so my spending diary has begun. So far, I have spent - £46 annual travel insurance (two hols this year, so it works out cheaper) with £18 cashback, £33 breadmaker - birthday gift for (v. good) friend, £71.96 groceries for the MONTH!!, and £37 petrol - may need an extra £5 at the end of the month.

Also, provident has been paid, so one debt down, but need to wait for next week for the rest to go out.

I'm using the diary at spendingdiary.com, mostly cos I like pretty charts, but it's yet another place to record my rubbish spending - the more places I have to write it, the less inclined I am to spend it!

tiff

Just read through this thread and was wondering, could you not call the bank and ask for a small overdraft to save you from paying unauthorised overdraft charges?

sammey90

Hi Tiff

Tried that, applied for an overdraft but was refused - they said try again in 3 months if i still want one - like anyone WANTS an overdraft!!

Funny part of the story is that when the account was opened, they put me on the 'preferred overdraft' rate, but have never let me have one.

I could go into the branch, but they're a bunch of muppets - last time I was there, I told the woman I saw how to link a card to my account!!

Anyhow, thanks for reading. It was getting a little echoey in here!