Corona007's random ramblings

Corona007

Oh dear, I'm getting bored of this hotel and it is only the first week of being up in the Midlands. And I've got 9 weeks to go :eek:

However, it is nice to be able to catch up on the news which I never normally chance to sit and watch. Big news day today of course because of the budget cuts. It is amusing me no end seeing all the parallels between the government and me - both spend too much money, both have huge debts and both are having to cut back.

Personally I think that the treasury should have just appointed a bunch of us from MSE to go through the budgets and strip out costs - we'd have done it in minutes. I can just imagine the SOA now...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet


Household Information
Number of people in household........... 60,000,000
Number of cars owned.................... 35,000,000


Monthly Income Details
Monthly income [STRIKE]after[/STRIKE] FROM tax............... 448,000,000,000
National Insurance............... 100,000,000,000
Total monthly income.................... 548,000,000,000


Monthly Expense Details
Education................................60,000,000,000
Work and Pensions................................158,000,000,000
Transport................................13,000,000,000
Health................................101,000,000,000
Lots of expensive consultants................................100,000,000,000
Red tape & bureaucracy................................265,000,000,000
Total monthly expenses.................. 697,000,000,000


Assets
Crown Jewels.................................... Priceless


Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......................Monthly..............APR
Loans...........................900,000,000,000......30,000,000,000....Enormous


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income....................548,000,000,000
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 697,000,000,000
Available for debt repayments........... -149,000,000,000
Monthly Unsecured debt repayments....... 30,000,000,000
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -179,000,000,000

:rotfl:

Yes, I am bored. I'm off to the [STRIKE]gym[/STRIKE] bar to get a beer

Lula-Hula

Love it

Just make sure you take advantage of all available money saving opportunities to be had whilst living in a hotel ... resident wit maybe ?

Corona007

Not sure about the resident wit, there are enough comedians here without me joining in - such as the clown who lost my suit I sent for dry cleaning, the joker who screwed up my room booking this week and so on.

But I digress.

I did a bit of housekeeping on my finances this weekend and cancelled my lottery direct debit (2 years and a grand total of £10 won ) and my lovefilm account (not much point when I am away from home all week now). So that is a total of £20.99 a month extra in my pocket.

Frankly I need it as also I went on a naughty shopping spree to pick up supplies for my up coming holiday. Once again I was not amused at the price of sun cream but then I had a complete sense of humour failure at the chemists when they charged me £59 for my prescription of malaria tablets. Bemused by my look of horror she said I could get them cheaper online if I shop around. Great idea and whilst I am at it I could also send that £1,000 processing fee to the Nigerian high commissioner who emailed me this morning to notify me of my recent multi million pound inheritance. :rotfl:

Anyway, I'm off to ensure I drink my way through my daily expense limit at the bar. I wouldn't want to short change my boss

Lula-Hula

How infuriating about your suit.

Glad to hear you are making sure boss gets the full worth of your boozathon & well done on the financial housekeeping too...

You wont need the lottery anyway, now that you have your Nigerian inheritance

Corona007

Hello, me again.

I've not updated this diary for various pathetic excuses which I won't try and pretend are important but I'm back. Again!

First the confessions. Despite my best efforts, I ended up spending too much money on holiday and went way over my budget, but to be honest I don't regret it for one instant. I was at my best mates wedding, surrounded by all my other friends in one of the most amazing countries in the world. Trip of a life time I think it think the expression is and I'll have those memories for ever (and the bills *cough* )

But, I did come back to find I hadn't cancelled my wine order so I had a case of Red waiting for me and my bank account was £89 emptier :eek:. I must remember to cancel that before the next one is delivered as £7.40 a bottle of wine is outrageous when I'm supposed to be saving money. Silly Corona.

I also need to get on the case to those [insert your offensive word of choice] at Sky who STILL haven't got my phone connected despite me ordering it and paying for it in August. Yet again I'll have to spend 45 life sapping minutes trying to get through to someone who knows their posterior from their elbow to sort it out. In fact I'm so fed up with them I might just tell them to cancel my order and I'll pay the extra couple of quid to go to BT.

But on the plus side, I'm still stuck in a hotel oop norf and so my outgoings are minimal. Oh, and despite the freezing cold weather it also means my heating is turned off all week

Anyway, I need to do some more financial planning for next year. I REFUSE to be in this position again next year making excuses for why I'm still in serious debt.

Corona007

Evening all.

I have decided to officially be a scrooge today and say "Bah Humbug". I do love Christmas but every year I find myself alienated by the commercial hype and unbelievable costs. I'm trying to be mean this year with presents but I can't see how it is going to cost less than £200 this year and that is money I'm not giving to Mr Visa or Dr Mastercard to clear my debts. But hey, it is only once a year and I might just get something nice in return

Anyway, I've also been getting increasingly annoyed at work with the hours and travel I put in for no return. I know that I could earn alot more money by quitting and moving elsewhere in my industry but I rather like my company and don't want to do that. So I decided to go and speak to the Partner I work for and tell him I was going to resign if I didn't get a payrise. I got all fired up and walked into his office but before I could say anything he said "Ah Corona, nice to see you. I've been meaning to tell you I've managed to secure a Christmas bonus for you". Took the wind right out of my sails I'll tell you :rotfl:. It won't be very much once it has been exchanged from dollars into proper money but it'll pay a few bills in January anyway. And he has promised to fight for a proper pay rise for me in the new year. :j

Oh, and to cap it all off I've returned to my hotel room to find a voucher for a free glass of wine with dinner on the bed. Things are looking up

P.S still no phone line/broadband at home by the way. Sky really must be the worst company I have had to deal with, and all this to save £1 a month over BT!

Corona007

Another day, another excuse from Sky. Still no phone/broadband and apparently the fault now lies with BT. I knew I should have just gone with them as I'd have got it sorted quickly if I was their customer. Now I've got to spend yet more time on the phone to them :mad: At least they have sent me £50 in M&S vouchers which goes some way to appeasing me with Christmas round the corner but if this is not sorted by the New Year I shall seriously lose my rag with them.

Anyway, I've done most of my shopping and I've only spent the equivalent of the national debt of USA so that is a result. I'm definitely going to have to relook at all my finances in January if I'm going to make any serious inroads into my credit card debts next year. I'm afraid it will mean much more sacrifice than I've been prepared to make this year, but I think I've learned in the last 12 months that it will be worth the pain.

In the mean time, Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope 2011 turns out to be miserable for your Credit card providers.

P.S I wish I had had the foresight to put a bet on a white Christmas this year

Corona007

Happy anniversary to me!

Just over one year since I finally realised I wanted to be debt free and I've not given up yet [just not achieved much yet ]. I need to do an update to my debts in my footer but will do that when I get home this weekend and can trawl through my accounts and check everything. In the mean time I have some good news though and some bad news.

First the bad news. I have finally realised I can't keep patching up my tatty suits and I had to buy a new one. I took the brave decision to venture to the shops in the sales [not to mention to beat the VAT increase :mad:] despite my normal policy being that the only shops I will go near in January are those that sell food and wine. I cannot abide clothes shopping when it is busy and their are queues everywhere but as a good MSEer I realised I had to brave up this year. And so eventually I bought a new suit at half price which was a complete bargain [despite the fact that it was the first suit I saw in the first shop I went in - old habits die hard ]. But of course that means £100 spend I hadn't budgeted for and will need to find the money to be repaid.

But I did say there was some good news. My boss told me yesterday that he was going to process a pay rise for me which will kick in next month's pay packet. It is not as much as I wanted but is better than a kick in the teeth. It may also mean I can stick to my target of being debt free by the end of this year.

Oh and still no phone line from Sky. I spent another 20 minutes on the phone to them and despite this being a regular occurrence now he asked me whether I had double checked my handset is plugged in. Errrm, I've been complaining since August that my phone doesn't work you fool, do you really think I haven't tried that :cool:

But anyway there is a hotel bar downstairs and I'm parched :rotfl:

gwen80

Corona007 wrote: »

Happy anniversary to me!

Happy anniversary :beer:

Corona007 wrote: »

First the bad news. I have finally realised I can't keep patching up my tatty suits and I had to buy a new one. I took the brave decision to venture to the shops in the sales [not to mention to beat the VAT increase :mad:] despite my normal policy being that the only shops I will go near in January are those that sell food and wine. I cannot abide clothes shopping when it is busy and their are queues everywhere but as a good MSEer I realised I had to brave up this year. And so eventually I bought a new suit at half price which was a complete bargain [despite the fact that it was the first suit I saw in the first shop I went in - old habits die hard ]. But of course that means £100 spend I hadn't budgeted for and will need to find the money to be repaid.

Internet shopping is your friend

Corona007 wrote: »

But I did say there was some good news. My boss told me yesterday that he was going to process a pay rise for me which will kick in next month's pay packet. It is not as much as I wanted but is better than a kick in the teeth. It may also mean I can stick to my target of being debt free by the end of this year.

Well done :T

Corona007 wrote: »

Oh and still no phone line from Sky. I spent another 20 minutes on the phone to them and despite this being a regular occurrence now he asked me whether I had double checked my handset is plugged in. Errrm, I've been complaining since August that my phone doesn't work you fool, do you really think I haven't tried that :cool:

But anyway there is a hotel bar downstairs and I'm parched :rotfl:

Oh dear. I'm currently fighting (one of many) battles with Nationwide. I opened my account on the internet and apparently I cannot just call up to close the account. I have to return the cards, chequebook, stupid card reader thingy into the branch. If it wouldn't cost me in postage I'd consider putting them in an envelope with a note saying 'Shove your account, Nationsh1te'.

Rant over.

Corona007

Hi Gwen, I can't believe they make you return cards and cheque books. It is not as if they can re-use them! I'm guessing they just love you as a customer so much they don't want you leaving

Anyway, I can't avoid this any longer - I need to document my current finances so I have a clear target to work towards. So here goes:

1. HSBC Mastercard - £2,139 (19.9%)
2. American Express - £1,558 (19.9%)
3. Egg Visa Card - £5,326 (16.9%)
4. Halifax Visa Card - £5,126 (4.9%)
5. HSBC Overdraft - £1,726 (17.9%)
6. Bank of Mum & Dad - £1,000 (0%)

Total is therefore £16,875 [however I do have over a grands worth of expenses to claim back from work so the real amount is closer to £15,500 but for now I'll go with the big number as it is a statement of fact :eek:]

Not a great finish to 2010 then - I've repaid a total of £2,011 [not that I'm superstitious but that is nice co-incidence and maybe tells me this year will be much better ]. The reason? I had a rough spell in the middle of the year and moved house and booked myself a holiday to a friend's wedding in Kenya and then Christmas came and I hadn't budgeted again so out came the cards. I've got to do better this year as I reckon I could have cleared over £6,000 last year if I had been more disciplined. But that is all history.

So what about monthly outgoings? I'll do a proper SOA at some point but basic outgoings after rent each month are:

Amount left after rent each month £956.

1. Council tax - £80
2. Sky HD/phone/broadband - £51.23 :mad::mad::mad:
3. TV License - £11.87
4. Lovefilm - £13.27
5. E.ON Electricity - £50
6. Contact lenses / checkups - £15
7. HSBC Advance fee - £12.95

subtotal - £234.32 plus the following debt repayments [based on last month]:

1. Halifax Visa Card - £51.25
2. HSBC Mastercard - £31.71
3. Egg Visa Card - £160
4. American Express - £57
5. HSBC Overdraft - £18.30

total debt repayments - £318.26. So total outgoings are - £552.58 which leaves me £403 a month for food, entertainment, travel etc which explains a lot about why I use my cards so much :rotfl:

Anyway that is what I have to work with for now. First thing to sort out is Sky, followed by ditching Lovefilm [now I've got Sky HD I can live without that]. Then I need to see if I can get my debts moved to lower APRs, sell a few items and I'm almost there .