New year, New me (finally)

thrifty_fifty

Hooray payday is here!!!

Some kind of strange transformation has occurred. Now usually I would celebrate payday and the relief of spending the last two weeks being broke by making purchases today, but I don't want to. I don't even want to spend to £1.50 it will cost to get parmesan to make pesto for dinner tonight (I'm not well clearly!!)

Looking forward to banking that cheque. I think the ladies behind the counter will need to be sitting down at the bank. Probably only the third time since I've had it, that money is going in rather coming out. Yay!

Going to change my totals-can't get onto online banking at the mo (essential maintenance grrr!), but I can put the rough figures down and update them later. Just good to see more pink in those black totals.

Hope everyone has a good day.

thrifty_fifty

Yay, new totals!!!

mrs_robinson_3

Well done on the new totals! Great to commit to them at the start of the month, then you just have to eke out what's left..... until you do it all again next month. Depressing, I know, but also empowering to actually be doing something about it!

Since you ask, my degree is in government and politics and I was working for one of the big govt. depts. doing a range of opinion-type surveys and analysis....more fun than it sounds, but am having a sabbatical right now having taken voluntary redundancy at Xmas. Though was originally a journalist/freelance writer, so might do a bit more of that when I tire of domesticity - unlikely as I love it!

Am off to Paris myself in April as Mr R is running in the marathon....I'll be the one in a cafe with a book, though. And I might just get myself off to a Clarins counter right now, as got to head out and stop wasting time on here.....

Hope your day is good - keep it thrifty.....

Mrs R

thrifty_fifty

Hey Mrs R.Interesting work. Paris sounds lovely and definitely recommend the clarins counter.I have had what could be the most singularly stressful lunchbreak since my problems began.Get paid on 25th into alliance and leicester. Loan come out of other bank account on 25th. Last month thought I would pay some extra off the credit card and, would do a faster payment to my yorkshire account to cover it. This all went wrong this month because yorkshire internet banking went down at 10pm last night until 4 this morning. Wages don't show in alliance and leicester until after midnight.Loan shows as coming out this morning, taking me over my overdraft. So I thought, not a problem wages were in the alliance and leicester account. I'll do a faster payment ( as this arrives in the other account seconds after it has left the alliance and leicester on normally).How wrong could I have been? Because yorkshire online banking was not up and running as it should have been, amount was deducted off alliance and leicester, but is still up to this minute not showing up in the yorkshire account, and I did it at 6.30 this morning.Went into yorkshire bank at lunch to put in that cheque and see if the money was showing on their system. No it wasn't. I was told that the bank do two 'sweeps' of the account at 11am and 3pm for the loan money, before they the amount as unpaid, which would = £35 charge for not having loan money available for them to take £8 charge for going over my overdraft, and my credit rating in tatters.I didn't have my alliance and leicester bank card with me, as I don't normally take cash out with that account. Luckily I had my driving licence and they managed to authorise a cash withdrawal with that- not without a few hiccups along the way.I then rushed it into the yorkshire bank, where I now have the funds available. Fingers crossed, what the lady said was true and they don't charge me and poo all over my credit rating.It just took me back to that time when I was at work and the credit card company called me and I went home sick. I feel such a fool now. One of my friends in the office asked what was wrong and I just broke down, and blurted basically the contents of page 1 of this diary.I've had no lunch because I daren't take any money out 'just in case' and I can't wait to go home. The totals above now are going to have to go back up, because I will have to have the other loan payment on standby for the 25th of march, ready for when they take it overnight again.Gutted.:(

thrifty_fifty

Great, now my ebayer wants postage by the close of saturday. Its not like they've even paid yet. I don't want to email them my bank details to send the payment (slightly dodgy). I just want to cry today.

mrs_robinson_3

Hey, poor you after such a great start to the day. You've just got to keep at it and it will all come right in the end. Do something nice for yourself this evening to make up for it?

Didn't quite follow what happened with your various a/cs and the loan payment (probably me being dim), but if the date of the loan or CC payments is too close to your payday, can you re-negotiate the date to give yourself a few days' grace in event of similar probs with bank systems not updating? All v stressful I agree.

I could be in a similar position, as I moved money from one a/c yesterday to my normal a/c, drawing on my redundancy payment, in lieu of "salary", as am keeping it all "normal" for now, but as it was the first time I've done it, didn't know that it takes 3/4 days to get from Egg. Luckily it's Feb, so none of my DDs will come out til 1st, which is Monday, and the payment should hit my a/c by then at the very latest....but just goes to show how you have to keep on top of this stuff. But I'll know for next month. Like all this stuff, it's a learning process.

And thanks for the tip, I got some Clarins samples today which will be fab for my trip to Paris, so am v grateful! Am now planning on hitting on the other two counters near me, so will be stocked up! Greedy, moi?

Chin up, it's a small set back but you've got the MSE bug now, you'll be fine, am sure

Mrs R

thrifty_fifty

Good news on the clarins stuff. I was greedy and did all four counters in 1 lunchbreak.

I'll be fine with the other stuff. What I normally do is get paid on 25th into my alliance account, so say 25th feb is payday, then I'll move the loan amount to my yorkshire account on 25th feb in time for loan payment on 25th march. However my alliance account pays 5% interest so I like to move the money across as late as possible. It fouled up this time.

Bummer.

Hope you have an awesome time in Paris.

thrifty_fifty

Right. As you have probably gathered from my other postings, I panic, hit the ceiling and then start dealing with stuff on a more sensible level.

Anyway, I'm being sensible with my money, that's all I can do. I'm cutting back and not wasting it and budgeting.

I have started this evening by giving myself a kick up the behind for moping. OH have sat down and basically decided that we want to go down the self sufficiency route. We'll need some capital to start out, so that will involve working some long hours for the next 10 years or so. I'm trying to get whatever we can for free or very little, to reduce our outgoings.

Freebie Eczema pack seems to be working for OH. I've decided too that whatever we need for our allotment, we should try and recycle, get for free, whatever. So starting with horse poo. My idea was to volunteer to shovel some for free on a sunday, in exchange for small amounts of free horse poo, or small horse riding lessons. Hey it's worth a try??? I'll let you know as I compile more crazy ideas.

thrifty_fifty

OK. Today is going to be a better day. Still no sign of the transferred money into my Yorkshire account but it is showing on the alliance account statement list as having left. So maybe rather than being a faster payment, it will show up three days later as any other transfer would

Deposits from Paypal are still not in Yorkshire account, so will have to let my buyer know.
Sort out Alliance account, as they thought one of my purchases last month was fraudulent and it wasn't, so just need to confirm. Good that they do that, but sometimes it's a pain because they stop your transaction, and send you a letter a few days later saying that they have tried to contact me.

Not sure if Martin is onto this one, but they have my mobile number and I didn't get a call. The number that you call back on though is chargeable. Sneaky! OH get it with Natwest aswell..

Had to bring the above totals back up a bit, as saving the extra money for the loan payment next month, so the same doesn't happen again. Oh well, it has still come down.

Will just be glad when banks sort themselves out, shoes have gone and money has come in, and I can bring those totals down just a little bit more.

thrifty_fifty

New totals. Small dent, but it will get better.