New year, New me (finally)

Nottoobadyet

thrifty_fifty wrote: »

Can you imagine? I'll hopefully get a good job one day. Me and OH will be sitting there on our £40,000 a year each, saying £1 for ketchup? Daylight robbery, get the discount brand! I'm sure this is going to stick with us for life, although I suspect in better climes the shoe collection may be added to on occasion.

Ohhh, I love the sound of that!

thrifty_fifty

bleugh, why do mondays come round so quickly? I hates 'em.

mrs_robinson_3

Loving the mug Thrifty. And lots of other stuff on the site! And am currently having a new kitchen installed.....but am staying strong and will not be tempted!

Mrs R

thrifty_fifty

Morning all,

Don't you find that one this DF journey that there are always those little hurdles and people trying to stop you getting to your goal? You know the bank who in one breath say that you can't pay off the odd amount off your loan, and then when you have no money but are asking again about making overpayments in the future, another member of staff gives you a different answer?

Latest is, I am on Orange Dolphin 15 at £15 a month, which is reasonable. Then orange have brought out orange £5-only for new customers- at £5 a month-awesome I thought.

Went into the shop on saturday and asked when the contract was due to end (because this is another of my demons I need to tackle-filing paperwork-i can never lay my hand on my phone contract). They said that I could upgrade now-well not wanting to upgrade, I asked I could downgrade to orange 5. You can't downgrade, but what we can do is put orange 5 as an additional phone on your existing contract, and then I can cancel the orange 15 phone. Ah, I thought, good thinking from the assistant.
Well I knew it was all too good to be true. Rang up to cancel today and they say that I can upgrade but can't cancel without buying myself out of the contract £47.55. My reply to this was, well I might as well keep the phone and keep paying the bill then, as this contract has unlimited texts so doesn't cost me anymore than the line rental anyway.

I have put a note on my account to say that they are to terminate it when it ends. So now for the next three months not saving, but increasing my bill by 5 months, and have two phone that I can send infinite amount of texts on. The whole point of moving down to orange 5 is that I only ever text people rarely because I usually visit them or talk over email. I can only get a signal in my bedroom, but I like the orange wednesday offer and if we went only once a month, the £5 line rental with the free cinema ticket would more than pay for itself.

Is it worth writing a letter of complaint? Knowing my luck somehow they'll mess it up in October and I'll find that they cancelled the Orange 5 contract too, so I'll probably be without a phone atall, and they will have stopped offering the Orange 5 contract, and then I'll be back on the one I was before at £15. Pessimistic, me? Never!

thrifty_fifty

Well that was a very productive day. Sent off a PHD proposal-won't be for another 2 years yet, but there you go. Got the Orange customer complaints address, and also found some useful websites for volunteer holidays. All that is left to do now is write the complaint letter, look up some new jobs and apply, and rewrite my CV. I like productive days like this.

moo2moo

You only took out the £5 a month phone on the third. You have 14 days from that date to cancel. Cancel. Pay for the few days you've used and meanwhile complain to Orange about their shoddy customer service, misleading sales people etc. etc. and tell them you'll be moving to an alternative company as soon as your contract expires. Perhaps then they'll ingeneously find a way to reduce your bill.

thrifty_fifty

Liking it Moo,

Letter has been drafted. The only reason I go with Orange is because of their orange wednesday offer, but as OH so rightly said, when do we go the cinema these days? Answer, never. We never have the money to spend on frivolous activities like that. I think I'm having a mid, mid life crisis at nearly 30. Tonight I'm so bored, no money, no going out, all it seems to be is work, work , work, (oh and a spot of debt busting) and grateful to be working to be honest. It's such a drag being an adult sometimes.

thrifty_fifty

Thrifty is finding the old path again, after having wandered around lost in the woods for what seems to be years (literally)

Paperwork-filed for once
had a look at equifax report from two years ago and that seems to be good. Nothing wrong since then, so should be good. I will of course check it again when I'm debt free (call me silly but the denial part of me won't check it while I've still got debts). All accounts since 2003 are 0 (payment received on time), apart from one entry on orange (hmmm, I never paid my bill late so I wonder what that was about). Anyhow, just shows that you should check it regularly, just to see what the little monkeys are up to.

Oh and don't get collared by those people on the street trying to sell you a catalogue, just by them taking your details they perform a credit search on you, even if it's just to send you the catalogue. You don't even need to try and put a first order through.PS Next directory show on there too, even if you just order the catalogue. Something to be aware of (you guys are probably more savvy than me anyway).

I've listed every single item of fancy clothing, bags, jewellery the lot, and my grand total (well the minimum amount i would let it go for on ebay) is £6351, that's my overdraft wiped out, cc2, loan, and a rather substantial amount of cc1. It would also mean that because I was no longer needing to make payments to cc2 and the loan, that I could direct £800 solely toward cc1, rather than the £500 I do now.

It will be heartbreaking to see all that go, but hey there you go. It's more heartbreaking sitting here in this rented cottage paying rent every month, knowing that this is the kind of house that we want to own in the future. There will come a time when I have the salary to support the purchase of these fabulous shoes and handbags, and pay cash for them (well I'm going to need a 40th outfit for the Paris trip).

I have to say it feels fabulous to be on top of things again for once, instead of sticking the head in the sand and praying for some kind of miracle.

thrifty_fifty

Don't know about you guys but a bag of fish and chips by the seafront wouldn't go a miss at the moment. Bored, tired and sick of the gloom of this credit crunch.

thrifty_fifty

Evening all,

Excuse this posting, and feel free to wash over it if you wish. Back downstairs posting because I can't read, sleep do anything but think about debt. I think I've just spent too long today obsessing over career (or lack of ), worrying about job cuts, worrying about saving money. I then think i topped it off by drinking white wine, which always puts me on a bit of a downer, so I don't know why I even drank it.

I know this is pathetic, but I think what brought this on was the listing everything I own, and realising that if I stick it all on ebay then I'll be much closer to being debt free. Now you think that would ring bells of joy. I don't know what it is though, tonight I seem to have sunken back into that darker place where I could hardly scrape myself up off the floor, firstly when going through house selling and break up, and secondly when going through the hell with my other job. I know there are people out there with far worse problems and who are much more upbeat, but I just need a therapy session here.

I think I've just had one of those bam moments, where the gravity of the situation really hits you. I've lost my mojo, I seem to be forever working towards the next qualification, forking out hundreds in course fees, and there are those around me who do none of that, are completely incompetant and yet somehow they smell of roses. At this rate I'll be the only administrator in the country with a doctorate. Sorry, everyone, the upbeat thrifty has left the building. Shame Paul McKenna doesn't do a book on how to lift yourself out of a depressive state (not sure if it is depression, never had it diagnosed before), but I'm feeling largely unmotivated and slightly twitchy about going out into the outside world, although I can get a bit funny like that after a few days at home. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow, but just feeling a bit hopeless this evening.

Anyhow I'll be off now, I need to try and get myself off to sleep. Just writing it down seems to have made it a lot better.

Thanks for listening.

Thrifty