Looby's debt diary

loobyloo1980

What a mad couple of days I've had. With my exam results, Joshua's birthday and a playdate with my best friend's daughter yesterday my feet have hardly touched the ground.

Tried to have a really good DFW day yesterday but everything conspired against me :mad: . For the first time I thought I would give Aldi a try for my shopping, in true DFW style. Got down there with the kids to find that Aldi don't do baskets, only trolleys :mad: :mad: :mad: I was pushing a 4 month old baby in a pram, with 2 other children along for the ride - how on earth was I supposed to push a trolley as well!!!! I left in a fury and vowed never to set foot in there again, after complaining to the shop assistant whose reply was 'how do you think we keep the prices so low?'. I would have thought baskets were cheaper than trolleys, but there you go!!! So I ended up going to child and baby friendly tescos instead in the car when hubby finished work.

Then there was the dental bill £42.40 for a checkup and a filling :mad: :mad: . I shouldn't moan really because where I live is really bad for dentists and is always on the news for the lack of dentists here. Most people here can't even find a private dentist, never mind an NHS one and I am lucky enough to have an NHS one. The bill wasn't for me, as I am still under an NHS exemption card for maternity, but my husband has to pay. We have a HC2 or HC3 or something which puts a cap on what we have to pay, but the bill wasn't high enough to be covered by it.

Today I have got a nice pile of bills through £236.30 gas and £165.84 electric :mad: :mad: :mad: . I am now going through my monthly budget to see if I have enough to pay them in full, or whether I will have to only pay them partly and make an arrangement. Why does it cost so much? I never have my heating on, don't use my fires and hardly use the over to cook. The only thing my gas does is heat water and we have that on a timer!!! I am currently with EDF and switched in Feb when Uswitch said they were the cheapest. Went back on Uswitch and no one else is any cheaper!!! They would all leave me worse off according to their calculator. Great stuff!!! Mind you, the large gas bill is the first I have had since joining EDF so it probably isn;t that bad at all. They took ages to take over the gas from NPower.

Oh well, onwards and upwards ......

On the plus side, I have some money tracking through quidco now, managed to get a good deal on some travel insurance (going away with parents next summer), did a survey, and am now finding a quote for car insurance due at end of the month. Also got £4.20 in pigsback. And I made £20ish on ebay selling old CDs

ZTD

loobyloo1980 wrote:

Today I have got a nice pile of bills through £236.30 gas and £165.84 electric :mad: :mad: :mad: . I am now going through my monthly budget to see if I have enough to pay them in full, or whether I will have to only pay them partly and make an arrangement. Why does it cost so much? I never have my heating on, don't use my fires and hardly use the over to cook. The only thing my gas does is heat water and we have that on a timer!!! I am currently with EDF and switched in Feb when Uswitch said they were the cheapest. Went back on Uswitch and no one else is any cheaper!!! They would all leave me worse off according to their calculator. Great stuff!!! Mind you, the large gas bill is the first I have had since joining EDF so it probably isn;t that bad at all. They took ages to take over the gas from NPower.

I've done exactly what you've done - changed to EDF from npower (antichrist) - and at the same time. Check your EDF bill. Mine had us using approx 3 times as much power as we have.

loobyloo1980

Really? Well when my electric bill came they had messed it up, so I got them to correct that straight away. How can you tell they have you down as using more than you are? I thought it was meter read? I submit my own meter readings online (although the meter reading bloke still comes as well). Would be curious to know as I just cannot see how we use so much gas!!! The electricity I can totally understand as everything we have is electric and it is on all the time (tut tut I know).

ZTD

loobyloo1980 wrote:

Really? Well when my electric bill came they had messed it up, so I got them to correct that straight away. How can you tell they have you down as using more than you are? I thought it was meter read?

Because they're using an estimate. They say I've used 177 units of gas - I've actually used about 47.

You know - like this wasn't the hottest July on record... :rolleyes:

I will submit a real reading...

loobyloo1980

oh so you got an estimated bill!! I'll check mine, see if it was based on a reading or not.

loobyloo1980

Well, had a cheap weekend, not been anywhere to spend anything. Had an Indian meal on Friday as my treat for my exam results, but that was it.

Today have made a repayment towards the catalogue bill and that is almost clear now. Been to the library and got some books for the kids. Got a £10 book token coming to me for joining Harry up as he is under 6 months old (I'm not sure if this is a local or national promotion??).

Got loads of bills to pay this week though, it's going to be a dear week ....

loobyloo1980

Hello, haven't been on for a few days so thought I would update my diary. Well, school holidays are on the downward slope now, thank goodness. I'm running out of free and cheap ways to amuse the kids now. School uniform is nearly all bought (used my catalogue cashback so it didn;t really cost me anything), just have the shoes to buy. It's funny though, a few days off here and my spending starts again. Having said that, it has all been budgeted for. We are having the kids christened next week, not having a do as such afterwards though to save money, just going to pub for pint and so kids can play. Had to buy hubby shirt and tie, kids some shoes for it today. Got some bargain shoes for daughter in Woolies for £6 instead of the £25 it would have cost me for the ones I was originally going to get. Paid some bills too, so bank balance is fading fast. Will have to do a mid-month check on what has gone in and what is still to go out to stop things going pear shaped. I really go off the rails without coming on here, it is like my lifeline.

However, have been feeling really low today and have just nearly blown £150 on catalogue shopping online, then my lightbulb flashed and told me not to be so silly when it is nearly clear, so I cancelled it and I do feel better for not having weakened. It's not stuff I needed, but I wanted that retail therapy fix to make me feel better. I actually feel better now for being strong and stopping in my tracks.

So once again I am in on a saturday night, in my pj's drinking cups of tea watching peter kay :rotfl: the exciting life of a DFW!!!!:rotfl:

bommer

Well done,

The actual effect of shopping kicked in before the total hit the bank! nice one. Almost as good as buying it and then taking it all back - heaven!.

Sorry but that the rush buying it. - hey you can almost always get a refund. just be careful where you buy - classic.

Hey don't forget Asda has 10% off with the sun for school wear. I got a good deal on my kids stuff. My husband gets nectar points with his trade card for work so I took advantage of his points and got adams vouchers and got the kids coats on buy one get one half price - Have twins. So saved a fortune as they both needed good winter coats this year.

loobyloo1980

I still feel quite self-righteous about it today!!! Although when I stepped out of my front door for church this morning in the rain wearing summer shoes because they were the only ones that matched my dress I cursed myself muttering that this is why I need some new stuff for autumn!!!! Oh well, I'll save my cashback back up for some stuff!!!!

loobyloo1980

Well, great day today. 2 major achievements:

1. Have paid off one of my credit cards with a horrid 29.9% interest rate and cut it up!!! I have never done that before!! :money: :j

2. Have finally gone below the £10k owed level, which feels wonderful. I'm in single figures now :j :j