Isla's "the final stretch" diary

isla_red

I sat last night and worked out my budget for June and with a few extra savings I will hopefully be able to make a good dent in the debt.

This morning I made a £335 starting payment for this month and I'm hopeful that over the next 4 weeks I'll be able to add an additional £180 to this figure taking the debt down from £1731 at the end of May to around the £1200 mark by the end of June.

Fingers crossed for a good budget month and maybe some refund news from the airline. If the airline do refund me the money that the ash trip cost it would mean an extra £275 off the debt which would be a massive help just now.

Kayleighpea

Hi Isla,

Don't feel too down about the setback with the finances. As I said before, you are so much more careful with things now than you were, imagine you hadn't been doing all this budgeting and then had been hit with all the costs from the ash crisis!? You would be a lot worse off than you are now so every cloud

And well done on getting straight back in there with more payments. :T
I have spent the last couple of weeks spending like a mad woman and not keeping track of anything! Am going to stick my head in the sand a little bit longer and sort it when I get back off hol methinks

isla_red

Every ash cloud eh Kayleigh?! :rotfl:

You're absolutely right if I hadn't been so well behaved my debt figure at the end of May would have been £2157 so I am in a much better position. I know it's futile but I am still secretly keeping my fingers crossed that the airline might just come good with the £275.

Uh oh Kayleigh get your head back out of the sand! It's not good to be there although I have been sorely tempted to do just that post-ash cloud. :rotfl:

Little_Miss_Red_Head

Your doing so well! Here's to a cheap June!!

isla_red

Thanks so much. It's the support of everyone here that's made such a difference to me. I've managed to scrabble aside some more so hopefully will be able to make another payment next week woop! I can't believe it's the bank holiday weekend again just where is this year going?!

Hubbie and I are going away for a few days but I have kept a bit of money aside from last month's budget so that we can have a reasonably good time without putting ourselves into more debt. It's all about the planning these days.

I desperately need a new pair of shoes but I just can't afford them right now so I'm wearing a pair I hate but they are perfectly acceptable until I save up for new ones. I'm so glad I've had my LBM and changed my attitude because previously I'd have bought them without caring about the consequences.

I've sold a couple of my relisted items on ebay so I'm sending them out today. It's not much money but it's another £4 and every little helps.

Hope everyone has something nice to look forward to this bank holiday weekend

isla_red

Finally got an email from the airline over the weekend. It wasn't a reply to my email more a "we'll send you what we feel like" email. They have agreed to refund the cost of the original flight (£59.99) but made no reference to any of the costs I attached receipts for in my correspondence to them. To add insult to injury the only way to try and get an answer seems to be to start the whole sorry process again or call them on a number that costs 10p a minute. Oh well.

I have managed to make another payment towards the debt so at least it's back down at a less scary figure again. :T

That said I've had a lovely bank holiday weekend and managed to pick up a great Father's Day present for my dad within the budget I'd allowed Hope everyone else has been enjoying some sunshine

isla_red

The ash drama continues...the airline have said they are not liable to pay our costs to get home because we didn't use a comparable means of travel (i.e. air travel). Given that the plane was grounded due to the ash cloud I fail to see how the hell we were supposed to use air travel to get home. I can't get a sensible answer from the customer service team and their system won't let me update my correspondence with them so I just don't know where to go from here. :mad: Anyone got any tips for dealing with stonewalling Customer Service Teams?

3 parcels to send away to ebayers so another £14 to the pot it's not all bad news. I think that I might have to move my debt free date to October because of this ash fiasco. I just don't see how I can clear over £1200 in 3 months. I'm trying my best but I'm not sure what else I can cut back on. :think:

Little_Miss_Red_Head

Sorry to hear the airline aren't being helpful - at least a little bit of money back is (a bit) better than nothing at all!

Just realised I've not got my dad anything for fathers day been too busy thinking about the baby's gift for my OH!!

isla_red

:rotfl:Don't forget your dad! There will be trouble if you do!

You're right something is better than nothing and I got my expenses back today so £20 better off

Little_Miss_Red_Head

isla_red wrote: »

:rotfl:Don't forget your dad! There will be trouble if you do!

You're right something is better than nothing and I got my expenses back today so £20 better off

The worse thing is my dad is so nice he wouldn't be bothered at all if I didn't get him a thing!