Cloudy's 'bring me some sunshine' diary!

Nichelette

I found that not drinking saves me lots of money as I used to go to the pub a lot, now I tend to save drinking as a weekend treat.

I hope you get a decent pay rise. I've been in my job for a bit over a year, but I'm a temp so when all the permanant staff get their bonuses and rises in a few weeks I'll get nothing. This is made even more hillarious because I've been told by the manager I've easily got the highest productivity of about 30+ people working on domestic stuff :rotfl:.

Cloudy456

I know, its such a quick way to chuck money down the drain. I dread to think how much money I've passed over bars over the last few years, and I'm far from a heavy drinker (well usually!)

Got told by my boss today that an announcement about pay is expected very shortly, but that its not looking good and 'things are still very tight'. Hmm, the amount of work being piled onto me seems to indicate we still have a lot of clients/contracts! Anyway, we'll see soon hopefully.

My spending levels are pretty good this week, the odd few pounds here and there but nothing excessive. One week tomorrow is payday and I think the best I can hope for is to knock £200 off my total from a month ago. Not great given that if I hadn't had a bonus I would have ADDED to my debt this month! Aggh! But I knew June and July would be very expensive months, I just need to get through the next 5 weeks of events and expenses as best I can then things calm down a lot. At least I will have got under the 11k mark which is my first milestone.

Right, I'm going to look for a better paid job :-)

savingforourfuture

Cloudy456 wrote: »

Got told by my boss today that an announcement about pay is expected very shortly, but that its not looking good and 'things are still very tight'. Hmm, the amount of work being piled onto me seems to indicate we still have a lot of clients/contracts! Anyway, we'll see soon hopefully.

I know how you feel, I got no bonus and no pay rise this year and I have just been given two other peoples jobs to do ontop of my own as they have been made redundant. I know I should be greatful I have a job, but now Im doing 3 peoples jobs for the price of one......... doesnt seem right to me!

Hope you get a good pay rise..... fingers crossed for you!

Cloudy456

Well up to about ten minutes ago I was about to come on here and say what a great and cheap weekend I'd had but....I just logged onto my internet banking and found a message saying that from 26th July they are taking away my interest free OD facility and charging me 19.9% on the whole thing- eeeek! The first £1000 was 0% until now, meaning I paid about £12 a month but this will rocket upwards so paying off that has now got to become a big priority. I was planning on clearing my 0% CC which has £750 on by the time this ran out in October, but now I'm thinking it has to be all about reducing the OD and when October comes I'll worry about that one and do a balance transfer if necessary.

Hopefully after the end of July I reckon I can put about £100 towards the OD from my current salary, and still meet my other payments, plus whatever extra I have from my 'payrise' can also go in that direction, then my loan finishes in September so the extra £180 odd from that can also go to the OD. Hopefully that way I can knock most of it on the head by the end of the year, but unfortunately that will mean only min payments on my CCs. Oh well, I'll sleep on it and do some sums tomorrow but it seems my priorities will need to shift a bit.

In terms of spending this coming week, I seem to have enough food for dinners and breakfasts, will just need a couple of lunches and work snacks and some milk. So hopefully I can get away with spending about £6 on groceries, plus I have no plans in the evenings that are likely to cost me money. I would love to get to Friday (payday, yay!) on the cash I have now which is about £5.50 - that will be my challenge!

I should get another £10 this week I'm owed, as well as £13 from my sister which she owes me, plus my £5 odd from Music Magpie, so hopefully that will be £28 in the bank and not taking anything out.

Anyway, enough rambling for one night, I'm off to bed!

Cloudy456

Rang my gym today and asked when I can cancel my membership which I never use - they said I could freeze the membership which means I pay £8 a month instead of £34 for the remaining 3 months (but I can't use it). Given that I haven't been in 2 months as I do climbing, cycling and circuit training in the summer I thought this was worthwhile. I would rather spend £24 on nothing than £102! And I can cancel it altogether after the 3 months is up. So that was good! Other than that, did a couple of surveys. Spent £1.60 on lunch but have made packed lunches tonight for the next 2 days. So hopefully a couple of NSDs coming up.....

Payday on Friday, wooooooo!

Cloudy456

I had a NSD wow, first one for a while!!! Made lunch and took to work, then tonight I went to a wine tasting thing with a friend which was free, then home for dinner from the freezer. Did a few surveys, and my Valued Opinions account finally hit the £10 mark so I requested a Tesco voucher which should get me a few days groceries next month. I also have about £6 of credits waiting to be credited to the account, so hopefully I'll be up to another £10 soon. Other than that, not a lot to report. Still no news on the pay review...
Also had an email to say the money from Music Magpie is on its way, only about a fiver but every little helps and really hoping it arrives by Thursday so I can count it in this month's totals. Only 2 more days to go until payday!!

Cloudy456

Feeling a bit down tonight...I managed to spend £7.95 this afternoon on drinks and ice cream watching football. Its so easy and hardly a large amount yet I am now kicking myself so much for it! I just so want to be out of this hole and able to look to the future without this stone around myself, yet I feel ashamed of being moany as I know I only have myself to blame! Oh well, as usual I will draw a line under it and not dwell on it. I had a nice afternoon in the sun and it wasn't a huge amount *sigh*.

Anyway, I am staying in this evening, dinner from the freezer is in the oven as I type. I don't have any food I can make for lunch tomorrow so I will be buying something and also need dinner tomorrow night. But I've managed to go the whole week without buying food this far, so not bad. Just looking forward to being able to update my signature tomorrow night. Hopefully no more slip ups, and I will be about £200 lower than this time last month...

Cloudy456

Last day of the month so I've updated my signature in time for being paid tomorrow (yay!)

I was hoping to clear £200 this month but haven't quite made it. I'm still owed £13 by my sister and £5 from Music Magpie is somewhere on its way to me, but I haven't counted those in my totals until I actually have them, that's another of my many rules! So under the 11k mark which is nice, but soooo far still to go! I've reached 5% now, hopefully then next 5% will be achieved a lot quicker! Almost all of what I have cleared has been in the last 2 months, even though my LBM was officially February, so if I keep going at this rate or better (which is the plan) I should get to 10% cleared in 2-3 months. Hopefully 2!

Eager_Elephant

Hi Cloudy

Just read your diary and subscribed - what an up and down journey you have been on for the last few months!!

I can really empathise with you, I am really struggling to clear my debts, I can't afford much more than the minimum payments, according to the snowball calculator the Barclaycard will never be paid off if all I pay is the minimum payment (basically it will take 147 years to clear!!) :eek:

EE

Cloudy456

Phew...what a weekend! Hen do was brilliant fun, helped massively by totally amazing weather! I had budgeted £150 for the whole weekend including accommodation, food and drink and all activities and I ended up spending £138 including a top I bought for £8. So not too bad! I came home to find my music magpie cheque waiting so I'll pay that in to the bank tomorrow (only £4.79 but every little helps!)

I've been recording all my spending since Friday and am getting used to the spending diary again so will definitely be keeping it up this month. I need to get food and some toiletries tomorrow, but am not expecting too much of an expensive week as not got much planned at the moment. So fingers crossed for this month so far, feeling quite optimistic! That's all for now, horribly hungover and I can hardly type straight!!