A sense of the past explains the present and foretells the future

saorsie

Well clearly I must have got lost in the loft as it's been quite a while!

Thought I must come back to the diary as a mark of respect for the demise of the free BB scratchie - RIP sniff. However in true MSE style - refused to allow my £9.20 to be forfeited and decided to go for broke on the slots, managed to win £25 :j :j :j but it went into bonus cash and wouldn't let me withdraw, so wagered a crisp virtual fiver on DOND, lost miserably but was then allowed to withdraw and have had an e mail this morning confirming. Soooooo though I am sad to see them go, I have gone out with a bang and sneaked an additional tenner out of them in addition to the £9.20 - result!

Have nearly stashed enough to pay for my car repairs next week, may just need to skim some from other pots prior to payday on 25th to make up the last few pounds

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or I could always wait and hope that the repair bill comes in at less than the estimated £350 yet somehow I would find that less satisfying than having saved up the amount in full and not needing to spend it all I am weird!!

Have my eye on an electric bike on e bay that is considerably less than the £900 I have already saved so we shall see, it would be very nice to be able to shift the surplus elsewhere, probably towards the 'what if fund' <formerly known as emergency fund but we are no longer having those!> which I would like to have 3 months salary in ideally <as all good advice suggests> - anyway, no rush.

Still waiting to hear if my PPI claim from my mortgage will pay out - it has already been passed to the Ombudsman as Y*rksh*re BS computer said no unsurprisingly Hopefully as it is already in situ, it will be still dealt with and fingers crossed I will be one of the 80% who are successful - we shall see

-s-

saorsie

Well the much mourned B*tlins B*ngo has hit my account *ker-ching* so that is a very satisfying £18.91 thank you very much, it has been swept across to the car repair pot before it could get comfortable so sadly that is the end of that.

Once again, red tape is having a laugh, I have to pay £20 apparently to have my driving licence renewed as it's nearly 10 years old! I haven't asked for it to be renewed - am quite happy with my hideous photo thank you very much :cool: Regardless, it obviously needs to be done so the VSP has temporarily been designated as Licence Renewal Pot and some daily account skimming needs to take place until the requisite amount has accumulated, guess I'd better make it up to £25 to accommodate the photo's - at least I can use them for the passport also which I still haven't got round to renewing

ISA has been swapped to the lovely people at F*rst D*rect, however it will probably be on the move again after April 5th to H*lifax who offer an additional 0.2% to reward account customers which I now officially am (and have squeezed my first £5 of reward out of them, by moving money backwards and forwards last month until I has 'paid in' £1000 - well on paper anyway :T

Thinking that the *gg cashback credit card may also need to be gone (I am such a financial product tart nowadays!) after March 2011 in favour of H*lifax Clarity Card which again pays £5 each month that you spend over £300 on it which would probably be doable if I used it for everything (:o can feel the embarrassment already but hey ho - all's fair in MSE love and war :money:) *gg only pays 1% of all purchases and also charges £1 per month for the privlege so I think I would be better off using the Clarity. I like to pay for things using a card rather than cash, it helps me keep track more easily as I just keep the receipts of any spends and move the money via internet banking from whichever pot straight to the account that 'feeds' the credit card monthly payment, it works for me anyway - I'm not a cash girl :cool:

Am also having a little internal battle with myself today about turning the heating on - really want to hold off till November if possible (used to be a forces wife many many years ago and it's ingrained - winter fuel rates ran from October to April <I think> so you risked a humungous bill if you switched it on too early) but it feels mighty chilly this evening - deep breaths (no steam observed yet so obviously not that cold! :eek:) - stay strong!

-s-

saorsie

These organisations never fail to amaze me you know :eek: - allow me to explain my vexation :mad:. I bought some pull on boots from N*xt in the end <as they were fab but that's another story> tried them on in store but then purchased online for store collection via a cashback site (only 40p gained but as we all know - every little helps) I now understand that you have to open a N*xt account in order to shop online which is not a problem in essence and have already paid off the balance in full obviously to avoid the 10 billion % interest charge (and using a cashback CC, another 40p - kerching!), however when checking the account to make sure all was as it should be, they had given me a credit limit of £3600 - how ridiculous, how do they justify that on a £40 spend?:eek: :eek: An e mail has been dutifully dispatched requesting it to be reduced to £500 (just in case I want to buy anything else in the future) - do they have no consideration for my credit report and the impact of adding another chunk of unwanted and unused credit to it?!

Feel sooooo much better now I've got it off my chest, I really have become Mrs Angry of late

-s-

saorsie

Well the gas guzzler is dutifully fixed at a cost of £366 so £16 over estimate however I can live with that and the additional funds have been set aside.

Have had a wee problem over the last week with a nasty little virus having infected my internet baking :eek: - this is all sorted with assistance from the lovely F*rst D*rect and I am well and truely cleansed, however it has meant that *gg have cancelled my cc as a precaution and I'm awaiting the replacement, 3-5 working days - come on *gg as I'm really missing it It has had an interesting side effect in that I have refused to make any non essential purchases (like food!) until I have my new card as I want my 1% cashback!

Amazingly Ricardo and v*rgin b*ngo have once again allowed me to withdraw £10 from their free scratchie so that has gone winging off to the ISA to add to the holiday pot - not particularly saving up for a specific trip but always handy to have a stash available if some excursion opportunity rears it's head.

Well my employers have announced that we will all be receiving a 1% payrise from October 1st so that is an improvement on last years freeze - wonder if the £20 M*S vouchers at christmas will also be reinstated :cool: Was in fact payday yesterday so all virtual pots have been topped up and it all looks very neat & tidy - just the way I like it

-s-

.NoMoney.

As you popped over to my newly created diary to say hi I thought I would take a read through yours in return. Glad to see it has been revived after a short break in the loft.

Not sure how you manage to keep track of so many accounts though, it's a struggle keeping track of the two I have (that I actually use) let alone anymore.

carlos*the*mackem

Hello you! Just popped in to say hi, and to apologise for being away for so long (thanks to work, family commitments & a temperamental broadband connection).

Now I'm back; hope you're well, and hope to hear from you soon.