Dirty's hoping it's not too late to mend her ways......

dirtyepic

Once upon a time there was a girl, in the North of the fair country we call England, who was not very responsible with her hard earned pennies. She learned a very hard lesson and it affected all parts of her life - emotionally, mentally, physically and especially financially and she swore that she would never let this happen again. Unfortuately she was not a strong girl and after 10 whole years she found herself realising, yet again, the error of her ways and her weakness in managing her finances ............

Here's my attempt at my own diary and to tell you the truth I have been so rubbish at maintaining my finances and my numerous lbm over the past couple of years I don't have much faith in myself to keep a diary either.

I have been inspired (and gladly distracted!) by other debt free diaries on this forum, mainly Dinah93 and jtr2803 (and Keza has been recommended throughout), that I now want and hope to sort my sorry state of affairs out for good.

I am currently sitting at my desk in my pokey little office in a depressing 1960s office block in the centre of Newcastle.

I guess from that statement you will already know that I really dislike my job. I work for the public sector and we are currently going through a period of uncertainty, there have been two rounds of redundancy since I started here in June 2009 and we find out at the end of the year if our 'division' will still continue to perform under the public sector or will be disbanded or given to private sector. We have quite a lot of travelling to do and this is going to increase drastically over the next few months to prove that we are self-sufficient unit and we are worth keeping!!! AAaaaaagh!! This is everything that I despise about a job and can't believe I have ended up in such a position. I decided to have a career change about 6 years ago from the creative graphic design/typesetting background that I had worked at since the age of 17 to Health and Safety. I am now totally regretting this and realise that I must live with my actions until I am in a financial position to not totally depend on my current wage and be able to take a reduction. I am actively looking for work as I feel that the jobs market is actually picking up a little bit and hope that I will soon be away from here!

I am 42 years old and very happily married to a wonderful, honest, hardworking man who I have known since I was about 13 years old. We got together, as a couple, after I returned from living and working and London in 1999 and have had a few minor ups and downs (much less than any other relationship I have ever been in!) but are solid and I look forward to going home every night to see him and spend time with him.

We have one massive difference - I am rubbish with money and he is not. He is the saver and in control of the housekeeping purse strings.

As a couple we have no debt and pay everything on time and not defaulted on anything on our 11 years together we have a small amount of savings and are in process of renovating our 130 year old victorian terraced home.

On the other hand I am personally rubbish with money, have had really bad experiences in the past and have built up a bit of debt, which is controllable but I really really want to prove to myself that I can get rid of it. He knows I have debt but not the extent and I am afraid to tell him as he will feel I have lied to him by building this up after promising that I wouldn't a few years ago. I am ashamed that this has happened and would do anything to not upset him so this is why I am trying to rid myself by any means at all (legal ones of course!)

I feel like I am rambling on a bit here describing me and my life without actually getting to the point.

RIGHT!!

This is what I am doing.

- I have snowballed and have 30 months to my debt free day - I want to reduce this drastically and need all the advice I can get to do this

- I have all of my credit card debt on 0% at the moment. This is my only debt.

- I am allowing myself £10 per week to spend for anything that I need or want (this includes coffees, beer, magazines, lunches, newspapers, toiletries, treats) - I have done this previously and very successfully. At the end of the week any change left in my purse goes into my money boxes!

- A payment a day - I was rubbish at this previously and am determined to keep it up for one month to see what dents I can make into my mountain of debt.

- I use quidco for any online purchases but that's all currently on hold

- I am not buying any more clothes or toiletries until I really need them. No more clothes until 2011 (but I do need a winter hat but that can wait)

- I am building up my ebay empire!!! Hahahahaha! I am dedicating two evenings a week to ebay - this is totally achievable and I have managed this in the past but due to an extremely busy summer this has lapsed a bit.

RIGHT!!

This is what I want to do and need advice from anyone who may be reading this (although due to the number of really interesting debt free diaries on here I kinda think that this is a bit of a waste of space unless I actually achieve something).

- daily clickthroughs. I used to do pigsback every day but that got rubbish and I stopped. Is it still worth it? Who else can I use?

- daily scratchcards. Can anyone point me in the right direction for these please?

- competitions. I need a kick up the rear to start on the comping and any advice on tips etc would be really appreciated

- matched betting. I started this about 3 years ago and stopped so I now don't know who I am registered with and who I can register with and is it worth starting again as I know how much work this involves?

Probably at the moment one thing at a time is best for me and introduce small changes that will make a difference so I will take on board any advice at the moment from anyone.

Well I am going to try and enjoy my Friday, the sun is currently shining and I am alone in my office listening to 6music on my phone Yay!!! The sun will be poking through the windows of my office at about 3.30pm so looking forward to the sun and the heat on my back!

Now which payment will I do today for my PAD challenge????

dirtyepic

ps one day I may include my debt as my signature at the bottom but until I know my husband won't be reading this I don't think I can

dirtyepic

Ooh I feel a lot better about writing my situation down. It is making it all 'real' and 'official'.

I haven't actually wrote about all of the things going on in my life at the moment but I am sure throughout the course of this diary snippets will be revealed!

I have contacted all of my credit cards to find out if making extra payments throughout the month will affect the direct debit payments that I have for each of them. Only nationwide is the problematic one! I have to remember to make any additional payments after the 'due' date and before the 'statement date'! So I think I might have to keep my 'payment a day' collected and make it a once a month occurrence for them.

Now for my list of things to do this weekend:

• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning
• list 5 more items
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
• 3 loads of washing
• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures.

dirtyepic

Problems out of me head and onto me page. Not as bad as I first thought.

Unfortunately getting used to typing properly on my phone is taking some time. But at least I am stuck to my laptop yet again and the phone can be used again when I am at work.

So my current list is:

[STRIKE]• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning[/STRIKE]
• list 5 more items
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
• 3 loads of washing
[STRIKE]• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account[/STRIKE]
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures
• my payment a day for today

strike two off, add another.

The shape of things to come?

Tomorrow will bring further additions, but looking forward to striking them off one by one.

I am totally enjoying this weekend so far, even if the weather is going a bit mad outside. Currently blazing sunshine then all of a sudden torrential shower, so long as it disappears for Sunday morning for a pal's 40th birthday celebrations - at Go Ape!!! Hahaha!

Got to get as much done this weekend so that if I injure myself on Sunday I have an easy day on Monday.

I can smell the lovely Thai Green Curry that the lovely husband is knocking together downstairs. Can't wait for me tea! If there's a bottle of beer in the fridge might even celebrate the beginning of the weekend with a shandy!

Well, till I can remove more information from me head to me page, see you later Diary.

savingholmes

welcome to diaryland - just wanted to wish you good luck on your journey.

The Make £10 a day challenge on the DFW board or the Matched betting thread on the gambling board are probably the best places for advice on increasing your income!

dirtyepic

savingholmes wrote: »

welcome to diaryland - just wanted to wish you good luck on your journey.

The Make £10 a day challenge on the DFW board or the Matched betting thread on the gambling board are probably the best places for advice on increasing your income!

Hi Savingholmes

Thanks! Yeah I think the matched betting maybe worth getting back into. I am away for work for a week during September so may get reading up on it again then.

I think making the £10 a day challenge is a bit hard but will look into it. I see by your signature that you are a professional! So I can look to you for inspiration and aspiration.

It's going to be a long hard slog but today's the first day and this diary is my first step.

My to-do list:

[STRIKE]• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning[/STRIKE]
• list 5 more items
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
• 3 loads of washing 1 load done, 2 to go but nowhere to dry!
[STRIKE]• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account[/STRIKE]
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures
[STRIKE]• my payment a day for today and the weekend![/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]• email ebay buyer in US[/STRIKE]
• continue with my diary!
• 5 x yougov surveys

Off to watch big brother - enjoying the celebs squirm in the company of John McCririck. Loving the tree of temptation and would love it in my house!

I am happy with my healthy, free of bad carbs, eating plan at the moment and also with my water intake. I could possible do with exercising so maybe, if the weather is okay in the morning I might have a walk down to the allotment to do a bit of weeding between the taties!

If not, if the weather is still very unreliable, I will head into Newcastle to visit the Viz exhibition again at the Lit and Phil Library.

I love weekends, me!!

Night, night diary, thanks for your support today. Day one is over, bring on day two!

whatatwit

Hi, I'm in the same boat with the matched betting....I've still got some money in betfair and I'm sure elsewhere, but I can't find my spreadsheet that had it all on

Let me know if you fancy a bit of MB challenge/buddy.

Have subscribed to the diary there is no escape.

dirtyepic

whatatwit wrote: »

Hi, I'm in the same boat with the matched betting....I've still got some money in betfair and I'm sure elsewhere, but I can't find my spreadsheet that had it all on

Let me know if you fancy a bit of MB challenge/buddy.

Have subscribed to the diary there is no escape.

Hi whatawit!

Cheers for the support and yep, I will have to find my spreadsheet which contained all the details of betfair, bank details, which bookies I have joined etc etc.

Will let you know if I ever do find it and maybe we can encourage each other to keep it up next time

I have woken up this morning feeling a bit urgghhh, due to mother nature doing her stuff in a rather overbearing way! So I am having a little bit of a lie in watching Heir Hunters on the 'Watch' channel. Would love that job! Or even someone doing that job knocking at my door with a bit of good news. Realistically neither of them are going to happen so back to the frugal ways for me.

I am enjoying chatting to my diary and just had to add to it really early this morning, just to make sure that I get the stuff straight from my head to my 'to do' list.

So before I get distracted here goes for today:

My to-do list:

[STRIKE]• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning[/STRIKE]
• list 5 more items
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
[STRIKE]• 3 loads of washing[/STRIKE] 1 load done, 2 to go but nowhere to dry!
[STRIKE]• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account[/STRIKE]
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures
[STRIKE]• my payment a day for today and the weekend!
• email ebay buyer in US
[/STRIKE]• continue with my diary!
• 5 x yougov surveys
[STRIKE]• check junk mail box and complete any comps and surveys[/STRIKE]
• copy all wedding photos from last weekend onto DVD
• weed front garden and start digging the 'bad soil' away
• clear all pots and compost from back garden
• trip to the tip with garden rubbish
• go to post office with ebay parcels
• check for any further ebay sales

I was going to attempt a NSD today but I think that is verging on the ridiculous! Bank Holiday weekend and I want to relax and enjoy my weekend so I when I head to the Post Office to post my ebay parcels (x 6) I think I will still indulge in a nice bar of chocolate and the Guardian to read after my breakfast using the £1 coins that are left in my purse.

Then it's 'get down to the hard work'.

Lovely husband is heading into Newcastle to return a few items and get his best pal a 40th birthday card and gift. We are all heading to Go Ape tomorrow to celebrate and he has no idea! Apparently the birthday boy may have to do the whole course in a gorilla suit, which would be brilliant! We are then meeting up, 22 of us, for a meal and drinks tomorrow night (if still in one piece!) to continue the celebrations. It will be a very expensive meal and drinks and, even though I love going out with all of our pals, I find it very difficult to keep up the lifestyle that we have all enjoyed for such a long time. I have all the intentions of taking the car and abstaining from alcohol but I may just change my mind after the events up the trees tomorrow morning!

So here goes, let's get this day started.......

Probably pop here again later today.

RoseRed

I'm the same, I need to get my plans out of my head and onto paper or I have no chance!

I'm sure you'll have a great time at Go Ape, I really want to give it a go. Looks like great fun.

dirtyepic

RoseRed wrote: »

I'm the same, I need to get my plans out of my head and onto paper or I have no chance!

I'm sure you'll have a great time at Go Ape, I really want to give it a go. Looks like great fun.

Hahaha, me and my husband are the oldest people in our group at 42!! The youngest is mid 30s so I don't think we will be the quickest around the course!! I will more than likely update tomorrow with the Go Ape stories!

My planned day is all over the place at the moment. I have been in and out 4 times with the washing already, had to have the heating on then the sun beams in through all of the windows and the house is now like a sauna even though the heating was only on for about 20 mins and has been off for an hour now!

Don't think I will be able to sort the garden or yard or allotment out today so they might wait until Monday, unless we decide to go out for the day. Who knows?

My spend for the day is:
£1.90 Newspaper
£1 large of bar of cadbury's
£1.40 cream cakes for us both (only because two people have mentioned fresh cream eclairs in separate occasions over the past two days and I couldn't get it out of my head, so I ate mine and it was too rich and I have suffered since!)

I won't be spending any more until tomorrow now.

[STRIKE]• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning[/STRIKE]
• list 5 more items
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
[STRIKE]• 3 loads of washing [STRIKE]1 load done, 2 to go but nowhere to dry![/STRIKE][/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account[/STRIKE]
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures
[STRIKE]• my payment a day for today and the weekend!
• email ebay buyer in US[/STRIKE]
• continue with my diary!
• 5 x yougov surveys
[STRIKE]• check junk mail box and complete any comps and surveys[/STRIKE]
• copy all wedding photos from last weekend onto DVD
• weed front garden and start digging the 'bad soil' away
• clear all pots and compost from back garden
• trip to the tip with garden rubbish
[STRIKE]• go to post office with ebay parcels
• check for any further ebay sales[/STRIKE]
• put telly on freecycle
• put tiles and adhesive on ebay/loot
• empty fridge and clean out completely, put all removable items in dishwasher


Am I being too diary enthusiastic? I dunno how long this will last but I am quite enjoying my offloading my thoughts and small daily achievements onto my diary.

Anyway, diary, I am going to get cracking with some pottering and working through my never ending list (which I am not going to add any more to today). 6music is tremendous this afternoon. Loving Liz Kershaw's choice of tunes today, lots of Leftfield, some Stone Roses and a bit of drum and bass at the moment getting my toe tapping.

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary
Keep posting!

dirtyepic

Well there's the end of day 2 at diaryland!

I did spend more than I expected as I promised to get some tickets for a festival in Sunderland for myself, my husband and my friend till they get paid so its really not a big spend cos it'll all be coming back soon.

Had a really lovely night in with the bald one (my husband aka Baldy!) we have been promising ourself a quiet night, watching a film, with a pizza and some sweeties!

I can't usually watch films all of the way through but its a very big favourite of mine, This is England and I managed to stay awake even though I have seen it 3 times now! Can't wait for the Channel 4 series starting in September.

So I am off to bed now happy that I have managed to list 5 items on ebay and sold one already! Paid my PAD yesterday and spent less than a fiver on myself on a Saturday!

Probably wont be a prolific with the diary tomorrow due to a massive 40th birthday celebration starting at 10am!

Here's my list so far anyway, to keep me on the straight and narrow!!

[STRIKE]• Package eBay items for postage on sat morning
• list 5 more items[/STRIKE]
• make wedding card and envelope for friends
[STRIKE]• 3 loads of washing 1 load done, 2 to go but nowhere to dry!
• check bank account
• transfer my money to housekeeping account[/STRIKE]
• clear away at least one pile of clutter in my little workroom/office
• organise inaugural date for our small sewing circle
• cut mounting board to fit small picture frames for my workroom pictures
[STRIKE]• my payment a day for today and the weekend!
• email ebay buyer in US[/STRIKE]
• continue with my diary!
• 5 x yougov surveys
[STRIKE]• check junk mail box and complete any comps and surveys[/STRIKE]
• copy all wedding photos from last weekend onto DVD
• weed front garden and start digging the 'bad soil' away
• clear all pots and compost from back garden
• trip to the tip with garden rubbish
[STRIKE]• go to post office with ebay parcels
• check for any further ebay sales[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]• put telly on freecycle[/STRIKE]
• put tiles and adhesive on ebay/loot
• empty fridge and clean out completely, put all removable items in dishwasher

Goodnight diary and all who may be dipping in and out. Onwards and upwards to Day 3.