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

dirtyepic

Morning Diary,

The weather up here is absolutely gorgeous so today I am going to make more of an effort to get out and enjoy it a little bit.

Holiday update:
- Holiday definitely to be cancelled.
- Awaiting letter from doctor and from physio
- Insurance claim then to be succesfully sorted out
- Holiday leave to be cancelled from work and rescheduled
- I have to stop sulking in private and get on with it
- Me and Baldy have discussed maybe going away for a week in December before Christmas or even after Christmas - all depending upon whether my manager will allow me any holidays

Finance update:
- Luckily I am still on full pay
- Pension now resumed and as from this month is being taken from my wages
- Very difficult to maintain the £550-£600 repayment to credit card
- Received new BT credit card and to transfer my outstanding asap. Unfortunately I have requested a credit limit that is too low and I would've preferred to transfer the whole lot over but can't actually do so. So I'm back up to two credit cards! Both with 0% mind!


PAD x 7 (this is currently going into a savings account online and once builds up going to pay off credit card)
NSD Sun/Mon/
LSD Tues £5.98 for two beers/Wed £1.48 for painkillers
£5 a day - Sun £11/Mon £13/Tues £13/Wed £43

Paypal transfers:
Now this is going to have to be reviewed. I am transferring from Paypal to my ebay bank account every time I reach £50. I use this money for paypal and ebay fees, for postage and usually for any packaging materials that I need. This is also used as my spending money throughout the month (wages usually for bills, debt repayments). I think I need to start to save the paypal cash too and will have to find a way to cut back even more. Thinking caps on!!!

Transfers during September
12.09.11 £50
15.09.11 £50
22.09.11 £50
29.09.11 £50

If I had been going on holiday all of this money should've been going towards my spending money. I don't actually have any of this money left!

Moneysaving updates:
No hols means that we aren't spending any money!
Sister has 'donated' a lovely rug for our front room which I hope looks lovely against the old floor boards
Weightwatchers goal weight will hopefully be achieved this week and I will be able to save myself £20 per month (finger's crossed!)
- I am going to attempt to make myself some clothes, even though all I have are 'holiday clothes' ideas and fabric at least there'll be something for me to wear when the time actually comes!

Moneymaking ideas:
I have 'made'/'created' a whole load of items which I am hoping may be a money making scheme for the future. Not expecting to make my millions but a little bit more towards getting rid of my debt for now then onto building up to use as an alternative source of income on a part time basis.
I have a few more ideas but awaiting the assistance of my sister and some further instruction on how to use her mount cutting equipment

Right now, I am off to have a bath then get myself ready for my hair appointment. This usually perks me up no end. I love it when they change my unruly mop of fading red/cerise coloured hair to a very sleek bob with a strong fringe in the must stunning of reds!

Going to contact the Community Association to see if I can pop through there this afternoon to discuss the draft newsletter that I sent to them for comments.

TO DO (max 5 items at a time)
Bath
Hair
Contact CA re: newsletter
Washing in
Calculate max amount of credit card debt to be paid off this month

TADA
Bought giffgaff phone package
Paid into Joint Account
Paid for Baldy's birthday present
Paid credit card purchases this month
Paid credit card min payment
Diary

I'm feeling more positive now that I have written down my good things for today and what I am going to do. It's all good surely in the long term.

Till later,

dirtyepic

Please find below the 'not so good' entry onto this page of my diary. Didn't want it to spoil my positive thoughts and make anyone think that it's all doom and gloom! Cos it's not.


Back update:
- Still in the same amount of discomfort and pain as ever.
- Exercises going well
- Painkillers are being used more regularly
- MRI scan next week, 04.10.11
- Orth Surgeon follow up appointment 02.11.11
- C&C meeting was as revealing as expected. I have agreed to follow the OH report recommendations - return to work after 3 sessions of physio. Manager and HR won't agree to follow all of their recommendations. They do agree to 1 month's phased return to work (half time initially leading to full time after 4 weeks). They will not agree to 2 or 3 months no travel for me because, 'that's part of my role.' So now because of this and because my doctor cannot treat me any further until the results of the MRI scan are available I have now been given a two month sick note. Due to return to work on 28 November.

dirtyepic

Okay then

I have just updated my signature and have realised that I am so close to reaching the 50% debt repaid milestone.

I have to do that before the 1 year anniversary of my lbm.

So now to calculate the amount that I have to pay to get there. This may take a while!

Hopefully this will be a flash of inspiration and I will get it done without having to add to the To Do list and it will be put straight on the TADA list!!!

Oooh. Positive all the way today methinks!

dirtyepic

Done! I have just paid another £20 off the bc credit card and that brings me to the nice round figure of 50% of my debt paid in 50 weeks. Yay!!!

I will update my signature a little bit later to indicate this.

Yay!! Again.

dirtyepic

Oops for some reason I am unable to change my type from bold to roman so just to let you know I'm not shouting this!!

Well how pleased am I with myself?

Paid another £20 off the credit card and it's taken me over the 50% paid up milestone.

Yippee!!

I really must work really hard to get the final 50% paid off in record time.

Tomorrow morning I will be popping over to the flea market with my pal for our usual Friday morning dander around South Shields for bargains and inspiration. This will be a low spend day.

Today's been a good day, positive and sunny. All I have spent is my usual hair costs (£38) plus tip plus charity donation. In total £42.50.

TADA
Bought giffgaff phone package
Paid into Joint Account
Paid for Baldy's birthday present
Paid credit card purchases this month
Paid credit card min payment
Diary
Bath
Hair
Newsletter review appt made
Updated signature
Made firelighters from shredded old bank statements
Walk (20 mins)
Exercises (x 4)
Ebay packaged
Paypal transferred

Right! I'm continuing the ebay packaging and watching Educating Essex at the same time and looking forward to a good, productive Friday too.

G'night all

dirtyepic

Good Morning Diary

I am in a bit of a mellow place at the moment and think that maybe this is the calm before the storm. Although at this moment I have no idea what the storm could be.

I had a busy day yesterday even though we had an electricity power cut from around 6am to 12.45pm.

I managed to get all of my 'Sunday' items on ebay. Sounds a bit odd that doesnt it? What I really mean is I have a pile of things that I set out to get listed every Sunday and yesterday, for the first time in ages, I achieved it! So instead of playing catch up today, I will try and get extra items on to boost the pennies.

Unfortunately, due to the power cut our house alarm is now not able to reset and we have the engineer coming to visit tonight and I expect that will cost us. Not only in his call out fee but also he is going to have to pull up the lovely new carpet on the upstairs landing to access some equipment. Grrrrrrr!!

Oh and also I have been bitten on my legs and arm and it's a flea bite. Now we found one flea and disposed of it, hoovered around and washed everything then bought some spray from the vets and sprayed as instructed. Then last night I found another bite on my leg and it's an awful feeling. We have no pets, we don't allow any to come in our house, we have only 3 carpets in the whole house. I think it's in the bedroom which has polished floorboards and this makes it a whole lot more uncomfortable for me as I am unable to relax and fall asleep with the thought of a flea in the bed!!! Imagination probably running wild here! So I think its another spray today.

My first five things to do today:
- Go to dr's to collect letter
- Call Travel Insurance company and find out what they need and what I need to do to cancel our holiday (insert extremely sad and bursting into tears smiley here!)
- first wash to go on line to second wash in
- exercises
- spray around bedroom again

TADA so far:
- exercises
- washing all sorted
- one wash in (just finished)


Financial thoughts:
- October was going to be a big spend month for us but now the holidays are not going to happen I have decided it's going to be a frugal month for me, although it's my Baldy's birthday in a couple of weeks and I have to order a magazine subscription for him - Moneysaving style of course and I will look for a good deal with maybe a free gift thrown in for good measure, via Quidco!
- I want to achieve 15 x NSD for October
- I want to make at least £5 a day for October (totalling an extra £155 cash hopefullY)
- I don't want to spend any money on clothes in October
- No further toiletries required therefore nothing to be spent in Boots/Superdrug etc
- I want to lose this extra flipping lb during October to get me to my goal weight to save me £20 per month at WW. I will continue to attend my WW meetings every Saturday morning
- I will have to phone my new c/c to activate then request a higher amount for my BT. I have no idea whether this will wash with them but it's got to be worth a try.
- Must transfer my £1-PAD to the little savings account I have running.

My trip to the flea market on Friday was rather a fruitful one.

I managed to pick up 6 x wooden frames to stretch some nice fabric (which I will have to find soon) over for £2.

I also found a carrier bag full of vintage 1960s sewing patterns, most of which have never been used, for £1 for the lot!!! Amazing!

I was most moneysaving with this megamoneysaving find.

My friend's daughter was with me and she very kindly gave me her GCSE maths textbooks, because I am embarrassingly still sans maths qualification, and I gave her first pick of whichever patterns she wanted. So she chose half a dozen, a couple of 1960's sewing mags and in the end I was left with about another 30 patterns PLUS two maths books!

What a great day.

Now I just need to find some good quality bright fabric to create some lovely pictures (hopefully to sell in the future)

Oh and I have now found and thoroughly enjoying the Shabby Chic Volume III thread. Crikey! How good are they on there? I have new ideas now popping up in my head every hour or so and have to keep writing stuff down!

Actually, enough of this chattering, it looks rather bleak out there so must get out to the dr's to collect the letter.

I hope to be as motivated and to catch up with you all a bit later.

Dirtyepic

dirtyepic

Hi again

Okay then today's TADAs!

Financial:
Balance is transferred - unfortunately a smaller amount than first planned and that means I am back up to two cards again but that's kind of inspired me to work even harder to pay off the original card. The new one has a 0% BT for 15 months and will refund half of the transfer fee in April which is good for me - every little helps and all that! (approx £640 to clear from original card!!)
MSE Tart Alert - set up to remind me 6 weeks before the offer expires (but I KNOW that I will be debt free months before that!)
Travel Insurance - ensured that I am covered to claim back all of our travel costs for our holidays (again GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!) obviously except the excess of £50 per person. Oh yeah and probably flight surcharges and taxes won't completely be covered.
Bank - checked and up to date
PAD - £1 per day paid to my little savings account connected to my ebay current account
Credit card - a further £200 paid off nasty old BC and still about £200 to find this month to keep my planned payments of £550 per month off my debts
Snowball updated - still showing 9 months before I am debt free and I really am wanting that to get down to 8 months soon!!

Massive fail on NSD today as I saw a Mac Magazine with a whole section on how to maintain and clear my little mac which I really need advice on. So I am £4.99 down. But I do have another £5.01 out of my weekly £10 pocket money that I allow myself. Which I hope will hold out until Flea Market Friday.

- dr's to collect letter
- exercises
- spray around bedroom again
- exercises
- washing all sorted
- 3 loads washed and dried

So my To Do list of 5 things for this evening:
- Ironing
- contact ebay customers to let them know their items are en route
- 5 items on ebay
- clear kitchen after tea
- read Mac Magazine and start to work on my laptop to make it run better

Oh dear, I have been looking around my bedroom furniture and picturing it all shabby chic'd! It's something I never thought I would want in my bedroom but then I really want a shot of doing it!!

Right, it's now Monday evening and that means ironing and soaps!!

Got a little pile of ironing to get cracking with and that will keep my mind off money and food and holidays and back pain!

I hope everyone is well and keeping up with their debt busting business!

Till tomorrow I hope

dirtyepic

ps off to update my signature now

dirtyepic

Hello diary, I am feeling rather bad for not being on and updating what's happening with my current predicament.

I actually still think that someone who is in a position of authority may be dipping in and trying to catch me out on a big reveal so I am seriously considering opening a new id on MSE.

He knows who he is.

I have had rather weird facebook friend suggestions for the very gentleman and we have absolutely no connections on facebook and I find it rather a bit weird that he is looking for my facebook updates. Luckily I am fully secure and he won't be able to read any of my pages.

So this is the reason why I haven't been giving my diary my full attention.

In fact it's cheesed me off so much I haven't really read or kept up with anyone elses.

Must get my head back into gear and crack on with the rest of my life.

Just to let you know, the back situation isn't really improving. I am still in constant pain throughout the day which means I am not 100% to go back to work as my manager won't agree to a few months of no driving after my month's phased return to work. So if I do go back I will be back on the road after one month.

I am following all medical advice to the letter: painkillers 4 times daily, exercises every 3 hours, 20 mins at the gym as often as I can, stepping up the walking, keeping active, cushion under my legs when sitting or sleeping.

Anyway, if any of my old readers have stuck with me, 'hello again'. I am not my usual self these days but still following my counsellor's advice which is still working.

I will update another day with financial issues etc but this may be with another alias!

Till later on then, I have a tea to cook (fish, pesto wrapped in parma home with veg and potatoes that have just been picked from the tubs in the yard), ironing to do and soaps to watch.

dirtyepic

lionheartedgirl

thinking of you and sending cheerful healing thoughts. I'll send you a PM

to whoever is reading and playing secret squirrels....shame on you.

dirtyepic

Okay then,

Thanks to LHG and the matrix thread again I have given myself a bit of a shake and a kick up the behind!

I have checked my credit card balances and have spent on them this month, because I could and that's the only reason.

I have paid this off and paid a couple of hundred off the balance transfer but feel rather sheepish about allowing myself to be tempted into spending on the credit card. Don't get me wrong, it's been only for bits and pieces knowing that they could be paid off at the end of the month but this is not how I want to be. Again.

I think the bad back situation is really playing with me.

I need to pull my socks up and get back on track and I will do.

I have decided to change my MSE name and register as a new person and re-invent myself and hope that the person who is spying on me is happy with himself. I know and I have dates from when you first started.

I am still thinking of my new name and I have been given the idea of starting a blog (thanks LHG - this is a serious thought and will let you know!) so for now I will finish this thread with the following:

Since starting this debt free diary, my achievements have been:
- Paid over 50% of my debt
- Lost 22lbs in weight and learned how to manage my weight and eating habits
- Successfully recovered from over 20 years of diagnosed depression and stress
- Controlled my anxiety issues
- Learned how to sew
- Learned how to make pretty things!
- Learned who I am and realise that I am a good person and as a person I shouldn't allow other people to shape, influence or manipulate me or my decisions.
- I now think a lot more positive that before (I think that has shown throughout my diary)
- Learned how to take half decent photograph
- Learned how to take control of all aspects of my life, maintain the control and get POSITIVE!!!


That's my achievement list from the top of my head and seeing it down as a list I'm quite pleased! Thanks to all who have contributed and commented and contacted me. You're all lovely and very inspirational.

So I will be flitting off to reinvent myself and I may see some of you in my new thread and hopefully the people I wish to avoid will manage to stay away from me. I don't want you in my life, at all. Please go away and spoil someone else's day!

Bye all, good luck to those who are out to crack the debt etc. I'm still joining in!

Dirtyepic