Squizz's Fizzy Diary

redsquirrel80

Morning!

F&F agreed by email, just waiting for a letter to confirm it then I'll be paying off a nearly £1000 debt with £600

Counselling has an 8 week waiting list, so I've put my name down. They do have a telephone counselling service which I could use now, but I don't like phoning people so that doesn't really help!

Made some good progress on my essay last night - still at the planning stage but I think I know what angle I'm taking now. Would rather be at home doing that today I think.. yawn...

Karmacat

Fantastic news on the F&F! What gave you the impetus to do that, Squizz?

redsquirrel80

Erm... not sure really! I was checking my balances and thought, why not give it a try - desperate to get away from the DCAs and if I could save a bit of money in the process... didn't think it would be so easy actually! I originally offered them £450, they said no we want £770, I offered £600 and they said yes

It does mean that I need to delay my teaching course by a couple of months, so I can save up, but I actually think that might be a good move anyway as I'm still getting into the swing of studying for the OU course.

Karmacat

Fantastic! Why not, indeed ... just think if we applied that to the rest of our lives ....

The_Dragon

Well done Squizz :j, does this mean you are debt free?

redsquirrel80

The_Dragon wrote: »

Well done Squizz :j, does this mean you are debt free?

I wish! Sadly not.. see signature for the full boring details

Hopefully on route to get rid of it this year though

The_Dragon

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

I wish! Sadly not.. see signature for the full boring details

Hopefully on route to get rid of it this year though

Ah!! Oh well at least this is a good start

redsquirrel80

It is indeed Dragon, and it means I'm only dealing with one DCA (for two debts) and a bank (overdraft).

Hooray it's Friday! Should be having a fairly quiet day at work, and looking forward to a good lie in tomorrow. Mr S is working from home today and was still in bed when I left - so unfair!

Bank account is a little bit :eek: after buying my mum's birthday present, train tickets etc this month, have £250 left and 15 days to payday (at least it's a short month!). Will be spending a bit next weekend when my friend is visiting, but I might try to budget £100 for that weekend, and touch as little of the rest as I can.

I think I need a 'luxuries' budget for the coming months if I'm going to sort these debts out. Need to think about what is included in that though and how much it should be. I'm thinking things like clothes, books, any sort of 'treats'...

Finally, exciting news from second job of a possible trip abroad - it was mentioned a while back but it is actually happening now, just need to figure out if I can manage to go

shezam

Morning Squiz (and other regulars!)

Hope you don't mind me butting in on your diary but i've been reading since page 1. (found myself bored one afternoon and i'm now hooked!)

Squiz I must say you've done brilliantly with your debt. What an inspiration to anyone with money problems.

I'm not in very much debt, but I am rubbish with my money. I spent my whole months wage (after bills etc) in 4 days last week on nothing but meals out, taxi's, some new clothes, coffee's etc and now I have .62p in my bank account untill 28th of this month.

Not so bad as my partner Mr M gets weekly pay so I can survive on money from him throughout the month. But I really need to get my spending in check.

Like I said hope you don't mind me butting in on your diary but I like reading it and am hoping to pick up some pointers to spending less etc.

at the moment my debt/finances look like this:

£300 overdraft with Alliance & Leicester (this is always in the red as I never pay anything of it, I know its really bad, should really be paying something to this every month)
£308 littlewoods (I make the minimum payments each month and there is no interested to be added to this)

£1000 pay everymonth
£320 rent
£100 debt to Dad
£30 gym membership

It actually isn't very bad when I write it down but I have shocked myself by spending it all in the first weekend afterpayday with nothing to show for it.

Anyways just needed to ramble on. Maybe I woulod be better starting my own diary as I can see me updating alot.

Once again Squiz sorry for butting in! x
Shezam xxx

redsquirrel80

Hi Shezam, nice to 'meet' you Feel free to ramble in here anytime you like!

It sounds like you might find a spending diary helpful - write down everything you spend for a month and find out where it all goes. One meal out doesn't look like much but if you have a lot during the month the total can be quite scary! Maybe you need to think about why you spend too - I'm very aware that I do it sometimes to make myself feel better or try to fill some sort of 'gap' in life. It's only really a quick fix though and ends up being a vicious circle if you get into debt and then get down about that.

Is your A&L account the one you generally use or a separate one. Just thinking it might be good to get your wages paid into a different account and set up a standing order for a set amount per month to clear the overdraft?

Anyway, just some thoughts... good luck with it all and do stick around xx