Lisa's Debt Diary - The Beginning!

lvm

Well, a pretty painless weekend of not doing much apart from baking cakes and betting a little bit.

Managed to steal an Asda receipt from my Mum and got £2.99 through the Price Guarantee. Bought myself a nice bag of oranges and a Fajita kit...unfortunately I was made to buy my Mum some bleach so that got rid of a quid! Can't quite grudge it though as I'll get £1.60 from Shopandscan for it.

Bad news is I think my TV is breaking! Was watching X Factor and thought the people playing the music had got a note wrong - well, when it kept happening I realised it was my TV. The sound kept going really weird - although watching Big Brother just now, there's no problem at all.

Anyway - decided I need a new TV to resolve the problem! And obviously it needs to be quite a nice one so I need to find a way to get about £600 for a nice 42" 3D TV package (hopefully with a Blu-Ray player and free glasses!) Not going to be getting into debt to buy it and certainly won't pay it over time on a credit card - definitely need to just save for it.

God knows how I'm going to find that money though - maybe there'll be some ultra cheap deals in the January sales! Or...I could try and not spend loads of dosh on my hols in London and use that money to put towards a telly.

Anyways...better get off to work out how I'm gonna raise £600! xx

girlatplay

Just before you go thinking you have to get a new TV, I was out on Saturday night so I didn't see x factor but a lot of people who did had problems with the sound. I think it was just a problem at their end rather than ours.

lvm

Oooh...that's good news! I maybe shouldn't have been so quick to start checking new ones out-I've got my heart set on a really high spec one and I could put my current one in my bedroom! Think I've been very strict with spending this year so deserve a wee treat...or a big one rather! No food for me for the rest of the year in order to afford it! X

girlatplay

You have been very strict and you have done very well. Beans on toast is quite good for you :rotfl:

lvm

So, just got my final gas bill at last (still awaiting electricity) and it shows a £148.06 credit. Just realised I've paid £9.68 for gas for about a week - 18 units compared to 1 unit same time last year. Hoping this is down to the time I accidentally had the gas on the cooker on all day and came back to the place stinking of gas as I've not had the heating on yet.

Have managed to do 3 out of 40 bets so far for the Skybet promotion so just 2 more until £5 off my Sky bill then another 35 until £40 off (4 months of bills! Woo hoo). Got about £15 in bets to play with as well so will do that when the races starts today.

Think I'm having to go to a work thing next week so that's about 450 miles in expenses to claim. I'll make about £60/70 more than the cost of petrol out of that so all good.

Got to go to Tesco to use a couple of vouchers before the offers end. I love all these freebies I've found out about!

Still need to send my Amazon sale away and still can't work out how I get paid for it - eBay is so much easier and cheaper.

Hopefully a nice quiet day today and a wee hunt for more freebies! x

lvm

Well, today's been a great day! Managed to get 7 rooms on the 2p Tune hotels promotion so think I'm gonna book 3 trips to London next year! Getting excited already!

Finished my first 5 bets at Sky and got the email confirming that's £5 they will take off my bill. Just 15 more to do for this month.

Been getting back into ChaCha a bit. Determined to at least get my first £50 payout.

My visit down south is all confirmed and hotel booked so that's a definite £60 odd profit coming my way.

Anyways, better get into the kitchen - I'm playing cook tonight and I'm not looking forward to it! x

lvm

Another day over and not much done!

I have, however, come to a decision...

I AM 100% GOING TO DO THE MOTORCYCLE TRAINING AND SIT THE FULL TEST

I am soooo excited! Going out to buy the Theory Test book shortly. Took the first practice test online and got 37/50 - the pass mark is 43 so I've got a wee bit to go yet! Reckon it should be fairly simple - passed my car one TWICE after all!

So, I've already received the copy of my licence (I lose the counterpart bit every couple of years!)...going to email them and say I didn't receive it then when I get the next copy, give that to my Dad for safe keeping! :P

Then...will book up the full A1 course (not doing the DAS as I don't want to be spending money on a big high powered bike anyway so would be a waste of money and will maybe be in a position to do that in 2 years). Checked out prices and although it's not the cheapest, I'll get a 5 day course including theory for £695 (£665 when I pay up front). Going to also ask if they'll do a discount for 2 people as the lodger wants to do this as well so worth a try. Then...possibly start of January I could buy a bike. Just looking at 125cc for about £800 brand new - or possibly a bit bigger but older if there's any at the right price.

So, this is going to wipe out any excess money I have come payday for the lessons...then there's the cost of the clothing which, having looked on eBay, seems extortionate. Might take a bit longer to get the bike but as long as I pass the test quickly I'll be happy!

So...that's the big news of the day.

Also done the second of my next 5 bets for another £5 off my Sky bill (every little helps!) and I managed to make a wee bit profit yesterday.

Anyways...off to look at part time jobs - gonna need one at this rate!

lvm

I can't believe it - I forgot to put my daily bet on at Sky yesterday. Still, time to catch up if I do it every day without fail!

Have read through the entire Motorcycle Theory book and am getting 100% on the test CD - only issue at the moment is the hazzard section where I got 45 and 44 (pass mark is 44) so need to improve on that a bit. Looking out for cancellations now though and if I could get one for Thursday/Friday this week, I'd totally go for it!

Nicked my Mum's Asda weekly shop receipt again - £1.55! Not as good as last week but will get me a couple of things I suppose.

I've booked some flights for London in May - that's come out my holiday fund so there's no way I'll be hitting my target of £2k any time soon. It is planned to be an ultra-cheap holiday though what with the 2p hotel rooms and we're going to get £2 Easybus. The only luxury will be at my own expense and I'm going to treat my Mum to lunch at Gordon Ramsay as it was so amazing last time and she doesn't believe it can be worth what it costs - so gonna prove her wrong!

More savings and money making here I come!

lvm

So...the exciting news of the day is:

I passed my Motorcycle Theory Test :j:j:j:j:j

I am well chuffed! Have to say though, I thought I'd got 50/50 for the questions - turns out it was only 47 (strange since I didn't score less than 48 on all the practice ones I did) and got 61/75 for Hazzard Perception (a lot better than the practice tests where I got maximum of 57 but more often than not, a lot less!). So all good!

I have my free hour assessment lesson next Friday then will have to think about paying the whole lot up front (I get £30 off for doing that) so somehow got to come up with £634 :eek:. Good thing is, that includes the practical test fees so if I was really clever I'd pass first time and wouldn't have to pay anything else until it came to buying a bike and all the gear (which I think I'm going to delay until January time). The plan is that in the long run, this is going to save me money however really, the only way to be doing that is getting rid of my car but I kinda need that for the winter months. Need to have a bit of a better think about that!

Not much else going on in the MSE front. Managed to claim a couple of freebies and a few bits and bobs arriving in the post (my lodger officially thinks I'm crazy!). Got 5 free Innocent Veg pots to be getting as well which will save me paying for dinner for nearly a week - score!

Off to persuade the parents to buy me a Chinese tonight...TTFN!;)

girlatplay

lvm wrote: »

I passed my Motorcycle Theory Test :j:j:j:j:j

Well done, that's fab :T:T