Lisa's Debt Diary - The Beginning!

lvm

Hey girlatplay!!

Thanks for dropping by! You seem to have done extremely well yourself!

I've just tracked down your diary and will have a little read through it later (I have waaaay too much time on my hands lately so I seem to be on this website ALL DAY!)

xx

girlatplay

Ha ha yes, me too. I work 31 hours a week but I seem to manage to spend most of them on here

I can fill in a blank for you about my diary. I used to live in the high flats behind the Jet garage in Restalrig, that was the horrible place we used to live in. Nothing wrong with Restalrig its self, we just hated the flats :mad:

Gap x

lvm

I know what you mean about those flats - I delivered the Census to one of those blocks in March (the first building you come to on the street - can't remember the name). Definitely not something I'd want to do again. There are some rough areas around Restalrig. I suppose I like it coz my Mum and Dad are just a 2 minute drive away and it's not the worst place to live I suppose.

Do you still live around this area or are you somewhere else now? x

lvm

So, payday has arrived and I can't believe the most exciting thing about it is updating my little finance spreadsheet with all my bills, payments and savings - the best thing used to be being able to go out and spend every last penny! How times have changed.

Spent the majority of yesterday afternoon on the phone to Halifax, Blair Oliver and Scott and Wescot and I must say I can't believe how difficult it actually is to settle a debt. After all this to-ing and fro-ing, not one of them is admitting to owning the debt so I have officially given up - if they'd rather take £20 a month from me for the next 10 years instead of me giving them the agreed £1000 now, so be it! Their loss!

So after my monthly transfer to my savings account (AKA...bank of Dad at a nice little 10% rate) I've got £7130 in cash savings with total unsecured debt of around £6400 (not including my Mum who will be fully paid in 4/5 months time).

Anyway, off out to meet my Mum for lunch now...laters!

girlatplay

We are up near Mr M's at Piershill. Soooo much better. Mr Gap lives in Restalrig or "Leith Links" he says because he thinks it sounds more posh :rotfl: so I'm usually round and about somewhere.

My payday too. I love updating my spreadsheet each month

xx

lvm

So, not much happening in my life at the moment, financial or otherwise.

Have managed to get some colleagues to give me their bank details so I can do a bit of matched betting. Have agreed to give them £150 and I keep all the rest. Hopefully if all goes well I should make £2.5k-£3k - on top of the £1.7k I've already made on my other accounts. It does get a bit boring after a while though.

Have been keeping an eye out for any weekend or evening work going but can't seem to find anything I'd be ok with doing.

Oh well, weekend over and back to work tomorrow. Sleep time here I come x

lvm

Well, time for a little update me thinks!

I've completed 1 person's matched betting so with Quidco and other referral fees (and after her fee) I've made £408.24. Bit hacked off with one betting site though who realised some IP address conflict and withdrew the £200 free bonus...could have got a lot more money with that as well! Never mind, will learn for next time - Google "how to change IP address" here I come! Lol

So, I've been on another cost cutting mission as well. Contacted Scottish Power to tell them nicely where to stick their Capped January 2014 product and have started the move to NPower. I've been overpaying on my Direct Debit to Scottish Power for ages so they'll owe me over £100 when I switch which is good and my DD will go down by about £13 a month.

Also trying to get cheaper broadband. I've worked out that if I switch to O2 Home Broadband I'd save £72 and get £50 cashback...so I'm going to try and give Sky a call and let them in on that little secret and hope that they'll reduce my bill from £22.25 to £12 a month. If they just gave me free broadband for a year I'd be happy. Not sure of the chances of this happening though.

Next steps...phone up Edinburgh Council and tell them I'll dispose of my own rubbish for a 20% discount...Lol - I wish it were that simple!

My Mum has given me some old clothes that she doesn't wear any more. Going to put them on eBay on Sunday night - they should fetch quite a bit as most are good makes and usually bring in a good bit of cash.

Bad news is my lodger is definitely moving out...after only moving in early June she's moving out at end of August. It's always quite a struggle to find anyone wanting to live in this area but fingers crossed someone will come along.

Anyway, off to dream about more ways to make or save money...night night xx

girlatplay

:rotfl: Even if it were as simple as calling Edinburgh Council, that, in its self, is not simple :rotfl: I hate dealing with CEC, they are a total nightmare! I don't want to offend anyone who works there but they never get things right when I contact them.

ScottishPower are another nightmare but I don't even want to get started about them :mad:

That's a shame about your lodger moving out. I'm sure someone else will come along shortly.

Gap x

lvm

You're right about the Council...I just have my own fun with them now, paying my council tax online every month instead of by Direct Debit - it's a lot more work for them and they absolutely hate it. Then they send me threatening demand letters so I write back to them telling them they are all incompetent. Gives me something to do in my spare time I suppose! Lol

Hope you're well x

girlatplay

I pay my council tax every month online too. I had a direct debit one year and it was just yet another nightmare. They never took it when they said they would. This way I can pay it when I am ready to pay it. Having said that, I always pay it a few days early but that suits me. I just hate dealing with them.

I'm fine and hope you are too xx