My diary - getting rid of my debt deamons!

Kei

Today has been a NSD, have also made the lunches ready to take to work tomorrow so hopefully another NSD!!? Kind of regretting spending £4.50 on lunch in the work canteen on Tues now, thats £4.50 I could have put towards my goal of getting under 2k, and all I had was some pasta, a yoghurt and a can of drink!! Rip off. All because I was too lazy to make something but I wont be doing that again.

Friday or saturday will have to go shopping to get some food and wine for sat night as I am cooking for the girls, and some cleaning products so that my house is all sparkly! Love it when I have a good ol' clean but it soon gets back to normal.

If the weather is nice I will also varnish my garden furniture. OH's parents donated some garden pots, they are stone and sort of all grey and weathered, so I thought I could buy some paint and brighten them up a bit before planting in them. I have a long one that I am going to grow salad leaves in, and 2 square ones that I will try and grow some other sort of food in. (although rain is forcast for the weekend!)

Kei

Trying to go through all my clothes and sort some out to sell, I just can't let go! I need to start being ruthless and get rid as they only sit around in storage never being worn!

Also got my payslip - the payrise actually did go through, and my tax code did change, but the reason I actually didn't get any more money is that I think they changed my tax code to the wrong one!!!! Will have to chase that up next week maybe I will get a rebate for this month... I hope that its the wrong tax code!

Kei

Spent all day today cleaning the house, such as shame as it was a lovely sunny day, but really glad I have a spotless house and it smells so fresh! Still gotta finish sorting out all my clothes and things to get rid of, just shoved it all in the spare room for now as I had guests tonight. I had a lovely night, cooked and if I do say so myself, not bad at all! Really enjoyed myself and bought a new CD to play which I love.

Two things that I realised tonight;
1. I should have friends over more. I'm just lazy at organising things, can't be bothered most of the time, and tbh I do like staying in and I am good at spending time on my own. But when friends come over I realise how much I enjoy it and I actually can cook and entertain ok!

2. I should play more music. I love my new CD and I have not bought any new music for ages. I always listen to the radio in the car, and put the tv on at home, but music is so much better, so great at lifting my mood. When I was younger I was obsessed with music, I bought loads of CD's, turned it up loud, danced.

More friends over planned for the next BH weekend and I can't wait! x

LittleBoots

I get the music thing, I've recently started putting the sky radio stations on and realised how much I love my music

Kei

Thanks littleboots, at least I am making some sense here!

So on Sunday I was having a little think about what I can achieve in May, and have decided to go for it and my aim for the month is to get rid of this CC which currently stands at £606.92! I plan to do this by;

1. Pay £300 on the 27th May (payday)
2. Ring office and check tax code, if incorrect and I get a rebate use any extra cash towards the payment (unsure of figure)
3. Do a car boot sale on the next sunny weekend and aim to make at least £50
4. Put single bed from spare room on gumtree as we never use it, make at least £200 (it is electric and never been slept in, unwanted donation from OH gran)
5. Look for ebay items
6. Have as many NSD's as possible throughout the month
7. Take lunch to work every day

Thats all I can think of for now for money spinning saving, and if it all goes to plan and I pay off this CC I will be ecstatic!

Kei

So, to get things started I have had a very MS day today where I have;

- Taken lunch to work (leftovers)
- Charged mobile phone at work
- Used work phone at lunch to make phone calls instead of doing this on home phone or mobile
- Rang tax office - they agreed my tax code was wrong (they were using information about benefits from my old job) and they would change the code and refund me the lost income next month!

So far so good, just have to check my old payslips when I get home as I am a bit worried about the benefits from my old employer and my tax code was not right with them - I might owe them tax!

LittleBoots

Great plans for the month, I also have to speak to the tax office as I'm still on the emergency tax code. Hoping to get a nice wee refund

Kei

It took me agesssssssss to get through to them - I was on hold for 1/2hr before I spoke to someone! (but luckily was using work phone so did not have to pay for the pleasure!) Need to speak to them tomorrow so will try before work to see if I get through any quicker!

Have also booked the car in for an MOT and submitted my readings for my gas and electric - pretty productive today!

Kei

Been a good couple of days money-wise. Tax code sorted for the moment which means I should see an increase in May's salary. 2 NSD in a row, but today I had to get petrol and a loaf of bread - both go on the joint account though so no personal expenditure.

However tomorrow we are going out after work for food and drink - 'team bonding'. I was going to drive, but now I have decided I am going to drink! I don't go out every week and if I do its rarely drinking, also I have set aside some 'spending money' this month, so I will use this and hopefully still come in on target!

I am going to drive to work and back as usual then get a bus back into town - would have had to pay for parking if I drove so no difference between that and the bus fare really. To keep drink cost down I will see if anyone wants to share a bottle of wine. Food wise we have been given some money to go towards the meal, and I expect we will split the rest of the bill. Then at the end of the night will get OH to be taxi and pick me up!

Also this month the OH and I are looking at our joint expenditure and trying to reduce it, this means food shopping once a week only (no top up shops), and hopefully come in under £50 on the weekly.

Will get the bed on gumtree this weekend and check the weather to see if it is car boot weather.

Kei

ok so weather is not going to be any good what-so-ever for car bootining, has been tipping it down! Not that I mind though as we really needed the rain and my grass was starting to go brown!

Last night went out as planned, my work clg went out of her way to pick me up and take me back in town after work, which was really nice so I gave her a fiver for parking. The meal was lovely and I shared a bottle with 2 others so and when we split the bill it was £20 a head so I spent £25 last night which was really good! The only thing I feel guilty about is that 2 people bought me a drink and I didn't have a chance to buy them any back, so next time we go out will make sure I do. Although I am trying to save money I won't take advantage of anyone!

So plan for today is to get up at somepoint or at least have breakfast! I do have a little hangover , then try and get a pic of the bed so that I can put an a out to sell it - bit tricky as it is in the garage now. I think the rest of the day will be very chilled and I might make HM pizza for tea so we don't resort to a takeaway. This week we have been ever so good with the weekly shop and only bought bread and milk to top up!