Onion carbonara and other stories

Mags_cat

:wave:

Onion carbonara sounds like epic noms - shall be putting that on the list of things to try!

Welcome to the boards - you'll find a huge amount of advice and support here (and the occasional kick up the wotsit as someone mentioned above!)

clippy_girl

well done on finding a budget you can stick to when you do your soa/budget make sure you allow a small amount for you to spend on treats/entertainment or you will go mad (and probably have a big slurge!)

also check out the snowball calculator as it will give you a debt free date and advise which card/overdraft to pay off first. think the link is at the toip of the debt free diaries page

the_mollusk

Evening all! Bah, my computer has broken. Mr mollusk has (very kindly and uncharacteristically efficiently) arranged a computer man to come round and probably replace the motherboard (it won't even turn on!) on tuesday.. Until then any reading and posting will be done on my phone, I can't subscribe to threads on it for some reason (when I click thread options nothing happens ) and my soa will have to wait as all my budgeting documents/notes are on my computer.. as will proper replies to some of the posts above as I want to reply fully but it takes ages on my phone!

The visit and any repairs should, I *hope*, be free as I have 40 little days left on my 5 year warranty!! Stroke of luck with the timing! but I won't believe it till it's done and the man's left without leaving a bill! so probably see you all in a few days- hope they're frugal! x

life_in_termoil

Hopefully your computer will be fixed without needing payment (fingers crossed for you).
Take your time doing your SOA it took me ages!
Every month I still do a shuffle of finances, its got to the stage where I hate spending and would rather save. Im on a mission to clear out my freezer so im hoping I will only be buying essentials for the next 3 months! Ive made a meal plan and so far im sticking to it but im only on day 5 haha.
Look forward to hearing your next ramble.
LiT x

the_mollusk

how has it been 10 days?!

i'm finally back in computerland and with some actual time to write, and wriggle my way out of newbie status

news with me:

1) computer all fixed up - for free!!! (well ok, for the price of a warranty that i bought years ago.) must see about getting an extension to the warranty. unbelievable value and service

2) my mummy came to visit me in bordeaux :heartsmil and, er, the whole not-telling-her-how-much-i-owe plan went right out of the window. i've kept it secret for 11 years and just after proclaiming on here how she'll never find out, well, we had a big old chat and a few days of her persuasion later, i told her everything. the funny thing is that she had been so worried and fearing the worst that she was actually *relieved* when i told her the figures!! :rotfl: crazy lady... she feels guilty that can't help by giving me money cos she's in debt herself (even if she had buckets of spare cash, why should she pay for my stupidity?!) but she's going to try and shuffle some balances around and hopefully help me out by transferring a little bit of my debt to a (currently hypothetical) interest-free offer on one of her cards... (i've tried to get a new credit card a couple of times recently (and a loan) and been refused ) problem is that because the debt will be in her name, she'll want it paid off the quickest out of all my debts... but i obviously want to pay off the card with the highest interest first... :undecided i see her point of view and she sees mine... i think we'll have to discuss further once she actually finds an interest-free offer. there were a couple of times when, as all mothers (and in-laws) do, she drove us both a little bit mad staying with us, but i really do wuv her.

3) as a money-saving exercise, i've started taking an electricity meter reading every day - i'm a geeky scientist, so i'm gonna make a graph of daily electricity usage to encourage us to turn stuff off, not watch tv and read a book instead, not turn on the hot water more than we need to, etc. also we've realised that mr mollusk's big powerful computer eats up a shocking amount of electricity so he's started using his laptop instead, already we can see a big reduction in electricity usage. AND, great news, just received an electricity bill (from before those changes) which came in at a whopping €50 less than i'd budgeted for!! we'd overspent by €15 a couple of weeks ago (friend's birthday) so that covers that, and leaves a bit extra... i think i'll treat OH to the chicken and chips that he's been craving for weeks, but the rest i'll throw at my stupidly high-interest virgin card - it'll only be €25 or something but it's my first proper overpayment ever!! :j until now i wouldn't think twice about buying myself something new or going out for dinner!

replying to all your lovely welcoming posts next

xx

Mags_cat

the_mollusk wrote: »

- it'll only be €25 or something but it's my first proper overpayment ever!! :j

Woo Hoo! :T

Hovel_lady

Good to have you back
Glad the computer is all fixed without it costing anything.
Well done on the overpayment :T

the_mollusk

Itsadogslife wrote:

Loving your first post - you don't have to keep future posts short - whatever helps you on your journey, if you want to post drivel - POST AWAY! I promise to read and prod you every once in a while if you fall of the wagon As you will see from my signature - I am going to be here for a while so we might as well get comfortable.

thank you! i'm sure the prodding will come in handy when you said you'll be here for a while too, that made the whole situation feel even more real... a very strange feeling to be in this community trying to sort ourselves out for what will be a number of years (unless the lottery comes to our rescue...!) - looking forward to getting to know you

Itsadogslife wrote:

How are you liking living in France - I could have the house of my dreams in parts of France, I love it. Unfortunately I don't speak any lingo so the possibility of me getting employment is minimal and I work for a lawyer so even if I could English Law is probably very different to French Law. I could easily live off fresh french bread and cheese (plus a bit of ham maybe) sounds like my perfect lunch. I have vowed to explore more of france - I have only been to Loire Valley but I fell in love with it.

yep, it's beautiful there are a few things i don't like, well one really - the ridiculous difficulty of getting absolutely anything sorted out and the number of documents required for ANYTHING, but apart from that i absolutely love it. i love bordeaux, and pretty much everywhere we went on our french road-trip-holiday, i've had a really warm welcome from everyone i've met, from people at work, to people in the street, to people i had to arrange insurance and bank accounts with (one lady in a bank called her son on her mobile to translate for me because he'd just moved to london!), and obviously the weather is great (when it's good - although it rains much more than us brits have been led to believe!) - i never tan but my skin has gone an actual shade of brown for the first time ever!

however i also don't speak the lingo!! i work in a lab (i'm a research scientist) and everyone speaks english to me as english is the language of science, so they're all very excited about being able to practise on me. which is nice and easy for me but frustrating and embarrassing when i look at how little i've progressed in the 10 months i've been here

Itsadogslife wrote:

Three degrees! Was one not enough At least you have come away with something out of your debt - I am 33, have more than you (not that it is a competition ) but have no degrees! I think if I had something like that maybe then I would have the earning potential to repay my debts - but I leave the main pair of trousers to Mr Itsa and work less hours to be able to look after my ever increasing brood of animals and DD :cool:

i have a very strong view on this subject. i have found through personal experience that surplus education is by no means a guarantee of a stable income. scientific research funding is getting cut all around the world, ALL my friends from a previous job got made redundant when the entire site where they worked had to close, all my colleagues in my current job (including me) are on a temporary contract, and not only that but even those with a stable job in my field have an income much lower than you'd expect after years of study and experience in the field. meanwhile, some of my friends who never went to university (or even did a-levels) are in stable and successful jobs, earning much more than me. what's worse is that after all this studying, now that i've finally got where i was aiming, i've realised that there are a lot of things people don't tell you about the romanticised world of scientific research and come to the conclusion (for a number of reasons) that it's not something i feel i can be part of any more. which means... i need to start right at the very bottom of another career!! :wall: i'm *trying* not to regret my "wasted" education / university fees / missing out on proper salaries etc...!

high horse over....

what animals have you got?! need to read more of your posts i would have an entire zoo if i could but my sensible OH is keeping strict limits to the number of animals in our house... for now... :P

DorsetGirl wrote:

I would definitely recommend joining some of the challenges, they are really good at helping you stick to plans and goals

yeah i really want to - but not sure which one! i'm a bit worried i'll aim too high and fail and get discouraged... or too low and think i'm doing great when i could be doing much better! i think i'll start off by trying to get rid of as much as possible (going home in september for an ebay-and-car-boot mega-sesh) and then join a challenge once i see what's possible for me......

right that's quite enough about me! better go and cook some dinner and get on with knitting my mum's birthday present...... a rather complicated shawl that i have about 2 weeks to complete, eek!

xx

life_in_termoil

Well done on the overpayment!!! I loved watching the balances go down.

Challenges are good, they keep you motivated and give you a kick up the backside if you need one.

Grocery challenge, and sealed pot and payment a day are all good ones to start off with. They are how I got rid of my debt (with a little help from selling a car and a tax credits payment lol).

the_mollusk

life_in_termoil wrote: »

Well done on the overpayment!!! I loved watching the balances go down.

Challenges are good, they keep you motivated and give you a kick up the backside if you need one.

Grocery challenge, and sealed pot and payment a day are all good ones to start off with. They are how I got rid of my debt (with a little help from selling a car and a tax credits payment lol).

oh great, in that case i will try them. problem is my spare money is minimal as you'll see from my soa (when i finally do it...!) but i'm sure i can find a spare few pennies for the sealed pot. excellent. i'll do that then, thanks