Tales from a country cottage

ani*fan

Good morning lovely DFW people.

I had a call from my boss today to say don't come to work. (When does that ever happen?) Evidently the roads are very icy and it's not worth the risk so I'm at home working today and saving £30 petrol too. :T Great start to the day.

I've been overspending slightly on my uni day. I've not done a weekly shop now for 2 weeks, just buying the odd bits from the local shop, and have twice now had no lunch to take and not bothered to pack a flask of coffee. I've frittered roughly £15 unnecessarily. But at least I've noticed and am going to try much harder next week. One week left of the course then I'm off for 3 weeks over Christmas. Brilliant. As much as I love the study, I'm so tired it's unreal. I'm also worried this weather will make it impossible to get there pretty soon.

Cap 1 is down to £300. :T Bizarrely, I've managed to pay off £150 or so during the transfer to 0%. I don;t know how this has happened but I'm guessing I'm already seeing the benefit of greatly reduced interest rate. Which will soon be down to nil on this debt. It's all looking good.

OH has done a brilliant job of bringing in some extra cash, roughly £200 this month. Which means we have around £400 to finish the christmas shopping and get the rest of the grub in. I'm hoping to come in £100 under budget but we'll see.

Otherwise, I have not had a chance to make any new grand debt busting plans lately. I'm pretty much on my knees waiting for the holidays.

My friend visited this weekend and I made a mini christmas dinner for us. Salmon and prawns starter (both reduced) roast beef for pal and OH (also reduced, and mushroom wellington for me) and a delicious summer fruit pudding (own brand so not too expensive). We had a great time and I'm really in the christmas mood now.

It's lovely to get the chance this morning to catch up on some diaries. I can already feel a new plan for the new year hatching in my mind. Now the mot and road tax have been paid, and when christmas is out of the way, I may try out some new ways of managing money. I've already got the council tax holiday in Feb and March spent on reducing my overdraft. If I can find £100 (christmas underspend?) before then, the overdraft will be gone come spring.

Happy debt busting today and hope everyone is managing to keep warm.

Igamogam

All sounding good Ani

ani*fan

Thanks Igamogam. It's great to see you back.

Well, tonight I'm on the biggest downer. I tried to quit smoking today, got in a right foul mood and had a row with OH who stormed off without us making up.

I seriously doubt I will have paid off £1k by new year and this was my mini goal. I'm about to fail.

I don't have time to see my pals any more and am really fed up with that.

All I do is work, go to uni, study and sleep. Literally, this is all I do. I don't remember my degrees before being such a sacrifice. I'm bored with it all.

Ok, I guess it's time to counteract all that with some good news...

I apologised to OH via a text, then OH apologised back, so I guess it's all ok.

My debt reduction may well come in over £900 which is brilliant really and so close to target and so much better than the debt having gone up.

I saw my good pal last weekend and have a few more social things lined up in the next week or two. I'm just being dramatic.

I am almost one sixth of the way through my masters degree. Only 5 sixths to go. I can do it! I really can!

All is well in my world. Everyone is in good health, christmas is under control, I'm only 2 weeks away from some annual leave and it's all good.

I really fancy some mulled wine...

ani*fan

Hi everyone :wave:

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and managed not to worry about money too much. :xmastree:

By some miracle, my christmas came in on budget for the first time ever and although the debt has not reduced in the last 3 weeks, it has not gone up either.

I was given some cash as a gift and for the first time in a good long while, I don't have to pay bills with it. I have my eye on a beautiful leather satchel for work but we'll see.

We're only one month away from the council tax 2 month break. I've got mine spent already.

Oh, it's good to be back! I'm away to catch up on diaries and find out how everyone else got on with the christmas spend. I hope everyone is still having a lovely relaxing time.

p.s. I quit smoking (AGAIN!) on boxing day. Still going strong.

wot-a-mess

thanks for the council tax reminder .... defo going to put mine towards target credit card debt

Igamogam

Hello

Keep up with the non smoking you know it make sense on all fronts!

Igamogam

Hope all is well with you Ani

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda Pawb - Happy New Year Everbody hope to see you in 2012

ani*fan

So, here we are. Christmas has been and gone. It was lovely and I managed to survive it financially (just). Everything went well and I still have a few days of AL left to enjoy.

With no more major financial outlays for a while, it's time for some serious debt-busting. The car has been MOT-ed and taxed, Christmas is done, I have no excuse whatsoever. Some SERIOUS debt busting needs to happen.

I have just joined the 'Pay off all your debt by Christmas 2012' thread. It's interesting how this thread has captured the imagination of so many DFWs. The possibility of getting rid of this debt baggage by this time next year is just too tempting to ignore so I'm going for it.

How am I going to do it? Haven't a clue. :rotfl:But I intend to have fun trying.

Ideas...
1) I'm going to phone the car finance people tomorrow and see if there is any benefit to moving the remaining balance to the 0% credit card. I think there might be.
2) Look into student bank accounts for interest free overdraft facility. I meant to do this ages ago and didn't.
3) Get ahead on train ticket buying to save cash. Use 0% card. Last lot of tickets cost £14 (£64 if you buy on the day. Mad huge savings to be had.)
4) Phone private clients to restart work a week early. I'm feeling well rested now and dying to get back to making money.
5) Get onto OH about making more stuff to sell.
6) See what I can find round the house to sell. Haven't had a clear out for a while.
7) Get my contract changed on my mobile as a priority. I'm keeping the phone so should be able to get it for cheap.

That's all I can think of right now but more than enough to keep me busy.

My plan for the council tax break is to pay off my overdraft with the cash. :T Love the council tax holiday.

ani*fan

So I phoned Peugot finance today. My settlement figure is £343.83 less than if I kept paying the finance for another 2 years. So I paid it off straight away with the 0% credit card.

This means I have reduced the amount repayable by £343.83 so I've added that to my signature. And I have my first miserable face doing a happy dance!

It's going to be a great year.

Knitting_Nora

ani*fan wrote: »

So I phoned Peugot finance today. My settlement figure is £343.83 less than if I kept paying the finance for another 2 years. So I paid it off straight away with the 0% credit card.

This means I have reduced the amount repayable by £343.83 so I've added that to my signature. And I have my first miserable face doing a happy dance!

It's going to be a great year.

Ooooo, this is exciting!! :T:T:T

Do more *stomps feet* I wanna live vicariously!!

Nora.x