Cazmanian_minx's new MF diary

cazmanian_minx

Hi abouttimetoo I haven't had as much time to write as I would like - or, to be honest, I'm just too knackered in the evenings to get it done! I've just had a short story published in an erotica anthology though, which is doing quite well.

The interest calculation has been updated and I've paid 3p a day less interest than last month

The Canon extender is up to 41 watchers with less than 2 days to go, so fingers crossed it makes a good price... And Merlin has his tendon scans booked for a week on Thursday. I didn't realise, but he has to have his legs shaved :eek: Think the bill will be about £150-£200, so I'll set aside £200 and hope to be pleasantly surprised!

cazmanian_minx

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

The Canon extender is up to 41 watchers with less than 2 days to go, so fingers crossed it makes a good price...

£180!!!! :T:T:T:T:T:T:T

The buyer paid immediately, bless him, so I've paid my eBay fees and transferred the remainder into my bank account straight away (including some money from selling DVDs which was in there, so there's £196 on its way altogether) and I shall send it special delivery tomorrow

Now, this is where I have to be supremely good. I have £80 in Amazon tokens which is going towards a Kindle. The temptation is to use some of this money to top up to the price of a refurbished one, however with an unknown vet bill coming in plus a winter's hay to buy plus all the existing debts, this would NOT be a good plan. Dear MSE-ers, please give me the strength to transfer the whole lot to that Post Office card the moment it touches my bank account...

cazmanian_minx

The universe has sent me a swift kick-up-the-backside reminder by delivering this month's statement for the Post Office card 10 minutes after I made the post above :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: It's got the honeymoon excursions on it, which I'd budgeted £500 for - we actually got a better rate on the conversion than I'd feared and they came in at £432.38 (Yes, I know, but where and when were we ever going to get the chance again to walk for three quarters of an hour in the wild with two young lions bounding along with us??)

Off to update the debt post with the new numbers...

cazmanian_minx

Kindle dilemma solved, a refurbished Wi-Fi only one (no point in getting 3G, we don't have a mobile signal here and I don't commute) is £79.99 - ordered it this morning, completely paid for with vouchers

cazmanian_minx

Checking in on the spread bet account, BP has been on my watch list for a while and seems to be starting to come back after being over sold in August. Bought the March contract at 389p, target price 420p, guaranteed stop at 345p. At the moment the Glaxo bet is in profit and the Vodafone is showing a loss of £1.81.

cazmanian_minx

Pay day - comes round quick when it's weekly And Mr Minx has transferred the money for his half of the honeymoon trips as well, so the bank account is looking quite healthy today.

I've astonished myself by starting the Christmas shopping 3 months earlier than normal, saw a Joules girls' horsey handbag on eBay which my 6-y-o niece would love and managed to win it - hope it's as good as it looked in the picture. The Kindle's been dispatched from Amazon. I'd resigned myself to free books only until Christmas when I can ask for vouchers again, but a survey from FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon - they ship some of my inventory for me) popped into my inbox an hour ago and offered me a £10 Amazon token for taking 20 minutes to fill it in

I'm trying to work out how much of what's currently in the bank account I can throw at the Post Office card. Between now and next Friday I have the £196 coming in from PayPal as well but outgoings will be the weekly shop, a full tank of diesel for the car (currently showing a range of 81 miles with a 15 mile trip to the Post Office and then the 45 miles to Tesco to do), £15 on two bales of haylage for Merlin, £112 for the council tax and £250 for the teeth loan. The vet's also coming out but I won't get that bill until October. I'm hoping to knock £500 off the card, but I'll see on Monday when I know what the food and fuel bills came to.

Sepa74

Hi Caz, I feel for you with the pet insurance... I have two cats, and after the price went up 25% even though I'd not made a claim in the year I had it, I decided to self-insure.

Fingers crossed they don't end up on long term drugs, that's when it can get pricey <sigh> one of them has just rolled on the floor looking exceedingly cute... they are worth it!

cazmanian_minx

Updated post 4 with this week's numbers, not a lot of difference, but it's moving slowly in the right direction at least. And I'll be paying £350 off the Post Office card on Monday.

I've got a really expensive 10 days coming up. I'm collecting 50 bales of hay on Saturday, that's £150, then we're off to Cornwall for my cousin's wedding on Thursday (flights and hire car paid for, hotel, airport parking, fuel and wedding present still to go), back on the Saturday and then I have an hour and a half at the dentist the following Wednesday (paid for with the teeth loan, but there's still diesel and parking to think about).

However, I've worked it all out quite carefully and I should be able to pay for it all without a) using a credit card or b) going into my overdraft

The vet came out today to scan Merlin's leg, but after examining it decided that he wanted him taken to the surgery to have it done there instead, as the swelling is mainly confined to the fetlock now and their portable scanner isn't much good for that. He's also swinging back towards a diagnosis of arthritis instead of tendon issues as both tendons felt normal, so he's going to need x-raying as well. Which is what the plan was BEFORE they decided to try and save me time and money by coming out to scan him here! So we've lost two weeks and I'm down by a call-out charge and examination fee The saving grace is that they're a brilliant practice who do their best to keep costs down as much as they can, so the bill won't be too big for today.

Oh, PS: BP doing well today, raised target to 450p and stop to 360p.

cazmanian_minx

Egg card payment today and I added another £9.07 to the minimum to bring the balance down to £4k exactly. That brings the outstanding non-mortgage debt down to £10,500 from a starting balance of £12,318.73 at the beginning of September - I was feeling a bit down about the amount left to pay, but I think I can give myself a pat on the back for that reduction. It's an unsustainable rate of paying off though, so I need to make sure I don't get too depressed when I hit the slog. Ended up paying £277.84 off the Post Office card instead of the planned £350 after re-doing the figures.

Spread bets are doing well, BP and GSK both well in profit this morning and VOD only losing £1.91. The September contracts finish today so I should think there'll be quite a lot of price movement.

Lixi_2

Hi Caz

I look forward to reading more about your MF challenge. I have a mortgage on a similar rate and have been making significant overpayments for a while now as I can't stand to be in debt. I am wondering though whether I should throw all the money that I would be using to overpay into savings and other investments (effectively offsetting). Have you considered that route?

I will also be following your spreadbetting progress. I haven't ventured down that route. Might try it later in the year.

Lx