Story of one man's LONG road to financial recovery

turbo.jet

11 days until payday... I'm doing OK at lasting this month out without using credit or dipping into my Aus/Christmas fund at all yet, this is despite it being a massively expensive AND long month for me. I am in my overdraft however, but this happens at the end of every month. My overdraft is only £300 so is cleared every payday. I'm aware it will take me a couple of months to see the benefit of no C/C repayments before I stop relying my O/D at the end of each pay month.

Had a bit of a result on the weekend MSE-wise. I look after everything techincal for my OH so I was arranging a phone upgrade. I then looked up the price for OH's old handset on Mazuma and while I was there, for curiosity sake I looked up the price of mine too.

I can get £245 for my current iPhone from Mazuma, and I can upgrade to the new one that's coming out for £59 plus £55 early upgrade fee. Also, when you pre-order they give you a £59 one-off discount off your bill (cancelling out the purchase price). So I'm essentially profiting by £190 by upgrading my phone!! The only downside is, my contract is renewed for another 18 months, but I don't care about that. I really went over and over the sums thinking there must be a catch but it all stood up. Result!

(Yeah yeah I know - iPhones are expensive - I'm a self confessed gadget man and the iPhone is my only technology vice and I live on it. All of my other kit is old second hand crap from eBay bought years and years ago during the debt-days)

Picked up one of OH's christmas presents on the weekend (an electric toothbrush as it was on offer) to add to the present I got on offer earlier in the year (after shave, bought back then as was also on offer). I have £11 worth of points to spend on my Boots card so I will be using this to get my Aunt a picture frame from Boots, print a nice pic of me and OH to stick in it and job done. I can't believe I have 3 christmas presents down in October. This is unheard of for me! Its a result of the new budget conscious me!

I have to go up to the Midlands for work tomorrow. I'm a bit bummed because I will have to cover my own expenses, and will have to use the credit card for this. This is the ONLY thing I use my credit card for and even though the company actually pay me back directly into the credit card, as I have a clean slate now I just don't like the idea of using a credit card. Oh well. It'll appear as if I'm debt for a while but in actual fact I won't be.

On the up side, dinners while away are covered by expenses, and as I don't have a car I'm borrowing my OH's car (our finances are completely seperate, we don't live together) to get there and back, and to and from the hotel to the office each day. I will get paid 45p a mile for the trip. This will more than cover petrol so I should profit. I'm hoping we have to work late as well for overtime.

That's enough rambling from me. Have a good week everyone!

ampersand

tj- Thread below has been closed because of peeps arranging swaps, but it doesn't alter the phenomenal buys that many msers have found and they are current still:

TESCO Silly Price Electrical Items (Page 78) on the Grabbit Thread.

Good Luck!

LondonGirl252

Hey!

That's awesome figures on the phone swap- go for it treat yourself!!

I'm also 3 presents down (Mum reminded me of 2 i'd forgotten about at the weekend!) so thats good and hoping to be able to sort out another 3 this month..

Enjoy the midlands.. my homeland

turbo.jet

I'm going to Hinckley. Tell me if you are from there and I'll curtail my rantings over the next few days. Hehe.

LondonGirl252

turbo.jet wrote: »

I'm going to Hinckley. Tell me if you are from there and I'll curtail my rantings over the next few days. Hehe.

Hahaha!!! No I'm ever so slightly further north... rant away!

turbo.jet

Quidco is brilliant! I arranged iPhone upgrades for OH and I through it but was disappointed to discover it only applied to new business, not upgrades. Never mind, we still profited on that one (see above).

I've just been doing all the set up this evening for OH's new business venture. Was just about to register the domain names and web hosting package and thought I'd check if they were linked to Quidco, and they were. £18 for me... thankya very much!

Skint_but_Optimistic

all sounds marvellous. well done and lovely lovely to read such positivity x

JustinCredibleGillespie

Well done Turbo!

A BIG congrats to you!

JCG

xx

turbo.jet

Thanks!

I found out this week that HSBC let you create as many 'flexible saver' accounts as you need to and they appear alongside your other account/s in internet banking. All you do is just click on a link in internet banking, so I created two. The interest rate isn't amazing, so its not something you'd do to profit, but its a brilliant way to allocate money to different things (like setting aside money for car expenses, Christmas etc). I know we all allocate our money in spreadsheets or by whatever method suits us, but this way all the money doesn't have to sit in the same pot.

Getting a bit bummed out this week. I've been looking very heavily into what my options are to finally get into my own home and I guess I expected there to be some sort of short-cut. Unfortunately there isn't any more thanks to Mr Credit Crunch. There are shared ownership schemes, and equity loan schemes, but they all require substantial deposits, and money for legal fees and stamp duty etc etc. Its thousands upon thousands and I just don't feel like I have the energy to do it, not after taking so long to clear the debt. I do need a bit of a kick up the bum to make me get a grip and get over it though.

I guess its just annoying that 4 years ago I could have easily gotten a 100% mortgage that I could afford, had I not been in so much debt at the time.

I've bought all 3 of Martin's books and am reading them with great interest. I have nothing to do all day at work so I am really going to get thinking about my career. I hate what I do (and where I do it) and need to do something else. How do I do that without taking a massive pay cut, or can I use it as an opportunity to maybe give myself a pay rise. I'm just babbling now.

Skint_but_Optimistic

lots of decisions - a real crossroads