** Wish I was a money fairy **

Housework*Fairy

Just checked internet banking and my HSBC credit card has been paid off. Checked the catalogue and the full balance is still showing there, but Nationwide did say they are sending a cheque.

Puzzlingly my internet banking balance is showing as £150 LESS than my spreadsheet despite my spreadsheet only having the catalogue payment of £43 to debit - which is a good thing but I can't see where the mistake has been made!!! Will have to try and tally them up tonight. This is still a very good thing as I even have £140 to transfer over from my bills money and 12 days left until payday

mooomin

Don't forget to close the card now the BT has gone through.

Removing temptation is the only way to go

Housework*Fairy

Boo hoo - DH's Natwest Card came today and the balance is more than I thought it was by £97.87 :-(

Anyway, total debt is still just a shade under 17K so at least it didn't push it over, and it's still showing at 70 months so it didn't add any extra time on. Just awaiting two more statements to see the full picture, and another 11 days before I can start making small ovrpayments.

Also realised that the £150 discrepancy for this morning is something to do with DS's school trip cheque as I got hideously confused how I'd budgeted it out of Feb's money but it didn't come out until I got March's..... but if we were playing monopoly this would be the "there's been a bank error in your favour" chance card

Housework*Fairy

Well I couldn't wait for the remaining two statements to come in, so I rang up this morning to get the balances. They were more or less the same as I had rounded them up to be (£12.47 less than I had thought) so only one of my credit card balances was more than I had guesstimated. The Very account is still showing a balance though so that means I will still have to make a direct debit payment to them on Monday which I'll then have to request back (GRRR)

So - total debt £16949.45

I genuinely don't know how I have ran it up - mostly on living expenses. I've cracked supermarket shopping now, I rarely spend more than £50 on a Tesco shop and £10 on top-ups if necessary through the week, so no more £500 a month in the supermarket for me.

Due to this it means that I've now got around £400 a month after the bills and stuff. It's not all spare for debt busting though and I know this month when I get paid, I will have to pay my 6 months road tax. I still haven't got the hang of this putting money aside business.

I've joined the Payment a Week thread (PAW) as I think Padding might be a bit ambitious at this early stage. If I can aim to pay £50 a month extra off my debt I can have the cards paid off in 57 months instead of 70, nearly a whole year early!!!!

Some good news I have got an interview for a secretary position in the public sector next week :j so wish me luck. I don't want to say too much about it on here but please God, I deserve a bit of personal luck.

Speak soon

mooomin

Good luck for the interview I will keep all fingers and toes crossed for you.

Think of putting money aside as a regular monthly bill. When I get paid, I put money in my bills account to cover all my direct debits, then put £60 away to cover car costs and £30 for Christmas. These are the same as monthly bills to me as if I don't pay them it's going to hurt when the insurance bills etc come in.

Housework*Fairy

Sweet baby Jesus and all the angels, will payday ever come. I'm desperate to set about trying to PAW my credit cards and 'put some money away for bills'.

Oldest DS now thinks he will need at least 250e for his school trip and not 150e. My mum and dad came to the rescue and stumped up 50e extra (despite my mum already having given him £50 sterling) so I need to go and buy some more.

Then I will know what - if anything - I have leftover this month

Brilliant news today - I applied for an assistant managers job in a surgery (where I used to work) and although I no longer know any of the admin staff (this is 7 years ago) I have got an interview, they rang me this morning!!!!! So wish me luck at 8am this Wednesday. Not sure of the wage but it's 30 hours a week so I think I would get a day off through the week, and it's walking distance so would half my petrol spend straightaway.

Interview next week is for two part time jobs, one 20 miles away, and one local for my old employer (public sector).

really not sure which one I would prefer at this stage. However I wonder if the practice have given me an interview based on my past reputation with them, as I didn't have a couple of the 'essential' criteria, doing payrolls and dealing with petty cash amongst them

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

really not sure which one I would prefer at this stage. However I wonder if the practice have given me an interview based on my past reputation with them, as I didn't have a couple of the 'essential' criteria, doing payrolls and dealing with petty cash amongst them

Payroll is something that is learnable, make sure and fling some examples of learning new computer systems/tasks with ease during the interview. Petty cash I wouldn't think would be too hard for a DFW

Housework*Fairy

Catalogue account is still showing with a large balance and it's now 10 days since Nationwide were supposedly sending them a cheque. I think I will have to get onto NW tonight to make sure they have sent it.

Spends account is more overspent than it was last month which I am gutted about as we barely seem to have spent anything this month but when I've totted up the outgoings and deducted it from the incomings we are overspent - it's there in black and white.

Interview in half an hour. Been googling some of the acronyms in the job description that I haven't heard of before. I'm having a bit of a crisis of confidence at the moment and I'm worried that I'll make a fool of myself

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Interview in half an hour. Been googling some of the acronyms in the job description that I haven't heard of before. I'm having a bit of a crisis of confidence at the moment and I'm worried that I'll make a fool of myself

Good luck Remember - if they ask you something and you panic say, "That's a great question, would you mind if I took a few minutes to think about it and answered at the end?" Gives your brain time to catch up I've had to use it a couple of times when I've been scunnered in interviews

XSpender

Hope the interview went well