London Socialite Sees The Light

Shoe_Gal

:j Amazing, well done

Horace

Congratulations LG on the debt busting.

I have one word for Italy - gelato - their ice cream is the best there is and it is my one indulgence when I am out there.

I know that previously you said that cooking for one is expensive - it can be but you can bulk cook and freeze leftovers and maybe your flatmates could help and you could share food and cooking. It is a shame that they have discovered the freezer though and have started using it themselves so there is less room for your stuff.

I havent done any mystery shopping for ages but then I cannot afford to because the firm I work for only pay £10 and never pay for the shopping so if you have a minimum spend of £25 it makes life a tad expensive:(

allybee101

Well done!

Been away from the website a week or so and just caught up with your diary. Congratulations!

Alibear

Hey LondonGirl, just started reading your thread so thought I'd pop in and say hi, I've started a diary too so sure I'll be hanging around a bit more! Congrats on the debtbusting, you're doing a brilliant job (from one London Lady to another)!

LondonGirl252

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the nice messages Very chuffed with myself

Today I got paid and my cheque also cleared so I sent £1,250 to my credit card. Im a bit miffed I forgot to email my spreadsheet from work to home so cant put last months figures up yet!!

I withdraw 4 x £10 to last until Tuesday, I spent all of my £10 today on lunch and dinner and dishwasher tabs. Hoping to spend zilch of it on Sunday and Monday as I'm off on that work trip and everything should be claimed back on expenses! I have a bunch of euros to pay for everything while I'm there supplied by work - that was an interesting conversation explaining why I don't have a credit card to pay for my hotel but I don't care - I'm not getting one for the sake of a one off trip.

College was brain sizzling today, the maths side of this one paper is tricky formulae and I struggled to follow it but will set down to working through it all again tomorrow.

I'm thinking of seeing if my flatmates want to share the cost of a cleaner for 2 hours a week, it'd cost about £20 each a month by my friends cleaners rates. I know its an extra expense that I shouldn't be encouraging but right now living in this flat is stressing me out, my flatmates don't really clean all that much and if I'm honest right now, nor do I and i just can't begin to think about it with everything else, I feel like all I have time for is studying and I don't even have time for enough of that.

More often recently i think about moving back home or out of London. I think the lifestyle I've been leading is very stressful and I do wonder if I'd be more relaxed away from city living. Its not something I can contemplate for a while, I need to qualify exams then Im contracted to another 12 months at work in order to be able to leave without paying back any CIMA fees. And maybe once exams are done I'll be less stressed anyway and I'll forget about it. But i do realise back home you get much more for your money as well.

I dunno, I think I'm just a bit bleurgh in general at the moment, a friend text me last night asking if I was going to drinks next Friday so I said didn't know as I have college the next day so I'd be having a quiet one and received back a message that "I'd better be on form" along with other various types of pressure to have a big night out. this friend doesn't understand my pressures at work and with exams as she is "looked after" money wise lets say and although I know she just wants me to go out and have fun, she just never understands why I'm doing what I'm doing and makes fun of me for being a recluse - like I like it!!!!

I hope all this studying pays off that's all. Going for a ride first thing tomorrow to have some "me time" then have lots of revision lined up.

I need a holiday - can I please fast forward a year and have no debt and no exams to think about!?!?!?

nearlyrich

Well done on getting under £10k !!!

Pay day for me too I will need to check my bank in a bit as the payslip hasn't arrived yet....I had a new tax code so I'm hoping it's gone up a bit.

Have a good time in Milan on Sunday...

LondonGirl252

Thanks!!

Fingers crossed for you it has!

Thanks, hopefully I'll get there OK just realised its been a long time since I had to fly!!

MuffinTops

I hope your work trip goes really well, although I'm sure it will.

I had to have that conversation with my boss a while back about not having a credit card. My place are horrific at paying back expenses though, so I blamed that! To be fair I think I'd have still insisted they pay up front based on the issues you get reclaiming the fees.

I hope the flight was very smooth too.

LondonGirl252

MuffinTops wrote: »

I hope your work trip goes really well, although I'm sure it will.

I had to have that conversation with my boss a while back about not having a credit card. My place are horrific at paying back expenses though, so I blamed that! To be fair I think I'd have still insisted they pay up front based on the issues you get reclaiming the fees.

I hope the flight was very smooth too.

Thanks, it did! Worth the trip!

Agreed! If they expect us to be out of pocket they should at least make an effort to pay back quickly!! Luckily I got a bunch of euros up front and only had to pay £40 in my own money for train and food at airport to be paid back

Both flights were good thanks, but the pressure really hurt my ears, and the pain is still there so going to get them look at this afternoon as they really bloody hurt!!!

LondonGirl252

Hi all,

Back from Milan, had a lovely trip the weather was lovely and had a chance to explore on Sunday, it was mostly shops so I think i did well not to spend a penny of my own money that I cant claim back! And the hotel upgraded our rooms for free so that was a treat! The italian office were very welcoming and it was a productive meeting so worth the trip.

Now that I'm back I have fiddled with my spreadsheet and can update you on last months stats and what Ive done so far this month

The cheque cleared so I rang my bank and asked about an overpayment on my loan, she advised it would only reduce the term of the loan not the amount of interest paid - which does sound vaguely familiar from when I actually took the loan out - so I figured I'd just whack it all on the credit card so that can be cleared quicker as I have a feeling sometime soon the 0% runs out!

So here's the nos:

Debt at end of Feb £11,310.01 15% paid off
Debt at end of March £9,997.98 25% paid off
Debt Now £8,843.19 32% paid off :rotfl:

Broken down by debt:

Santander Loan
End of Feb £893.76
End of Mar: £0 :j

NW C Card
End of Feb: £1,979.48
End of Mar: £1,760.00
Today: £710 - 2 more payments left

PO C Card
End of Feb: £3,721.22
End of Mar: £3,627.22
Today: £3,627.22

NW Loan
End of Feb: £4,715.55
End of Mar: £4,610.76
Today: £4,505.97

Savings
End of Feb: £130.50
End of Mar: £250.50
Today: £370.50 - but household bills are due this month and I have already tfrd £96 to my flatmate, I am going to try and leave the "bills budget" in savings rather than dip into it but I may need to take some out to fund this if I can't have enough NSD's to cover the bills.

Sharesave
Was £1,000
Now £0 - withdrawn to pay off credit card and top up savings from what I dipped into for last month
Contributions of £150 start again next month for the new scheme
- used to contribute £100 into old scheme

New DFD is payday at end of July - however if we are awarded another bonus in end of Feb payday it could be less than a year away now :j:beer::j
So far this month, due to paying the bills out I'm -£89.07 short BUT I am owed £58.50 from a friend as we were offered some lovely fleece gillets from where we ride for a discount - I have an old one that I was given a while back but she wanted a new one and didnt have her purse so she is paying me back Thursday.
And, i am owed £42.24 for work expenses and £39 for the mystery shopper trip I completed last month

So once I get all that back I'll actually be up by £50.97 so shouldn't have to dip into bills fund and should also hopefully be able to send more to the c card.

I only have 2 social events this month - tonight my friend invited me wine tasting and thats costing £15 and the week after next is my friends birthday and she is inviting a guy she wants to set me up with so I thought it was a good chance to have a night of work and see what this fella is like since I dont have much else lined up. Then the rest of my time is work work work which is good as it means I wont spend spend spend!!!

Although last month was good in terms of paying of debt and obviously not using credit (I really can't see myself using credit again in this way, it just doesn't even cross my mind anymore ) it wasn't so good in terms of NSD's and being MSE over food - I bought a lot of food out when I was at college - always cheapish options but still - it was definitley because I was over stressed and over tired and exhausted but I feel I'm starting this month in a better frame of mind and will take my own food to college this weekend and for the rest of the month - I'm at college 8 days this month so my challenge is not to spend money on any of those days!