Nearly there!

January20

Basically, they can increase your interest whenever they want - they cover themselves in the T&C - and I didn't know until I read one of Martin's articles about it that you could refuse an increase on the condition that you close the account. Then you repay the balance as you would have previously. I've learned so much on this site.

I felt a bit like cattle last night: rows of tables of people on similar Christmas work dos, and you know what? Not a single suitable good looking man in sight! :rotfl: I spent most of my time looking at the way other women were dressed. I love fashion as much as I hate going out to buy clothes (I know I'm a bit weird ) and I love people watching, especially when they've had a few drinks :rotfl::rotfl:

lilac_lady

Maybe if you'd had a few more drinks the men would have become more attractive!

January20

lilac_lady wrote: »

Maybe if you'd had a few more drinks the men would have become more attractive!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

GreenSaints

January20 wrote: »

I felt a bit like cattle last night: rows of tables of people on similar Christmas work dos, and you know what? Not a single suitable good looking man in sight! :rotfl: I spent most of my time looking at the way other women were dressed. I love fashion as much as I hate going out to buy clothes (I know I'm a bit weird ) and I love people watching, especially when they've had a few drinks :rotfl::rotfl:

There is a serious lack of good looking men at my work too. But I agree with Lilac - its just the lack of alcohol!

I too like people watching in general, but especially when they are drunk! Unfortunately, I have to look after the drunkards like my BF on Saturday night! *sigh*

An email came round today about the Christmas do that was on Saturday. 38 people didn't turn up! I think that's rude (as a girl on reception organised the whole thing) to say that you'd go (and a waste of money!) and then just don't turn up!

*sigh* Got the Monday blues today Hope all is well with you

January20

38 people! That is shocking! 38 people with more money than sense! There aren't many of us where I work. Well, I have 2 part-time jobs, and one is a larger place than the other, so anyway, people are more careful if they can't come and they'll say in advance. It happened on Saturday but 2 other people took their place so that was great.

I'm not a great lover of Mondays either but today is a bit different. I'm on hols at the end of the week, so am happy...
Normally, I have to have a chat with myself if I'm too down on a Monday morning, just to remind myself why I do it and what would happen if I didn't work.

GreenSaints

Hey,

How are you doing?

It's Friday!

January20

Hey GreenSaints! How are you? What have you been up too? It's Friday indeed, albeit 2 weeks after your last post! Ooops!

Truth, I've taken a break from this diary, not really willingly but with Christmas and all that, I was not able to pay off more that just above the minimum on my cc in November, and have been waiting (im)patiently for my next pay day. Well, it has arrived. It is today and I was able to pay £200 of my balance making it £1613.17

I spent yesterday at home and spent a lot of that time updating my excel spreads and working out my finances for next year. It sounds really geeky but I found myself in this situation because of lack of planning, lack of saving and most of all lack of control. It makes me feel much better if I am in control.

GreenSaints

Hi January!

I thought you'd abandoned your diary!

Congratulations on another substantial payment to the CC. I've got £3 to last me now till the 15th!

Hope you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Here's to being debt free in 2012!

January20

GreenSaints wrote: »

Hi January!

Here's to being debt free in 2012!

:T:T

Hi GreenSaints, oh no I haven't abandoned it! Not yet! not until I've paid it all off.

Today, I bagged my 20p and found I had £40. Will go and pay them into my bank account tomorrow, but I've made an equal payment to my cc so that's another £40 off :T = £1573.17

I was very nerdy last year and developed a love of Excel Sheets so I tried to keep a track of everything I spent. I think I have 99.9% of my expenditure accounted for (there might be the odd £5 given to my dd or the odd Metro ticket forgotten but not much). It makes for interesting reading (for me anyway :rotfl::rotfl:)

So here goes:

Regular Bills = £12,792.88 (this includes contact lenses for both dd &I)
Food and toiletries = £,711.34
Car maintenance/ repairs = £651.26
Petrol = £639.91 (that is for work and pleasure)
Clothes/ shoes for me = £246.60 (it's surprising how it adds up!)
Clothes/ shoes for dd = £158.50
Fun stuff = £1981.07 (going out/ haircuts, etc)

Some things will change this year:

-DD is working fulltime so I shouldn't have to pay for any clothes for her. She is also paying a little bit of board. However, she is going to university in September, so I have no idea how much this will cost me.

- My optician has closed down. Bad as I have to find another suitable one (bad for them too ) , but good because I have cancelled my DDs to them and I have about 4 months supply, so I'm banking £64 a month in my savings account. (I know I could pay it off my cc but I need to have some money stashed away - see above for 1 reason )

- I'm going to keep an even keener eye on the shopping bill, and try to keep it to about £200 a month for the 3 of us (dd's boyfriend spends a lot of time with us)

- I also need to polish (ie add more categories to) my Excel Spreadsheets so I'm not confused at the end of the year.

- I was going to add that I won't be buying any new clothes this year, but I'm trying to lose some weight so hopefully I will NEED to go and buy some new clothes (but then I could be saving some money on food - who knows?)

January20

GreenSaints, are you going to be ok until the 15th? Do you have food in the house, bills paid, petrol in the car and such?
It's less than 2 weeks. I know that feeling of waiting, waiting, waiting for payday! Poor you!

ETA: you get paid on Sunday? You wont get paid on the Friday?