A Thread for After Debt?

berkshirelady

thanks for the welcome messages - good to meet you too!

I'm so grateful to MSE forums, if it wasn't for the good people on here I probably wouldn't have realised I could claim for PPI mis-selling, or picked up some great tips for saving cash...but the most important thing is the moral support that people give to each other. When I joined MSE, I was all over the place. Worry, insomnia, stress, feeling vulnerable. The advice & support gave me the confidence to stick up for myself and find a solution.

The only thing left from my debt days, that I still haven't sorted out, is a nice solid kick in my ex's nuts for leaving me in financial hardship in the first place - but you never know, one day the opportunity might present itself :-)

but in the meantime, let's big it up for money saving, consumer power and a sense of community (and a Valentine's card for my new man, made from card & stickers from Card Factory & Poundland - I'm still watching the pennies :-)

JustAboutThere

Thank you all for the kind welcoming messages.

I'm going to continue with the Excel chart as my spending diary. Although there was a definite "blip" the other week when I bought (and ate) more junk food than was good for me and promptly lost the receipts. Although I'd like more NSD, I think its more realistic to aim for LSD (either £5 or less). I had 12 last month and have four so far this month. Sometimes they hover around the £2-3 mark. I buy lunch at work, which is really low priced and that means I don't do much cooking at home. This also results in lower grocery bills, so it works for me.

I'm another one who doesn't get the handbag/shoes/clothes thing either. Shoes would be nice, but you try finding anything to fit size 2 and incredibly wide. If I have one more salesperson tell me that I'm really lucky because I can wear children's shoes, I may not be responsible for my actions. I can get away with size 4 in a boot/trainer, but not a chance for fashion shoes. And they cost a fortune when I do find them. I know there's Duo who say they have narrow, regular and wide fittings, but if you search for size 35 (Continental) and wide, then if you get two choices, then its a good month. Usually its zero!

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my love of collecting some rare books. I haven't bought any for ages (read years), but there was a regular period when they accounted for a serious amount of money. However, I've still got them and if things get really desperate, they'll have some resale value (I hope).

I suppose I'd better send that money to my overseas account before I forget otherwise I'll be in the doghouse with Mum. At least I can do that over the phone these days and not have to go into a branch.

rising_from_the_ashes

JustAboutThere wrote: »

I buy lunch at work, which is really low priced and that means I don't do much cooking at home. This also results in lower grocery bills, so it works for me.

I used to do this when I worked for a big company a few years ago - the canteen was subsidised (a lot) and the food was lovely so it was cheaper to have a big dinner at lunchtime and a snack in the evening.... miss those days!

Quite at my end just now - concentrating on trying to get the budget in advance and enough in the pots to cover this years' payments.

I have a savings account I've not used for years which has about £100 and I must write and close it and get the money back so it can go somewhere more useful (the ISA....) - task for the weekend - if I write it down on here, I'll def do it (have been meaning to for at least a year:o).

JustAboutThere

JustAboutThere wrote: »

I suppose I'd better send that money to my overseas account before I forget otherwise I'll be in the doghouse with Mum. At least I can do that over the phone these days and not have to go into a branch.

Well, I've now made that international payment -after being hung up on a couple of times and generally given the runaround by my bank.

This should get Mum off my back. She phoned to remind me this morning. Conversation was very one-sided (her) and monotones (me) as I REALLY, REALLY don't "do" morning - as all my family know.

Mum: Hi, its me - have you sent that money yet.
Me: No, I will.
Some conversation was managed for a short time . . . then
Mum: What are you doing today?
Me: I'm going back to sleep.
Mum: Didn I wake you up?
Me: Yes (about 1.5 hours before my alarm was due to go off).

My family - love 'em - never can get the gist of time zones.:)

SOT2011

Oh dear JustAboutThere, I do ok as I'm always up with the dog so mine can ring early and I'm always up but my mum regularly rings my brother and wakes him up, and then gets cross re: lack of response.

Cross with myself as was too lazy to make lunch to take to work today and ended up buying a sandwich (that I didn't even enjoy) which is just a waste of money and a regression towards old habits
At least it was disappointing, guess I'm less likely to slip again soon.

Hugs and waves to all

SOT x

backinbusiness

berkshirelady wrote: »

The only thing left from my debt days, that I still haven't sorted out, is a nice solid kick in my ex's nuts for leaving me in financial hardship in the first place - but you never know, one day the opportunity might present itself :-)

I second that emotion! (My ex - not yours!).

All quiet on the thread again - guess we are all busy doing debt-free things. I certainly don't spend the hours and hours on here that I used to, but I do check in at least once a day.

A really relaxing mid-term here this last week, with decent weather too. 3 inset days, but without the children in school you get so much more done!

Swings and roundabouts on the finance front as always. Received the pin for the impulse CC, but no card as yet. (Might not even activate the damn thing - what was I thinking!).

There is talk of a Business Review of my post following a job evaluation exercise. Seems management have decided our particular posts got a raw deal from j.e. The upshot is that my job could be up-graded with commensurate salary increase, but I would have to re-apply for it. I don't envisage a problem with this, but who knows these days?

DD1 is going to the Edinburgh Festival as an instrumentalist in August, so that will require another £200 plus. I don't pay Council Tax July and August, so that will probably cover that.

Looking forward to re-doing budget following April increment and any TC changes.

On the downside my laptop charger has failed this morning.

Can you imagine the horror at the thought of not being able to check my precious spreadsheet on a daily basis??

Luckily DD1's charger is compatible, so will make do for the moment until I can find another one.

Hope all are well, and a particular welcome to new contributors - do keep it coming. It's great to know we are not alone in our weird ways!!

BiB

rising_from_the_ashes

Well, I made my 2nd rounding transfer last night:j - so that's £17.48 put away in 2 weeks (hope it's not as much each as £8 - £9 week:eek: or I may have to rethink it!)

I then tried to set up another pot from my account - thought I'd managed but it came out with a really odd sort code (all my accounts / pots have the same one) ... worse still, after transferring money to it - it disappeared from my list of accounts:eek:

Ended up having to ring the bank and I'd set up a totally different type of savings account from what I was trying to do:o - it had a debit card (not wanted) but couldn't be accessed except by me ... online.

I asked for it to be closed & a new "proper" pot set up with the money transferred to it - only to find out that only I can access the account online ... but it wasn't showing on my list of accounts:eek:.

After a very long phone call, the account was supposed to being closed with the money transferred to my main account - logged on this morning and the new account is now showing in my list of accounts - with the money in it :mad:.

Anyway, I've transferred the money out of it into the new pot that the guy on the phone set up last night - hopefully this new one will disappear soon!

Few spends today, Mum came to visit and we went to look at garden sheds (too expensive:() and then went to Dob*bies (fantastic food place) for lunch and I was tempted by a couple of plants ... then a wee trip to B*Q where I was tempted by a couple more Still the garden is looking a lot brighter tonight as it was so dull and sad looking without any flowers out.

JulieGeorgiana

Oh my it's quiet in here!! What with half-term i've been busy. Visited my mum Tuesday, then my MIL stayed Wednesday to Saturday. Which I was worried about, but unlike normally she didn't tell me what to do, and we ended up enjoying each others company.

She was really surprised at how frugal we are, she'e been thinking we flit away our money, when truth is we save a lot. She was impressed at the nice food I made, while being more impressed at my very tight budget! I think she just got to know us, and I would say she likes what she sees

On the money front I just bought a baby monitor (I can't hear Eliza if a door is closed) the new model is £120 (with lulibies and termometer) the next down is £90 (with termometer) and the next down is no longer sold... I got it on eBay brand new for £30 (inc postage)!! I don't need lulibies as I sing to her myself and I have a thermoter!! This one is very clear and has a two way speaker so I can talk back and its rechargable so no batteries to buy

Then my sister tells me her friend is selling a baby walker, used twice £20!!! I am very pleased

And DH Grandad gave us £500 to invest.

And I sold my car a week ago, which is enough money to pay for a deposit and a months rent when we move.

I do however have a Christening... I ordered the cake (£30 for 30 people, and will make extra cakes to bulk out as there will be 70 people), I have money for the donations we want to make to the church. After I am making a meal for the godparents (2 Curries from scratch, a Beef Tikka Masala and a Chicken Korma. I made the bases yesterday). I have my gran coming for the weekend of the Christening, and my best friend from Norway staying for a week (so my food budget is £50 over... but I have that money now by cutting down my budget for this month by £20 and saved £30 elsewhere). I also am paying for half the flight cost for her to come over.

So everything is moving nicely... 7 weeks to go!!

DS and DD are ready for Church... I suppose I had best get myself ready now

Hope everyone is well x

SOT2011

Hi everyone :wave:

Had a good morning so far, batch cooked a vat of beef stew, using stickered beef, special offer leeks, elderly mushrooms and some jerusalem artichokes that have been languishing in the bottom of the freezer for a loooong time. I have also braised a load of red cabbage - think there are at least 6 portions of each so will eat it tonight and probably tomorrow, but freeze the rest.

Also baked Foccacia (sp?) with Rosemary, have had some for lunch, and am going to have some with the stew tonight, a bit like a savoury scone/hard dumpling effort, as I am not sure I'll get it all eaten quickly enough otherwise. It is nice, but a bit hard now it has cooled down.

I've also signed up for my next OU course this morning, just a level 1 one this time (current one is level 3 - eek! - and has been hard going), and have planned it all out so I am on course to qualify for their transitional arrangements which mean the fees stay a bit lower as long as I keep up with it. Not very MSE as a lot of money to pay out, but it is in the budget, and paid for this one from existing allocated savings and it is all part of the master plan to make sure that I have done everything I can to give me as many options as possible should I need them in the future - as BiB says, there shouldn't be a problem, but who knows these days.

Then doglet & I have been for a trip out in the glorious sunshine, walked round a local reservoir and though a bit muddy, was lovely, both quite snoozly now Must crack on with this weeks OU work though, will try to ignore the gentle snores coming from the doglet

Take care all.

SOT x

rising_from_the_ashes

SOT2011 wrote: »

Then doglet & I have been for a trip out in the glorious sunshine, walked round a local reservoir and though a bit muddy, was lovely, both quite snoozly now Must crack on with this weeks OU work though, will try to ignore the gentle snores coming from the doglet

Ohhhhh green eyed monster rearing it's head here really missing my walks - especially on days like this (have tried & just can't without the dog:() ... keep everything crossed I find one soon.

Keep ploughing away with the OU course ... it will be worth it. I'm still looking for £3.5k:eek: to finish my degree (and will prob be more when the fees go up). Not found a solution as yet but it's always at the back of my mind. I did look at the OU but due to the way they do the credits, it was unfortunately even more expensive.

Just been to Mr T (not somewhere I go often as find it really expensive) but if you "play them at their game" it's sometimes worth it - had a £5 off £40 voucher & they had loads of cleaning stuff on offer as well as cat food.

Walked out with £73.19 worth of stuff for £35.70:T so feeling quite chuffed. Even better is that I now have a years' supply of washing liquid & fabric conditioner as well as around 6 months' supply of bleech, toilet cleaner, washing up liquid, surface sprays, floor cleaner

Need to sort out my pots ... seem to have totally *£$&"! them up after my attempts to open a new account on Fri night .

I now have 8 pots :eek: which seems a lot but it does seem to be helping with the budgeting so hopefully it works out OK.