A few months and several questions

RosaBernicia

Suddenly realised it's actually payday tomorrow :doh:

Sadly I decided to be brave and match up the account with the budget, and it looks like I'm about £40 over :mad:. Still, it's been a rather expensive month with the new moggy. And it looks like the overall balance will have come down by about £100. There's another £100 I wish Quidco would hurry up and pay me!

I could make it a bit more if I paid something towards my train tickets for the trip north out of my holiday fund (I booked them on the credit card), but I've only just got used to having that and I don't want to decimate it :rotfl: how weird is that . I think maybe I just won't pay any in this month so I can leave it at its total til I have to pay the hotel. Some of the reluctance is because it's a duty trip as well as a fun one - I have managed to combine them rather than being grumpy and annoyed at the cost of just the duty trip - and I don't mind paying for the hotel because that will be part of the fun side.

I also [STRIKE]need[/STRIKE] want to buy the duplex scanner this month so that's another £140 though will get £35 cashback. Oddly looking forward to getting all that old paper sorted and put away - means I won't have to see files from 10 years ago.


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

And I've just bought the first Christmas present - sorted most of my dad's.

Am really pleased that my friends are pretty much all OK with doing something special and each paying for ourselves, rather than buying stuff none of us need. So only buying actual presents for the parents - which will be fairly usual things, and on request - and small gifts for relatives I'll be seeing. Not quite a NUPP situation but almost.

Now I have to decide what to do about cards might have a look round the shops next week and see what I like the look of. OTOH if I leave it late like last year, they put stuff on sale in mid Dec so I got them cheap and still got them sent in time


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

All transfers done, all the bits I owed to the credit card repaid, and the duplexing scanner ordered. Which leaves me at a total debt of £9,949 and net status of £9,205 (thanks to happily healthy car and holiday pots).

And £340 for the rest of the month :eek:... am going to have to be a bit careful here as have friends visiting plus a day trip out. Although I could use holiday money to at least cover the day out and repay it in Dec (we don't get paid early this year, which is good in that there's no 5 week wasteland in January, but bad because there's no extra leeway over Christmas!).

I really ought to amend my sig - I've been avoiding it as so peeved I'm over the amount in June. But am making progress in at least spending on sensible things, keeping the pots aside, and not being knocked off course too much by unexpected things. I don't feel I'm getting anywhere too fast though as I keep reducing the debt payments to cover other things... though perhaps this is healthier than my old method of paying off a huge chunk, then getting depressed when I had to run it back up again.

I do need to get myself motivated again though... I was looking at my spreadsheet yesterday and thinking 'what would it be like to have that extra £500 to just, well, spend if I wanted?' Wouldn't it be amazing?


Rosa xx

rising_from_the_ashes

RosaBernicia wrote: »

And I've just bought the first Christmas present - sorted most of my dad's.

Ohhhh my dad's a nightmare to buy for .... have absolutely no idea what to get him.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

we don't get paid early this year, which is good in that there's no 5 week wasteland in January, but bad because there's no extra leeway over Christmas!

Wish we didn't ...... I'm thinking of transferring it to another account and moving it back on what should be payday.

We've only 3 weeks between Nov & Dec pay but we're also paid early in Jan (otherwise Dec-Jan would be a 6 weeker:eek:) but this year, that means Jan-Feb is also 5 weeks :eek::eek:

It's going to be March before I'm anywhere near sorted as I really struggle with 5 week months as there's very little "disposable income" left in my SOA:o

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I don't feel I'm getting anywhere too fast though as I keep reducing the debt payments to cover other things... though perhaps this is healthier than my old method of paying off a huge chunk, then getting depressed when I had to run it back up again.

Plodding along ...... as long as we keep managing a little bit here & there that's progress. I know what you mean about chunks - I used to pay off loads every month, then have to use the card again as I had no money left and end up reducing the overall total by .... errrrr not a lot!

I do like the idea of checking / showing your "net" worth - might try that to cheer myself up a bit .... I think I may just still be in the black overall .... but it would be a just and I'm really not comfortable with things as they are.

My OD is now way out of control ..... I'm going to have to pay back my budgeting pots (raided to try to counter the OD:o) or I'm going to end up in a worse mess - lots of (expensive) things due soon such as car tax & service etc

It will pretty much max it out :eek: but I guess it's all in one place and hopefully it might motivate me to pay the bloomin' thing off.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

'what would it be like to have that extra £500 to just, well, spend if I wanted?' Wouldn't it be amazing?

*sigh* ..... one day ..... we will get there Rosa .... honestly!:)

RosaBernicia

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhhh my dad's a nightmare to buy for .... have absolutely no idea what to get him.

In case it's any help, mine gets a sub to a BBC magazine he likes, and since he keeps saying he still likes it, has done for about 4 years :rotfl: It's about £35 with the discounts.

I used to hate 5 week months too, fortunately we've now been switched to a set date in the month. MUCH easier.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Plodding along ...... as long as we keep managing a little bit here & there that's progress. I know what you mean about chunks - I used to pay off loads every month, then have to use the card again as I had no money left and end up reducing the overall total by .... errrrr not a lot!

Yup, that was me too :rotfl:

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I do like the idea of checking / showing your "net" worth - might try that to cheer myself up a bit .... I think I may just still be in the black overall .... but it would be a just and I'm really not comfortable with things as they are.

I started it to make myself a bit more comfortable with having money in the pots when it could have come off the debt. It's quite handy though as I can see what cash I'd have access to in any complete disaster (OD cancellation, for example).

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

*sigh* ..... one day ..... we will get there Rosa .... honestly!:)

Fingers crossed and as you say, keeping on plodding!


Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

I would just like to say a big and not-actually-very-public FK U to the designers of the application form I'm currently trying to fill in.

A dozen pages of online form (in miniscule font), an entire online wotsit devoted to processing it, 20 pages of guidance and I have STILL had to email the barstewards to get clarification on where to put something in case I get it wrong and they automatically knock me out of the running.

You'd need a bldy postgrad education to translate the fkg instructions. I know it's madly competitive and a really good job if you can get it, but they really should have a better way of doing their initial selection than bullsh!! tolerance.

Grrrrrrr. And breathe, and think of the potential benefits...


Rosa xx

rising_from_the_ashes

RosaBernicia wrote: »

In case it's any help, mine gets a sub to a BBC magazine he likes, and since he keeps saying he still likes it, has done for about 4 years :rotfl:

Ahhhhh never thought about mag subscription - he likes some of the car ones & I've seen a few lying around the house (so will need to check they're not already on subs) ..... that's a great idea :T

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I started it to make myself a bit more comfortable with having money in the pots when it could have come off the debt. It's quite handy though as I can see what cash I'd have access to in any complete disaster (OD cancellation, for example).

Yup, OD cancellation is a niggling worry at the back of my head - I've seen quite a few people have them removed recently:eek:

As you say, worst case scenario the pots would have / or at least gone a long way towards it ......

RosaBernicia wrote: »

You'd need a bldy postgrad education to translate the fkg instructions. I know it's madly competitive and a really good job if you can get it, but they really should have a better way of doing their initial selection than bullsh!! tolerance.

As you say ..... breathe!

I hate doing job apps online .... the amount that I've "lost" as I start them and then can't beeping find them again :mad::o

RosaBernicia

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Yup, OD cancellation is a niggling worry at the back of my head - I've seen quite a few people have them removed recently:eek:

As you say, worst case scenario the pots would have / or at least gone a long way towards it ......

I don't think mine's in immediate danger, but as it's the thing that can be pulled at zero notice it's kind of top of the list. I want rid of the blasted thing and am hoping to kill it early in the new year.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

As you say ..... breathe!

I hate doing job apps online .... the amount that I've "lost" as I start them and then can't beeping find them again :mad::o

I've very carefully been saving every page. Have done all of it now apart from the dreaded supporting statement. Off to eat chocolate and do something else before I face that one.

I may have to swop two entries around depending on the reply I get from them, but at least all the info is there. Including exact dates and HR phone numbers and all sorts of other detail. Not giving the ****ers any excuses to not interview me if I can help it!


Rosa xx

ZTD

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I would just like to say a big and not-actually-very-public FK U to the designers of the application form I'm currently trying to fill in.

Hmm...must have been a while since you've filled in an application form...

RosaBernicia wrote: »

A dozen pages of online form (in miniscule font), an entire online wotsit devoted to processing it, 20 pages of guidance and I have STILL had to email the barstewards to get clarification on where to put something in case I get it wrong and they automatically knock me out of the running.

Is that all? You've hit lucky. Try "Qualification, Grade, Date Achieved, Address of Establishment" with identical space allocated to each. "Grade" fits easily, "Date Achieved" just about fits, as for the rest - forget it. Write really small and use *lots* of lines.

Education is "School" & "Other". None of this Further/Higher stuff.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

You'd need a bldy postgrad education to translate the fkg instructions. I know it's madly competitive and a really good job if you can get it, but they really should have a better way of doing their initial selection than bullsh!! tolerance.

"Madly competitive" actually doesn't come into it. They'll use the same form for the "stand around in case someone gets lost" jobs.

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Grrrrrrr. And breathe, and think of the potential benefits...

Like you won't have to fill in another crap job-application form for a while?

It's all simply because nobody tries to fill in forms that they've written. I love when HR moan about their application forms that they have to fill in. I feel it's poetic justice.

vasseur

RosaBernicia wrote: »

I would just like to say a big and not-actually-very-public FK U to the designers of the application form I'm currently trying to fill in.

A dozen pages of online form (in miniscule font), an entire online wotsit devoted to processing it, 20 pages of guidance and I have STILL had to email the barstewards to get clarification on where to put something in case I get it wrong and they automatically knock me out of the running.

You'd need a bldy postgrad education to translate the fkg instructions. I know it's madly competitive and a really good job if you can get it, but they really should have a better way of doing their initial selection than bullsh!! tolerance.

Grrrrrrr. And breathe, and think of the potential benefits...


Rosa xx

Go for it girl!