New Year, New Start!

candylucy

Hi Guys

Had a fab MSE week! Took out the £10 on Monday intending to pay for the body combat class on Tues but my friend managed to get me in for free as a "sample" class! So Monday was also a NSD!

Since then I have not spent a penny. Nada. This is big news for me, this time last year I would have bought a load of magazines, probably gone out for dinner or to the cinema at least once and probably bought a few clothes in the sales.

Instead, I've been to a (free) body combat class on Tuesday, went round to my friend's for dinner on Wednesday, and my best friend came round for dinner last night. TBH I have had to fight temptation to go and buy something, (anything!) a couple of times but I've found the best cure for this is to avoid shops like the plague and it seems to have worked!

So here is the update on my MSE week so far....

Mon 09/01/12 - NSD!

Tues 10/01/12 - NSD!

Wed 11/01/12 - NSD!

Thurs 12/01/12 - NSD!

Today should also be a NSD as I'm working 2-midnight and have already got myself a ready meal defrosted ready to take with me. I'm working lates tomorrow and on Sunday then going down to Norwich on Sunday night so will definately be spending over those couple of days - got to fill the car up with petrol for a start, then going to the cinema on Monday night with DH but will be back on it with a vengeance next week.

Have a great weekend all!

xx

candylucy

Hi Guys

I've been bursting to get on here today - I think this is the most MSE day I've ever had!! I've spent quite a few hours sorting various things out but I can honestly say it has been a real eye-opener and will hopefully pay off big style!

First of all, having heard Martin on Radio 2 the other day, I realised I might be eligable for a tax rebate due to my job requiring me to wear uniform - I've been in my current job for 6 years but have never heard of this before!!! Fingers crossed I might get a couple of hundred quid back from the taxman so have sent off a letter to the Inland Revenue today explaining my situation and enquiring whether I might be eligable! :money:

Better still, I've finally managed to get my !!!! into gear to look into PPI claims on DH's loans. Now I'm no expert but I know how dodgy PPI can be. I used to work in a call centre for a store card company and it hardly ever paid out, even when genuine claims came in. Because of this, I've never ever had PPI on any of my cards/debts.

DH on the other hand had no idea about this, and turns out he has had quite a few loans in the past with PPI which has clearly been mis-sold. One of the loans has confirmed he has paid £444 in PPI during the lifetime of the loan (which was cleared back in 2010), so we have sent off the template letter on MSE today to try and claim this back.

We've also discovered that the car loan we are still paying off also had PPI and although we're still waiting on the total sum paid, it's probably looking in the thousands!! :eek:

Again, I've sent off a letter to his bank asking for clarification on exactly how many loans he has had with them and the total amount of PPI on each. Just a waiting game now but if our claims are successful, this could have a massive impact on our debt repayments and could really help kick start our savings for a deposit! :j

I really feel positive about this and just wish I'd done it before now!

To top it all, I contacted the Student Loan Company today to get an up to date balance on my loan as I suddenly realised the amount I had posted previously was from a statement back in April 2010. Turns out it's gone from £5944.69 to £4473.04! Hurrah! Just need to figure out how to update my signature now!

Had a fab couple of days with DH too - did spend about £40 on a night out last night for dinner and the cinema (The Iron Lady - well worth a watch) but I'm not going to be seeing DH for the next few weeks as he's on operation so it was well worth it.

It's my last rest day tomorrow and hopefully back to a NSD. I've managed to convert a friend to MSE ways so we're off to town tomorrow to looking into her reclaiming on PPI too!

In the meantime, hurry up Mr Postman! :excited:

xx

candylucy

Hmm. Well the NSD didn't happen - £4.85 on magazines (avoidable, I know) and £5.11 on Christmas card, wrapping paper and gift tags in the sale. Not neccessary I know, but at least I won't need to buy anything this Christmas!

Had a mooch in Boots too after seeing they are having a 75% sale - quite a few bits left in my branch but to be honest, none of it was really neccessary and although I could have bought a few pressies nothing really took my fancy.

Made a big tub of tuna pasta for lunch tomorrow so it WILL be a NSD!!!!

xx

candylucy

Well I have broken the seal and spent the first money of 2012 on clothes! I've bought a paid of jeans from M&S for £25 - not bad, and they will replace my old (and decidedly washed out) pair.

Have been on rest days on Wed, Thurs and today so DH and I have spent hours going through paperwork for his old CC's/loans to see which ones he has paid PPI on. We've now submitted claims for 3 companies in total so hopefully if the claims are upheld this will help massively

x

candylucy

Well it's been far too long since I last posted, the last few weeks see to have really sped by!

So a couple of updates: I've heard back from HMCR about my tax rebate, turns out I'm not eligable as I'm already on the reduced tax code. Think this must have been sorted by my work when I first joined.

The really good news is that DH had a cheque in the post a couple of weeks ago from MBNA about his PPI with a refund of £2804! All we did was ring them up to ask about an Abbey credit card he had a few years ago. The assistant confirmed he did have PPI with them and said they would send out the paperwork for a complaint, and within 2 weeks a cheque had arrived! I'm so grateful to this site as we would never have applied for a refund without MSE. Just goes to show how easy it can be. We used the cheque to pay off our honeymoon credit card so current debt is now down to £16110.18. Still horrendous but I'm feeling so much more positive about things now.

DH and I were paying £500 pm each towards the credit card, but now it's clear I'll be paying my £500 towards my student loan to try to clear that ASAP. DH will be paying his towards his car loan. We're still waiting to hear from Natwest about the PPI claim but we have had confirmation from them of the total amount DH has paid in PPI on loans. Are you ready for this? £10800! EEK! Couldn't believe it! But if this is refunded this will obviously help massively towards paying off DH's car loan and means we'll finally be in a position to really start saving as much as possible for a deposit.

Well, as for the day to day MSE, I've been trying really hard to keep on the straight and narrow with the clothes challenge and have only spent £25 so far this year on a pair of jeans. Long may it continue! I've been digging in my wardrobe more and have found a few gems that haven't seen the light of day for ages so kinda feels like I'm wearing new stuff even though I've had it for ages!

I'm on rest days in Norwich with DH at the mo but driving back home tomorrow. Was hoping to have a NSD tomorrow but got to fill the car up with petrol, but back in work on Friday so aiming to have a full week of NSD's for my next set of 6.

Going to update this daily from now on, been a bit lacking lately and need to get my head back into it. Speak soon x

candylucy

Pay day tomorrow! Just checked my bank balance and have some left over so have just called up the student loans company and paid an extra £400 off. £3503 left to go x