Stopping the Slippery Slope I'm on

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Still trying to stay positive but I think one of the ferts is getting sick. She's seemed 'quiet' for a while now, but I thought it might have been one of the neighbourhood cats terrorizing her that scared her, (all the neighbourhood animals,, cats, dogs and anything in between are scared of this cat, and it's decided it wants to live with us! and it doesn't want any other animal to live with us--if it was nice we'd let it in, even though we know he has a very good home two doors down!)

but I'm sure my ferret's nose nose was running when I had them out to play in the kitchen, and she's just not as playful as she usually is. it's hard to tell cos she wriggles a lot when you pick her up and sometimes I think i'm just a pet hypocondriac!

It's frustrating because all I can tell a vet is my ferret has been quiet! All they'll do is give me baytril and they'll charge the earth for it...sighs....I'm gonna keep an eye on her for the rest of the week, but if I see that nose running It'll be off to the vets and into the overdraft I go.

It's stupid to be so gutted about living in my overdraft when I've been doing it so long. I'm just so close to not being in it all the time . This is why I need to start my ferret fund up again, and once I've got the OD sorted that is the first pot I'm starting. It'll also include treats. My other ferret couldn't contain her excitement over our dog's rubber kong, she adores rubber things and carries them about and pounces on them. I shall save and get her one of her own!

our house is like a zoo, we have 1 and a half dogs (i say half because we have my brother's dog with us most of the week) 3 of our own cats, 2 cats that live down the street who have decided they live with us (who wouldn't when you're left out by your owner in the worst snow of the year?!) and another cat from across the road who comes in for fuss and food! i had to start letting him in because he started following me to the busstop in the mornings! the bus stop is on quite a main road so i don't want him near it.

you turn around in our house and you'll either get bowled over by a dog, sit on a cat or have a ferret chewing your shoes! i do love them though

Kepp

Sorry to hear about your ferret, hope she gets better soon.

Your house sounds great with all those animals running around

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beccie wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your ferret, hope she gets better soon.

Your house sounds great with all those animals running around

thank you! she's seemed to be a bit more active the last few days; not just sitting at the side of the freezer or in her tunnel if she's outside. And I've not seen any nose drippings

she's still not 'playing' but she's not going off on her own as much either.

And she loves the cheap plastic bags you get from the supermarkets so I put some of them down and both ferrets were exploring them.

it's surprising what simple things make them happy!

i'm still gonna keep my beady eye on her. i get very paranoid as i've had some very sick ferrets in the past...can you be a hypocondriac for your pets?:rotfl:

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The ferrets seem to be doing OK, Tuuli has actually been playing for the first time in months--hopefully it'll continue! maybe she likes playing in doors more than outdoors

went to see a band play (twice--not very frugal, oh well!) with my friend, and as expensive as it was I had the most amazing time. And to be fare it wasn't as expensive as I've done in the past as we caught last trains to each others houses and waiting for the cheapest traintickets on line, so Ive saved money that way.

Every time I see this band i love them more and more.

I was very restrained and didn't buy stupidly. I allowed my self a treat--something under £10 which is very trying for me as I'm used to going to gigs and spending at least £50 on merch!

We did everything as cheaply as possible. I even made a packed lunch for me and my friend for when we were on the train to London. And I didn't buy any food while travelling home.

I took some money out of my shrapnell pot to help pay for a taxi to the trainstation (which was only a couple more £s than the bus) and i took out a bit extra in case i needed money as I usually have to pay for things like the toilet in london...but I didn't use it! so back in the shrapnell pot it goes.

I can't believe I went to TWO Kill Hannah gigs and only spent £7 on merch!

I have bought my bridesmaid shoes early, but that was because I was passing through birmingham on the way home and it meant no extra money spent on travel, plus there was a sale on that ended today. so that's pushed me into my overdraft earlier than I'd planned, but I do get paid on the 20th so it won't be for long.

Feeling quite positive. I tested myself and didn't give in! I gave myself a budget and didn't give in and it didn't mean I had a worse time than previous times when I've spent loads of money--in fact it probably felt better because I knew I wasn't spending what I didn't have!

Also checked into a few mobile phone shops via quidco on the way so earned a few extra pence that way! i'm hoping by xmas I will have enough amazon vouchers/paypal money that I won't have to dip too far into my 'savings'

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i had to get my money out ready to pay my friend for the hen-do so I'm now officially in my overdraft--which sucks, but it won't be for long as I get paid next tuesday, and it's not by a huge amount like in the past.

I'm surprised I'm not panicking more, but I think I'm just happy I didn't spend what I thought I'd spend when I went gigging. I have just finished sprucing up my friends hen veil. She's gonna hate it! I can't wait to see her face:)


I had a letter back from the PPI claim I put for when I was sold guard card as a student, they've cancelled it (i truly didn't realise I was still paying for it!) but they're saying as HSBC sold it to me that they have to deal with my complaint so they've sent it on to them. they're saying it's not PPI and I wasn't sure it was, but decided while I was form filling to send one for that too. we'll see how that goes. still not had anything back from MBNA yet, but I expected that to take longer.

I can't wait until I get to the point where I can really plunge more money into paying off the last of my debts and start saving some money too.

I'm trying to decide what pots to have--and also decide which esavings would be best for them. this is making me as excited as spending used to, so I'm hoping that carries on, even on bad days!

so far the things I want to save for are:

-kids birthdays (i have no kids of my own, but my dear friends all decided to have children one after the other, leading up to xmas and then into january!)
-christmas
-vet bills and ferret stuff
-tattoo fund as I'm a huge tattoo collector and i've promised myself i will save for my next one!
-gigging fund. there are rumours of some of my favourite bands coming over to tour mid year and i want to be able to go.
-other stuff

not much will be going into these funds while i try to pay as much off on the cc card, but i will try and put what i can into them each month. i'll work out just what i can afford after my friends wedding and once i've paid for my holiday.

Kepp

Ooo, tattoos! I have said no more to myself till the debt is gone but it's sooo hard!

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beccie wrote: »

Ooo, tattoos! I have said no more to myself till the debt is gone but it's sooo hard!

i am addicted to tattoos! i have full sleeves and legs planned, but they are on hold until i am debt free. i do have a smaller tattoo planned that i might 'treat' myself to if i save up the money i'm allowing myself each month...i feel guilty about even thinking it, so it may not happen yet lol!

I went on my friend's hen night last night and had a great time (apart from the go ape bit in the day, that scared me crazy!) we upgraded to VIP at the comedy club which gave us better seats and 2 extra drinks...for some reason the 2 extra drinks each turned into two crates; I have no idea how...I think they came to our table twice or something! but it meant I didn't spend a thing apart from the initial bits. no extras on overly expensive drinks, whooo hooo! so i came home and put the money I'd taken out for drinks into my shrapnell jar; bar £2s of it just in case I need any change in the week.

I am very happy with that lol!

I've started an IF isaver, just waiting for payday on tuesday to finish it, as I don't want to transfer money into each pot while I'm in my overdraft, even though I'm only transfering £1 into each of the 8pots i'm opening.

I'm slowly getting there! Now I just just wish I could start paying more on my credit card, but I just have to be a bit more patient with that:j

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So I had to send my bridesmaid shoes back...twice! The first time for a dirty mark and looped threads of cotton where it's not gone through the layers properly and the second time because of glue marks and there's a section of the ribbing that hadn't been sewn in so it was coming apart!

i told them that I just wanted my money back and if they wanted the shoes back they'd better send a man so they're sending a courier for them so I'm back to the drawing board! so angry, debenhams are meant to be better than this. Or so I thought!:mad:

Just send a long rambling complaint along with photos of the faults to their HO, so am hoping for some compensation.

Cannot wait for payday tomorrow; if I've calculated right then I should be able to pay my next holiday installment, save a bit for holiday spends and put away expenses for my friend's wedding and still have a smidgen left over pay more off more to the CC and set up my saving pots with IF.

It's so exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing the interest go up even though it's not a huge amount, and not why I chose IF, but I think it'll help me stay on the straight and narrow!

Ferrets seem to have bucked up a lot. Lots of playing and belly tickling these past few days, and they've even been playing together too. They're so cute. Evil and so obviously plotting world domination, but cute all the same.

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I'm so excited I could cry! I just looked at my bank account as I got paid today (even though I knew it would be in credit I still found it difficult to break that cycle of pretending if i don't look at it everything will be fine!) and I was in credit for the full amount of my pay cheque and a little bit more!

I never actually went into my overdraft like I'd predicted! Those ebay sales and me forgetting about my working tax credit really kept me in the clear this month. Plus all the NSDs. I can't remember the last time I had a cup of coffee out or a treat:)

I even plucked up the courage to call my bank to get them to reactivate my ISA and set up extra payment for my HSBC CC because I kept getting errors whenever I tried online. I even paid off an extra £10 on it, and I rounded down my bank account £7.10 and paid that into my Virgin CC. Not a whole lot, but I feel like it's progress:)
I also opened a savings account with IF and have 8 'pots' for various things. I've transferred £10 split into the pots

I'm predicting even with paying my bills, paying the next part of my holiday off and giving a guestimate on what I will spend for my friend's wedding as it's two nights away, so i need to plan for food, drink and i must have my hair cut before the wedding as it's so thick! Even putting all this away on top of the bills leaves me with aprox £270 left over.

If I carry on with the NSDs and being sensible then I can pay more off on the CCs as well as putting a bit extra away for either extra holiday spends or that small tattoo i'm using as a carot to treat myself with when all these big events are out of the way and all i have to concentrate on is bills and paying off the CC!

I can't remember the last time my bank account was this much in credit.

god i'm babbling, but there's really no one else to jump and squee to about this!:):j

It's such a weight off my mind! maybe things are coming together now!

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I recieved a letter from MBNA today saying they're investigating my complaint regarding the PPI, fingers crossed that I get something back.

Debenhams emailed back regarding the bridesmaid shoes but didn't sound very sorry at all, so I'm still annoyed at them!

I phoned Virgin today to see if they could lower my APR as it's now 26% and they can't, so it looks like i'm officially on a hunt for a 0% CC or one with low BTs.

I tried to open a Tesco cc but kept getting errors online so think I will ring them tomorrow instead. I definitely need to transfer CCs though, I used one of those online calculators and a balance transfer fee will be cheaper than carrying on paying the interes

I'm just at that awkward stage where I have a higher balance than they usually give you on new CCs, so I'll end up with a couple more cards instead. But I feel more in control now so if I do this I can keep track of it all and pay it off quickly.

Now the money problems are more managable I feel like I can concentrate on other things, so I'm now going to make some more jewellery for my etsy shop, and create some postcards of my local town to sell as we have a sizable market for them and no one sells them. So that oculd be a little money earner.