Stopping the Slippery Slope I'm on

jwil

Well done on staying out of the overdraft :j :j

I bank with IF and have their savings account too, I've never thought about opening several pots, I ought to really as you can see them all together. You've inspired me

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jwil wrote: »

Well done on staying out of the overdraft :j :j

I bank with IF and have their savings account too, I've never thought about opening several pots, I ought to really as you can see them all together. You've inspired me

Thsnk you! It's so exciting having all those pots! And been able to see them all at one time, which is something I really wanted as I just know I'd confuse myself otherwise and end up just not using them!

I am just waiting for IF to send me the paperwork so I can sign it and then I'm all sorted! I can't wait to see them growing! And this is what I'm going to keep picturing in my head if I ever feel weak while passing the shops where I work in town!:)

Skint_but_Optimistic

HI there sounds like things are going really well for you.

Why dont you treat your gigging fund and tat fund as a debt and pay so much to them each month?

Good luck with paying off the thousand this year!

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Skint_but_Optimistic wrote: »

HI there sounds like things are going really well for you.

Why dont you treat your gigging fund and tat fund as a debt and pay so much to them each month?

Good luck with paying off the thousand this year!

Thank you! I think having so many NSDs has really helped with everything, even though I've had big one off expenses like hen weekends and holiday payments to make.

That's a very good idea to treat the gigging/tatt fund as a debt and pay into them every month. It's not like I go out every weekend and spend loads of money--I very rarely go out as I'd rather go to a few gigs than go to some awful dance club where I can't listen to good music or hear my friend's talk every week lol (I'm getting old!)

I think once I've been on holiday in May I'll be able to budget easier. It's the last big thing I have booked this year, so I'm trying to save for spending money and have a budget per day while I'm there. It's been ages since I've budgeted spending money for a holiday!

Though I did relax my NSD yesterday and as I was taking photos of local attractions in the town where I work (in the hopes of making postcards to sell) I walked through the market and spotted some bright yellow plastic with fuzzy pink hair.

I knew what it was straight away! My Little Pony! I collect My Little Pony, mostly the 1980s ones from my childhood, but if I spot one in a charity shop and the price is right I can't leave it there! This one was only 50p so I treated myself:rotfl:I swear if I sold off my collected I'd make a big dent into my debt; but as I stopped myself before my debt became unmanageble the ponies are safe!

Made a curry from scratch today yum yum yum! I am teaching myself to cook and since joining MSE I've really gotten into it. I'm still at the beginning because I have no basic knowledge when it comes to cooking.

But since going wheat/gluten free since last September I have really noticed the price of things. Free From food is soooo expensive! I have started experimenting with making my own things, I made pikelets, peanut butter cookies and loads of other things from an awesome book that I borrowed from work called Four Ingredients gluten free. It's so simple and has really helped me.

I'm still not very good on measurements and portion sizes, but I made enough for 3 meals, and I have frozen homemade spag bowl and potato soup in the freezer too.

Today I have mocked up some postcards, I now need to find a professional place (not vista) to print them. I may go and speak to my local printers and see what they can do and if the price is right.

The initial set up cost for the postcards will be mine, but there is definitely a market for these postcards and no one has made any; so if they're good quality I think they'll go down well. Plus it doesn't hurt that I've got the go ahead to sell them in the shop I work, all professional like with invoices and everything!

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grrr! Just checked my virgin cc account to find the balance larger than it was a few weeks ago because of the huge interest and the stupid lifestyle pro thing--that I was under the impression automatically got cancelled when you send in a PPI claim. I got my letter from them a few days ago, but still got charged.

I just emailed them to cancel it. Can't believe my interest was £42 which was more than the minimun payment--I'd been rounding down my account and paying off small bits into it too!

Just noticed my minimum payment has gone up from £35 to £65 too; which is odd, but not too much of a problem.

I have just made an extra payment of £100 which I can afford because I was so good last month. I definitely still have enough to pay all the bills, my holiday installment and about £150 towards my friend's wedding. I may not need that much, but it has to include hotel night for 2 nights, getting my hair cut, my bridesmaid shoes and spending money--and pressie! If I need any extra it can come out of next month's pay, because lucky for me they get married 8 days after pay day so I'm trying to budget out of both wages.

so breaking down the wedding spends as much as i'm able:

£20 shoes
£25 hair
£35 hotel room (luckily i'm sharing with another bridesmaid so we pay a night each)
£50 wedding present. They already live together and have everything, so I'll also be making mini albums or something crafty for them too.

I suppose I really don't need to save it all this month, so if I do run into some unforseeable money crisis I have next month to fall back on where I won't have any of the pro-study loan left to pay and only one payment left on the hols:)

Still doing good, just annoyed with myself over the CC and PPI! Really need to get that 0% CC sorted! Another mission for tomorrow (I know it was meant to be today but we've had visitors here practically all day!)

God, I'm really rambling on here tonight! I swear this forum is addictive! In a good way though, cos I wouldn't have made the progress I have without it!

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Just on hold with the 'wonderful' debenhams as I've still not recieved my refund for my shoes. grrr. How come when I ordered them they took the money out straight away but not return it when they're in the wrong?!---holy carps! they have cut me off cos I asked to speak to someone I can complain to! I am so angry! I just emailed them back at head office too, and I was very horrible.

I work in retail too, and I swear if we treated our customers the way they've treated me we'd have no customers! Honestly! The more they speak the angrier I get lol!

Though I have ordered some new bridesmaid shoes from ebay; they cost more than the deb ones did, but hopefully they'll arrive in a condition I can wear them and I also went through TCB so should recieve something back from them.

I'm now on hold again waiting to speak to their customer resolution team. If my money had been refunded quicker I probably wouldn't have bothered phoning or complaining again, but they really annoyed me!


SCORE! Just finally spoke to someone in customer resolutions who said even though the courier picked the shoes up on tuesday they're still not at the warehouse, but she'll process the refund earlier and as a gesture of goodwill because of the phonecalls etc she'll refund an extra £5 onto my debit card:)

On another note, I was accepted for a Halifax CC but only for £1100, so I'm waiting for that to arrive. It's 3% BTs, sand 0% APR for 15months so I'll transfer the max over then concentrate on paying the balance off the virgin cc.

Can't believe how much harder I've found it trying to get a CC this time round!

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Got an email from TBC saying I've got cashback from the Halifax card--I'd forgot I'd even gone through TBC, so that's a nice bonus! I'm gonna try and save all the TBC/Swagbucks for Christmas, but I'm not going to kick myself if I have to dip into it.

My friends are taking more holiday spending money than I am, but until the wedding has come and gone I don't really know if I'll be able to save more. It's OK, I'm giving myself a strict budget and I'm not going to go mad and buy things. Only person I'm buying for is my mom who will be ferret sitting.

I have also been saving £2 a week with my friends so we have money to buy food and stuff when we get there so we don't dip into our spends budget. We have just under £200 at the moment, and for £2 a week I think that's pretty good going.

I hope the forms for my IF savings come soon, I'm dying to play with my account!

My ebay purchase for the bridesmaid shoes still hasn't tracked on TBC, I'll give that another week then put a claim in.

My to do list today (now I'm back from work obviously! the joys of retail!)

• Eat--done had home made creamy potato soup and toast. yum
• Have ferrets out to play done this while cooking. It's a good job I can multitask!
• Check email/interweb stuff--but don't get sidetracked by it! half done. Can still writing this be counted as sidetracked? Most probably
• Stop playing Placebo's Breathe Underwater on repeat so failed on this. It's the song of the day. Sooo beautiful.
• WRITE DAMMIT WRITE! I am 70k into a novel that will not get the better of me. Really it won't. Now I feel more in control of my money hopefully my muse will come back
• Interrogate the cats because I believe one of them may be resonpsible for my Alienate shelf half coming off the wall and sending my poor customised my little ponies flying. Poor plastic ponies.

I'm also wondering if sea monkeys can get lonely? I only have one poor male left. I really need to get some more but as I'm on a no spend unless it's essential few months he's going to have to stay alone. I feel sorry for him. I talk to him in the morning. Does that count?

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I got my info pack from IF today and the paperwork for my Halifax CC so they will be sent off this afternoon.

I phoned the local history centre about researching a local book I want to write, but of course it was closed today! So I must remember to ring them on my lunch hour tomorrow.

The initial set up for the postcards I want to produce will be about £200 I think; I'm going to see if I can get any funding, and my sister's OH said he'd help out too, but it would be awesome to do with without relying on him.

If I do it on my own it will probably take me about 4 months to save if I still want to put most of my spare cash into my CC debt--which I do!

So I just rang the UK business funding centre for advice, to see if I'm eligable for anything that will help the setup costs, and pretty much they just wanted me to pay £250 + to sign up with them so i could use their databases.

that doesn't seem worth it to me! my initial start up cost will be roughly the same cost. oh well, at least I tried! I'll look to see if there's any local schemes that might help, but otherwise I'll have to do it the old fashioned way!

my priority has to be the debt first, i'm not getting myself into more debt for this; I can wait! I just don't want to:)

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Trying my hardest not to check my bank account as I always check it on the day my last DD goes out which is the 3rd, and I'd like it to be a pleasant surprise as I've not taken out my monthly spends money or spent anything on my card.

I did start a NSD diary but gave it up because I've had more NSDs than SDs, which is pretty awesome.

I had a few spending pangs as I walked through Wilkos to buy something for work (with the petty cash so not my money!) and I purposely didn't take my own wallet, and I'm confident even if I had that I wouldn't spend anything, as there's nothing i need! I'm just used to spending on what I want.

My book club went great. Boss' sister made gorgeous cakes, and Boss bought me some gluten free cakes. he's very thoughtful! everyone in our club apart from one didn't like the book so we had a good time slating it! We picked two books for next month.

have been very naughty eating wise these bast 2 days. went to a friend's for a slap up home cooked meal, so the gluten free went out the window, as it did for sunday lunch with my folks today. am feeling it now though. My belly hasn't stopped groaning. I can't believe I used to live every day like this. One or two days for special occaisions I can do, but damn I used to spend every day feeling this uncomfortable!

Made some flapjacks; my doctor told me not to give up oats, but I'm thinking that oats are effecting the IBS too, as I've felt uncomfortable when eating them or after using them to bulk out food. So next batch of spagbowl I make will not be bulked out.

My new bridesmaid shoes arrived and they are lovely! Thank you ebay! they're like ivory satin balet pumps, but have a slightly pointed toe so give the illusion of a heel with an actual heel. I'm bad with heels! take that debenhams! i'll never use you again!

I hope I get everything from IF soon, I want to transfer more money into my new shiny savings account, and I want to transfer as much of my CC over to my new 0% cc. Just waiting for all the gumf to arrive to say all systems go!

Virgin CC phoned me as I noticed I was still paying the prolifestyle even after sending them a PPI complaint--they told me that the complaint doesn't stop the payment, so I was really annoyed! I've stopped it now, but I'll still have to pay this month's grrr. Here's to getting somewhere with my PPI claim!

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Today would have been a NSD but I realised that I needed a new bra to go under my bridesmaid dress and I decided to order a hardback copy of the poem I'll be reading at the church as part of my friends pressie. I figured if I did them today I'd have more of an idea on what is left for my wedding budget. Wedding day should be relatively cheap, but the bridal party are staying over two nights...and there will be much celebrating!

I've gone through TCB for both of them, one on ebay and one on abebooks as the book is now out of print grrr! But at least this means I get some cashback, even if it is only pennies.

I've spent about 2 hours searching for the perfect bra and about 20 minutes deciding on what edition book to get...just shows that i'm more of a book person than clothes! i had to buy a stupid multiway bra in the end, and i hate those things. I always lose a strap. just one. and I find they don't sit as tight to the body, but i'm hoping this one will prove me wrong!

My IF savings is still in the prosses of getting set up so I'm all impatient for that! Tomorrow I will check my current account and round down onto the CC. I've been addicted to snowballing as of late and once April/May are over I think I shall be able to up my payements even more than I thought; as well as put a bit into my savings.

That means I could be debt free before the year is over if I'm careful! I don't want to jinx it by saying too much and I have 5 childrens birthdays to buy for, 3 of them around christmas, plus one of my very good friend's is pregnant again, and will be due about November, so I want to start saving for that. But even with these, if I budget, and am sensible then I think I can pay off a fair chunk on the CCs.

My snowballing has said to pay off the HSBC £183 off last, but I am soooo tempted to pay it off first so I can have one less debt to pay off, then cancel the card. It's all psychological lol!

And I just realised my Pro Study loan is now fully paid off. Whooohooo! Just Virgin and HSBC to go!