PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

skintscotslass wrote: »

Hi PS, how are things with you? xx

Hi SSL

Thanks for your reply. The last few days have been eventful, to say the least -see todays post for all the gory details! Well... perhaps quite not all of them!!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Oops! Never got round to updating yesterday!

Yesterday was my first day back at work so it was a bit of a funny one. I had to leave early to go to Asthma clinic (and I have got to use flexi time for that – grrrr!!! Since when did you have to make the time up for a medical appointment?! Anyway, rant over!). I was planning to come back to work for my course but I was still feeling a little fragile yesterday so I went straight home after my appointment.

OH has not yet done his internet banking but he promised me faithfully that he would do it this morning – we shall see!

One piece of good news is that OH has got an audition in London tomorrow, so fingers crossed for that.

This is rather a busy (and expensive!) week. Today is payday (hoorah!!) so my Sainsburys delivery is coming tonight and my fruit and veg delivery is also due today. I also did my Avon order online this week – I did most of it on Tuesday morning when I was off work and did the finishing touches to it last night. I have also done some more Christmas shopping online – I have ordered some stuff from Amazon and also The Book People, so I am getting there.

My next 2 Avon books need to go out together because the order periods are shorter than normal. This means I should have ordered books for 2 campaigns instead of 1 last time, so I could get started on it, but I forgot. :doh: This means I have got to wait for my delivery to come before I can get my books out. All the order forms are done and ready to go, for both campaigns. Also I can get the one set of books stamped with my contact details before my delivery comes. This just leaves stamping the other set of books, putting the forms with them and putting both together in a bag. I must do this on Tuesday when my delivery comes and get my books out that day – ouch! This is on top of bagging all the orders up ready to go out – the actually deliveries can wait a day! This is because I will only have a week (instead of 2 weeks) to get all my books out to everyone and get them back in again – bear in mind that this will have to be done 2 or 3 times to get round everyone.

My planned furniture move has not happened yet, but is in progress. I am gradually putting all the books from the bookcase into boxes so I can move the bookcase to its new position. I have nearly finished with the books and then I need to do the records. I have run out of cardboard boxes now but I have realised that there are lots of empty big plastic boxes under DS’s bed so I think I will borrow some of them.

I am gradually cracking on with my ‘Get my house tidy before Christmas’ challenge. I am trying to do bits and pieces here and there – I try to use advert breaks to do stuff and last night when I went up to bed I spent 5 or 10 minutes just doing a little bit of tidying in my bedroom.

Anyway, I think that’s all for now. Bye all!!

PigginSkint

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are all sitting down, because this may come as a bit of a shock...

OH has set up his internet banking!!!!!:j :j :j :j

About bl**dy time!!

He has not set up his bill payments yet, but you have to agree that this is progress!!!

Lucy1982_2

Wooo Hoooo!!

Well Done OH! At least you are part of the way there now.

Keep it up and you never know what will happen.

PigginSkint

Hi All

Now OH has finally sorted his banking out, even though he hasn’t sorted his bill payments out yet, my figures might start to look a little better.

Unfortunately OH won’t get his bills paid (well, the Egg one anyway) in time for the 1st December which is when I shall calculate my totals again. This means they won’t be as good as I was hoping. I have just done some preliminary calculations (I need to check a few statements for the actual figures because I don’t have everything on Egg Money Manager yet and of those that I have, a handful aren’t working this morning) and actually it doesn’t look too bad. The total credit card figure is still a good deal less than it was last month – this is helped in part by the fact that some payments were made after the first of the month last time and this time they have been done before the first of the month, meaning that for some of my cards two payments have been made since the first of November.

Anyway, now OH has sorted himself out (almost!) then he should start paying some big chunks off the Egg card (at last!) which will make a big difference to my totals.

The other big news is that it would appear that I have now paid off more than £5000 of my total non-mortgage debt since my lightbulb moment (which was the end of July 2006) – so I am quite pleased with that. Especially when you consider how much ground I have covered in that time. Back then, a large proportion (probably about half) of my total credit card debt was still on relatively high APRs and I would still have been paying PPI on at least some of them. Since then I have moved all of my credit card debt to low rate APR, life of balance deals. I have incurred quite a lot of balance transfer fees along the way which I have been paying off as I go. Also I still had my Windows finance then at a stupid rate APR which meant that hardly anything had been shaved off the balance until about 3 months ago when I moved it to a credit card instead (low rate life of balance APR). The only things I am still paying PPI on are my mortgage, 2nd mortgage and LTSB loan, so that is definitely progress.

In short then, the only way is up!!

I don’t know whether I have mentioned this before, but the APRs on my credit cards (with the exception of the Egg card) are now lower than the APR on my mortgages and my overdraft. Oh, and my LTSB loan, now I come to think of it – though there isn’t much in it. I think the APR on my loan is 6.4% (I know it’s 6 point something) and the highest APR on a credit card is 6.05%. I think both my mortgages are something like 7.25% and my overdraft is 10.9%.

So the plan of action is:

1) Keep plugging away at paying off the credit cards
2) Once Christmas is out of the way I shall start to tackle the overdraft – I will see if LTSB will let me drop my limit by about £50 a month.
3) Sometime next year, investigate the possibility again of moving my mortgage.

Other things I need to do are:

1) Investigate whether it is worth changing my gas and electricity supplier.
2) Look into whether I could get a better deal on my MPPI

Anyway, tomorrow I shall update my figures properly and update my signature accordingly.

Have a good day everyone and, if I don’t post again later, have a good weekend.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Lucy1982 wrote: »

Wooo Hoooo!!

Well Done OH! At least you are part of the way there now.

Keep it up and you never know what will happen.

Thanks! At least the hardest bit is done now and he has said that he knows how to set up his bill payments, he just hasn't done it yet!

Blimey it has been like pulling teeth getting him to do it and it is such a relief that he finally has - I felt like I was turning into a nagging wife but it was the only way to get him to do it, even though it took a long time!!!

I think it might have been the threat to turn a certain part of his anatomy into earrings that might have done it!! :rotfl:

PigginSkint

Hi All

This is going to be a very short update as I am off sick again and not feeling very well at all. I went to the doctors this morning (about something else actually) but as I had been feeling unwell I took a "sample" with me - it turns out I have a kidney infection. Doctor gave me some antiobiotics and told me in no uncertain terms to go home. I don't know how long I will be off work - a few days at least. My doctor has not given me a sick note so unless I am still ill on Monday next week I can just go back when I feel like it - I can self cert for the first week and then I need a sick note.

[IMG]http://smileys.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/cat/36/36_2_45.gif[/IMG]
The good news is that although I have ear-ache as well, I don't have an ear infection - just a cold. Also, although I am bit chesty and wheezy, there is no infection there either - again, just a cold which is aggravating my asthma.

Anyway, I am going back to my bed of pain (lying on the sofa watching telly!).

Bye all!!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I am back at work today. I feel quite tired and a little wobbly on my legs still, but otherwise much better.

Today is going to be a busy day so I doubt I will have time to do a proper update today. Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow!!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Trying to catch up with quite a lot today so I don’t know when I will have chance to do a proper update.

In fits and starts I have been catching up with MOT’s thread which has inspired me to join the MSE Nerds group on Facebook today. If anyone wants to know which one is me, please PM me.

I might update again later if I get time!

Bye all!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have decided to try and do a proper update today! It is the last session of my course tonight so I shall be here late – this means it is going to be a long day today and I need to do something to help it to speed by!!!

I was really poorly all last week with a nasty kidney infection – I had pain in both kidneys and my bladder, I felt sick nearly all the time, I also felt dizzy, feverish and very wobbly on my legs. I felt absolutely rubbish, basically.

I am feeling a lot better now, I am glad to say, but still tire easily – today is going to be great then!!

One of our cats, PC1, was very poorly last week (this is the one who hasn’t been really well all year). In fact, we really thought we were about to lose him as he is showing all the symptoms of the beginnings of kidney failure. He had to stay at the vets from Wednesday to Friday last week because he they had to put him on a drip to push some fluids in him as he was so dehydrated. When I picked him up on Friday they said his blood test results were much improved and only time would tell whether he would stay that way. Gradually over the weekend he became more his normal self, eating, drinking and weeing (Thank God!!). We were still worried because he wouldn’t touch any of the prescription food that he is supposed to have, so we had to give him fish and chicken – but at least he ate it. Also he was still being sick once a day, which was also concerning us, but he seemed so much better himself. We went back to the vets on Monday and they were very pleased with his progress. As he won’t touch the prescription food the vet recommended that he have a good quality senior food and occasionally try him with the prescription food. Apparently, giving him too much fish or chicken is not a good idea because it is too rich for him (it contains too much protein which his kidneys can’t really cope with) and it has been equivalent to the hangover from hell, which is why he is being sick. Apparently he can still have it occasionally, as a treat!!

Anyway he is much better now (how relieved are we?!) even if he is costing us a fortune! The balance on the Egg card is really quite scary – OH has said that he will do his best to pay it off as quickly as possible but I really need to be looking out for some more balance transfer deals to try to reduce the amount of interest we are paying. This is because, with the best will in the world, OH is not going to be able to clear it all for a few months yet.

When I was stuck at home last week I finally got round to listing some more books for sale on Amazon and I have sold 2 already which I have posted today.

I managed to do nearly all of the rest of my Christmas shopping online last week. I shall use some of the money from my savings account to take care of that. Unfortunately this means I will have to transfer some more money from my ISA soon. OH is aware of this and starting to panic a bit about how little emergency money I have now got left. Good! If he is panicking he might do something about it!! Next year is going to be an interesting one!

We put our Christmas tree up and decorated it on Sunday – how organised is that? The past couple of years it has been Christmas Eve before we have done it. I have even wrapped up some of DS’s presents. Blimey! I am even shocking myself! I haven’t done my Christmas cards yet – I suppose I shall have to hurry up otherwise I shall miss the last posting date for 2nd class post.

Anyway, I think that is all for now.

Bye all!