PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

School phoned me a few minutes later to say that DS had said that it had stopped hurting but they were waiting for OH to arrive to have a chat with him.

OH has just phoned me to say that DS is absolutely fine. DS giggled as soon as he saw OH and was all embarrassed - he had swallowed a fly! Apparently DS moaned that he had missed his break time because of it so OH said to him that at least he had had something to eat!:rotfl:

What a relief!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have been playing around with a few figures and I have decided to change my current small target because I have realised that there is another important milestone that is imminent.

When my current total credit card debt drops to £22111.89 I will have reduced it by 10%. Something worth celebrating I think you will agree!!
After I have achieved that one, the next one will be to get it below £22K.

PigginSkint

What I should have said is that I will have reduced it by 10% from its highest point which was £24,568.77

PigginSkint

Hi All

Well I had a bad day yesterday and slipped off the wagon slightly. It all started because of my Physio appointment yesterday afternoon. OH met me off the train because I had forgotten to take an inhaler with me yesterday :doh: so he brought one from home for me. Then we went to a baker’s and bought a sandwich and a sausage roll (for him) and a muffin for me, plus a drink each and also a loaf of bread, which came to about £6 I think. This is more than I would have like to have spent but I didn’t feel tooo bad about that.

Then the rot set in! I got the time of the bus wrong so we were walking down the road to the stand just as it was pulling out arggggghhhhh!:mad: So we had to get a taxi otherwise I would have been late for my appointment – not only did this cost extra but it meant that I couldn’t claim it back. :mad: OH and I then got a bus part of the way back to the town centre so that we could go to the retail park.

We really needed a new fryer and I had seen one in Asda the other week for about £15. Needless to say when we got there they didn’t have any. :mad: While we were there we decided to look at the clothes. OH needed a new pair of jeans and found a new pair for £8. Then he found a t-shirt for £6. I needed some shorts or leggings to wear under skirts (I am blessed with rather large thighs, the tops of which get very sore in the hot weather, when I am wearing skirts) because I had failed miserably to find some cheap trousers in the charity shops on Saturday. I managed to find a pair of leggings for about £3 and I looked in the lingerie section and found a pair of those support pant thingies that are like shorts for £8. I suppose we can tell ourselves we needed these things but it doesn’t make me feel any better. :embarasse

In our search for the fryer we went to Argos instead (checking out the prices in Currys and Comet first) and spent quite a long time poring over the catalogue trying to decide which one to get because (a) I didn’t want to spend too much money (b) I really wanted one that would be easy to clean (I didn’t really want one that had non-stick bowl because the old one has got that and it is a pig to clean because you can’t scrub it to within an inch of its life for fear of removing the non-stick surface) (c) I preferably wanted one that would have a stainless steel bowl for the reasons mentioned in item b (d) I didn’t want one that was too big and specifically I didn’t want one that was too wide – this is because the surface that it sits on is not very wide and is right next the cooker (the old one has ended up with a melted bottom!). I eventually bought one for £39.97 which had all features I wanted. I would have been quite happy with a chip pan to put on the hob but I realised that that would probably use more energy (gas) than a free standing electric one.

When we got the fryer it was big and heavy and we realised that we were not going to be able to lug it home (about ½ hour walk) and so would have to get a taxi again. Arggghhhh! :mad:

Before we went home we went into Sainsburys because I really needed to ‘use their facilities’:whistle: . While we were there I said that perhaps we should see whether that had got any cheap meat for OH….£40 later! Arggghhh!! :eek: Still, it means he has got plenty to eat now and we shouldn’t need to buy any more meat for a while. And we got other stuff that we needed (but perhaps we didn’t really need the packet of 10 chocolate éclairs that had been reduced to £1! :whistle: )

Then of course another taxi home. So in summary what we spent yesterday was as follows:

Bakers (sandwich, sausage roll, muffin, 2 drinks, bread) = about £6
Taxi fares (2) = £12
Bus fares = £2.10
Asda (clothes) = £25
Argos (fryer) = £39.97
Sainsburys (food) - £41.03

Total = £126.10 :eek:

OMG this makes me feel sick!!

OH paid for bakers, taxi fares, and bus fares with cash.
I paid for Sainsburys on debit card
I paid for Asda and Argos on credit card (which I shall reimburse from my savings account)

One other piece of news from yesterday is that OH had the cheek to call me a sad b*****d! This is because I was reading something in the waiting room at Physio yesterday and he asked me what it was, so of course I had to tell him. Now I think I have mentioned before that I catch up with MSE/DFW at work by copying and pasting into a word document the threads that I want to read so that I don’t get into trouble for spending too long on the internet. On Tuesday I had to invigilate an exam so I printed a load of these off (that I hadn’t got round to reading yet) to give me something to do. I hadn’t managed to read all of them so I was waiting for my appointment. Sad? Tcha! I pointed out to him that this forum keeps me sane and stops me falling into a pit of despair!! (by the way, he was only teasing!)

We got back so late yesterday evening that I didn’t do the job that I really should have done yesterday which was to get my Avon books ready to go back out and then put them out. I really must do that tonight!!

Anyway, loads to do today so I suppose I had better get on. Have a good day everyone.

PigginSkint

Hi All

Thank Crunchie it’s Friday!!

Had to nag OH last night I’m afraid. But I tried to keep it light-hearted!! He was working all day yesterday and then had to go out to a course in the evening. When I got home just after 5 he said he would have to go out soon and so I asked whether he had had anything to eat – of course not! ‘But I’ll get something while I’m out!’ As you can imagine I was not very pleased! :mad: When he is going out in the evening and so misses dinner, I always have something ready for him that he can just reheat in the microwave when he gets back – is it too much to ask that if he’s hungry before he goes out that he eats something at home? He knows when he is going out so he should get himself organised to eat something before he goes! I told him that he wasn’t been very moneysaving and that his lightbulb was obviously not shining very brightly. I gave him the whole spiel about how the little things make a big difference, look after the pennies and the pounds would look after themselves! Anyway he relented and said that he would just get a bag of chips. Much better – at least he would have only spent about £1!

On to other news…I managed to get my Avon books out last night and I did all the houses that I wanted to do. This is good because once I get the books back in they will not have to go back out again.

Yesterday I had a look at the wedding list for the first of the weddings that we are going to. Luckily there was plenty left and plenty that was a reasonable price – I wanted to spend less than £20. Today I have ordered an electric handmixer for £17.95. That’s one more job done – hoorah!!

I really must get some stuff listed on Amazon – I have a few more books that need to be sold. Also I have just started to read another ebay book that I have got - I think this one will be more useful than the other because it is aimed at the casual seller rather than the make-a-fortune seller and it is written from a UK perspective rather than USA. So one day soon I will take the plunge onto ebay!

PigginSkint

:eek: Nightmare weekend! One of OH’s old debts has finally caught up with him! He got a letter from the student loans company asking for him to pay what he owes in full – it’s about £5.5K. This is the first letter to come to this address though I think one went to his Dad’s address a few months ago.

We hadn’t even really thought about this one because, for a start, OH didn’t even mention it for a long time. Also he would have been able to defer it anyway – I don’t even earn enough to start paying mine back so there is no way he does.

OH’s first reaction was to say that ‘they can s*d off’ because, like he says he has never earned enough to start paying it back. However, the letter says that as the loan has now matured deferring is now not an option.

This is worrying in itself – will there come a point when I won’t be able to defer mine any more and have to start paying it? I thought that after a certain number of years it was written off anyway. This is why I don’t even count it in my debts because as things stand at the moment (I’ve just had my update letter but I am still waiting for the deferral form) my income would have to double before I have to start paying it. Perhaps because I have been a good girl and actually filled in the deferral forms every year this is the case.

Anyway I know what OH would be inclined to do – ignore it. However I had to give him a few home truths. This debt is now associated with our home address which means it is likely to impact on my credit scoring. It doesn’t make any difference to him because his credit score is so poor anyway but it matters to me! :mad: My credit score is still fairly good and I would like to keep it that way because it means I still have a few options for shuffling my debts.

Anyway, (on my advice) OH says he is going to write them a letter offering them a monthly payment of £100 to pay it off and wait and see what they say. If they turn it down he will have to try other avenues e.g. CCCS.

One thing that occurred to me though – this debt is over 6 years old (it is probably about 10 – certainly not less than 7) so does the old statute barred thing apply here? This is the first letter about it he has received at this address but of course we don’t know what might have been sent elsewhere. His address when he took out the loan/s would have been where he went to University and the end of his time there was rather traumatic so giving them a forwarding address would have been the last thing on this mind! (Breakdown of his marriage and imminent nervous breakdown)

Also, do different rules apply for student loans? It is all so confusing … and depressing!!

Anyway I have given him a few home truths about other stuff as well. For example, once the work that he is doing now is finished with (about November time) if he hasn’t got any other work to go into, he is really going to have to find some additional income from somewhere. I already do enough, thank you very much (full-time job, plus Avon, plus flogging books on Avon and soon I will be flogging stuff on ebay – not to mention the bulk of the housework) so if we need extra income it will have to be him bringing it in!

I get really fed up sometimes. I feel like I am on my own sometimes with this because he just doesn’t seem to have the same commitment to money-saving as I have even if he doesn’t spend a lot – e.g. he will think nothing of buying a coffee while he is out but you wouldn’t catch me doing that! He is working today so I have made him some sandwiches and a flask of coffee. Left to him he would just buy coffee and sandwiches rather than be bothered to make them or just wait till he gets home. Cold drinks are another issue – I always have a bottle of water with me but I might buy a bottle but then refill it with tap water for weeks afterwards. OH will just buy a bottle of pop or water and then just chuck the bottle away.

I know I am the organised one and I know I am the strong one but sometimes it gets a bit much!

Sorry for the moan but I am feeling really quite miserable today.

PigginSkint

Hi all

well what a week I am having! I haven't posted since Monday because on Tuesday I was out all day because of some exams that was involved in organising and administrating. Yesterday I had to go to the dentist and afterwards had to take DS back to school which was a much longer walk than I thought! So I was late into work and not feeling very well so cracked on with doing what I needed to do and left at normal time (4pm) because I had no intention of staying late

Today I feel even worse so I am off sick. I have been teasing OH about his 'man cold' (you know the sort, much worse than any other sort! lol) but he seems to have given it to me. I have asthma so naturally it has gone straight to my chest so I feel flipping awful!

Not much MSE/DFW stuff to report really. I did my Avon order online last night - sales this time £267.85 woohoo!! Had to transfer £100 from my other account to cover the payment I had to make for my last order - don't normally have to do this but it was caused by different things going in and out of my account at different times. With Avon we work on a 3 week cycle so the payments are always at different times during the month.

Anyway don't plan to do much today - think I might just go back to bed!

PigginSkint

What more can life throw at us?!

I am still off sick. Went to the Drs on Friday - I have a bad chest infection so he signed me off for a week. I will have to wait and see whether I am actually well enought to go back to work this Friday - I feel very ill!

On Saturday night OH went out with his friend that he hadn't seen for months. When he was walking home 2 lads decided it would be fun to beat him up and kick his head in (literally). He went to hospital and luckily nothing is broken but he has a black eye, cuts and bruises to his head, face, nose, ear, arm (which he was using to shield his head) and hip.

He has had to go to work today as he is starting rehearsals for the play he is doing. At some point he has still got to give a statement to the police (they cancelled last night because they were running late) and have his face etc photoed (sp?). We think they caught the lads because another bloke phoned the police and ambulance who came quite quickly. OH saw which direction the lads escaped in and police went after them.

PigginSkint

hi All

well I still feel really ill - I think the chances of me being well enough to go back to work on Friday (when my sicknote expires) are fairly remote. I phoned the Drs this morning to see if I can get an appointment with my Doc on Friday but he is on holiday on that day and also not in on Thursday. The only option is try for an appointment tomorrow morning, but i will be a phone on the day job. Ooh that reminds me - I am supposed to going to physio tomorrow. It is the first of session of the lower limb rehab clinic (for my knee) - there is no way I will be well enough for that !! I shall have to phone them up to say i won't be coming.

OH went to work yesterday but only lasted a couple of hours! He is not going today but is going to try tomorrow. On the way home yesterday he went to the police station to see about going today to make a statement and to have his injuries photographed - typically they could not fit him today at all.:mad: He has got to go a 7:30pm tomorrow to do his statement but they can't promise they will be able to photograph him then. !!!!!!!!:mad: His black eye won't last forever! Anyway he has gone to see his GP today, partly to get checked out and partly because we reckon the more medical evidence the better! His arm is the most worrying thing - he got me to pull his top over over his head for him before having a bath last night and he howled in pain. He is an actor and musician doing a play when he has to be both so this is really not good! Hope it's nothing too serious as his career could be shot to pieces.

DS is starting to worry me as he has been coughing - I worry that he has caught what I have got. However, he says he feels all right in himself (unlike me!) so fingers crossed. He was playing in the garden quite actively last night so maybe it's nothing to worry about. He does have hayfever and asthma like me and I think he has got a bit of a cold, so maybe it's just that.

OH has just phoned to say that his GP is sending him to our local hospital to have his shoulder xrayed - he has to go this afternoon. So we will just have to wait and see.

PigginSkint

I forgot to say earlier - I got my new tax credit award notice yesterday. Child Tax Credit has gone down a bit (not surprising - I have had 3 pay rises in the last 12 months) and my Working Tax Credit is now practically nothing - obviously this is partly because of overpayment due to the pay rises - I shall be getting 81p a month!! :rotfl:

One unforseen positive consequence was that I got an extra payment yesterday (about £87) which means I haven't had to transfer as much from my other account to cover bills as I thought I was going to have to - my main payment date is on the 27th.