PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Right, veggies are on, so I am back briefly. The following is copied from another thread I have been posting on - about the Capital One interest rate hikes:

'I phoned Capital One today and said that as my balance transfer was done before November 2005, would my APR stay at the promotional rate? Yes was the answer. Do I need to do anything else? No! So there we are then! Phew!'

That was yesterday - good news eh?

PigginSkint

I had a nightmarish journey home from work today. I dashed to catch my train (a direct one home). Just as the train was pulling out I realised that I had left my handbag at work - locked in my desk drawer, but all the same! So I had to get off at the next stop and catch a train back again (luckily the next stop wasn't far and the trains back again run every 10 minutes). Once I had retrieved my handbag and stowed it safely in my backpack this time, I had to wait for the next direct train before going out again (I could have caught an earlier one but it wouldn't have gained me much time and I would have had to fight for a seat because of having to change trains).

While I was walking home from the station I was suddently aware that the bottom of my back was getting very cold. On investigation I discovered that the reason was because it was wet - my water bottle had leaked in my bag. D'oh! When I got home I immediately emptied everything out of my bag (backpack) because I was really worried about what might have got wet (e.g. my diary, my money notebook), but luckily (?!) the only things that were wet were my coat, my bag and me!

Right - I had better go and serve the dinner now. Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Thank goodness it's Friday! What a week! I have barely drawn breath all week and next week it looks like it will be no better.

I have done my figures ready for the 1st of Feb - a big improvement on 1st January I am glad to say! I will change my sig on Sunday.

I have also done my spreadsheet for February and it is looking pretty good -
I should be able to make a fair few overpayments.

I have managed to get the balance on the Egg card down to below £200 - it was over £400 earlier in the month (about half of that was the cost of the new laptop) and I think I should be able to get it down to £0 by the end of February. That would be fab! The next target will be the Virgin card - the 0% deal ends in April. After that it will be the LTSB card - the 0% ends in June I think. The balance on the LTSB card is only quite small though. Having done some calculations, the next target after that will be the Amazon credit card - 3rd biggest balance but biggest APR after the Egg card. So that's my plan for the next few months.

I've sold another book on Amazon today - only a littlie but it all helps.

I think that is all the news for now.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Welcome to snow day! DS was off school today as it was closed. I got to work O.K. but then it looked like it was going to be dodgy getting home because of the trains - an email went round saying that anyone who might have difficulty getting home could leave at lunch time. I hung on for a bit but left at 2:30pm - I decided to leave while I still could. I didn't really want to be stranded at work!

I have updated my figures:

Total non-mortgage debt = £33,232.66 (January = £33,732.25)
Total credit cards = £22,479.66 (January = £22,869.20)
Littlewoods catalogue = £53.82 (January = £0, this new balance is OH's new shoes)
LTSB loan = £5,699.26 (January = £5850.42)

Not bad eh?!

Off to dish up OH's dinner - back soon!

PigginSkint

In other news - OH did do his tax return on Saturday .... well as much as he could do anyway! Typically of course he hadn't realised that he had to register by 21st Jan to submit it online! As I said to him, the moral of that story is to do your preparation and research before the actual day of the deadline! Anyway, apparently they should have sent him one and they hadn't. One is now on it's way and he spent a couple of hours sorting out a load of paperwork - so he actually spent his time very constructively, albeit very late at night!

He commented on how therapeutic it was getting everything sorted out - like I haven't been trying to him that!

I have bought him a box file - well actually it is a Really Useful box, the sort that you can put suspension files in. When we were discussing it the other day he said that it would really useful (tee hee!) to have one for filing stuff in. It remains to be seen whether he will actually use it!

Anyway, I am now going to load the dishwasher, do lunches and go to bed!

Night all!

PigginSkint

Morning all!

An unusually early post from me! I can, now that I have a much faster computer at home.

I needed to check my trains for this morning and whether DS's school is open. The news is that DS gets another day at home and I am going to work, albeit a bit later than I would have - the train I would have been catching is cancelled which means the next 2 will be packed, so I am going to hang on for a bit and go out in just under an hour's time to catch the 8:30am train.

I chased up IT at work yesterday about the problem I am having with my computer. A bloke arrived within half an hour (a week after I first reported the problem). He has taken it away and it might be Thursday before I get it back! :eek: :eek: Luckily I can jump on another one temporarily - it is the one our temp has been using and he was off sick yesterday and will probably be again today. Oh well, we'll see.

Suppose I had better go and get dressed now!

Bye all and have a good day!

dawnybabes

Thats brilliant news about the debt going down this month. Hope your train isn't too packed, won't lots of people not be at work today ? Here up North everything has stopped !!

PigginSkint

dawnybabes wrote: »

Thats brilliant news about the debt going down this month. Hope your train isn't too packed, won't lots of people not be at work today ? Here up North everything has stopped !!

It wasn't too bad but I definitely made the right decision - I saw both trains I decided not to bother trying to catch go by as I was walking to the station! I would have spent a long time standing in the cold if I had tried for either!

It was noticably quieter on the trains - helped by all the schools in Birmingham being closed - but there were still plenty of people!

February should be a fairly good month for debt busting - I hope so anyway!

I have just done my Avon order online and it was BIG!!! Over £350 worth of sales which is exceptionally good for this time of year (that's a Christmas sized order that is!!).

I have also had a steady flurry of Amazon sales recently - including selling one of my highest priced items today. £13! For one book!

Right, I am off to parcel up aforementioned book and then go to bed.

Night all!

PigginSkint

One thing I forgot to mention - got my mended work computer back today. Seems O.K. except for one little thing - no Office 2007! This was installed on my computer a few months ago and anything saved in the new format I now can't open. Hope the techie person in our dept will come forth with the disc tomorrow as there is some vital stuff I need to be able to open - like some exam papers I have been working on! :eek:

PigginSkint

Hi All

It was OH's birthday yesterday so I didn't get chance to update. I treated us to indian takeaway and we had 2 bottles of red wine (I bought one and OH bought the other) - yum!

I bought OH 3 CDs that he had put on his Christmas list but didn't get - I managed to get them on Amazon for a combined price of less than £20. Bargain!

I have sold yet another book on Amazon - woohoo! Only a littlie, but every little helps!

The new bookcases for our new office arrived today (more than 2 weeks after we moved offices) which meant I was finally able to completely unpack. Hoorah!

Tomorrow morning our techie person will install my RAM upgrade and Office 2007 - she promised to do it before I get in, so it should be ready for me when I get there. Hope so!

DS was off school again today (at his Dad's this time) so he has only had one day at school so far this week (yesterday). We will have to wait and see whether school will be open or closed tomorrow.

I got a letter from BA Amex yesterday which scared the life out of me briefly. It said that the APR on my account was going up to 19.9% APR. When I read it more closely it turned out that is only on new purchases - my LOB deal is still intact. Phew!

Today I managed to find out when my current broadband contract expires - I thought it was last month but it actually doesn't run out until 22nd of this month which coincidentally also happens to be my birthday. That gives me a little time to change to another supplier, if I am going to do it.

We have decided to go to the boating and outdoor (including camping) show at the NEC this year. I haven't been before but I really fancy going this time. It coincides with half term - when DS will be off school so I shall be having a couple of days off anyway. My birthday is at the end of that week so I can look at it as a bit of a birthday treat to myself (plan to take DS and OH as well). As a member of the Camping and Caravanning Club I can get tickets at a discounted rate - I think we save something like one third of the full price. Also, my dad always goes to the show (he has already got his tickets for this year) so I asked him very nicely if we could go with him when he goes and he said yes. So that will save us the cost of travelling there. All good moneysaving stuff!

I think that's all the news for now.

Bye all!