PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Hi All

Christmas shopping on Saturday was a waste of time - I wish I hadn't bothered going. Loads of crowds everywhere (I hate crowds!), idiots in cars trying to take you out as you are trying to make your way across car parks etc, and I found absolutely nothing!

I went to see my Dad on Saturday afternoon - he is out of hospital now. He is a lot better but I can see that he still struggling a little bit.

OH made it back yesterday afternoon. He tried on Saturday night but the train he thought he could catch (London Midland) turned out to not be what it was advertised on the company's website and so he couldn't get on it after all (it was a Virgin train - massively more expensive!)

DS has gone back to school today but he had a headache again this morning. I thought he was probably worrying about something. I was right - he was worrying about all the work that he has missed when he was off all last week. He was actually quite upset about it. Anyway, as I said to him, all the more reason for him to go back today - if he stays off he will miss even more, mither even more, and end up with a continuous cycle of stress related headaches. I told him to talk to his teachers and I am going to try to speak to his Head of House to explain the situation and see what they can do to help him.

gilligansyle

Hi, have been lurking and reading about your troubles with your Dad. I know how you feel, and can imagine what it was like the day he went in to hospital having been through similar over the years, my mum has a heart condition.

My mum texted me a few weeks ago to ask could I get her some shopping as she didn't feel too good. When I got there she could hardly breathe and the doctor had just been and told her off for leaving it so long. She had apparently been bad all night, but didn't ring because she couldn't catch her breath for long enough to talk. Told her she should have called ambulance - her answer - how could I? I couldn't talk! In some ways its like having a child around again.

PigginSkint

In money-related news, I have just been doing my figures in preparation for the 1st-of-the-month updates tomorrow. It is not going to be as good as I hoped because OH can’t give me his weekly money plus contribution to what he owes me for the Egg card bill until Thursday (i.e. after the 1st of the month). D’oh! Oh well, I have realised that by paying a little bit extra today, I will actually reach a mile stone by tomorrow – total non-mortgage debt will drop to below £29K. Woohoo!

OH still owes me for the following which he has put on the Egg card (note: my Egg card which he is an additional card holder on): (a) the laptop he bought himself to take to London (it was a bargain though!); (b) Spotlight subscription (necessary professional expense); (c) vet bill (again necessary); (d) one tube fare (not quite sure why he used credit card and not debit card); (e) mobile broadband top-up (because it wouldn’t accept his debit card for some reason); (f) car hire and petrol for trip to London in September to fetch him back home.

I don’t begrudge him these expenses especially as I know he will pay me back for them in the relatively near future – he is paying a chunk each week on top of his regular weekly payment to me (which is the contribution to the household bills). But it is annoying when it is messing up my monthly debt figures!!

I have still got quite a large amount on the Egg card myself at the moment and unfortunately I have to keep adding to it – new boots for me, new shoes for DS, new bags for me and DS (all necessary purchases) plus bits of Christmas shopping. However, I am working hard at paying it all back – daily payments in fact. I am actually having quite a bit of fun with it, believe it or not! I have all my Egg statements copied onto an Excel spreadsheet – a separate sheet on the same document for each month’s statement and another for ‘Latest Transactions’. It is all colour coded – the cells for OH’s spending are in bright yellow, mine or joint ones are a sort of dusky orange, and any payments made are a sort of rose pink – I am glad to say there is more pink than any other colour. My daily payments mainly consist of paying individual items on the statements and I put notes next to them with the cells shaded in green as I pay stuff off. If something is paid in full I then put PAID in bold at the end of the note. Anything where there is still a balance to pay (some of the big boys where I can only pay off bits at a time) have the remaining balance in red text. Oh, hours of fun! It means I can see that I am actually making progress even if the balance is still quite large!

All being well I should make some considerable in-roads into tackling this over the next few months, even with Christmas looming! I have following in my favour:

1) One of my HMRC bills is now paid off (I regarded this as a bill rather than a debt – it just made me feel better O.K.!)
2) The last payment for my other HMRC bill (ditto note above) is due in January. This is the larger of the 2 so once that is paid off I will be considerably better off each month!
3) OH is earning some serious wedge at the moment – he certainly will be once the performances start this week as he goes from rehearsal wage to performance wage.
4) This month (I think) is the first of (I think!) 4 months off paying for my water bill.
5) February and March are the 2 months where I will not have to pay any Council Tax.
6) April and May are the 2 months where I will not have to pay for my Travel Pass.
7) All my efforts at chucking lots of spare money at my debts are bearing fruit in the shape of lower minimum payments.
8) My Amex is close to being cleared (balance is about to drop under £300) so once that is paid off, I will have a spare £25 a month to chuck at other debts.
9) Avon orders recently have been large!

So all in all, I am fairly confident of clearing the balance on the Egg card, and reducing my debts generally, before very much longer.

I should also say that by August this year I had already cleared more debt this year than in the whole of last year, so my coloured squares for 2009 should look very healthy indeed on the 1st January!

Right, I had better do some work I suppose!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

gilligansyle wrote: »

Hi, have been lurking and reading about your troubles with your Dad. I know how you feel, and can imagine what it was like the day he went in to hospital having been through similar over the years, my mum has a heart condition.

My mum texted me a few weeks ago to ask could I get her some shopping as she didn't feel too good. When I got there she could hardly breathe and the doctor had just been and told her off for leaving it so long. She had apparently been bad all night, but didn't ring because she couldn't catch her breath for long enough to talk. Told her she should have called ambulance - her answer - how could I? I couldn't talk! In some ways its like having a child around again.

That sounds very familiar! My Dad had apparently been bad for 3 days by the time I got there! The trouble was of course, that he had to be persuaded and to accept that hospital was the right place to be, before he would go!

PigginSkint

Forgot to say, this week's to do list consists of Avon, Avon and more Avon!

• Get books ready tonight (will probably put them out tomorrow to collect Saturday
• Prepare returns tonight
• Delivery comes tomorrow.
• Tomorrow night bag up orders.
• Wed night deliver
• Thursday night - go to London to see Peter Pan at O2 (Press Night = free ticket
• Friday - return from London, work a bit, collapse, sleep
• Saturday - collect books, put books out, do rest of deliveries

This campaign is a short one so I have only a week to collect all the orders instead of 2. :eek:

Anyway, home soon so better be off now!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Flying visit because I must get on with some work (though I feel in need of a power nap first - can barely keep my eyes open!)

Anyway, will need to update properly, but the big news from the 1st December figures (see sig!) is that:

1) My total non-mortgage debt has now dropped below £29K
2) My total non-mortgage debt has now reduced by 30% from its highest level aka LBM!

Feeling really pleased with myself! :j

Onwards and upwards! :j

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

This is just a flying visit as I am finishing work within the next half an hour. I am taking some flexi time off in lieu to go to London for Press Night for Peter Pan. I have got a free ticket - woohoo!

Will report back tomorrow afternoon when I am back at work - no doubt with match sticks holding my eyelids open!

Bye for now!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I got back to work at 12:45pm this afternoon. I am feeling a little weary but not too bad considering how little sleep I have had! I shall be very glad to go home though!

I will update more later - if I manage to stay awake long enough!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I can’t remember how long it has been since I last posted but I know it has been a while! I have been shockingly busy just lately! I am currently at OH’s bedsit in London where he has PAYG mobile broadband so I am typing this post offline in a word document ready to copy and paste later.

Friday 18th December was my last day at work and I don’t go back until Monday 4th January. DS was with me from when he broke up from school until Boxing Day morning and then went to his Dad’s – they are currently in France staying with Grandma. So I could have stayed at home alone, but that seemed daft so I decided to come down and spend some time with OH – even though he is out from late morning until quite late at night. It is quite nice to not have much that I need to do (just a bit of washing up and cooking for myself etc).

OH only got Christmas Day off, but luckily he only had to do one performance on Christmas Eve (he had the 2nd one off) so he was home about 6pm. He had to leave very early on Boxing Day (6am!) as he had to be at the O2 by 12:30pm, there were no trains so had to go by National Express coach from Birmingham, he had to have a lift to Birmingham to catch it because of course there were no local trains either, and there was no Jubilee line so he had to allow extra time for buses the other end.

I spent Boxing Day at my Dad’s and then travelled down here on Sunday – luckily OH had Sunday evening off so we got to spend some time together then. Yesterday I just explored the local shops and today I was going to go out for most of the day – either to Hamley’s or to the V&A. However, it is absolutely chucking it down with rain and I have no waterproofs with me. I don’t really fancy getting soaked to the skin – which I would do walking down to the tube station – so it looks like I am staying in today. Oh well, I am feeling quite tired today and I don’t actually need to go out. If the rain eases off a bit later on I might nip out for some fruit juice, but otherwise I think I shall just have another lazy day – the chances for those these days are rare, so it is not a great hardship!

Money-wise I have done quite a bit of spending on the old Egg card – Christmas shopping etc. Also I took DS down to see Peter Pan on Tuesday last week – OH was able to get us discounted tickets but obviously it was still fairly expensive. It was worth it though as we had a lovely day. I don’t imagine my 1st January figures will look very good but this is mainly because (a) I need to update my spreadsheets before I can work out how much I can pay off this side of my next pay day (b) I have to be a bit careful because there are about 6 weeks between December pay day and January pay day.

Things should improve fairly soon anyway because we got a bit of Christmas bonus (£250 but the tax man took a fair old chunk) and we are getting a 0.5% payrise from January pay day, backdated to last August. Also my last payment off my biggie HMRC overpayment is in January (the small one finished in November) so I will then have another nearly £100 to use towards other debts. In addition, February and March I won’t be paying any Council Tax, then in April and May I won’t be paying for my Travel Pass (the payments are 10 months out of 12) and I have now got a few months off paying the water bill (8 months out of 12 I think). All this means I should have lots more money to throw at debts. OH also still owes me some money – he has paid me about half so far.

That’s about all I can report on at the moment – I am away from my own computer at the moment so I can’t access my spreadsheets.

I go back home on Saturday and DS returns on Sunday. I will try and post again before I go back, but if not, Happy New Year everyone!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I am going out today so I hope the weather is kind to me - I can't bear staying inside for another day! I might go to the V&A today.

I was planning to travel back home on Saturday but OH has told me that he has the evening off that day so has suggested we go to see a show and for me to travel back on Sunday instead. There are a few things to consider: what time DS will be arriving back home on Sunday, train times on Sunday, whether my neighbour is O.K. to look after the cat for another night, how much clean underwear I have got left. Hmmmm! Much to consider!

Anyway, bye for now!