PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Hi All

Work is still very busy which is why I haven’t been posting much. However, it is payday today (woohoo!:j), we are only working 4 days this week (woohoo!:j) and I have got the whole of next week off (woohoo!:j) – we would have only been working 2 days next week anyway as we have an extended break at Easter (university closed days), but I have booked those days off as annual leave. I don’t think my body clock has adjusted yet to the clocks going forward – I found it very hard to get out of bed yesterday and today and I feel absolutely exhausted!


On the money front, it looks like I am going to achieve everything I wanted to achieve in time for my 1st April debt totals:

• Balance on Egg card below £900:j
• Balance on BA Amex card below £900:j
• Balance on Amex Blue card below £100:j
• Some extra payments made to my LTSB Loan:j

In slightly less good news though, the balance on the Littlewoods account has gone up for the following reasons:

• Now that I have turned the heating off I have replaced the tumble drier that gave up the ghost before Christmas
• My microwave died last week and this something we can’t really manage without – OH works evenings so I have his dinner ready to reheat when he gets home

This is not as bad as it might be for the following reasons:

• Interest free!
• Went via Quidco for the cashback :money:(although the tumble drier purchase didn’t track – grrr!:mad:)
• I shall make sure I pay at least £20 at a time and so earn cashback from that as well. I have deliberately avoided sale items as you don’t earn cashback from them! :money:
• We can afford it.
• These are both items we need.
• For the tumble drier I have decided not to go for a condenser one (much more expensive, and anyway, there is nowhere to put it) so I have gone for a vented one plus condenser box (much cheaper) and I have bought a small one, just like the one I had before (cheaper still!):money:

In holiday news, we have decided not to go away camping at Easter, like we normally do. Instead we are going to Alton Towers one of the days – it appears there are various 2 for 1 deals knocking around so that will keep the cost down. It also means I will only need to hire a car for 24 hours – as we don’t currently own a car I like to hire one every now and then so I don’t forget how to drive! I haven’t been to Alton Towers for years so I am really looking forward to it.

Anyway, must get on with some work.

Bye all!

Hopeful1

Hey Piggin'! I'm not about much at mo' but have caught up now.

I'm glad to hear your flap of skin has passed lol It sounds like you're recovering well.

As for your debt busting...go you! That's great you've met your targets. My debt busting has seriously slipped. I'm trying to be positive and not worry til i go back to work...it's not working though!

Catch up soon

PigginSkint

Happy Easter everyone!

Check out my sig! These are the achievements that I was expecting:

• Balance on Egg card is below £900:j
• Balance on BA Amex card is below £900:j
• Balance on Amex Blue card is below £100:j

And the ones I was hoping for but didn't know whether I would manage:

• Total non-mortgage debt is now under £27K:j
• Total non-mortgage debt has now reduced by 35% :j

I am making plans for our trip to Alton Towers on Thursday. I have reserved the hire car and I have discovered that I can save 20% on the entry price by ordering (and paying for) the tickets online. I am not doing it yet though because I need to do something very important before I am prepared to pay any money for anything.........find my driving licence!

Without that we won't be going anywhere! No driving licence...no hire car. I know it is in the house somewhere but I can't seem to put my hand on it. A good reason to do some tidying and decluttering while I try to find it!

dawnybabes

If you find yours can you come and find mine ??? Its been missing for about 3 years but is the old style one and I really don;t want a new one - grrrr

You can use Tesco vouchers for AT tickets as well :-)

PigginSkint

It's annoying because the last time I used it was September and I thought I knew where it was - mine is an old style paper one as well. I used it to hire a car so just had to present it and my passport - found my passport O.K. so why can't I find my driving licence?! Grrrr!:mad:

We don't have a Tesco, so that is no good!

PigginSkint

Hi All

We had a fab time at Alton Towers on Thursday. Weather was lovely and it was just nice to have a day out together doing something we really enjoyed. I didn't find my driving licence but it was O.K. - passport and a DVLA check were sufficient.

DS's friend was not able to come as she was ill - annoying because I had already pre-booked and paid for the tickets. We went to the pre-booked ticket collection office when we arrived and they refused to refund the cost of the unused ticket - not best pleased! :mad: Went to guest services on the way out and filled in a complaint form - here's hoping it bears fruit!

I am still in declutter and tidy mode: I am busy doing massive amounts of washing this afternoon, plus clearing out one of my sheds (the camping stuff and bikes shed) and doing a bit of DIY -replacing the broken and missing perspex windows with plywood (much more practical!). I have chucked out a load of stuff (the old set of pans, the rubbish cool bag, the rubbish water bottles, the past its best gazebo, the cheap and nasty windbreak - I have a nicer one, the rusty washing up stand, the rubbish cheap and nasty airbed that OH's brother gave him for Christmas - we have a much better one, etc etc) and I have given DS's old metal scooter (which he said ages ago he didn't want any more) to the next door neighbour's little boy. Here's hoping the jigsaw puzzle of getting everything back into the shed will now be much easier!

Latest on my finger - healing nicely but lots of scar tissue and still can't fully bend or straighten it. Last week I had appointments with the occupational therapist and my consultant. Between them I have a whole treatment regime - regular massage of the scar (4-5 times a day), exercises to do every hour if possible, but certainly to do as much as possible, and a splint to wear at night and periodically during the day (to try to straighten my finger). I have got to see the OT again on Wednesday to see how I am getting on and possibly adjust the splint so it is straighter.

Anyway, must attend to the latest load of washing and then get back to my shed.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Work (and life generally!) is really busy at the moment so I haven’t had much time to spend on MSE!

I got collared by someone in our local shopping centre the other day about loft insulation. They came round last night to measure up (i.e. to see how much insulation we have already got – not a lot) and to let us know whether they can do it. Apparently everyone gets a government grant towards the cost regardless of circumstances – it’s free if you are on certain benefits (I’m not) but for everyone else you just pay the first £149. I did a little bit of research before he came – to get an idea of the cost of doing it ourselves etc. It seems that, at a rough guess, it would cost in the region of £200 to do it ourselves and I know that the going rate to get someone in to do is probably around £300. Also the company are the Mark Group, which seems to be the company doing everyone at the moment, from what I can gather!

Anyway, I think it is worth doing – it seems a good price, it will save on our heating bills (particularly given how little insulation is already up there), there is no money to pay up front – we only pay when the job is completed, there are various payment options – including credit card which it will have to go on as a temporary measure (good job really as it would take me a little while to save the money up), and they will lag the water tank that’s up there while they are about it. I am just waiting for the chap to phone me up to arrange a date.

It will have an added benefit as it will force me to declutter the loft – it has to be cleared before they can do the job. This a job that really needs doing!

Must get on with some work now – got to leave to go to an OT appt in less than an hour.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Life is very busy at the moment – which is why I haven’t been posting much.

I should have had my PDR (Performance and Development Review) today but it has been postponed by a week - fine by me! I have nearly finished all the essential preparation and it gives me chance to do all the prep that I really wanted to do but didn't think I was going to have time to do!

On Thursday last week, after I had done my PADs (Payment A Day – see the challenge thread), I did a few sums and realised how close I was to paying off my Amex Blue card, so I decided to make an additional payment to it. This means that once the minimum payment (by DD) goes out on Friday this week, that card will be clear. Woohoo!! :j:j:j:j:j

My PADs are going to be quite small for the next few days, but I hope to do some bigger ones later in the month:

(1) when OH gives me more money
(2) when I get rid of my last 2 Avon deliveries
(3) when some cheques clear
(4) when I get round to paying some more money into my account (need change in my purse at the moment for the 2 remaining Avon deliveries)

With all the Alton Towers spends etc the balance on my Egg card has gone up again temporarily. However, I have managed to get it back under £1000 and I hope to be able to get it back down to below £900 the end of the month.

I have a larger balance on my Littlewoods account than I really would like at the moment. This consists of:
(1) New tumble drier (other one broke)
(2) New DVD player (ditto)
(3) New microwave (ditto)
(4) New deep fat fryer – which isn’t currently working, but that is another story! Littlewoods won’t replace :mad: and have suggested contacting the manufacturer directly. I will try giving it a good clean and changing the fuse and see what happens!

These are at least interest free and I will make sure my minimum payments are at least £20 so that I can get cashback. Also I bought the microwave via Quidco so will be getting cashback from that – forgot to do it for the DVD player and fryer, then did it for the tumble drier but it didn’t track – grrrrrr!!!!!:mad:

I am still in major declutter mode. 2 weekends ago (10th – 11th April) I decluttered one of the sheds in my garden – emptied it all out, sorted through all the contents (and chucked a load out) and replaced the broken Perspex windows with a piece of plywood, before putting the remaining contents back in an orderly fashion. Then the weekend just gone (17th – 18th April) I did the same with the other shed. Beautiful weather so perfect for this job. This involved organising all my DIY kit including the putting of tools actually in tool boxes! There is a lot of DIY stuff in the house so guess where a lot of it will be going when I work my way round decluttering the house?!

I managed to persuade DS to mow the lawn on Monday after school. I don’t think much of the job he did but at least he made the effort. Apparently he had used the strimmer for quite a while before he realised there was no line in it! Why didn’t he twig that he wasn’t cutting anything?! :rotfl:And then one of the plastic blades on the lawnmower broke – why didn’t they phone me? I could have told them where to find some spares!:rotfl:

Anyway, I really must do some work now!

Bye all!

sashybo

PigginSkint wrote: »

I managed to persuade DS to mow the lawn on Monday after school. I don’t think much of the job he did but at least he made the effort. Apparently he had used the strimmer for quite a while before he realised there was no line in it! Why didn’t he twig that he wasn’t cutting anything?! :rotfl:And then one of the plastic blades on the lawnmower broke – why didn’t they phone me? I could have told them where to find some spares!:rotfl:

:rotfl: My brother did the exact same thing the other week when my mum made him mow the grass. He was using a lawnmower and hadn't adjusted the height properly, so it wasn't actually cutting anything.

The dozy so-and-so hovered it over the whole front garden before he noticed it hadn't cut any grass! :eek::rotfl:

PigginSkint

sashybo wrote: »

:rotfl: My brother did the exact same thing the other week when my mum made him mow the grass. He was using a lawnmower and hadn't adjusted the height properly, so it wasn't actually cutting anything.

The dozy so-and-so hovered it over the whole front garden before he noticed it hadn't cut any grass! :eek::rotfl:

My son does at least have the excuse of only being 15! But all the same, what are they like?! :rotfl: