PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have had a fun day today with DS and OH as we have been emptying the loft ready for the insulation men coming tomorrow. Dirty, hot and exhausting work - so much stuff, so must dust!

All my deep seated (and not so deep seated) frustrations with OH came out in a fair and frank exchange of views (tee hee!) this afternoon! I think I have managed to get a few home truths across to him! It can really work wonders sometimes!

Anyway, I am off to bed very soon, just need to do my free scratchcards.

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Thank crunchie it's Friday and I am not back at work now until Thursday - woohoo!:j

I shall have to keep my extra daily payments to credit cards fairly small for the time being - I've got the boiler man coming in the morning and I shall probably have to make sure I have enough money to pay him to save having to use a credit card. The boiler, which is behind the gas fire, comes on in a great big whoosh and we are worried about the safety of this!

We have been having internet connection problems for a while so I went on the Talk Talk website at work this afternoon but help and suggestions to solve the problem. One of the things it suggested was that if the router was surrounded by other electrical items such as a cordless phone etc, to try moving the router away from them, as they could be interfering with the signal. So I have tried it and as you can see it has worked! Simple things make a big difference sometimes!

Anyway got to catch up with a few things, not least sleep!

Night all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Boiler man came this morning and it was no where near as painful on the old cashflow as I had feared - £45 for unblocking the blocked pilot light. Phew! I can breathe again.......and we no longer jump out of our skins when the boiler comes on to heat the water!

Forgot to mention about how we got on with the insulation. Great fun (ahem) because the fitters arrived early. So what, you might say, but it meant that neither OH or I were there to pay them. We had had a letter stating that the fitters would arrive any time between 12:30pm and 4:00pm. The lady I had previously spoken to said that the work would take up to an hour and half to complete. We also knew that payment would be on completion. So we made arrangements for OH's mum to be here to let them in and if they arrived when they were meant to either OH or I would be here to pay them when they had finished.

However, they arrived at 11:45am! The work only took them 40 minutes so were done at 12:25pm....before they were meant to have arrived. Neither OH or I were there at that point although OH was not far away. The fitters then asked OH's mum for money. We hadn't said anything to her about money because we expected to back in plenty of time to pay them. Result = OH's mum panics and tries to phone us both! After speaking to me I reminded OH that the fitters weren't meant to have arrived until 12:30. When OH's mum said this to the fitters their reply was that it doesn't work like that! !!!!!!!:mad:

To cut a long story, the fitters left leaving a phone number for me or OH to pay by card over the phone - which they could have done anyway without panicking OH's mum. My train was delayed so this had all kicked off while I was trying to get home. By the time my train got in I knew there was no hurry to get home...so I didn't! (went to Aldi on the way) First thing I did when I did get home was phoned the company and tore a strip off them! It was only then that I phoned the other number to pay.

Actually I was very glad to be home that afternoon as I was very tired. We are still surrounded by stuff and I have heard words come out of OH's lips that I never thought I would hear .... shall we get a skip?!

As it happens, having made a few phone calls today, a skip is not really an option (not least because we have no drive to put it in) - far too much money. It would actually be cheaper to hire a car and make a few trips to the tip!

An even cheaper option has since been offered - I asked my Dad's advice about cheap skip hire and that I thought about hiring a car instead to go to the tip. A few minutes later he phoned me back and offered to help me by driving me to the tip in his car... result = no expense to me!! woohoo! :money:

PigginSkint

I had some internet problems yesterday (DNS probs - had to refresh several times before anything would work!) - very frustrating!

I have taken the plunge and joined WW today - I am just fed up of feeling like a tub of lard and the effects it is having on my health (the back problems, the knee problems, the aggravated asthma). According to my own scales yesterday I was 15 stone 2 lbs, according to WW scales today I was 15 st 4.5 lbs. According to my own scales a week ago I was 15 st 7 lbs so I have already lost some.

The past few days have been filled with sorting out all the stuff that came out of the loft - we are determined that it is not all going back up.

One of my garden sheds is filled to the roof with full charity bags waiting to go to the charity shop - daily trips to the cancer research shop this week with trolley in tow! What hasn't gone by Saturday I am hoping to go to a charity that does bulk collections from people's houses - apparently St Giles Hospice is one of these so I shall investigate. I am keen that it should go to cancer or related charities as cancer has touched my family so strongly - my mum died of cancer and there have many other friends and family members who have had cancer and have either survived or not been so lucky.

Our new tardis sized recycling bin was full last week and after having been emptied last Tuesday is now full again - and won't be emptied until Tuesday next week.

The normal wheelie bin was full this week and is likely to be full again very quickly.

We have lots of rubbish waiting to go to the tip - my Dad can't come and help us take it to the tip until Saturday.

I have to say, I am impressed with the decluttering zeal that has gripped OH at the moment .....I have persuaded him to part with both of his old PCs (neither of which works) including the monitors. Wow! After I made enquiries at a local computer shop and discovered that they are worth nothing and actually have negative value - we would have to pay them to dispose of them - OH has realised that there is absolutely no point in keeping them (we both have laptops).

Anyway, I am back at work tomorrow after having a couple of days off for half term so I really must go and make some sandwiches.

Night all!

PigginSkint

Back at work today - oh joy! My Dad turned up unannounced this afternoon to take some stuff to the tip. Good in one way of course, but OH was hoping to make use of his one free-ish day to do some prep for his audition on Monday - all he had on today was to do a few jobs for me and then an evening shift. He is on split shifts for the next 3 days so won't be able to get much done.

Ran out of hayfever tablets the other day and was very glad to get some new ones today (one of OH's jobs today was to collect my prescription) - have been sneezing fit to bust today and my throat really hurts now as a result.

Going to bed very shortly because I slept really badly last night - the cat turned into a bit of a stalker last night! He kept trying to drink my glass of water, he was permanently welded to various parts of my body depending on which position I was lying and he kept 'talking' to me.

Night all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have finally managed to finalise my 1st June figures and update my sig (see below) – I have to say I’m quite pleased with myself!

I have achieved the following:

· Total credit card debt has now fallen to below £18K
· Total non-mortgage debt has now fallen to below £26K
· Balance on LTSB Loan has now fallen to below £3K

The scores on the doors are as follows:

LTSB Loan
(Original loan amount = £12,175.11)
1/5/10 = £3,165.24
1/6/10 = £2,929.42

Total Credit Card Debt
(At highest = £25,104.07)
1/5/10 = £18,213.84
1/6/10 = £17,785.78

Total Non-Mortgage Debt
(At highest =£41,680.59)
1/5/10 = £26,639.08
1/6/10 =£25,891.20

In addition, the following targets are within my grasp:

· Reduce total credit card debt by 30% (currently a smidge over 29%)
· Reduce total non-mortgage debt by 40% (currently a tiny bit under 38%) That’s nearly half! I can’t wait for that one!
· Reduce balance on Capital One card to below £600 – very very close to this target!

Note to self: must work out the % reduction of each individual credit card. That will be a real incentive!

Anyway, nearly lunch time and I plan to go for a little walk!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have been having a bit of a play with my spreadsheets and I have worked out all the % reductions on each of my credit cards. The exceptions are the ones I have already cleared (obviously!) and the Egg card, because that is the designated spending card so fluctuates quite a lot. In the case of the main Halifax card (which is the one that only contain’s OH’s debt, even though it is in my name) I have not used the absolute highest balance as a starting point, instead I have used the highest balance after I transferred the portion of the balance that was mine (which had been the windows finance) onto another card – this gives a truer figure of how much has actually been cleared. I have listed below what the current balances are as a % of the highest balance on that card, to the nearest 5%.

BA Amex 30% (i.e. reduction of 70%)
Amazon Halifax 70% (i.e reduction of 30%)
Halifax (OH’s debt) 95% (i.e. reduction of 5%)
Sainsburys 70% (i.e. reduction of 30%)
Capital One 25% (i.e. reduction of 75%)
IF Halifax 60% (i.e. reduction of 40%)

It is no surprise that the Halifax cards haven’t shifted much because the minimum payments are only 1% of the balance (I’m concentrating on clearing other cards at the moment). The Sainsburys card has reached that figure twice now – this the card that I transferred the windows finance to, from the Halifax card.

The BA Amex and Capital One cards are looking good though – woohoo! Once the Egg card is clear and I have got rid of the LTSB Loan, these will be the next targets – although there is not a left anyway on either of them!

Right nearly home time - bye all!

PigginSkint

How long is it since I last posted on my own diary?!!!:eek::eek::eek:

Must do better! Off now to compose an update (offline cos I'm at work at the moment ) - might take a while!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Well then, I suppose seeing as I have got so much to update on I had better keep it brief!

I have joined WeightWatchers again. I seriously need to lose some weight and have been trying to do it on my own – with no success. Therefore I decided I needed to feel the fear – i.e. face someone else’s scales! I have decided to go with the Monthly Pass option, which is where I get to go to meetings (actually any meetings) and have the online resources as well. £12.95 for the first month and then £17.95 a month after that.

We have bought a new telly! There was actually nothing wrong with the old one (which we have now given to OH’s Dad) but the sky box was failing (the sky subscription was one of the first things to go when I started my DFW journey) and we have no freeview downstairs. We thought about buying a freeview box but we thought we might just as well buy a better TV with freeview built in. We shopped around and got a really good package deal from Asda for a 32” Freeview HD ready LCD TV, with BlueRay player and 5 discs. We did use the Egg card to pay for it but at the rate I am managing to make overpayments at the moment it shouldn’t take too long to pay off. Also OH will be making a contribution to the cost of it, in the fullness of time.

The de-cluttering is still going on. The charity stuff in the shed is going down well and I have high hopes that it will all be gone soon. Lots of clothes need washing before they go to charity (brick dust, musty smelling etc) so that is obviously taking a little time. Plus of course, OH has slowed down in his sorting out of his stuff. Although to be fair to him he has got rid of lot of stuff.

I can’t remember whether I already mentioned this (I am preparing this post offline) but I shall be doing Jury service starting on the 12th July – only 2 weeks to go now. At least it is in Birmingham this time (last time I had to go to Stafford) so much more convenient for work.

I can’t remember whether I mentioned this either, but OH is currently learning to drive – with my old driving instructor! Not cheap but it is at least budgeted for and we can afford it. It will be such a good investment – as my Dad always says, if you can drive you are employable. OH has lost out on jobs before now through not being able to drive.

OH has finally fitted the intellipanel (energy saving device) on the new telly and peripherals, so hopefully that should help us save some money on the electric bills. It never got done before because the telly remote was needed to set it up, which we could never find when we thought about setting it up (we only every used the sky remote).

The purchase of the telly, plus the cost of the loft insulation, means that my 1st July debt figures will not be as good as the 1st June figures, but I think I can live with that temporarily! Of course, we will also be going on holiday at the end of August so I can’t imagine the August and September figures will be that great either. Oh well, I think on our debt journeys we have to accept that some things we can live without and some things we really need for our sanity – in our case, it is the need to get away on holiday, albeit only camping in the U.K.

O.K. that turned out to be not quite such a brief summary after all, so I think I will leave it there for now! I will try to update a bit more often so the posts are shorter!

Bye all!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Trying to be good and posting more often!

I have just been continuing my preliminary calculations ready for the 1st July debt figures tomorrow. I won't know the exact figure until (a) I decide how much to PAD (payment a day challenge) to my Egg card tomorrow (b) I check the balance of my LTSB loan tomorrow (in case the interest gets added tomorrow).

However, on first impressions I have to say it could have been a lot worse. Bear in mind that we have spent over £500 on the new TV and relevant accessories (arial, cables etc) the total debt figure for 1st July will actually be less than £100 more that it was on 1st June. Which I don't think is bad at all!

O.K. the total credit card debt has gone up quite a bit, and is back up above £18K (though not for long if I have got anything to do with it!) but the total non-mortgage has stayed below £26K.

We don't go on holiday until the end of August so I have got plenty of time between now and then to do some serious debt busting!


Other news for today:

• Pay Day yesterday - woohoo!:j
• Sainsbury's delivery is coming tonight
• I have my Avon order to finish off tonight
• Weigh in at WeightWatchers this evening

Right, I had better get on with some work.

Bye all!