PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Hello again

Part of my efforts to try to get back on track with the Money Saving and Debt Busting is to try to post on my diary a bit more often, so here we are again.

Very very tired again - combination of not enough sleep, too much work and all the co-codomol that I have taken over the last few days! (Hopefully the pain has gone now so I can stop taking them they do send me away with the fairies!)

Just checked on my internet banking and it was a bit of shock - thought I had a bit more money left than that! (About £5 available balance!):eek: Oh well, pay day on Thursday (about time too) so I can try to get things moving again.

At the moment we are playing the store cupboard challenge, and, more specifically, the empty the freezer challenge. I am guessing that when they rewire the house, they will have to turn the electric off, so I really don't want to leave too much in the fridge an freezer.

Really need to get my act together - I got paid more than normal in December and I have still got no money left! I am really feeling the dip in my income since I lost my child benefit and the maintenance from the Ex when DS went away to University. But at least I don't have to save up for DS's driving lessons any more.

PigginSkint

Hi All

Distraction activity again - having a short break from work!! Only an hour to go until home time.

Tomorrow is payday - it can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned. I was hoping to have lots of money left over from this month to make some lovely overpayments, but it wasn't to be! I have got lots (well, I say lots, that's a relative term!) of money left in the present fund which I still need to use to pay off the some of the Christmas present expenditure on the credit card.

2013 was not a particularly good year money-wise for a number of reasons. I think I will list some of them now, in the hope it might make me feel a bit better about the situation (I can but hope!):

• DS was learning to drive, so I was spending quite a lot on driving lessons and also tests (2 each of theory and practical). As he has now passed his test, that expenditure has now gone.
• DS started University in September so there were lots of related costs - trips to go down to see him in the first few months to make sure he was OK, trips to university open days before he went, household goods for him to take with him, etc etc.
• With DS going off to University, I have now lost nearly £200 a month in income - £100 per month of maintenance from the Ex, plus the child benefit of £81.20 every 4 weeks
• I have increased DS's pocket money from £5 per week to £20 per week, to help him with his living expenses now he has gone to University.
• 2 weddings, 2 funerals and 1 family get together at a hotel, with associated costs in travel, accommodation, presents/flowers, appropriate clothes etc
• A lovely holiday which was more expensive than usual for a number of reasons - DS being older so campsite fees were more expensive, weather not being great so went on more excursions and ate out more often
• New sofa (badly needed) but partly saved up for
• New fridge (necessary!)
• New carpet in bedroom (badly needed, but at least did not get credit to pay for)
• Plumber to do repairs (necessary!)
• New (small) TV in bedroom (OK, not necessary or badly needed but it was a good deal and it was bought on interest free credit)
• Electrician (very necessary but luckily not that expensive)
• Reduction in OH's income (hopefully now improving)
• New rug in living room (badly needed, but luckily very cheap!)

I am sure I have missed loads from this list, so stand by for more additions when I remember them.

Here's to much improved 2014!!

PigginSkint

Continued...

• New laptop (OK a bit of an extravagence, but my old one was about to turn it's toes up and I had lots of gift cards to use - which needed using up quickly - which covered roughly half of the cost. Also, it was a really good price anyway)
• Car hire over the Christmas period (only a few days - made life loads easier!)
• Christmas (so what else is new!!)
• New Kindle Fire each (myself and OH) (yes an extravagence but a very good deal!)
• 2 trips to London to go to the Proms
• Lots of things that OH has used the credit card to pay for and is very behind with paying me back - sore point that!!:mad:

PigginSkint

Finally! It is Friday at the end of a very long, tiring and stressful week. Next week is going to start off even worse (we are being inspected on Monday and Tuesday) but, with any luck, from Wednesday onwards we can breathe a sigh of relief. Really really can't wait to go home today.

Last night I looked on the Vodafone website at my online account management to see what my options were for upgrading my phone and package. I wasn't going to, but I have gone over to the darkside - I have ordered an iphone! It was in the sale and it seemed a really good deal - I was going to to go for another make of phone but the deal on this one was comparable or not much more, so I have decided to take the plunge. It is something I have resisted for a long time so I hope I don't end up regretting it!! (Iphone 4s, free phone, £25 a month, 600 minutes, unlimited texts and, I think, 500mB of data). It is a little bit more than I am paying at the moment but not much and my phone is definitely on it's way out (and also, if truth be know, steam driven compared to most other people's phones!!)

Pay Day was yesterday - woohoo! Really must tackle my spreadsheets this weekend. I know already what I want to do for the coming month (and probably for several months to come):

• Strip nearly all of my credit cards (those with Life of Balance or 0% APR deals on) right back to the minimum payment.
• Concentrate on paying off the catalogue (interest free but large repayments at the moment because of the fridge and some other things) until the minimum repayments start to drop significantly (should happen within the next few months)
• After every payment to the catalogue email them to ask them to deduct any cash back earned from my current balance (first time I have been able to do this for a while because there are a few things that I have bought that weren't actually in the sale!! Sale items do not earn cashback)
• Do my very best to find some better APR deals to reduce the amount of interest on my Egg/Barclaycard (options for this are Sainsburys credit card - currently £0 balance, Amex credit card - will very soon be £0 balance, try to apply for new credit card with a good deal on)
• Keep making overpayments where possible to loan to get that paid off more quickly
• Pay off as much of balance on Egg/Barclaycard as humanly possible (have some money in the christmas present savings account that still needs to be used for this purpose)
• Rein in the spending!!!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

PigginSkint

Hi All

Day 2 of our inspection so an early start again today (as yesterday). Yesterday was a late finish - inspectors left at 5:30pm so we had to wait until after they had gone before we could leave. Today they are due to finish at 4:00pm so hopefully we should get out a bit earlier today!!

I would like to go home at a reasonable time today as it is OH's birthday. Bought his presents at HMV yesterday at the same time as returning a faulty blu ray bought for Christmas (I was hoping to replace it with the DVD version instead but they didn't have a copy of it).

OH is having a bit of a difficult time at the moment - his very good friend and father figure died yesterday afternoon. It has been on the cards for a long time but it is still very upsetting for him.

My new toy arrived yesterday (another one - groan!) - my new phone - so spent yesterday evening setting it up. Still need to wait about 24 hours for the SIM cards to swap over.

More later!!

PigginSkint

Hello all first attempt at using my iPhone to post! Life is very busy and stressful at the moment and I am very tired! Still not up to date with my spreadsheets and I just don't know when I will be! There have been quite a few deaths amongst family and friends recently which certainly puts things into perspective. Anyway I'm on the train going to work and we are nearly there so I shall have to sign off for now.
Bye all!!!!!

PigginSkint

Life has been very eventful in the PigginSkint household - the full story will have to wait until a later date (need to go and check on my fruit crumble that I am making to take up to my Dad's for Father's Day dinner). In a nutshell these have been the events of the past few months:

• Fell down stairs at railway station and broke my elbow
• Very busy and stressful at work
• Lots of work done on the house including a complete rewire, then plastering and currently painting and decorating
• As a result of above, house in complete disarray (even more than normal!)
• OH has just been made redundant
• DS now back home for the summer after completing his first year at uni

PigginSkint

I have had to take the day off work today because of a migraine. There are probably things that are better for me than looking at a computer, but I'm in pain and bored, so here I am (but probably not for very long - this hurts!)

Tomorrow is payday and I have made it through the month without running out of money - just! I paid the carpenter who did our bathroom floor on Saturday by cheque and I have been hoping and praying all week that it wouldn't clear too soon!

I have no idea what my debt totals are at the moment as I am seriously behind with my spreadsheets - still! I have got 4 days off this weekend as we have an extra day off as well as the bank holiday - woohoo!

OH is still out of work having been made redundant in May but now we are back from holiday he can start looking again. In the meantime I am very pleased about the amount of painting, decorating and general DIY that is getting done!:beer:

DS has now finished his first year at Uni and did extremely well in his exams - his lowest mark was 71% and most of the rest were over 80%. He has even been put on the Dean's Honour Roll so I am a very proud mummy!

That's all for now, I will post more when there is more to tell any head doesn't hurt quite so much!

Bye all

boredofbeingathome

PigginSkint wrote: »

Life has been very eventful in the PigginSkint household - the full story will have to wait until a later date (need to go and check on my fruit crumble that I am making to take up to my Dad's for Father's Day dinner). In a nutshell these have been the events of the past few months:

• Fell down stairs at railway station and broke my elbow
• Very busy and stressful at work
• Lots of work done on the house including a complete rewire, then plastering and currently painting and decorating
• As a result of above, house in complete disarray (even more than normal!)
• OH has just been made redundant
• DS now back home for the summer after completing his first year at uni

:eek: Poor you:o That wee list is enough to put anyone off anything.

Has OH managed to find something yet? x Just read other post and ignore!

PigginSkint

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

:eek: Poor you:o That wee list is enough to put anyone off anything.

Has OH managed to find something yet? x Just read other post and ignore!

Thanks BOB. Of course, missing from this list is something that happened last October, which I had already mentioned in a previous post - my lovely StepMum died very suddenly, which we are all still reeling from. It's been quite a year, one way and another!