PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Blimey! I think OH might finally be getting the hang of this DFW stuff! Last night he met me off my train and we walked home together. As we were walking we were discussing what to have for dinner. He wanted to go to the chippy ‘but we did that last week didn’t we?’ (Wow! That wouldn’t have stopped him in the past!) So we decided to have home made chips. Then we discussed whether there was any fish left in the freezer – I said that there wasn’t but pointed out that as we would be passing Aldi on the way we could go in and buy some if he wanted. When we were actually by Aldi I asked him whether he wanted to go in and he said that we had already got loads of stuff in the freezer and let’s just go home shall we! OMG – this is such progress!!:T

PigginSkint

Well, today is the day that DS does his sponsored silence. I wonder how he will get on. Last night I told him not to get too upset if he slips up – I am sure most (if not all) will give him the money anyway! However, last night he also made a load of cakes (under my supervision!) to sell as well. I have brought half of them with me to work today and initial reactions suggest that I won’t have much trouble selling them – they do look rather yummy! He has made chocolate brownies, flapjacks with glace cherry red noses on and cup cakes which he has put icing on and they also have glace cherry red noses.

OH is in London today as he has a recall for a commercial so fingers crossed for that! The money would definitely come in handy!

Happy Red Nose Day everyone!

PigginSkint

I can’t believe it’s Monday already! I’m so tired today but then I always am on a Monday because I tend not to go to bed very early on a Sunday – partly because I am trying to get everything sorted for the week and partly to try to make the weekend last as long as possible!

Well DS did it – 8 hours of not talking on Friday! Wow! To say that we were surprised would be putting it mildly! Together with selling the cakes that he made (I sold half at work and we sold the other half to neighbours) he has raised between £40-£50. Not bad for a 12-year-old!:T

Not much to report today, moneysaving-wise. Jobs to do: transfer balance from Virgin card to LTSB to take advantage of 0% for 6 months; transfer money from LTSB savings account to ISA; do Avon order online (by 10pm Wednesday evening). I think I might have a look at using some of the money in my savings account to pay off some debt – maybe! But the APR on my savings is currently higher than the APR on any of my cards (or will be as soon as I have done the latest balance transfer) so I think I might hang fire on that for a while.

PigginSkint

One thing I have decided to do is to add my Debt Free Date to my signature. According to the snowball calculator, this is currently March 2013 – which is not as bad as I thought it would be. I am aware that this may be a bit of a moveable feast depending on how things pan out.

Hopefully OH’s income will increase and mine should also increase, but on the other hand I am 36 now and we do hope to have a baby together at some point so it all depends what effect that has on my income – I don’t really want to have to work full time with a young child, though I wouldn’t mind part time. I have told OH that he has got 2 years and then we really have got to get on and do it before it’s too late!!

PigginSkint

Not really much to report at the moment. Too tired last night to do my jobs that I was supposed to do!

I’ve got to collect last lot of Avon books in tonight ready to put order online tomorrow. I shall also have to pay for the last one – I can’t remember how much that is but I am pretty sure that I haven’t got enough available balance on the my current account to do that at the moment so I shall have to transfer some over from my other account. I have only had to do that once so far this month and that was only £50 so I am not doing too badly at the moment. Mind you I did take a payment holiday from my LTSB loan this month so that did help (£182).

Reminded OH that he has got to pay the credit card bill within the next couple of days and I need to pay another couple of others but hopefully there should be enough money left to do that.

OH should be hearing soon (maybe today) about his commercial so fingers tightly crossed for that! His income definitely seems to be improving again so we will manage somehow!

Only 9 days to go until pay day (not that I’m counting or anything!!!)

PigginSkint

Woo hoo! I've now got 2 stars!!!!:j :j :j

PigginSkint

What a day yesterday was! Got home 6:45pm. Went straight out again to get the last of the Avon books in. Once I had done that I went straight out again to take DS’s stuff to him at his Dad’s. So didn’t actually get to sit down until 8:00pm. OH got in at 10:00pm – I had phoned him a bit earlier to ask him to go to the chippy on the way home because I was just too tired to cook. I had chips and a pickled egg but he forgot the curry sauce – I was sooooo upset! Isn’t it stupid to get upset over something so trivial?

Today doesn’t look like it is going to be much better – I have so much to do. It didn’t help that I managed to oversleep this morning (thank goodness for flexi time!) – I woke up at 7:30am and was very confused as to why I had slept so late. I checked the alarm clock and found that it wasn’t set, yet I distinctly remember doing it last night. This means one of 2 things – either I switched it off in my sleep during the night or when it went off at 6am, instead of hitting the snooze button I switched it off instead. I have no recollection of either so I really don’t know. Perhaps subconsciously I knew that I needed more sleep!!

Today is going to be a really busy day plus I have to do my Avon order online tonight. I think I need a holiday! (Pity I can’t afford one!) Still it will be Easter soon so I will have some time off then.

8 days till pay day!!! Yippee!!

PigginSkint

Got the gas bill yesterday! Argghh! They’re increasing my monthly direct debit from £47 to £55 – ouch! :eek: This is on top of getting my council tax bill the other day – I will be paying an extra £4 per month. I was expecting the council tax increase but not the gas! We have drastically decreased our gas consumption (apart from the fact that we have obviously got the heating on at the moment – though only 4 hours a day – and occasionally put the gas fire on when it’s cold ) so I can’t really understand it. The electric bill is due any day now as well (same company) so I'm dreading what that's going to be as well! I did get a letter from southern electric a few weeks ago saying that they would be reducing their prices soon – it can’t come soon enough for me!

Did my Avon order online last night so I actually totted up how well I have done sales wise this time – nearly £200 again. Woo hoo! :j (I’ll make about £40 in commission from that – after I’ve paid for my new lot of books). Mind you I realised that I had forgotten to add up my sales from the last campaign (I keep it all in a notebook) so I have no idea how much each customer spent – I don’t know how I forgot to do that! Doh! :doh:
Roll on the weekend!

7 days to go till pay day!

PigginSkint

Thank Crunchie it’s Friday! OMG what a week! Work has been so busy this week and I’ve still got loads to do next week. It should be slightly easier after that because it is the end of term next Friday (I work at a University). I say ‘slightly’ easier because there are still exams coming up very soon which I am involved in organising, but at least I will be spared the madness that is the spring term!!

I shall be on my own tonight (boo hoo!) because DS will be at his Dad’s for the weekend and OH will be away overnight because he has 2 auditions, today and tomorrow, in the same town so we decided it would be easier (and no more expensive) for him to stay in a B&B tonight. It does mean that I will get charge of the remote control tonight for a change, hee hee! But in actual fact I shall probably just go to bed!!:rotfl:

Tomorrow I will get on and do the Money Saving /DFW tasks that I must do – as I shall be on my own until at least late afternoon I shan’t have any distractions so there won’t be any excuses!!

6 days to go until pay day!!

PigginSkint

Well, I didn’t do a thing over the weekend after all! Apart from a bit of shopping and housework, that is! I have felt absolutely exhausted all weekend and I also had a splitting headache on Saturday and have generally not been feeling very well all weekend.

I have had to transfer another £50 from my savings account to my current account to cover a bill that will go out tomorrow that there wasn’t enough available balance to pay.

I also made a decision on Friday regarding my Littlewoods catalogue account – even though the interest is 0% and the balance is comparatively small (compared to my other debts) the payments are quite large because they are mostly a large % of the balance. So I have decided to pay a large chunk off it which will considerably reduce my monthly outgoings – I have paid £200 (which I transferred from my savings account), which on top of the £40 I have already paid this month means I have virtually wiped out the current balance. I shall earn some commission from this so when I get my next statement I shall use this to reduce it even further. This means I shall only have to pay a small amount every month. The payments for the new T.V. with freeview box that we had before Christmas (because our other one went kaput) start in June and depending on how much they are (I’ve estimated £16 per month) I may do the same again. This is a decision I’ve been toying with for a while and feel a real sense of relief that I have made it!!

Avon delivery comes tomorrow. This means I shall spend tomorrow evening bagging it up and on Wednesday evening I shall start doing the deliveries. So hopefully I shall some money to pay into my account on Thursday.

3 days until payday!