Caz counts it down

cazmanian_minx

Have managed to get the laptop running OK in safe mode, so will keep struggling on with it for now, but I'm investigating cheap tablets just in case - as long as I can play Scrabble on Facebook and enter competitions in the MSE forum, it doesn't need to do anything else.

It's the biggest debt payment of the month today, the £250 to the tooth fairy loan. Only four more to go now and then I can snowball it into the personal overdraft

Another NSD yesterday for 9/31. And my three Monsoon dresses sold, for £3.50, £5.80 and £8.37 respectively which is a pretty good result given that they're all 10-15 years old. One person bought two of them and paid immediately, so hopefully the other person will pay today and the transfer to my current account can be Monday's PAD. Tomorrow's will be the Quidco payment I got notified of today.

It's the weekly shop today and we're only going to Thurso so hopefully we can keep it well under £100 again. I have the price check vouchers in my wallet already and MUST remember that cheese coupon this week!

cazmanian_minx

I'm nearly through Thursday's list! Just the ironing, the accounts and weighing the Amazon shipment left to do and I think they can wait until tomorrow.

cazmanian_minx

The lovely, lovely people on the Bleeping Computer malware forum diagnosed a compromised hosts file and guided me through refreshing it - the laptop is now running normally again Hopefully that's it fixed, they've asked me to run a couple more scans and post the logs for them to check, which I've done.

The weekly shop wasn't as frugal as I'd hoped, but they had special offers on toothpaste and washing machine tablets, both of which I needed, so I stocked up and then Mr Minx found they'd started selling his favourite root beer which he hasn't seen anywhere for about five years, so he emptied the shelf at 79p a can :eek::eek: £83 in the end, half of which I'll get back from Mr Minx.

Since the laptop's now working again, I'm off to catch up on 2 days'-worth of the competitions board...

cazmanian_minx

I'm late reporting in today, but the sun was shining and I had a pony with a dry back for once, so I seized the moment and rode him I took him into my neighbour's sand school and did some work without stirrups, so when we'd finished I thought I'd better take my horse for a walk up and down the village before my legs seized up completely. We got caught in a heavy shower and I came back soaked to the skin, but it was good to get him out of his field for a pootle about.

Needless to say, not much is going to get done this afternoon as my thigh muscles aren't speaking to me! The last direct debit for the month comes out today (well, tomorrow, but it should be the 15th), so the next couple of weeks is going to be all about living quietly, PADding slowly and staying within budget.

Wordsmith

Be thankful your thigh muscles aren't talking to you. If it was my thigh muscles, they'd be screaming blue murder at me! Last time I went riding I thought I was going to have to move to a bungalow as I doubted I'd ever again get up the stairs.

cazmanian_minx

Stairs aren't the easiest thing this evening, as I discovered when I nearly fell up them with a basket full of ironing! I've had a very hot shower and that's helped a bit. Hopefully the weather will let me get out more than once every two weeks for the rest of the summer and my muscles will get used to it again.

I'm wondering if I'm missing a trick with the cards. With the personal debts, I'm concentrating on paying off the overdraft because it's the highest rate personal debt at 19.9%. But I've only got £790 left on the Post Office card at 18.9% and I'm wondering if I pay it off and leave it doing nothing for a couple of months whether it'll trigger a balance transfer offer? It's not going to make that much difference to my DFD if I do it that way, so probably worth a try, as if I get one, I could shift the whole of the Egg card onto it at 0% and then they might give me a new offer, ideally available to a current account to transfer the overdraft. That would just leave the Tesco card charging interest and save me about £100 a month.

cazmanian_minx

Yesterday was the 10th NSD of the month. Another dreich day up here - are we ever going to have a summer?? Winter is going to be a nightmare if it carries on like this; we're so far north that in December it's not light until 9.30 and starts getting dark around 3pm, so we rely rather heavily on getting some sunshine during the short summer (it doesn't get dark at all in June) to keep us going through it - but it's so overcast it looks like November out there at the moment I shall keep on with the holiday comping and hope for the best.

I've got loads to do today, but I'm fighting off cystitis and not feeling brilliant, so I shall take it slowly and see how I get on. The business overdraft is now down to £1811 and much as I'd love to spend the available £3k on stock, it's got to be left untouched for that VAT bill due next month and my drawings.

cazmanian_minx

Another NSD yesterday, 11/31. Today won't be; not only is it Closer day, but I used some of the PayPal money from the dresses to buy some more bags for the vacuum.

I got more done yesterday than I thought, by the time Mr Minx got home I was parcel-taping the Amazon boxes. Two more to do today, then I can weigh them and get the courier to come and collect which will give me a LOT more space.

I'm amazed to see that PADding has got me to nearly £500 of debt payments this month already and it's only the 17th. I still have two card statements outstanding for this month, the horrible-rate-Barclaycard which should be emailed on Friday and the Tesco card which normally gets generated around the 24th. I don't think I can count the Barclaycard as a PAD since it's just shifting debt from the card to the much lower rate overdraft, but the Tesco payment will come out of the bills account.

cazmanian_minx

I tell a lie; just logged into the Barclaycard and the statement was generated yesterday - that's both Barclaycards with their statement dates brought forward this month the sneaky gits. I've paid a cautious £376.22 (the interest plus another £249 to bring the balance down to £8750) and will try and pay off another £750 once the VAT has been paid. Might not make the £1000 on that one this month though.

cazmanian_minx

Boxes weighed and collection booked for tomorrow I love our local courier - they're a Highlands and Islands only firm, but they can deliver nationwide, so my 8 boxes to Milton Keynes, weighing a total of 166kg, are only costing me £58.80 + VAT instead of the £236.90+VAT ParcelForce via the Post Office would want!