Sort it out Scuff!

[Deleted User]

Hi scuff, how's your hand? Sounded nasty.

Sounds as if your weekend was as rock and roll as mine - cleaning, ironing and caring for my parents. It goes so quickly!

Highlight for me is dancing on ice - got my wine chilled ready!

Have a good evening scuff!

GLx

Scuff

Hey GL, hand is better now, it was sore for a day or too but I think with it being so cold all the time it has no more chance to burn :rotfl: I've never really got into dancing on ice - ice skating scares the bejesus out of me!!

Well, I don't know whether I mentioned before but when I reach 2 years at my job (March) I'm no longer a trainee and am due a payrise. Got this confirmed and the paperworks gone through etc so as of April payday I will have around £200 more to throw at my debts :j I know this doesn't seem a lot to some people but it nearly doubles the amount I can manage to overpay by at the moment, and I've worked out that I should be debt free (apart from my dad) by Jan 2014 !!!! The payment for Jan 14 will be roughly £340, so I'm hoping hoping I can gather this across the year and so be paid off by the end of 2013.

EEEEEE I'm excited at the thought. Then all's left to do is to save up to pay my dad back, which he's not currently asking for so I think I'll save this, get some interest in the process? Dunno yet I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

So I'm currently an excited Scuff - only problem is I was hoping to do a balance transfer to avoid paying interest, but have just been refused so that plan is out of the window. Still, 2013 can be my lucky year

Next step - own a house! (OK OK Scuff don't get ahead of yourself.. )

Scuff

Just thinking about what has changed since I started this diary - fair enough my total hasn't come down tremendously (in fact perhaps a little bit much extra spending at Christmas has sent it the other way) but a lot of my habits have changed A LOT. There are a lot of times that I get disheartened and fed up by not spending, and I feel like I haven't got anywhere, so I think whilst I'm in a jolly and positive mood I should write these changes down so when I'm down I can look back at them and feel better

1) I no longer buy coffees from the machine at work - this was one of the first things to go, and although a cup of 'coffee' (seriously it's disgusting tiny plastic cup and powdered milk stylee) is only 20p, I was going through 5-7 of these a day, working out to around £30 a month!! For something I don't even really like. Now I just bring a pint of milk a week in (50p?) and drink proper cups of tea that taste nice and saves me say £25!
2) I (most of the time) now bring my own lunches into work - hm soups/sandwiches/pasta/quiche. I used to easily spent £5 a day on lunches, plus the petrol (only 10 mins driving but thats still an hour a week) to Mr T's / the nearest town. This is a shocking £100 a month!!! Bearing in mind the household account now pays for the ingredients for my lunches, that's £100 to me!
3) I've stopped buying a magazine pretty much everytime I see one, I was buying at least 5 a month (sometimes more) in addition to my subscription (which I still have) - this is saving me at least £20 a month
4) Although I can't get a saving from this one because there was no fixed amount, since I started my diary I've bought 2 items of clothing - a cardi that I bought with vouchers from work, and a pair of very exciting trousers for work - and that is all. This astounds me (I still miss the thrill of new clothes, I will be honest this is hard)
5) I've started putting my petrol money into a separate account, so I no longer get to the end of the month and worry I wont get home!!!
6) I've stopped using my HSBC account (OD1) 'every now and again' for 'small purchases' which meant even though I was pretending to pay it off I was at a standstill
7) No more credit card being treated in the same way as above!!

I will be honest, 6 & 7 didn't happen from the start (hence my figure going UP!)

This means I've saved at least £150 a month, and then all the little bits and bobs I used to add on OD1, and the clothes I bought without thinking.

Even if I'm still waiting to go back down to my starting amount (I should be there 23rd March latest) at least I can say that I have changed some bad habits, and so there has been progress!

Positive Mental Attitude! (as my dad would say)

Igamogam

Its the habit changing that is the hardest - when the new habits become just that, a habit, then things get easier - oh and a pay rise always helps;) Next thing if you havent dome it already, make MSEing a hobby and devote some time and energy to it (religiously! ) each week - not a lot, just a few minutes a day makes all the difference- well it does to me! Well done on all your efforts so far!

Scuff

Hey Igamogam, I might be being a real dumb dumb here but what do you mean by making MSEing a hobby? Sorry if this is a stupid question!!

& a pay rise definitely helps

[Deleted User]

Well done scuff! You've got a great plan and it must make graduating from a trainee all the sweeter.

You've made positive changes since starting your diary - its not all about the debt reduction, although of course thats vital, its the changes you make and the new habits you form.

I'm finding it difficult to make some changes but others, such as not buying magazines etc have been surprisingly easy habits to form.

Keep up the hard work scuff, its great to read about your progress.

GLx

Scuff

Argh I am so annoyed with E-ON - they've just emailed me to say our monthly DD is going up to £142!!!!! How can I try to budget & save money when they're playing tricks like that! It's ridiculous.

That's all I have to input tonight

[Deleted User]

My God, thats a huge amount of money each month. We are with Eon too and they have just put our DD up to £125 per month. I was gutted at that, but at least we live in a three bedroom bungalow and have a DS who plays on playstation half the night and has no idea about turning TV off when hes at school etc, (despite our constant nagging).

See if you can find a cheaper supplier, we would but since we are hoping to move soon we have been holding out.

Otherwise hope all is well with you.

GLx

Scuff

Tell me about it - although that's crazy GL, is that for dual fuel? We only like in a 2 bedroom flat but the entire place is electric so heating / water etc costs us a bomb!! I can't change supplier due to the way the meters / letting agency set up, but I have got it on the cheapest tariff available. I did find the boost on the water heater was on constantly (for the last 18 months) so I'm hoping now this is turned off we should see a difference!!

Been a bit rubbish at posting this week, pure laziness (although nothing has happened moneywise to report!) I did take 2 bags of clothes to the ragman, to be given £3.50 for them :rotfl: felt like a little kid walking away with my pocket money!!! But ah well you win some you lose some I guess, and £3.50 is better than nothing..

Payday today yeahhhh!! First payday I've had in a while with no overtime but it is the last one at my current salary so should be half exciting times next month and fully exciting times come April (my raise crosses two paydays so it's a bit of a faff)

So, £1422 in, of which £800 to joint, £90 to mum for car insurance, £120 to petrol, £36 for phone, £22 min payment to CC, £230 to OD1. Leaving me with £124. My max allowance to myself is £100, anything left in the account on 22nd March will then go to OD1. So that's THE PLAN.

Booked a week camping in the lakes in June using overtime money from last month, £68 each for a week at a LOVELY National Trust campsite & something to look forward to (I always find this helps me get through the mundane day to day stuff!)

Got a heap of stuff to eBay, just clothes and stuff, depending on how the weekend goes I'll try and make some headway with that. OH & I are having a date day on Saturday, think we're heading to Brimham Rocks for a wander but obvs depends on the weather, should be really nice Got quite a few 'free' days planned too, bought tickets into The Deep at Hull (aquarium thingy) from Clubcard points (£5 rather than £20) and £30 to spend at Cafe Rouge (for £7.50). I also have 2 free cinema tickets but they're for Vue which means we'll have to go to Leeds - using these + Cafe Rouge means we can have a nice date night there & hopefully no unexpected extra costs, effectively just paying for the drinks! Have to wait for them to come though (why they have to be sent by post I've no idea!!) I look forward to spending some time with my beaut that's not sitting around the house or doing something that makes us worry about money - it's exhausting!!!
Hope everyone else is good, and has a good weekend!!

Fudgefund

Hello Scuff,

Just caught up with your diary, you're doing so well! Where you are doing a lot better than me is that you are really consistent in your achievements, you don't seem to slip up at all. :j It's really annoying about the tax and the EON bills, but you are brilliant at rising above it and sorting things out. Your list of things you've achieved is really inspiring and I could've done with reading it before I went crazy a few weeks ago buying a load of clothes I didn't need! I honestly don't think that new clothes feeling can touch the paying off debts buzz.

The £200 per month extra is loads! That's going to make a massive inroad to your debts.

Good bag too.