Build a new life in 3 yrs.

Smithfield

Seems I made a mistake with the winter fuel allowance dates.

The 12 to the 18th is the qualifying week for JSA but the payment doesent go in until Feb. Rubbish, so that's another 60 to find for oil.

Finishing tidying up a bike to sell on gumtree fingers crossed that should clear me £70 maybe.

two steps forwards, one back.

Applying for jobs again, being this stressed and broke all the time is doing my head in. even a 16k a year job would more than double income and I could start clearing a lot of this debt very fast. I dunno.

Smithfield

spent yesterday applying for two jobs (oddly with the same place!)

Tried to pay the capital one money for this month there, but fredpay seems to be down?

Gonna do Tesco shop today as well online.

Smithfield

ok, So got fredpay to work £36.10 paid. Capital one is now £905 from £976

That leaves £8 of overdraft interest on Dec 13th to pay and £17 to pay HSBC credit card by 21st (HSBC is £650).

Ordered Tesco groceries for next two weeks = £52.10

Ordered some bar tape for a bike im putting on gumtree = £4.25

Thats pretty much me skint again! lol

Still thats debts paid and food in cupboard!

asparagus1968

gosh,you are doing well,you must be made of strong stuff.
good luck with the job applications.
do you have a lot of presents to buy?
maybe post a list of who you need to buy for and MSE'ers can find some bargains/discounts/freebies for you?

Smithfield

The wheels may come off the truck yet, I still have 60 to pay housemate for oil in next week. Have to see were I can find that lol I have a bike i'll be selling so hopefully that'll sell and cover me, weather is getting cold though.

I've set a budget of roughly 5 pounds for not so big presents (bottle of wine/box of chocolates) and (bottle of spirits/itunes vouchers) 10-15 for others. Mostly, this is gonna be booze or itunes vouchers.

I still think im looking at maybe 150 all in. My folks and aunt usually throw me some cash, so it kind of balances out (ish) but just a stress, I think I'll maybe have to ask for cash in advance of xmas and see what I can do that way. gah.

Smithfield

I was just thinking about some of the folks in here with debts that make mine look a pittance with kids to feed and clothe. I have no idea how they do it.

On a happier not getting gf to print me off an application form today, job is just for 4 months, but its an extra 600 a month on what I have coming in now, so I could clear a credit card in a month! The estate agent job asked me to contact them in may so it could dovetail pretty nicely if I got this.

asparagus1968

great news-good luck

Smithfield

So remaining £60 for oil, paid.
FPC/capital one £36.10 paid
I paid the remaining £17.60 there so that's £51 to hsbc.

So that's me pretty much caught up with bills/credit cards.

Smithfield

So applied for two jobs a while back, shortlisted for both, so tests for both those early jan and put in that temp post application in on friday (JSA can't say im not trying lol) One I would quite like to get, the other not so much, but at this stage I just want off JSA.

So to avoid debt or bank charges I asked my folks to give me cash in advance instead of the usual presents and been pretty frugal otherwise. So few bits of christmas shopping done.

xtra vision are doing buy 2 £15 itunes vouchers and get a £10 xtra vision voucher. So I bought 4 itunes vouchers and got £20 in xtra vision cards, so that was another £15 Itunes voucher and then put in another £5 and bought an xbox a preowned game for myself.

so for £65, got £75 in itunes vouchers and an xbox game. Plus that's 5 presents bought. Managed to get some new jeans for christmas day in the reduced bit of tk maxx for £18 (nice fenchurch ones too!)

2 x btl's of tesco finest malbec were £12 (£6 each) so that was another two presents and got the 2 x thorntons classic chocolates for £10, so that's another two presents bought for £5 ish. (both tesco)

got gf's dad a btl of smirnoff reduced to £12 in tesco too.

I still need a jumper for christmas day, so gonna look early doors for a cheap v neck job today. Still a few bits to get but thats the bulk of it done.

Oh built up another bike from bikes I had, so thats going on gumtree. Pretty hard sell in winter but at least its an asset that will go sometime!

Smithfield

Well least thats me through christmas..lol Phew.

Paid for tickets for new years eve, its a BYO disco lol so just taxi and a carryout to buy

It's nice to be back to some kind of stability again. This is only step 1 though. Resit driving test and hopefully three job interviews in January so far!