My brand new debt fighting diary

datlex

Had some spend yesterday but still have over £40 in my bank which is not allocated to any thing for this week. I think there is a good chance I'll be able to keep most of that- so it can go into the main Barclays account. Can't think of anything I need to spend particularly.
Saw an interest leaflet for Lidl this week, thinking of popping in there in the week to check out the price of fruit and veg in there. Think could be a couple of items which are cheaper than Aldi. Going to keep trying to save the pennies as I can. My mother once was told many years ago by a customer at her dad's filling station- "Watch the pennies and the pounds will watch themselves" so I'm always on the look out for those little savings which over time will become pounds which will help me clear off debts quicker :-)

datlex

Managed to get overtime approved at work for the rest of this month and most of June. I'm going to be using the money to pay for a couple of planned long weekend trips in June. Going to be absolutely knackered.
My car insurance savings and my planned purchases savings are both starting to build up as is my left over spends saving which will go towards Christmas and Birthday presents. So I'm pleased about that.
Have had a slightly higher than normal Tesco spend this week as had run out of a few larger items such as Soy Sauce, but only by a couple of pounds. Still got to get the bulk of my fruit and veg for the week. Will be doing that after work tomorrow. Hopefully it won't come to too much if I can be restrained about the amount I buy.
Today is always a spend day, it is the day I pay my rent, council tax and any other weekly bills. I did have a couple of unplanned spends - I fancied a banana earlier so had to buy that, then on way home I got two mug shots.
Need to read my meters in a while and submit the readings. Hopefully I won't have used either too much gas or electricity. Really hope won't be too long before the heating can stay off. I do need to adjust the times though to stop it coming on until I am home with my OT.

datlex

When reading through many of the posts in the main section of the debt free wanabee forum, I have noticed several people post as SOA which includes a payment to sky tv. Of course the natural reaction of many debt busters on here is to say cut the sky- I suspect though many people are reluctant to do so even if the channels/programs they watch would be available on freeview. I can see why, the free view signal can be very poor at times- certainly there are channels which it is hard to pick up. I've recently however, found a solution to this in my flat. It is called a VGA lead!! The nice guys at Maplin advised me on this. The VGA lead costs about £7. Some allow sound to be transmitted some do not so you'll need the computer speakers on. Basically I can now watch tv for free over the internet (this obviously only works if you have unlimited broadband). There are a number of sites on which you can watch tv shows and films for free.
http://www.tvcatchup.com/

http://www.clubcardtv.com

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/

Also try YouTube for further films.

I'm finding it very helpful and means that I will no longer have to save up to buy a free sat box to overcome my tv problems. Am glad I found out about this before I spent any money on one!!

Of course it is better to use an HDMI lead if you have the ports on your PC/Laptop - but if you don't the VGA works fine.

The OH has been impressed by the fact he can now watch YouTube on a bigger screen- my TV is only 26" but it is obviously bigger than the average laptop screen or even computer monitor.

datlex

My dri buddi has decided to stop working. Fantastic- I live in a flat and work full time, so don't like to leave things out to dry- I couldn't guarantee what state they would be in when I got home from work and it isn't always nice enough on a weekend to dry things. This is particularly true in the winter months. Without an airing cupboard, clothes airers seem to take forever to dry clothes. Hence I have been using a dri buddi under the impression that it was cheaper to run than a tumble dryer. It certainly takes up less space when not in use. Next couple of weeks I'll be researching which is going to be the cheaper option in the mean time- will be drying things on an airer in front of radiators.

datlex

Today I picked up my nephew's birthday present. His birthday isn't until August but we are going down there this week. I managed to get his present without spending anything out of my bank account. Got to love the fact that companies give us vouchers for spending money that we would have any way with them. In this particular instance, the original price of the item was over £30 - higher than the budget I allow for presents for the kids- it was reduced to £15 and I ended up using £10 of vouchers. I think he is going to love it.

I also did my weekly shop whilst I was at the shop. Possibly would have been cheaper to go into town to Aldi for the veg but really I could not be bothered. I won't need to get anything else this week - so am actually within my weekly grocery budget this week. More savings for me :-)

Other expenditure this week was an icecream maker from Aldi £20 so hopefully it will work ok. I'm going to try making healthier ice-cream using it. I figure it will save money longer term.

Still haven't got a replacement for my dri buddi. Drying indoors is ok at this time of year, but I think it will need replacing in a couple of months.

Had a call from Vodafone earlier about my mobile broadband - only £5 a month but kept for emergency internet access for those times little angels cut the cables locally....... they offered me a couple of free months. Result!

The car is poorly again grrr. I think possibly the head gasket this time which is a pain. I've put it safely in the garage until I can get it sorted. First priority is going to be a sofa- looking to get one from the British Heart Foundation Shop, should be cheaper than new and seems a good way of giving to charity. Then save and get the car sorted - depending on whether can get overtime to pay for it will influence how soon it gets fixed.

I got my latest Barclaycard bill in today. Some how I managed to over pay them by 20p. Not quite sure how that happened!!

Next on agenda is working out how to save on my gas bill. It has been unfortunate that the weather has been colder than normal so needed heating on more, but am sure there must be savings to be made with a little bit of tweaking here and there. Managed quite large savings on elec bill so far. I'm holding off looking at other providers/tariffs until I have a better idea of my payments for a whole year - previously I had a prepayment meter, it had been left by the previous tenant.

datlex

Next weekend is going to be an expensive one. Am going to visit family as mentioned in my last post. It always seems to cost a lot of money to go and visit them all hence, we only go a couple of times a year. The travel expenses alone are ridiculous. If you then add on a place to stay (after a 250 mile journey- you don't want to sleep on air beds....... which is the other option) cost varies between £200 and £300, depending on how flexible we need to be and who we get to visit whilst we are down there. It is equally expensive for them to come up here. Normally we try and go when there is a voucher deal on in the local papers but this time we are going down for a family event so that wasn't an option. Travel did used to be cheaper but has increased. With the car needing fixing again, different problem from before, we have to use public transport. Travelling by coach would lose us a day of the trip, which really only leaves the train as a viable option. I've been working overtime to pay for the trip. Should be able to finish paying for it when I get back to work from my week off. We have actually postponed a different holiday until later in the year to be able to save up more for it.

Once this trip is out the way, I will be finding out what is wrong with the car and how much it is going to cost to fix it. I'll then have an idea how much I need to save - or indeed if it is worth saving up to get it fixed.

In the meantime I'm still adding to my car insurance fund- to be able to pay the full year up front this time around (unless it costs too much to repair)- and to my second hand sofa and chair fund - to replace uncomfy futons. Aiming to build up about £300 in each. After I've paid for the sofa once I get to my target, the fund will then go towards car expenses such as the MOT next year should it have been fixable this time.

datlex

Spent ages yesterday working out all the possible ticket combinations for a trip involving two nights stay each at different places. There seems to be a multitude of options. I have a few more options I want to try. So far the highest combination I have is £174.50 without an Oyster Card lowest is £155.60 with an Oyster Card. I can get this price and save a few pounds just by getting off a train at one station swiping an Oyster card and getting back on the next train out to the same destination as my first train, this would be a 20 min wait. The next best option price wise again with an Oyster Card is £157.40. This actually involves no getting off a train and back on again at the same station. OH does not have an Oyster Card so for him the same journeys is £165. Going to keep doing more research this am, before buying tickets. So far cheapest place I can find to buy tickets is the Northern Rail website which give 2.2% cashback when buy via TopCashBack. It remains to be seen if anywhere else is better.

datlex

It has occurred to me this morning that a deal is only a deal if you were planning on getting the thing in the first place. This morning, for example, I received an email from Groupon. The email contain amongst other items a discount on LoveFilm Online Streaming. It means basically getting 6 months for the price of 4. In theory sounds like a good deal, but if I wasn't looking to get the service in the first place, it means I am paying out for 2 months worth that I would not otherwise have spent. Only £10, but it shows how easily we can be persuaded to part with our cash. Now I'm not suggesting that every purchase I make is the best, but I certainly prefer to buy planned purchases rather than on a whim.

datlex

Well this weekend has seen an unexpected rise in funds - at least it will once they hit my account (refund from British Gas and overtime at work), I'm expecting them both to have done so by the middle of next week (not this coming the one after) That should be an extra £120 then to cover the expensive weekend away without using my sofa saving fund.

I also found out my elec bill is going down from £32 a month to £20 a month - £12 a month saving!! (It still looks like this might be too high!)

Still working on reducing my gas bill. Currently as still need the heating, have turned it down a couple of degrees and have it go off for an hour at various points in the day.

Not much longer to go on the sofa fund I don't think. The plan is to get the new to me sofas in August. Then I can look at saving to repair my car again....... think it might be the head gasket which I believe may cost quite a bit - need to get it looked at and get a quote. Want to build up a fund to pay for it. Not using the credit card - (expect for actually paying) interest rate is far too high to not pay it off in full!

Hopefully once I have my sofa set and the car is fixed, I will then be able to build up savings towards paying off a bit of my loan more quickly. I'm guessing if I put the same amount away each month as I did to that, I would have a reasonable lump sum to put towards it.

datlex

Well today's biggest expense was my gym membership. £15.50 for a month. No long term commitment just buy a month and if you have a holiday after the month ends, your next month starts from when it is next due. Each session costs £2.20. So going 2 or 3 times a week at least it is cheaper to pay the gym membership. Very basic facilities - but quite frankly a treadmill is a treadmill.

Agreed more overtime to keep the extra pennies coming in. Helps the replace my futons with sofas fund and the pay off the weekend fund too. I reckon that if I do the overtime I have planned this week, I'll have an extra £90 after tax is deducted. I reckon then I can do an average of 3 to 4 hours overtime for the remaining weeks in July and again put that money aside into the funds. I can remember a time when I felt the easiest way to acquire things for my previous residents was to take up 0% finance deals. Now I know better, that it is better to save up and pay in full. Those deals are a nightmare, they lead you into a sense of false security by not actually spreading the money evenly over the repayment period. Instead they let you pay a small amount each free month and leave you still with a large bill at the end. Which unless you have saved up prior to acquiring the item leaves you paying more in interest than you had really imagined you would as it saving is a discipline that is learnt not by those on 0% deals but by those who have learnt the value of money. Today I wouldn't dream of any similar deals, no matter have tempting they seem quite simply no one knows how secure their jobs are in this climate. Whilst I think mine is secure, there are no guarantees. Therefore my purchases are planned and saved for. In a way it is quite exciting as it gives me things to aim for. My money actually seems to go further since I started saving for things.

Later this month, not exactly sure what date I am expecting about £5 in Debenhams vouchers. Not a huge sum but handy for small items.