The Rambler Returns - JCD's debt free diary v2

JCD_Capulet

Afternoon folks :hello:


On waking up and collecting the mail from the hallway which the cat was guarding and nibbling (she loves investigating the mail which magically appears as if from nowhere) I find a letter from Scottish Gas. It contained details about my recent request to switch to them for my gas supply and a brief note of the tariff.

*scans down letter*

".... This means you'll pay a daily standing charge and a unit rate(s) for any energy you use."

Gah! One of the reasons I'd decided to go back to Scottish Gas was because the chap on the phone said there was no daily charge and I would only be paying for the units I use! Pants. Oh well, at least there's nectar points in it I suppose.

Once I figure out how to further improve my credit rating I'll be wanting to revert back completely to a dry meter (If they're even called that any more) and do away with these silly and frankly unnecessary charges.


Anyhoo! I did my budget for next month and it looks like this:

March

Rent - £230 - Due 25th Council tax - £130 - Due 25th Virgin Media - £65 - Due 29th Food - £140 Living* - £150 Power - £70 Pets - £30 Mothersday - £50 BF** - £80 Terramundi*** - £100 __________________________ Total - £1,045

*cough*

At the moment I have £365 in my personal bank account, £304 in the business account (If I'm going to pay myself from this account I'll take £200 and put £100 in my tax account) and £110 in cash and that's all the money in the world.

As for my next earnings, I don't know what that'll be yet. I suppose I work on a commission model where I'm paid 65-70% of my sales on a three weekly basis and as I've not worked for the past two weeks and the week prior to that was my last wage, my next won't be until mid March. :eek:

So theoretically that's £665 in hand to get through the month with and I'll need to make up £380 to make up the downfall. Should be doable.

Y'know, when I first joined MSE in '07 looking back over my old diary I DID used to budget, but somewhere along the way I forgot how to budget and I thank my BF for giving me a stern talking to on the importance of writing budgets. I'm a happy Lady.


* (travel costs, non food household items, entertainment etc)
** (Bf isn't working at the moment and I've decided to help by paying a little something to petrol costs)
*** (I borrowed money from the terramundi to ease me through a bad January, still debating if I should pay this back now or put it to my council tax debt - the debate being, the terramundi money is OUR savings, so I technically borrowed from my BF. Hmm)



That's the lot for now, I need to go shake myself into life and do something with the day.

Keep on going DFW's! x

JCD_Capulet

**note to self**

Study this page.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/bad-credit-credit-cards

JCD_Capulet

Just a quickie (ooh er!)

I've been having a think whilst sitting here waiting for my one and only pair of jeans top dry in the tumbler that I really need some new clothing and my goldfish needs a 4ft tank (he's 8 inches nose to tail). So instead of spending anything from the living allowance on these things I'm going to have a try at becoming as 'purchase neutral' as I can by selling items I no longer need on ebay and using the paypal funds to make the new purchases.

:cheesy:

JCD_Capulet

Afternoon DFWs :hello:

Yesterday:
• Was a NSD because I didn't leave the house once.
• I had home made carbonara for dinner though admittedly the pasta was shop bought, so dinner cost about 80/90p
• I made a list of subscriptions to cancel next month which will save £60: credit expert, netflix and the gym.
• I started the presoaking process for some BBE broth mix I found in the cupboard, so I'll be making some kind of ham and veggie soup tonight with the last of this weeks veg in the fridge and I'll pick up a ham something-or-other when coming home from visiting my BF tonight.
• Oh, and I managed to do a little bit of work too. Not much mind you but by the time I've taken off my tax/ni it'll be a £60ish wage for the week. Better £60 than nothing!


Today I'm still waking up. I'm nursing a hot cup of tea and pondering quitting tea/coffee again or cutting it down to one of each a day at most. I don't like that milk is so cheap to buy, I feel like a hypocrite for buying milk when I feel for the farmers who take the brunt of it and the cattle who are having it sucked out of them on demand. It's pretty gross really when you think of it like that, isn't it. A shift back to soya might be good for my soul.

Best get a wriggle on. Keep on going DFWs! x

JCD_Capulet

Afternoon everyone :hello:

It's the start of a nice new week, the sun is shining so brightly which is really helping my moods so I have all the windows open (tilted in, so the cats don't fall out) with the sunlight pouring through - bliss

Yesterday Bf and I stopped off at Morrisons for some food shopping and later in the evening I went over last weeks budget. The food shopping came in with only £1 left over. Gosh, I need to get better at that. Last week I only paid £10 into the power meters (£5 on gas and £5 on electric) so there's £10 left over from that budget too and £10 from the living expenses. However, when I worked it all out I was actually £26 under budget. Nice, the fiver fairy must have been again :rotfl:

So onto this week and my current funds:

Bank............£340
Cash............£90
Total............£430 (all the money in the world.... aargh!)

BUDGET

Food.............£35
Power............£10
Living............£30
Pets..............£10
Council Tax.....£40
Rent..............£0
Virgin media....£0
Total.............£125

I picked up a 10 pack of foil containers with lids from the supermarket yesterday so I can have a try at some batch cooking for later dates with the aim of upping my NSDs in March. I would splash out on lots of new tupperware from Ikea but that will need to wait as it's miles away and not in the budget for this week *see, I'm trying SO hard to be good*.

£12 has been paid back into the terramundi - I've been adding in the coins left over from each weeks budgets. Ok it's not a huge amount but it's a little something and making me feel better about it. Plus, I'd rather concentrate on getting the council tax debt out of the way and gone for good so I can finally and OFFICIALLY be debt free.

My list of things to do today:
• Pay council tax
• Call council office to get accurate figure of debt
• Pay power
• Spend £1 on milk then stick to a NSD
• Empty the chest freezer of all old taxidermy projects and make room for the batch cooking.
• Have a look around the house for things to sell on ebay - wanting to be 'purchase neutral' as I BADLY need a new pair of jeans.
• Browse online for the best place to buy the cats tins and dry food.

And last but not least

• WORK!

That's all for now, I may update later if there's any progress.


Keep on going DFW's, you can do it! :T

JCD_Capulet

Quick post.

I called the council office to get the exact figure of my outstanding council tax debt and I was pleased to hear that it wasn't the £600 I imagined but £483! And there's nothing outstanding for this current years council tax either. That's one milestone, for the first time since 2007 I've not had any unpaid current year council tax roll into the next!

So, I've still to go pay the £40 I put aside for this weeks payment to the current year but instead it'll go straight onto the debt bringing it down to £443!! Happy days. Now to work on making the rest of it vanish.

Keep on plowing on DFWs, I believe in you. :heart2:

Snagggles

Hellooo, I remember you from last time around. :wave:

It's lovely to hear you sounding positive and on top of things.

*subscribes*

JCD_Capulet

Hey Snaggles! Did you have to start another profile when you became an adviser? It sure is nice to see some old familiar [strike]faces[/strike] usernames around here, not to mention seeing the abundance of newer members. MSE really is a fabby place



Good morning DFWs! :hello:

Gosh, I can't remember the last time I was up and awake at this time. That's down to my BF though, thankfully he's very noisy when pottering about the house getting ready to go out. But then I think everything at 7am is very loud when I'm roused from my nest, bleary eyed and wrinkly cheeked. Ha ha!

So what's happening today? I'm waiting for my order from Approved Foods arriving, I'm rather excited about the idea of having these dry goods to stock up the cupboards with, and if I find it has made a difference to the grocery shopping over the next week then I may make it a regular thing and put some friends onto it too.

I was sat last night planning the March pet supplies shopping and I think I'll be dashing to As*a once the delivery man has been. They're selling my cats dry food at £14 for a 3kg bag or 1kg bags of the same stuff for £3 each! How does that make any sense? In any case instead of buying the big bag thinking a saving will be made I'll be going down to buy three of the 1kg bags and save myself five quid. I was going to get them 2x12 packs of wh*skas tinned catfood from As*a too but having just checked online that Sain*bury's have the same multipacks for the same cost I may as well get those there and collect the nectar points on it (I'm getting right into the nectar points lark, can't wait until my physical card arrives).

So that'll be what... £5 saved on dry catfood and about 26 points on the card, plus I've a couple of till spits (I only wombled one of them!) to use...... aaaand, if I take my old Sain*bury's carrier bags back with me thats 1pt each for reusing them Hahaha, obsessive much?

George, my goldfish, will need some shopping done this month coming too. He badly needs a larger tank (he's 8 inches nose to tail and currently in a 2.5ft tank living on the kitchen worktop) but until I can nab a freebie on gumtree or sell things on ebay to be able to afford him a bigger tank he'll need to wait. Since adopting him in September last year I've been feeding him a brand of fish food from Japan which is good for their colouring and growth, but the local pets**home shop charges £6 for a 100g bag and I just KNEW if I tried hard enough I could do better than that. So back onto ebay and I found a seller offering a 300g bag for £9 with free postage.... don't forget those 9 extra nectar points :rotfl: . I will need to go slightly overbudget for the pet spending in March though as the poor mite has eaten all his plants and really needs replacements, so that's about £10 from pets**home, I'm not sure live would survive in the mail.

Other than all that gibberish - things I must do today!

• Go to the gym and cancel my DD membership (saving £36 per month) and pay each time I go instead ( I've not been since May :eek:)

• Cancel netfl*x account (saving £5.99pm) and register for the freetrial month on l*vefilm instead.

• Cancel my creditexpert account (saving £15) as I have all the information I need for now and can register via equifax or suchlike for their free trial if I want to check again.

• Make more home made soup using the BBE broth mix which has been steeping for an entire day before it germinates! ha!

And last but never ever least

• WORK!


Have a smashing day today DFWs! x

(And this is George, for anyone who want's a nosey http://picturepush.com/public/12216453)

JCD_Capulet

Woo! That was exciting. My first approved foods order arrived and my goodness I must say I'm pleased. I think I may have overdone it with the bags of Vermicelli but at least it won't go off in the cupboards. The RRP would have been £39 but it all came to £15 (not including postage) Now all this is now padding out the cupboard and helping cut down on the March grocery spend



Anyway, now that's out the way I can get marching on. I went rooting through my drawers (ooh er!) and rediscovered an old jewellery box with some bits and bobs in, so I'm going to get torn in to having them written up for ebay and listing them this evening

Toodle pip!

JCD_Capulet

Quickie!

Uploaded four auctions to ebay and before I'd submitted the fourth I had six questions about an old gold bangle I'm selling. I checked the weight of the bangle against the current scrap value for gold so that alone could be £40-50

Oooh and it's had a bid already. Whoop!