Batten down the hatches.....

Orange_Ena

Not a lot to report today. I've decided I want a separate bills account so I've opened up an account with FD. Except to qualify for the £100 incentive it needs to be a full switch and my Nationw*de account closed down. So once the switch is done, I'll be in exactly the same position.........with one account. Oh, and £100 better off. Once it's all switched, I'll crawl back to Nationw*de to open up a brand new account for spends and the little savings accounts that you can rename. Too loyal I am!

Today
* Took lunch to work
* £1.42 on milk
* £3.00 on cat litter. I've explained to my cat that we're economising and therefore he needs to not expect the £6.00 litter I have been buying. I got it in Wilk*s and I noticed they do an even cheaper litter but I thought the one I bought was a fair compromise. He seemed ok with it after I promised not to provide him with cheaper food. 10 minutes after changing the litter, he pooped. I'm taking that as approval. :rotfl::D

Friday tomorrow. More importantly, it's payday! :T

catriona79

Seul Of approach from the cat, most definitely.

Sorry, got to run!!

Orange_Ena

Good news - my cat still loves his new litter, and it seems so much better than the more expensive stuff I was using so its a stayer.

It was payday yesterday....my favourite day of the month.

Yesterday
* Took lunch to work
* £36.59 biggish shop after work at M*orrisons
* Took £7 surplus from my payp*l, plus £50 that I normally pay as extra (above the minimum) to my Nati0nwide CC and threw it at JDWilliams

Today
* £2.50 car park at the hospital
* £9.55 on an almost unnecessary shop at T*sco. Bought chocolate to cheer myself up......payday treat
* Listed 9 items on eb*y, if all sell, it should raise £32 ish. Hoping for more. Obvs.
* Tidied a couple of box files of paperwork
* Shredded the last months unimportant receipts and other surplus !!!!
* £5.19 account tidy, paid to Nati0nwide CC

I'm really chuffed with how much I've reduced the jdwilliams debt. A few weeks ago it was £520.47, now it's £113.57. I dipped into my overdraft a bit and used my credit card for 2 small purchases but on the whole, I've done better than I've done in a long time. This debt has been hanging over me too long. I've spent too long being in debt and massively overweight. Now the weight is shifting, I want the debt to shift and then I can hopefully leave the job I've grown to really hate. There's a whole new world out there and I want a slice of it! Anyway, another £50 dd will go out for this soon leaving £63.57 to pay. I'm going to try and use eb*y sales and money earnt in other ways to get his down as I've got a few expenses this month. I'm holding off for now but any spare cash and that bad boy is gone!!

I've got to pay for some damage to my lease car, nearly £450! All damage caused by other people. Really annoyed but I had quotes to try and get it fixed without going through the insurance and it's over double that. But the insurance have said if I pay through my wages, work will pay the VAT leaving a bill for about £372 ish. I can also pay in installments which is a great help but I'm still annoyed that it's money I could have used for my debts. I wonder if they'll let me pay over 30 months? Somehow I think not. When I eventually get YNAB, I'm going to add a category for lease car damage and start putting away £10 a month!

As well as paying off the debt, I want to save for a few things, although the focus is the debt repayments......but maybe some can go towards these things........
☆ Fitbit - I know I could just buy a pedometer, but this looks really good
☆ Bicycle - kind of necessary now I'm sort of embracing exercise, and I used to enjoy it when I rode a bike years ago. May try and get a second hand one!
☆ House stuff - maybe need around £2500 to finish off a few jobs and to get stuff fixed
☆ Conservatory - years away but this is a bit of a goal once I'm debt free.

I really need to get a bit of work done so I can get a lodger. I'd get to my goals a lot quicker with that extra cash!

Off to read a few diaries for inspiration

Orange_Ena

A rainy sad Sunday, bleeurghhhhh. Debating whether to put the heating on for an hour. Ridiculous!

Today
* NSD
* Transferred money to my little savings accounts, some for monthly things like diesel, and some for yearly things like house insurance
* Tidied 2 kitchen cupboards, and put some recipe books in the car boot box as no one needs that many!
* Registered on the selling site Shp*ck and listed an item that hasn't sold in Gumtreeeee
* Listed an item of clothing on a FB selling site as a tester, as any clothes not selling on eb*y will go on here, if not they'll be car booted, and if I still have them after that, the charity can have them!
* Did a meter reading, no rebate due.
* Did an energy comparison and I'm sure I can save money so will switch asap, but may wait until after I swap banks to avoid a c*ck up.
* Did some more shredding so it's all tidy. When I did a massive paper work / college work tidy a few months ago I had 2 full boxes of shredding. It was a bit of a ball ache so I can't let it get like that again!

Still need to work on a meal plan, a job for another night! And a yearly budget for those one off spends that I forget about......;)

Have a good week y'all

Orange_Ena

I relisted 4 items on eb*y last week that I didn't get a nibble on. I wasn't holding out much hope but 3 have sold tonight with total sales of £5.79. Not much but it all helps......and 3 items decluttered away!

Target is £63.57 this month to clear the rest of jdwilliams so I'm nearly 10% there already. (I think that's right........my maths GCSE comes in handy sometimes :rotfl:)

Ooh, I found a 20 euro cent coin too earlier.

Orange_Ena

Evening! Another Monday done and dusted.

Today
* Took lunch to work. I do this everyday, not sure why I record it really! Possibly because I haven't always been this organised and use to spend probably a fiver a day on lunch. :eek:
* 45p account tidy paid to the CC
* Sold an item on Shp*ck for £8 but I won't get that money until Friday when she picks it up......that's over 10% towards my outstanding jdwilliams debt..........I'm good at maths me!
* £ 35.21 on diesel. Was aiming for a nice round £35 but I got distracted
* £8.47 on groceries (milk, philly and a fishy for my little dishy)
*£5.60 on ebay parcels. I realised that when I was at the counter I didn't add anything onto the postage charged to the winner bidders. B*m!!

Tomorrow
* Take lunch to work :A
* Another hospital visit so likely to be £2.50 parking
* Forgot to buy dishcloths and washing up liquid but I need bubble wrap too for some eb*y parcels so I'll probably get it all from H*me Barg@ins - hopefully £4 max

Right, an early night calls!

Orange_Ena

Good evening. I'm really enjoying writing a little diary, it makes me keep all my receipts and therefore a track of my spending!

Today
* Took lunch to work, as per!
* Last minute cover for a colleague so had to pay parking of £3.60......will be claimed back
* £2.42 groceries, from cash in purse
* £7.11 in H0me Barg@ins. Would have been less than £2.50 but I needed tin foil, cling film and some other minor bits! I've started reusing a bit of cling film, when it's still clean anyway. Feel very frugal! :money:
* £2.50 car parking for hospital appointment
* Bids on 4 out of 9 items on eb*y....total of £7 so far. Another 10% ish of my outstanding jdwilliams balance
* Paid upfront for line rental saver with Plusn3t so that was £155.88 (shifted my budgets around to pay for it). They emailed about a price rise so I got in quick to fix it for a year. They also emailed about half price unlimited broadband taking it from £9.99 to £4.99 per month for a year. I confirmed on their chat thing that I could take the half price broadband and still get the cheaper line rental rental saver so they'd better be right haha. I'm not sure whether I can get this cheaper but I'm happy with the service so I'm staying...for the next 12 months as I'm locked in
* I was going to wait to switch energy supplier until my bank swap is completed but it's been on my mind so I decided to sign up to a small supplier I've never heard of via the MSE Cheap Energy Club. They predict savings of about £177 per year which will bring my direct debit down to about £40 per month.....and there was £30 cashback. Plus if FD fudge up the bank switch with all this changing, they pay another £100......not that I want them to fail.....ahem :D:o

I am feeling so motivated to get this debt shifted. I'm so miserable in my job but I need to stay for the pay, get my debts cleared then I can think about getting a less stressful job. But please let me win the lottery so I can leave now! :rotfl:

Orange_Ena

I think my boss has sensed I'm a bit miserable at work or something today she asked me to do a slightly different job. It's only one morning a week but it's something different to the daily grind!

Today
* Took lunch to work :A
* NSD
* 8p transferred to Nati0nwide CC
* Returned a pair of jeans so that'll be £13.50 credited.
* Energy transfer emails received and they hope to swap it over around 17th Aug but my first payment will be 1st September. Hoping for a teeny rebate from my current supplier but knowing my luck, I'll owe them :)

Short and sweet tonight

catriona79

Amazing motivation, Ena!

Just a drive by post, but your saying about the debt stopping you from being able to change jobs - that really struck a chord with me. I know very well how that feels.

Gotta go, but let's chat about it another time x

lcc86

Hi Orange Ena, you're doing well and glad you've been given the chance to mix things up a little at work, I too can sympathise with your work situation, but it's not forever and things always seem so much better when you've done it the hard way!