LHG - the biggest adventure yet

RosaBernicia

Woohooooo :T

Hurrah for happy house packing, new date, fab social circle and running :T

Good luck with interview :j


Rosa xx

lionheartedgirl

Morning

I didn't get the job unfortunately, but the interview went well and I got down to the last 2 out of 20 people so I have to remind myself that's pretty good going. It was great practice and has got me back into the zone for talking about work and things.

I still have my temp job and looks like that might take me into January which will be good. I have a bit of student loan left (and don't need to repay this until 2015) so I have a little bit of a buffer in case I'm not working for a few weeks, but hopefully it won't be too long.

I've sorted out utilities accounts for the old house this week - they're all done and I'm just waiting for the cash to come through so I can see off one of my cards at last. I cannot WAIT to get them closed and off my worry list.

One of them has just put my limit up by £5k :eek: which given I've had no income from a job for almost a year, is pretty scary. Normally I refuse them straightaway but forgot about this one and it got applied without me. I will ring up to cancel it as the amount of available credit I have is truly scary. I wouldn't ever use it all but hate it being there.

So debt will be down to £47,466 after they go through. Seems like such a small reduction given how big the number is, but £1700 gone is not small really

The date went REALLY well and I've seen him a couple of times this week, including a last minute visit to cheer me up after I found out about the job. Things look very promising and I hope it continues

Busy day today but a much quieter one at home tomorrow. This should be OK but I am struggling with unstructured time again so need to make sure I have plenty of things on my list to do.

RosaBernicia

Hi LHG

You might want to read around before ditching the available credit - I was going to cut a lot of mine and then saw something (on here I think) about it actually improving your credit rating. I guess maybe it suggests good management of the accounts. I was turned down for decent deals the last couple of times I've tried, so have decided to keep some extra credit and also always pay at least 10% more than the minimum on all accounts.

Hurrah for date and am sure the right job will also turn up soon


Rosa xx

lionheartedgirl

*skulks in quietly*

HAPPY NEW YEAAARRRRRR!!! :j :beer: :money:

what a couple of months I had to round off the end of a shocking year so brilliantly!

I've just had 2 weeks off work for only the third time ever in my life and it felt wonderful. I haven't done even a tenth of what I had on my list, but I feel rested and raring to go for the next phase.

Things with the new chap are going really well and I hope he turns out to be a keeper very different to the others and there will be some challenges ahead I feel, mostly relating to money. He is very financially secure, is a real clothes horse (and looks great in everything! :happyhear ) and loves shopping. He knows about my situation and is so supportive but I am just a little nervous.

Debt currently sits at £37,348.73 (plus the £10k long term Mum and Dad loan) after the Jan payments have been made.

The day before I finished for Christmas, I was told there's another 2-3 months work for me where I'm temping at the mo, so this was the most wonderful present and meant I decided to relax a little over Christmas and spent a little more on presents and food than I had previously planned. But I can pay it all off without slowing anything down so am not too worried.

I still need to knuckle down and find a more steady job and this will be my priority for the next few weeks.

I'm not one for new year's resolutions really, for me it's just a time to think ahead to what I want to do over the year and re-focus myself on the debt busting. I have a freezer crammed full of yellow stickers so will be fine on food shopping once I get back into the work routine.

A couple of immediate things I need to do:

Iron clothes/make lunch the night before so I leave for work on time. I'm paid by the hour (ahem!) so this will make a difference to my wages.

Sort out work wardrobe - I was on a low cost/desperate strategy while I was at college but now I am back to work properly, I need to be looking sharp and smart. At the moment my whole wardrobe hinges around an H&M black cardi that is way, way past its best :eek: and I need to budget carefully for work items although I don't need designer labels. I also need some decent work shoes and a decent handbag and am prepared to spend a little more on these if needed (and budgeted!).

Plan better (in fact plan full stop) for trips to see family - I have a couple coming up and there's no getting away from the fact that seeing family a long way away is expensive but it is top of the priority list as I like them :rotfl: mostly :rotfl:

I sat down yesterday and caught up with all my Xmas spending so it's all in the app I use and I know where I'm up to, and tonight I will do the fun bit which is looking into the new year and budgeting everything properly. Mostly fun - very scary of course knowing I don't have a permanent job.

My wages allow me in theory to overpay a significant amount of extra money towards my debts, but for the next few weeks at least, I am going to boost the oh-s*** coffers in case I am out of work later in the year. My outgoings are in pretty good shape but I do need a bit of security as I never, ever want to be back where I was.

Rosa - even refusing the credit increases I still have lots of accounts (way too many for comfort), my available credit is frankly irresponsible and cutting it down will be no bad thing. I could afford a very nice car or even a flat with the total :eek: I know what you mean though

satchmo1

Happy New Year LHG, great to "see" you again, and lovely to hear that things are going well on the romance front.


Was there a typo in one of your posts, as one says £47k and the next says £37k. Fingers crossed it's the lower figure, lol.


I got some smart work clothes from eBay, but I'm not generally looking for fashionable items so last year's designs are fine for me. Jaeger trouser suits for under £20. It helps if you know which labels fit you.


I also bought two pairs of a particular style of Clarks shoe which fit and are very comfy. Both under £10 including p&p. I'm prepared to bid and drop if they go over my self-imposed limit.


My team know I get almost everything on eBay, but often comment on how elegantly I dress.


Have you got any more harp gigs coming up, or are you having a break from that?


Satchmo x

lionheartedgirl

hi satchmo, lovely to 'see' you too :j

sadly it's £47k in total - the £37k is the figure I need to focus on in the immediate future.

The £10k is an interest free loan from mum and dad that they are happy to wait a long while on, basically they lent me it as I was in negative equity when the house finally went and they said they would prefer to lend it me and have me walk away from the house than to keep struggling on waiting to sell it. I have very nice parents - I'd never borrowed anything from them until I put the house up for sale and they knew how proud I was so they really pushed hard.

I agree on knowing what fits - I've never really bothered with ebay as clothes shopping is so tricky, I'm really tiny but need to get a bit more clever about it now.

Supermarket frocks and cardis are fine for the current job but needing an interview suit saw a ginormous panic (all fine in the end thanks to Matalan!), and if I end up in a smart business wear environment again, I will need to seriously think. 6 years of working in a head office environment for a retailer meant that pretty much anything was fine :eek:

Happy new year to you, I hope it's a good one for you and yours

RosaBernicia

LHG! :j Happy new year petal :beer:

Lovely to hear about your new man, may all continue being fabulous (and any hints on where to look for lovely men appreciated :rotfl:)

And hurrah for three months work too :T


I'm probably not the best source of help on smart workwear but second trying Ebay for brands where you know the fit. Also, designer outlets? (I have a weakness for the far-too-nearby L K Bennett one.) and the charity shops are always worth a try - I can't get my chest into shirts which is a great disappointment to me, but I hunt the rails for a friend of mine and have found eg Gieves&Hawkes in Oxfam. I've never felt very comfortable in suits and don't wear black so most of my work clothes are dresses. Cheaper than suits and more flexible.


Rosa xx

lionheartedgirl

ooh yes come to mention it the new chap/clothes horse mentioned an outlet over in Livingston which isn't far from him (and easy enough from mine) so I might just brave it and have a look.

the MSE email had a link to the Mulberry sale and while I looked and saw a couple of nice things, I am kind of pleased to see they have stopped doing the bag I still love and crave (since 2007!!) when I am debt free. As it's discontinued there might just be one in the outlet store down in Bath at some point in the future, and if there isn't, it's not to be.

I've found the Debenhams Jasper Conran range to be suitably 'influenced by' over the years, and enough to be well worth a look so am just biding my time on prices/offers. I've bought two bags in the last year, not cheap ones either, and they have not been up to the job. I'm not really a bag girl, one for day/work and one for evening is fine for me. My evening one is the same one I bought to go out on my 21st and is going great guns - a Nine West/'influenced by' Prada number.

I've caught up on a couple of money bits today and my budgeting app now matches my accounts to the penny at long last. I've moved everything around that needs moving around, and am just awaiting the flow of weekly wages to trickle in ready for the start of next month *pulls a "phew" face*

Made my lunch last night and washed up, but failed on the ironing front so had to do that this morning. It will probably be a similar story tomorrow with the ironing, but on the plus side I have cleaned my porridge pot tonight. This means I won't be scrubbing that in the morning while trying to brew my tea and feed the dogs all at the same time, which is what normally happens.

I really need to buy a non stick one as my hob is halogen and an absolute devil for burning things (no microwave porridge as no microwave!) but I can't quite bring myself to part with going out money for a sodding non stick pan. I hate buying the cheap ones as they never last long.

Other news - short run tonight, pretty shattered so will be off to bed on time. Oh and I've finally run out of tonic so the holiday GnT habit has stopped at last. Boooo but needed!

Slightly embarrassed to be too stingy to shell out on a pan while daydreaming about Mulberry bags.

RosaBernicia

It's all about priorities - YOUR priorities and yours alone!


Rosa xx

lionheartedgirl

Evening

wow things have been crazy. Just back in control again tonight with a night in and not budging from the sofa apart from hound walking at bed time.

Money things are still under control - I am being SO strict and everything is being logged to within an inch of its life. I was invited to a birthday party doing something new and different, really wanted to go and normally would have said yes without thinking but I made extra sure this time.

I'm being super good on food and even the wine hasn't made an appearance all week. I've almost finished the gin stocks from Christmas and if I do replace the bottle it will be the Aldi one which is a tenner and lovely (and their tonic is pretty good too).

I had a bad case of the wants earlier this week. I lent something to a friend, went to drop it off and the house was gorgeous. The music room was bigger than my house. I was walloped very hard with the realisation that it will be a long slog, and I have forgotten what it feels like to be comfortable being a bit extravagant every so often. I worry about what is OK to splurge a bit on and what is ridiculous (she says, lusting after a Mulberry bag).

Most of all I forget that there are people who don't live the same way I do, watching every loaf of bread and every litre of fuel, and I do worry a bit what they think of me. I know I don't have a badge over my head, so most of the time there is no way of knowing but I still worry.

It really knocked the stuffing out of me and I was really down yesterday - combined with being really tired from a brilliant but exhausting weekend where I didn't really eat enough for what I was doing and have spent the rest of the week eating a frankly ridiculous amount for a small person! Lesson learnt to start thinking now about what and how I need to eat as I up the miles for the races I have entered later this year.

Still waiting for a refund from the water company for the old house. Should be £100 or so which will almost see off one of my cards - I've been so close to getting rid of it for ages and it's doing my head in! :mad:

I did the big budget for the year's adventures. Nothing major but it adds up and explains a lot, if I've been spending that sort of money without really planning ahead for it.

Job hunting hasn't started properly yet - will realistically be next week. but I need to get on it, I am hating the short termism that comes with temping.