Scrimping behind the scenes - with debt of £31,000!

roomontheend

Good news on paying the Santander 1 card down. It's a really good feeling isn't it. I also done percentage goals to keep me motivated. My debt will take me a few years so I need to keep pushing.

Dobbibill

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Well at the end of Week 2 of Scrimp Month 2 yesterday I’ve come in over budget by £1.66 on food , but under budget on the ad hoc spends by £29.86. :j So a little bit more to put towards the theatre day out and weekend away later this month.


well done!!!! your over budget figures were much less than your under budget figures, so a good saving overall :T


you must be so pleased about how far you've come in such a short time, I'm inspired by it which in turn keeps me focused for my goals, so well done and thanks :money:

Seasidegal58

Thanks roomattheend and dobbi. My snowball tells me that I have another 33 months to go so onwards and upwards!

Today spent a bit more than I was expecting as I seem to have run out of most of my toiletries all at the same time so the bill ended up at £23.22! the good thing was because of the offers in Boots I did actually save £6.81 - among the savings got three packs of Johnson's facial wipes for £5. Plus I get my loyalty points as well.

Also spent £2 on the "guess how many goals will be scored in the World Cup" competition in work. I haven't a clue about this but went for 155 which is 10 more than in 2010!

in_need_of_direction

Your boots spend is still less than what was left in your ad hoc spends budget. Well done.

Seasidegal58

Hi everyone

I was rather gutted today as I received a letter from the Post Office re. my credit card application – they had asked for four pieces of identification etc in order to consider whether they would grant me a 0% card. I sent these off last Friday and they have written to me to say that they can’t proceed with my application because my address on the council tax bill I sent them did not match with the current address on their online application form I filled in. This annoyed me because on checking, the only difference was the fact that the my address on the application form had the word “Flat” preceding my flat number and this is down to the fact that this is how it was set up on the Post Office’s online address chooser – you know, you put your post code in and up pops a list of the addresses attached to your post code and you select your own. In fact most of my bills have slightly different addresses due to these pesky online address choosers and the way each individual institution sets theirs up. :mad:

The other thing was my payslip – my forename is abbreviated on it so they’ve thrown that out as well! So I’ve now going to have to ring them up tomorrow and do battle, but am not holding my breath :mad: :mad: !

Other annoying thing was I received my Santander credit card statement and they’ve added the last bit of interest onto the card - £7.27 .I had forgotten about this so have winged it across to them today via my ad hoc spends for the week so the only balance showing now is in respect of the nice 0% bit!

OK - I'll stop whingeing now!

Apart from the above, since last posting have only spent out on my papers and a top up of £10 on my tube Oyster card today. I had a morning seminar to attend so in my new MSE world I now took the tube from my mainline station and back to work instead of jumping in taxis like I would have pre-LBM. The top up will cover me for a few tube trips yet and the £10 is still cheaper than two taxis would have been! Got a nice free breakfast at the seminar as well – coffee and bacon roll!:D

Seasidegal58

Hi all

Well I spoke to a rather nice, helpful man at Post Office credit cards who checked the paperwork I had sent in and agreed with me that he thought the two disputed documents were valid and that he would contact the department that carry out these checks and add some support. He said he couldn’t guarantee that they would accept his validation, but I would hear from them by mid-week.

So that’s something and it wasn’t as negative as I thought it was going to be!:)

So yesterday – re ad hoc spends, saw a friend for lunch and spent £6.30.Plus popped into M&S and spent £9.79 on wine and dessert to take to my friend’s daughter’s as she and her OH are hosting a late World Cup shindig tonight to support Eng-ger-land’s first game. They live within walking distance so not far to go.

Today I popped into the dress agency as it’s their monthly payout day today and was very chuffed as they had sold £33 worth of the stuff I took in recently :j . So I pinged £33 over to the Halifax which is the card I am now targeting.

Oh and warmest congratulations to Martin Lewis on being awarded an OBE - richly deserved - without him where would we all be!:A

Will have to go and raid wardrobe to find something red and white to wear for tonight!:footie:

Seasidegal58

Evening!:hello:

Had a quiet day yesterday! Was tired after my late night watching poor ol’ England so had a bit of a lie in – just bought my Sunday paper and caught up with some TV – weather wasn’t that great so didn’t mind not going out.

Today was another low spend day – paper and birthday card (though the card goes on Gift budget). Didn’t have to bring my lunch into work today as I had a work related function to attend and plenty of free wine and nibbles on offer!:D

So it’s the end of the eight day Week 3 of Scrimp Month 2 – what was the result? Well not too bad – 83p over budget on the food/household front , but £14.02 under budget on the ad hoc spends!It’s looking good for the beginning of Week 4 tomorrow and my day out on Thursday and weekend away.:j

One other immensely positive event – some months ago there was a vacancy at my firm so I put up a very good friend of mine for the position who subsequently got the job. The firm has recently put in place an remuneration “finders fee” paid to those members of staff whose introductions pass the six month probationary employment period. I didn’t like to think about it too much until she passed the probationary period, but it has now been confirmed to her and so after tax I will probably get around £600. I’m sharing the fee with her as I wouldn’t have got it without her, so I should be £300 better off when I get paid. So hopefully I won’t go too over budget on my weekend away, but this will mop up any overspend and the rest can go to the Halifax card! :j

Dobbibill

weyhey!!! well done that's a nice bonus towards the Halifax card :T :T :T


you will soon be down to the £20k odd.....doing brilliantly


DB

Seasidegal58

Thanks Dobbi :wave: .....and you are right as its big excitement here tonight at Seasideville because its the end of the second month since my first post of the Scrimp diary (drum roll!) – Elephant in the Room debt now stands at £29,397.99 which is 5.52% paid off since LBM. I swear he looks a tiny bit smaller, but perhaps that’s me just being an optimist! Signature is now updated accordingly!:j
Positives for the last month have been:

• Paying off a total of £1,716.00 in two months;
• Raising the total monthly amount of debt payment this month from £1,008 to £1,023 due to reduction of tax/NI per month in salary.
• Clearing the Santander 1 and Barclaycard 1 CC debts.
• Discovering You Need A Budget software (through all the lovely posters on the forum);
• Making £33 through selling clothes, bags, shoes through local dress agency;
• Looking forward to receiving c.£300 from work by way of “finders fee” as they have employed my friend that I nominated for a staff vacancy.

Thanks again everyone for your support and helpful, kind comments.:A

And I'm going to sneak off now as my daughter is arriving shortly and I have to hide the Scrimp diary!.:D

apple_muncher

Well done you! Great work in just 2 momths! Congratulations!