DFW journey starts today

twiggy86

Very productive and money friendly day today!

Had to pick up a parcel but got the OH to come with me so he could wait in the car - saves buying a parking ticket! Naughty but MSE! Annoyingly my new SIM card arrived today but there's a problem with it - after half an hour on hold, EE told me I need to go instore as basically they had no idea! So back into town tomorrow!

Did a big weekly shop at lidl - spent £60.90 so well within budget to cover top up bits for the rest of the week. Got petrol today and got 6p off a litre saving £2.43 - so still over £50 left in the pot although may go over with the trip to my best friends. Talked OH out of getting a takeaway tonight so cooked instead (after all I did spend this afternoon shopping!)

Also submitted my meter readings - need to get into this habit but wondering how often is appropriate and not OTT?

Found 7p in my pocket - need to decide what to do with it! Only 7p but look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves!

ALSO (I did say it was a money friendly day!) bought a Xmas present and by spending a bit of time comparing prices I got it for potentially over £6 cheaper than the most expensive price (quite a lot when you consider it was under £14 I paid!) It's the postage they get you on - looks cheaper but then the postage is ridiculous!

Spent most the day cleaning, shopping etc - not very exciting but needs to be done!

twiggy86

So had a wasted journey into town today as the store couldn't help! Fortunately I parked for free so just wasted petrol and time! After 30 minutes on hold and a few firm words I managed to get it sorted! Apparently my phone was locked to orange and not compatible with EE, but as they should have checked they agreed to waive the unlocking fee (over £20!) I phoned orange who upgraded me to EE so in my mind they're the same so how would I know it wouldn't work! However it's sorted now so should be able to put my new sim in within the next week.

Managed to put 4 items on e*bay but apparently my darling OH had managed to get my selling restricted so not sure when I'll be able to put the other 3 items on. Least I didn't have lots to list and I'm not desperate for the money as it's all going to pay off debts when it comes in.

Did a couple of loads of washing on a quick wash and then dried on the line. Not much money spent today - just over £5. Going to try and keep as much of my budget for the weekend I'm up at my best friends as don't want to keep saying "can't afford to do that" but also don't want to dip into the money I'm leaving in my account.

Other than that not much to report for today.

twiggy86

Yesterday was a NSD! Although today won't be.

Trying to earn extra money/vouchers through surveys - earned more SBs yesterday and signed up to OnePoll (earnt £5.80 but doesn't pay out until you hit £40). Seen lots of people posting about earning Amazon vouchers, seemingly pretty easily - not sure what surveys they're doing so must look into it more.

Also signed up for a Boots advantage card - don't shop in there often but do occasionally. Need to think if there's any others I can sign up for - maybe Co-op.

No bids on my e*ay items yet However they don't finish until Sunday so fingers crossed.


Keep looking at my debts but they haven't miraculously gone down! Want it to be payday again so I can shift some more!

twiggy86

Wow! That's all I can say! I actually printed out my CC statements today and apparently I've been paying £5.50 a month for the last 6 months for insurance that I wasn't even aware of! Shows I should actually check them occasionally! At least it was only £5.50 and it's cancelled now! So that's an extra £5.50 a month I won't be wasting.
So I'm now going to go through my statements and see where my money has been going. A lot of the dramatic increase (£1k to over £6k in a year) had been renovation costs but I can't claim that it all has been. Also need to print out my current account statements and do the same.
I earnt more SBs today - only 150 more needed to earn my first £5! Seems alot of effort (excluded from most surveys!) but I guess it all helps. Also did a bit more on one poll - I lied earlier as I'm currently up to £5.50 so overestimated earlier!
Ordered some free samples for purfume and makeup today! I am starting to run low on foundation so the samples should tide me over for a bit longer and maybe I'll like them and they'll be cheaper!
Only spent £5 today (well actually my OH borrowed it) so a pretty good day.
However looking at my bank today I'm a bit confused and may have miscalculated how much was in my bank. Budgets still all fine but just means there's less of a buffer. I'll have another look tomorrow and try and work it out - bit confusing as there's money in all different accounts/envelopes! I'm sure I'll get used to this budgeting malarkey as this is my first month!

twiggy86

I've made a decision and neede to write it down before I change my mind (again!)
The beds - these need to be paid in full (in one payment) by beginning of May or they go onto a 3 year payment plan at 35% - that's not happening!
So between then and now I'm going to pay less off my other debts and save as much as possible for the beds.
So when they're due to be paid I will put it on my CC (as I don't think I'll be able to save the full amount by then but of course will try my best!). The CC balance is currently at 6.9% but any purchases I make will be at 19.9%. So want to put it on CC and then pay off as much as poss from the savings instantly. And then obviously pay it off as quickly as possible.
I hope that makes sense and I hope it's the best way forward!

October_Starter

Hi Twiggy :wave:

You are doing really well! Well Done on reducing your debts and congrats on the surveys. With the CC insurance, that is PPI and you may have a claim for it. Check it out. I think there are loads of forum entries about claiming it back and from what I have read it isn't too difficult.

Keep going!

October xx

twiggy86

Thanks October - however I've realised that my post wasn't very clear.


The insurance was for an iPad which I bought on my CC. I recall they mentioned giving us a months free and then apparently they just started taking it! I wonder if there is anything that I can do about it? I'm sure they said when I purchased it that I would need to cancel but I also didn't agree to pay?

twiggy86

Feeling positive today! Earnt enough SBs to claim my first £5 - so that has been claimed! Need to decide which debt/pot to allocate it to. Along with the £1.08 I claimed from TCB (every little helps - apparently that's my new moto!). Also have over £70 still pending in TCB - be good when that's payable! Plus over £6 in onepoll - slow process but it's all a bonus.
Also downloaded a spending app which is going to be my new best friend.
So I feel like I'm taking all good steps in the right direction and I'm in a good mindset - maybe to the extreme slightly as genuinely waited until I got to work to fill my water bottle up! Ha ha! Next thing you know I'll be on that extreme cheapskates programme!

October_Starter

Good for you Twiggy! You are doing really well!

October xx

monz

Aw you are getting there x