Debt busting into 2015, but not beyond!

Dobbibill

Hey PBS,

Just read all your diary and can I say how very well you are doing, everyday creates a progress of some sort, even if only small but I notice it's mostly big giant steps towards you goal. You should be really proud of yourself and OH.

I didn't want to read and run so just wanted to wish you well on your challenge for 2015, keep up the good work you have begun with such determination, drive and focus. Off to subscribe :T

DB

PiggyBankShaker

I had a pretty horrible day yesterday. I had a low balance text alert from my bank. They send them when my balance drops below £50. I knew I should have had about £260 in there. So when I got home from at lunchtime I logged on to see that Vodafone had taken £219 from my account!

I had checked my balance with them on the 25th November when I was doing my budgeting and they had said that my bill would be £42. So I rang them and spent an hour an half on the phone trying to sort it all out. Basically they have made a big !!!! up and set me up with a second phone contract for a phone that I don't have! :mad:

They are not sure exactly how much to refund me but it is about £70 of the extra £177 they billed me. I need to ring on the 15th December to find out and at that point I can then request a further refund of £70. Annoyingly they said that it will initially be as a bill credit against my December bill and after I have paid my December bill I can request that they transfer the reminder to my bank account.

I was really upset by it all. Luckily I had the extra £177 in my account and it was not allocated to anything specific per se, but I had anticipated either adding it to savings or putting it towards Christmas.

I feel really frustrated, that despite making an effort to carefully plan my budgets and watch my spending, something like this comes along and knocks me for six.

In other MSE news the item I was selling on ebay sold for total of £24.50, but I need to post it so should clear about £19 after fees and postage. I also did two mystery shops for a total of £16.

I also had a coffee in town yesterday :eek: and spent £5.50 in the process.

Total spent = £5.50

I also have to confess that I haven't really been eating properly whilst OH is away and it really caught up with yesterday. I felt quite hollow and shaky most of the day and I was ill in the night. As a result I didn't sleep very well and so I'm feeling rubbish today. I know I only have myself to blame too

Today should be a SFD and I need to do some washing and have a bit of a tidy up.

PiggyBankShaker

Dobbibill wrote: »

Hey PBS,

Just read all your diary and can I say how very well you are doing, everyday creates a progress of some sort, even if only small but I notice it's mostly big giant steps towards you goal. You should be really proud of yourself and OH.

I didn't want to read and run so just wanted to wish you well on your challenge for 2015, keep up the good work you have begun with such determination, drive and focus. Off to subscribe :T

DB

Thanks DB. I do try and make a bit of progress each day even if it is small. It is hard sometimes to stay focussed and positive. So thanks for noticing and I'm glad that it comes across in the diary. We'll get there in the end.

AleMrsT

Pbs, sorry to hear about Vodafone being rubbish, id be asking them for a refund on the cost of the phone call to sort it out, as well as compensation for the trouble its caused you. I had a similar issue with O2 charging me for text messages that should have been free on my plan. I manged to get the contract cancelled and I have not used them since. They are the reason I had to set up an overdraft in the first place!
Hope you have a better day today .

PiggyBankShaker

Managed 2 NSDs on the weekend. I will need to get at least bread and bananas today so won't be getting an NSD today though.

One of my items on Ebay received a bid for £9.00 overnight and although it doesn't end until Tuesday I doubt it will go for more as there is only 1 watcher.

Good news is that OH is back today! Hoping to see him about 5pm. I have missed him SO much. I knew I was missing him and being a bit grumpy, but didn't realise quite how much until I woke up this morning and just felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

OH should (hopefully) be getting paid this week. He is self-employed but has one client who he works for full time. They are not quite as regular in paying his invoices as they ought to be. We can do the money hokey-cokey then and work out exactly how much we've got left for Christmas and savings.

PiggyBankShaker

Quick visit to log spends:

£4.99 - Iron cleaner
£3.60 - lunch
£1.30 - bread
£7.31 - fruit and veg
79p - cereal
5p - carrier bag
£1.00 - crisps
£54.09 - diesel

TOTAL = £73.13

PiggyBankShaker

Spends Yesterday:

£3.26 - Fruit and veg
£1.98 - cereal
£9.00 - pine nuts and houmous
£1.35 - vegetables
£1.59 - energy drink

Total = £17.18

PiggyBankShaker

DH is back and it is wonderful! I only saw him for a few hours as I was on the first train to London yesterday and didn't get home til 8.30pm. But neither of us is going anywhere else now so we've got plenty of time to catch up.

Sold something on ebay for £12.25 after fees and postage so adding that to the pot. I have £30:82 to transfer to the mortgage altogether, but I can't do it yet as it would put me into my overdraft.

The few things I listed for my parents all sold, bar one, and so they are delighted to be £110 the richer.

DH is looking for a few more things to try and sell before Christmas, so hopefully we can list those tonight. He still hasn't been paid yet. I hope they pull their finder out soon!

PiggyBankShaker

Both DH and I achieved NSD yesterday, which was good. There was mention of a take away, but DH gallantly rallied and cooked a lovely spag bol. I had some for lunch today too, so double win there.

Neither today nor tomorrow or either days on the weekend will be NSD's though. I bought some hair dye today, so £12.00 spent and it is my work's Christmas do tomorrow so I imagine that that'll be another £20 gone.

Total spent = £12

DH has been busy and listed 7 items on ebay with a total starting value of £57, hopefully most or all of it will sell next week.

I made a £36 mortgage overpayment and requested a £14 payout from DH's TopCashBack account that is also destined for the mortgage when it arrives.

PiggyBankShaker

DH has been paid! Just in time too, as things were starting get to get a bit tight. So he's done his money hokeycokey AND made a mortgage overpayment (his first ) of £124. That's brings us to my mortgage overpayment target of £1000 for 2014! Very happy with that.

Someone has made on opening bid of £35 for one of the items that DH listed the other day and the other items have quite a few watchers too. I'm confident that they will go.

We've got a few expenses over the next few days:

DS needs a new pair of shoes
Cash for our visit to DH family on the weekend kenneling fees
£210 - Cash for DH's nieces and nephews for Christsmas
Groceries
Diesel

--

Still to pay before Christmas

£160 - House insurance
£150 - Christmas presents