A new debt free journey

Synonymous

Hey, keep up the good work and good luck in the new job tomorrow!

Just a thought, if the Dyson isn't under warranty, and it's going to cost loads to fix them have a look online to try and diagnose it. There is a company called something like Manchester vacs online with all cheap dyson parts and tutorials on how to fix loads of things yourself.

I took mine apart and replaced the motor for about £20 earlier this year, it's doable if you or someone you know is handy with that kind of stuff. So consider your options if Dyson is gonna charge the earth! x

lcc86

Thanks Synonymous, luckily my hoover is under warranty until September so the new parts are on their way to me for free. Dyson sent me an invoice showing that the parts would've cost £120 so lucky escape! I'm definitely going to keep your advice in mind though if I should have any further problems after the warranty expires.

New job seems to be going okay. Very early days yet so I don't have much to do apart from training and failing miserably to remember anyone's name, but the team seem really nice and knowledgeable so hopefully I've landed on my feet :j plus in two days I've racked up £35 worth of expenses. Had I still been in my old job those would've been unclaimable miles because of the mileage policy and commuting from home, so financially it's working out already I'm on the cusp of sorting out a start date for my second zero hours job as well, really really hoping to have some news on that by the end of this week.

I think I've messed up my food budget this month unfortunately I think I was a bit over optimistic but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. No one gets things right all the time! Worst case scenario I will have to put about £20 worth of food shopping on my credit card to be paid off once my expenses come through. I still haven't had my volunteering expenses and chased it late last week so if that comes through soon it will solve the problem.

Hit another of my July targets today as I started training for my upcoming 10k by running about 3.5k. Not much but definitely a step in the right direction. Really struggle to motivate myself to go running lol. :rotfl:

Spend wise, had to buy a prescription today, £8.20, so that's pretty much my entire unallocated weekly budget of £10 used up :rotfl: I also needed a toothbrush, was going to buy this out of my budget next week but the one I buy was better than half price so I bought it today instead. No further spending planned this week. Off to visit my parents this weekend which will be spendy in terms of fuel but all planned for and looking forward to it.

lcc86

Had my six monthly ground rent/service charge letter through today and it totals half of what I have saved. It means I can use the surplus to cover my food shortfall rather than the credit card, and then put it back in when I get paid my expenses. Phew!

lcc86

Settling in well at work and my expenses so far have put me in profit :rotfl: not that all I'm thinking about is money but it sure does help ease my anxiety. It's quiet at the moment as I'm still new but I know it won't last, just have to enjoy the quiet times while they're here!

I did some painting last night, just a small still life. Results weren't great (probably doesn't help that I'm using a £land sketchbook!) but I did enjoy it and I think I'll try it again, it's only for my own amusement anyway.

Been doing more research about the course I want to do. I have some reading to do this weekend but from what I read I really want to go for it. I might try and put my expenses in savings to go towards the cost.

Right, lots of chores to do tonight as I'm away this weekend so must crack on and get off this forum!

lcc86

I have a confession to make... I have splurged :mad::mad::mad::mad:

I'm not sure what came over me but I spent £15 on a ring I've wanted for ages, £10 on underwear and £35 on a professional membership (annual). The membership I can justify but the rest was just me getting carried away. The worst part is I used some of me service charge money to pay for it all. It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't admitted to messing up my food budget this month and finding myself short. A ring and underwear really shouldn't take priority over food! :mad:

I am prone to splurge every so often, I think being skint a lot of the time takes its toll. I feel bad now (surprise... Not). Going to look at paying this mkney back now over the next few months. Just had to write in here as I felt a bit of a fraud if I tried to hide it!

lcc86

I have redeemed myself somewhat after yesterday's indiscretion as I've got a start date for my second zero hours job and will be working 6 hours on Tuesday evening. I'm still annoyed that I just flippantly spent that money without thinking. I'm also annoyed that I will probably end up using the wages I get from Tuesday's work to pay for what I spent, when the idea of having additional work was to help clear my debts quicker, not cover my impulse buys! :mad: not very MSE AT ALL!!! :money:

Well, nothing I can do about it now, the money has been spent. On the plus side at least I recognised the error and have a way of paying it back. I think I have a tendency every few months to splurge on something as I'm so skint or focused on paying something off. Perhaps it might be an idea to have an emergency "splurge fund" :rotfl: in all seriousness, I do need to work out why I do this and how to stop it. Yes it was only a small splurge this time, but I know that that kind of frivolous attitude towards debt was what got me into so much trouble to begin with many years ago.

Anyway, this weekend I have spent £30 on fuel and £5 on the Dartford Tunnel (rip off). No other spends planned. Have a good weekend everyone

belleandthebudget

At least you realised the splurge for what it was and can correct it! I do a very similar thing but I think as long as it's not a devastating splurge that sends you backwards, then every so often isn't too bad!

lcc86

Okay, last week's little spending blip really got to me more than I thought. So this morning I amended my budget spreadsheet for next month and removed some frivolous spends and decided now is the time to start making overpayments to my loan. I've worked out I should have a bit more money to play with so I have no excuse.

I'm not going to do British military fitness now after all I've decided, I can exercise for free when I want to, I already have horse riding which I definitely want to continue, so that's enough. I know I'm making progress but would like to make better progress in reality. Last time when I cleared my debt I worked all the hours God sent to get it cleared. While I'm not doing that this time, I do need to put a bit more effort in and remember that any splurges can wait until I'm debt free. After all, any money I waste keeps me in debt longer.

I feel a lot better when I have a 'plan'. Sometimes I deviate but it's always good to bring it back to the forefront of my mind. Plus I want to save for this course which will hopefully start in September, so I really need to pare back wherever I can if I'm going to save as much as possible. HAVE to get my priorities in order. I've just updated my signature to reflect where I am a bit better and to help keep me on the straight and narrow!

I also deleted all items I have on various online wish lists as I don't need anything but find myself looking for the sake of looking.:T

lcc86

Been a long couple of days. I did my first shift at my second bank job last night and enjoyed it so much, I definitely feel I've done the right thing, and I'm hopefully going to have a regular shift at least until my induction is completed so that I can get to grips with the role.

A more frustrating day today financially as BT took an activation charge out of my account (£50 :eek::eek::eek:) as I upgraded but it was charged in error. It made me overdrawn in my 'bills' account so I had to move some money around and spend ages on the phone trying to fix it. It's been credited to my account which is fine. This is the first time I've not checked the bill prior to the dd going through, lesson definitely learned! Nothing else to report, the month is still tight and the expenses still haven't come through but all well apart from that.

lcc86

More Internet issues to report on... While I was on the phone to BT the other day about my billing issue I told them I'm getting really low speed. I was running through their tests yesterday and it stopped working completely!! They arranged for an engineer to come out next week. I've managed to get it back up and running, with the same issue of low speed. But now I'm worried that the engineer will find fault at my end and I'll be charged. I think I'm caught between a rock and a hard place with this, I could cancel the engineer and carry on receiving slow speed (not ideal when I'm paying for fibreoptic) or I take the risk with the engineer in the hope the issue is with them and not with me. Fingers crossed, I don't want my pockets to be £130 lighter! :eek:


In other MSE news, I've done my menu planning for August and priced everything up. Hopefully will do better than this month! Although now that I've looked at my accounts, I've got a little extra than I thought so my slight food overspend isn't an issue any more. Even so, I'd rather stick to the budget to begin with, had I not messed up that money could've gone towards my debt! :mad:

Exercise and meditation have somewhat fallen by the wayside this week if I'm honest. I have been horse riding today (and am absolutely exhausted!! :rotfl:) but haven't done much else. I'm loving riding again, I just wish I could afford to go more. Definitely more incentive to get debt free. Going to go for a run tomorrow morning to try and make up for it. A colleague also told me about an organisation called parkrun, which I've joined now. From my understanding it's a free running club, which I definitely need with my 10k race 10 weeks away! :eek:

Work wise I'm enjoying the new job so far, even though I don't have much work to do yet, I'm getting a really good vibe from the place and have noticed that there is definitely trust from the managers that you're getting your work done effectively and they don't look over your shoulder constantly checking up on you. For me that's a huge benefit, being micro managed in the past really knocked my confidence as every little thing was questioned, no matter how trivial. I'm also meeting with the manager for one of my zero hours jobs on Monday morning to work out how much I'm going to be working over the next few months. I don't want to work myself into the ground but it would be good to bring in some regular extra cash (especially with expensive habits like horse riding!).

Right, tomorrow I just need to finish some chores and go and pick up a little food shopping. Might go and feed the local ducks if the weather is good too, fingers crossed. Hope everyone is having a good weekend