Silly student debt diary

greensalad

Just had a fun ol' discussion with Talk Talk advisors online.

I just received a bill for £41.38 out of the blue, despite cancelling my service in July 2014! £20 of the bill is for "late payment" of a bill I was never made aware of. The operator told me when I cancelled there was nothing left to pay.

My approach with bills such as these of late has been to just write a plain and stubborn letter where I tell the bill issuer what I'm going to pay, instead of asking for a reduced payment. It worked with the SLC (they originally wanted me to pay £180 p/m. I wrote a letter saying I'd pay £116 and included a cheque. They agreed and cashed it).

So trying this out with Talk Talk. £21.38 was my last bill, so they are right to claim it but I don't think it's fair to charge £20 in late payment fees when they haven't contacted me in that time.

Here is the letter. Will post when I get paid along with a cheque.

To whom it may concern;

I was recently contacted by email and issued with a bill of £41.38.

I cancelled my account with Talk Talk on the 21st July 2014 by telephone call. At this time I was informed there was no balance to pay and that the account was closed.

I have not been contacted in the mean time and have since moved to a different address. I did not inform Talk Talk as I did not believe I had any further business with your organisation.

Since receiving this bill, I have realised that I was informed incorrectly and that a payment of £21.38 was still due for my last month of service.

I see that I have also been charged £20 in late payment fees, despite not being informed a payment was due at any time from 21 July 2014 - 5th January 2015.

I therefore enclose a cheque for £21.38 only to cover the balance of services provided. I will however not be paying the £20 late payment fee as no attempt was made to contact me during these 6 months before the charge was applied.

I would appreciate written confirmation of receipt of this letter along with agreement to the payment above.

I also request that you completely close my account once this payment has been processed.

Yours sincerely,

greensalad

Today

NSD yay! Broccoli and stilton soup looks amazing. I bought broccoli, onion and potato yesterday which came to £1.10 all in. I managed to use up an old leek, and all the stilton left from Christmas. Also used my own homemade chicken stock from our roast dinner before Christmas, so everything else came from the cupboard! Made 1L of soup and it's so much tastier than any soup I've made before. Just so good. I'm excited to eat it. Having it today and tomorrow (OH is having the leftover carrot and chilli soup today and then broccoli and stilton tomorrow).

Tomorrow

I'm pushing for another NSD.

The future

Hurry up 2nd job and pay me! Sent a reminder yesterday, maybe they will have paid by the end of the week.

I also need to set aside some money for my holiday. 2 days in Germany in October. Getting it sorted now so I can spread the cost.

greensalad

Woohoo! Just hit £20.50 on One Poll! Halfway there.

Also some crappy news, I've realised how much I need to save for my tax bill in January 2016. It's more than I thought. Blargh. So I've had to tone down my debt repayment. I'm still going to be OK but it won't be by the end of the year for definite.

greensalad

Cancelled my Github subscription as I'm not doing as much dev work at the moment. £5 back a month

Since my LBM I've reduced the following:

£60 car insurance (and future costs saved by selling car!)
£2.50 music subscription
£5 phone bill
£5 Github fee

So saving myself £72.50 for definite each month

greensalad

Yesterday

NSD yesterday, yay! 2nd one of January I baked bread last night too. It came out OK, pretty tasty but a bit cakey. Will improve the recipe next time. Either way I made it out of cupboard ingredients and some random Polish flour we've had in the cupboard for ages!

Today

NSD again with homemade soup and homebaked bread for lunch. Chicken and veg for dinner.

Tomorrow

NSD again maybe? More soup and bread? Or maybe Job no.2 will actually pay me and then I'll be able to do more debt stuff!

The future

Quiet one this weekend. Got to write a tutorial for work on Saturday. Craft room has been tidied so is ready. Making storage bins for our bookshelves to put beauty things in.

greensalad

Spending Plans for January

When Job no.2 pays me:

£116 to SLC
£100 to keep (need something to get by as I've got £30 left!
£100 into cash ISA as tax savings
Remaining £184 to CC no.2

greensalad

Yesterday

NSD woo! 3rd this month.

Today

Got paid a small amount from some work I did for a colleague. Using it to pay off Talk Talk who have sent me this bill for £41. Refusing to pay and will send them a letter explaining why plus the £21.38 I do owe. Waiting for it to transfer out of PayPal so I can do it now.

SD today as I need to get lunch and something for dinner.

Tomorrow

Lots of chores for tomorrow. BF is out with his Dad all day.

• Send two returns, one freepost
• Post a fox scarf out from Doddle
• Post two eBay parcels from Doddle
• Buy buttons
• Return boots for a gift card and post it to my Dad
• Set up the PINs for my new bank cards

Will withdraw £40 from PayPal from eBay bits and put it towards the Pay-Off-My-Overdraft pot which is now my "new" target (£500 to clear). I'm aware it's an emotional debt clearance, not the most financially sensible. But I've lived in my overdraft on my current account for the last four years. It'd be nice to clear and I'm making good progress on the rest of my higher interest debts.

greensalad

YAAAAAY. Second job finally paid me!!

Update for debt repayment:

Transferred £116 to my Natwest account in order to pay £232 to the Student Loans Company (now going through Akinika Debt)
Transferred £100 in tax savings ISA
Paid £180 off CC no. 2

Rest I'm keeping so I can last until the 28th. Need to buy some groceries.

Signature fully updated. OVER 30% PAID OFF!

If I can last until 28th January on what I have, which is totally doable, then I should be able to still go for my Frugal February and try to clear my entire £500 overdraft in one month, bringing my account back to black for the first time in 5 years!!

Also weighed myself and I seem to have lost 6lbs I've treated myself to a new pair of Salter scales for £9.99 because mine have always always been temperamental and it takes me a long time to weigh myself because they constantly switch off. Also I can only weigh myself in kgs on them and I always have to convert it on the computer!

greensalad

Got the new TV sorted. £200 split between us which is pretty good and cheaper than we had planned. I'm excited, everything in our home is coming together. I've just got to make sure that we don't get asked to leave when the tenancy is up in April

Did lots and lots of errands yesterday, got a whole bunch of things ticked off. Just about to enter tracking codes for some wool I sold so I can release the money. £20 which I'll leave in PayPal as I need to pay fees from selling my car (£67) so sadly no money for me... but money to pay another bill at least without dipping into my salary.

Also need to post back the boots I got from my Dad so he can send me the cash for them (they didn't fit). Not sure what to do with the money. Mum says I MUST use it to buy a present for myself but I am tempted to put it into debt repayment. Maybe I'll go half and half. Or I might put it into the pot for the new scarf I want to buy in the summer.

greensalad

Monday Review

Feels like a positive week, I'm guessing because of the amount I paid off this weekend.

I've combined my Money Dashboard to take into account our Utilities account so I can measure for overspends in the household too.

Household £397 (split between us) - nothing bad here.
Home and garden £66.51 - this includes our new sofa cover which has given our sofa a new lease of life so happy with that!
Clothing £66.50 - same as last week so no extra spends
Admin - £58.35 office stuff. However I have cancelled my software monthly subscription so will save a fiver from next month
Dining and drinking £18 - we went out at the weekend, haven't been out in a while so I don't think it's too much. Won't go out again until my birthday
Personal care £12.63 - shampoo and conditioner will last around 3 months
Home insurance - £10.83 essential
Alcohol £26.32 - this was our NYE alcohol, still not bought any more. Dry January!
Snacks and refreshments £14 - not too bad, we usually spend a lot more, but I will keep a check in on this.

Yesterday

Bought the new TV. I owe BF the money for it. Also bought £43 shop from Asda which will last the week. We have decided to do the 5:2 diet which my partner had success with before. Today is the first fast day. I have black coffee for breakfast, salad with a chicken breast for lunch and then prawns for dinner. It'll be tough but OK! We have boiled ham for lunch tomorrow so even though it's not a fast day I'll probably still be quite good!

Today

Sadly today is an SD as I need to buy prawns for dinner tonight. However if I can do it with the £2 I have in my pocket (leftover from the BF) then I think I can count it as a NSD

Tomorrow

Will bring either ham salad or thai curry for lunch so aiming for a NSD

The future

Still hoping I can squeeze £500 out and manage to clear off my whole overdraft. It's going to be tough, I honestly don't think I will manage it but I want to try. And I should be able to at least make a large dent so I can focus on it in March. Frugal February here we come! No council tax to pay next month should help as my fixed outgoings reduce to only £901.

Have possibly picked up some extra work from an acquaintance to do a site re-design. Lets wait and see on the brief (he's notoriously flakey) but if that comes true could be another £100-£200 in the pot.