The "time to be a grown up" diary!

debtfreeoneday

Good girl!!

betsycat

Hello hello!

So we had a very lovely time in Brighton – caught up with some old friends, went to the tattoo convention, cheered on our friends running the half marathon and spent as little as we possibly could. I even managed to buy a dress from Topshop for OH's mum's party on Saturday for £8! It was £75 reduced to £35, with a further 20% off sale items and I had a £20 Topshop voucher left from Christmas. It's lovely too, 100% silk!

Had a bit more money left than I'd expected so sent a little overpayment to Lloyds CC, only to realise they'd also given me a transfer fee refund of £26 so nice little reduction there and moves me up to 6% paid off my total debt.

I had a little read about HSBC loans and it looks like the interest amount doesn't reduce automatically as I start making overpayments, but when I request my loan settlement figure nearer the time of paying it off it'll be dramatically less than what my internet banking says. So that's nice! And then I'll get the 10% back on the interest I've paid, too, so that'll be a nice little bonus for the start of my savings.

Other than those little things not much to report from this side... Going to call Virgin and try to negotiate a better deal – always worth a try. We've got our friend staying with us so once he gets paid we'll hopefully get a little bit of money towards food... freezer is full so I'll just pay that off debts! And still plenty to put on eBay so need to get on with that.

Had a freelance enquiry from somebody I used to work with, so if they go ahead with the estimate I've sent that should be another £400-600 (minus the 20% I need to save for the tax man) coming in the next month or so, which would clear the Lloyds card early.

Met a lovely Staffie cross from Borrow My Doggy yesterday and went for a nice muddy walk in the brisk sunshine... she was very, very well behaved!

Hope everyone's doing well – will catch up on some diaries tonight. Over and out!

debtfreeoneday

That all sounds really good.. glad you had a nice weekend.

My loan is the same, the settlement figure is way less than what I in theory owe today.. it's the figure I work to on my signature as well. Encouragement to get it paid off asap!

ps - get to the gym!

betsycat

Haha thanks DF1D! Busy weekend so no gym, but heading over tomorrow morning...

Had a really lovely weekend. Met a good friend on Saturday morning for a bit of a wander around Angel and a natter, and then had OH's mum's party on Sat night so got dolled up and enjoyed the free bar! OH enjoyed the free bar a little too much, and when we went back to his mum's to get our stuff I ended up leaving him there and getting a taxi home alone – so one unplanned expense! But saved me dealing with him (and his mess!) and having to try and persuade a bus or taxi to take him! :rotfl:

Yesterday we had a BorrowMyDoggy date for the day, so Lyra's owner dropped her off in the morning. I took her for a nice walk and did lots of throwing things for her, and then OH and our friend who's staying with us took her to the pub so they could watch the football and I could get on with some work. Cut to a few hours later and I'm asleep on the sofa, whoops! We all had a few lazy hours (including a snoring pooch) and then went for another nice walk. Had a deliiiicious beef roast once Lyra was gone and finally managed to cook rare roast beef. All in all a very happy, contended betsycat after a lovely weekend!

Payday has rolled around, have made all of my payments and I'm now under the 12k mark, woohoo!! :beer: Have got £80 left to pay on the Lloyds card so going to aim to pay that this month with overpayments where I can.

Have a great week everyone!

judi24

Wow Betsycat! you are doing great - great to get under the 12k mark! Borrow my doggie sounds fab too!

betsycat

Thanks so much Judi! It's lovely to start ticking off... can't wait until I get under 10k, will feel so much more manageable then!

I checked my credit report today and realised I have an old Dorothy Perkins store card on there – I rang them and it turns out I closed it 5 years ago but have a 76p credit on there so they couldn't close it fully. So a lovely mini payment coming my way

A slightly bigger one also coming from Halifax – I had an email saying I hadn't checked the statements on my credit card for three months... I closed the card 3 months ago but that had a £10.41 credit balance on it so that's winging its way over too! (I was convinced they'd already refunded it but hey, not going to argue)

debtfreeoneday

Well done for getting under £12k.. I remember getting into four figures - it was a massive boost..

Glad you had a nice time at the party!

betsycat

Yikes... radio silence usually means bad things have been a-happening!

So... I decided to use some of my extra £1,000 from freelance work to book a little holiday with my friend who split from her boyfriend recently, so we're off to Barcelona in July for 3 nights. Managed to get a nice cheap guest house and the Euro is looking pretty good at the moment so might get the cash soon to pay for it, plus my spending money.

But then... was doing the actual work, getting more and more frustrated with my old iM@c and my laptop screen wasn't big enough... so in a fit of frustration and recklessness I decided to splash out on a swanky App1e screen that plugs into my laptop and gives me 27 extra inches to play with. Technically a business expense so it can go on my tax return but :eek: so much money!!!

Sort've forgot about the holiday too and had used my Barclaycard to buy the flights (prefer using CC for stuff like that). So now I've gone over my incoming £1,000 which was paid today. I also agreed to help out my friend who's staying with me by buying his train ticket for the month, so that's added to the balance (but will be paid off at the end of the month when he gets his first payday).

All in all not the most brilliant of MSE weeks and has set me back on the debt front a little bit... Have updated my signature, I've included my friend's balance on there too just so I can keep my figures straight! On the plus side, I used some of the £1,000 to clear the last £80 on my Lloyds card, and plugged the rest off the Barclaycard.

I'll be getting £230 cleared by my friend at the end of the month, too.

Yikes! :eek:

That's all my spending done...... forever! Ah well. At least my set-up for freelance work is a lot more efficient, and I've got another job coming up at the end of the month too which will hopefully soak up the excess.