Miami's Debt Diary v2

Miami

Hello all

I started a DFD before now but unfortunately drifted away from MSE after falling ill with depression and anxiety and being signed off work Still not better, not yet back at work, but doing my best to take each day one at a time. Have neglected day-to-day finances for the last few months unfortunately but now trying to get back on track; also discovered that I tend to overspend when feeling low, something I plan to discuss with my therapist (when I ever get an appointment )

Kicked off yesterday with a word with EDF and South West Water. EDF weren't very nice and although they were happy to arrange a payment plan, I now have to pay the plan separately to my normal electricity bill on different days when I would ideally like one bill. Oh well at least it's going to be paid back, must check my account for the dates so I can put them on my calendar so I don't forget to pay

SWW on the other hand have kindly agreed to me paying my bill off next week when I get payday #2. It's a quarterly payment anyway so thankfully will be up to date as of next Friday

Decided to work on the council tax today. Had two bills from the council; one was £32 arrears from last financial year and the other bill was £24-something. Went to the council office and asked the lady at the desk if I could pay £32 today to clear last year's arrears and add the £24 I owed to the rest of the year's payments (effectively paying the CT bill over 9 months instead of 12). Had the cash in my hand to pay the £32, but then the lady looked at my account and promptly said, "No, we can't take that amount, it needs to be £59." :eek:

Spent nearly a hour in the council waiting to see someone and finally got to see a different lady who informed me she was more than happy to take my money especially as I was so keen to pay my bill :rotfl: Turns out it was an error on the part of the first lady I spoke to :mad: On the plus side council tax is all sorted now and my payment date is the same as my payday date so easy to remember and it'll go straight out of the bank as soon as I get paid :j

Tomorrow I'm going to try and organise everything and set up a fake FB profile for selling bits and pieces I don't need. I've spotted a few work colleagues on the local buy/sell pages so best not advertise how broke I am I've tried selling stuff on Fleabay before but didn't like it; am much more of a FB fan

To-do list:

-Check EDF payment plan dates and put on calendar
-Add council tax payments onto calendar
-Fill out income support forms to replace lost income (there's a £200 a month difference between my wages and Statutory Sick Pay )
-Fill out JSA reclaim forms for unpaid JSA I was owed in November :eek:
-Ring the Sky installers to pay my £10 installation fee
-Set up fake FB profile

Here's hoping I manage to do everything

Miami

So today has been a day of ups and downs!

Started the day off badly as couldn't get out of bed Had managed to lose all of yesterday's motivation and didn't see the point of getting up to go out for the whole day (not much point spending £3.60 on bus fare for one trip to the doctor's). However once I actually got up, things started improving

Normally I don't eat before I go out and spend on fast food or meal deals because I'm hungry, but today I put a pizza in the oven and ate 3/4s of it before I went out so haven't had any food to eat in town and have 1/4 pizza left to snack on when I get home. Granted it did cost £2 but given that meal deals are £3-£5 it's still a saving, particularly as I'm not hungry yet and if I am later, there's leftover pizza at home

I did forget to bring my staff discount card for the supermarket in town, so couldn't buy the eggs, bread or salad I'd planned to buy, those will have to wait a couple more days :mad: Really annoyed with myself as it's not my local / nearest store but the I'm avoiding the one I work at as I don't fancy running into my colleagues right now

Did manage to buy a new purse today though. Last purse broke about 6 months ago and I never got round to replacing it as I'm very fussy about purses; has been a nightmare since I keep missing out on loyalty points and my staff discount because I keep losing my cards or leaving them at home. Saw a brilliant purse last week, exactly what I'd been looking for, and it cost £20 :eek: Decided to leave it and what did I see today in a different shop?! A similar purse, even better than the original as it has a see through pocket on the side for bus/train tickets which the first purse didn't... and I bought it for the extortionate price of...

£4.99!! :j

Feeling very pleased with myself as that's a saving of £15.01 for something even better than what I'd originally wanted Continued the productivity by taking my calendar and notes to the doctor, still waiting for my appointment but have jotted down the bills to be paid and amounts on my calendar as per the to-do list

To-Do List
-Check EDF payment plan dates and put on calendar
-Add council tax payments onto calendar
-Fill out income support forms to replace lost income (there's a £200 a month difference between my wages and Statutory Sick Pay )
-Fill out JSA reclaim forms for unpaid JSA I was owed in November
-Ring the Sky installers to pay my £10 installation fee
-Set up fake FB profile

Did some research into car servicing today too. Bought the car two months ago with zero service history and the spanner is flashing to state it needs a service. Asked my regular garage who quoted £220 _pale_ Then remembered that work have a "colleague benefit" with Halfords so did some research and discovered that Halfords would charge £170 to service my car, but I can get a 10% discount through work, so the cost would actually be £153 :j

Going to put aside some money and hopefully have my service done in August or September before the winter comes, but nevertheless feeling pleased that I've knocked £67 off what I would have had to spend

Also decided to start a spending diary to keep track of my purchases and hold myself accountable for what I spend. Not posting yet as my day is not yet over but I shall be back later! :cool:

Miami

So, didn't finish yesterday's to-do list because I couldn't find the forms to fill out I shall have to making searching for them this weekend an absolute priority, they're overdue as it is. Have managed to write down yesterday's spending though and wasted very little money

Spending Diary
£1 -- 2x 500ml Diet Coke bottles. Not a necessity, but my current cold / hay fever / unidentified cause of perpetual sore throat just wouldn't be appeased by tea, and needed a cold drink. Hmm. Must work on this.
£3.60 -- bus fare. Semi-necessity, because the doctor is too far to walk to, but I'm entitled to free travel so shouldn't really be paying. However, I've noticed that if I have to spend money on bus fare I'm more motivated to walk... :think:
99p -- Cat biscuit scoop. Necessity.
£4.99 -- 2x pillows inc 6x "disposable" pillow covers. Necessity.
£4.99 -- Front door mat. Undecided. Technically I've survived for the past seven months, but it's so pretty and I would've had to buy one anyway for the sake of the hall carpet, plus the ones I'd previously been eyeing up were £13.99 and a saving of £9's not too shabby

I have family visiting this weekend so to-do list will need to span the entire weekend instead of the day.

To-Do List
-Find missing forms and send off
-Email work
-Email building management chasing up leaky roof repairs
-Find prize tokens for local amusement arcade and claim prizes
-Start selling unwanted clutter via fake FB

Fingers crossed I can accomplish all those

Miami

Ooops, fell off the wagon diary-wise

Spending Diary
Friday -- NSD
Saturday -- NSD
Sunday -- NSD
Monday -- £3.99 cool bag, useful for picnics etc. £13 on hobby-related things
Tuesday -- NSD
Wednesday -- NSD
Thursday -- £5 Subway, £20 cat biscuits, £30 dog guard for car. Subway wasn't necessary, but made me feel better after a bad day. Must limit spending though. Cat biscuits and dog guard a necessity and got given £5 off the bix for feeding Dad's cat, and £20 off the dog guard by Halfords :j

Most of my NSDs weren't actual NSDs, as money was spent, but my lovely family paid for me so nothing came out of my purse / bank

To-Do List
-Find missing forms and send off Forms have disappeared. Off to JobCentre this morning to beg for replacement forms.
-Email work Doing this afternoon.
-Email building management chasing up leaky roof repairs -- Not done, but spoke to the contractor who looks after the fire alarms / cleaning and my block isn't scheduled for a repair :mad:
-Find prize tokens for local amusement arcade and claim prizes Done!
-Start selling unwanted clutter via fake FB Done! Ads up, none sold yet