Dear Diary...

EmptyPockets

Dear Diary,
So, 'dear diary'... will you make us rich someday? We'll see, but debt-free would be a good result to start with! My first entry should be our SOA, that way we all know where it starts... Think I might also follow with an essential 'to-do list', and see what we can tick off.

Maybe people will read you, dear diary, and comment - I hope so, otherwise it's just you and me, which could start to feel very lonely...

Income: monthly
1390.00

Outgoings: all monthly
325.00 rent no arrears
81.00 council tax no arrears
11.00 tv license no arrears
20.00 water rates no arrears
22.50 electricity meter, no arrears
22.50 gas meter, no arrears
63.00 AA car insurance no arrears
11.00 road tax
43.00 tobacco (naughty yes, but our only 'extravagence') and this is rolling tobacco 'cos it's cheaper
200.00 family loan (1200 outstanding) no arrears
240.00 food, toiletries, cleaning
25.00 clothes and footwear
60.00 phone, mobiles and internet expecting next phone bill Aug 13th
45.00 petrol
10.00 vehicle spares, servicing, MOT
25.00 pet food
10.00 entertainment, sports, hobbies
10.00 sundries, emergencies

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1232.89 total

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Debts and outstanding balances:
364 BarclayCard managed to meet monthly payments until last month, now approx. £50 arrears
1406 Virgin Credit Card been on reduced p'ments for 6 mths
1642 Natwest Credit Card (with 'TCS' collection agency) as above
1243 HFC Bank (3-piece-suite credit agreement) as above
563 Store Card (with 'Lewis Debt Recovery' collection agency) did not accept reduced p'ments offer, now demanding whole amount immediately or will 'commence court action'
267 Reliable Collections Ltd (Catologue)
1049 HSBC Credit Card been on reduced p'ments for 6 months
841 CL Finance Ltd (comet credit agreement for PC) been on reduced p'ments fro 6 mths

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7375 Total

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*Debt Free By Approx. March 2011*

EmptyPockets

To-do list:

1. Arrange DMP with CCCS (tick) done online, awaiting paperwork!
2. Get £49.50 back from Yes Loans (the swines)
3. Arrange council tax over 12 mths instead of 10
4. Join £2 savers club (tick) got £10 already in 12 days
5. Keep a spending diary (tick) starts today
6. Search again for lower car insurance (tick)
7. SWITCH to lower car insurance (tick) now £22 cheaper a month!
8. Use uswitch to check gas & leccy prices
9. Current food bill = £55 week MUST REDUCE!!
10. Use old-style boards and start meal-planning

hypno06

Remember to go through quidco for cashback when changing car insurance or utility providers. Sometimes this can make quite a difference! www.quidco.com

good luck on your journey to becoming debt free!

EmptyPockets

Dear Diary,
Woohoo!! How pleased we are!! Hubby sorted out the car insurance lastnight: even though it wasn't due for renewal, we thought it'd be a good idea to check again for anything cheaper - by the time I'd got out of the bath, it was all done!

Hubby had managed to get a much cheaper quote, so now instead of car insurance costing us £63 a month, it's only going to be £41 a month. What a difference! So that's a couple more off the to-do list...

[strike]
6. Search again for lower car insurance
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7. SWITCH to lower car insurance
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:j :j :j

Unfortunately, I forgot to tell hubby I'd set up the Quidco account, but never mind. At least we have an account now, so can use it in future. Thanks to hypno anyway for the reminder though :T

Also tomorrow night is food shopping, so will try reeeeaaaaally hard to cut spending there... need to sit down before then and try to 'meal-plan'...

se999

Hi,

It's worth going through your cupboards and fridge/freezer to find things that are near sellby or useby, and plan around those. Also if you're overstocked on things prioritise using them.

I used to have a shelf in my kitchen with the things I need to use up soon, so that they were highly visible, I hate throwing food away because it's gone past it's sell by etc.. Putting things in a special spot in the fridge and freezer work too.

Good luck with the money saving.

Karmacat

Hi empty pockets,
welcome! My word you sound organised! Thats great, I love how clear your posts are.

How many of you are there in your household? Is there any room for any money *making* ideas? At the very least, you could do online surveys, join pigsback - its not much, but it will bring in the odd tenner. Mystery shopping, since you're so organised, is a real possibility. This is great to see - keep on posting.

EmptyPockets

Thanks guy's! (not a diary entry, so doing it in black! lol)

Se999, I'm going to sit with pen & paper this afternoon and see what meals I can plan around stuff I've already got - not much, but we DO have HEAPS of potatoes from last week, so that's something to start me off.

Karmacat, there's only two of us, hence the reason we NEED to cut the food budget - as rightly advised by kind peeps on here .

As for 'money-making' ideas - well, I actually write short stories. Writing is what I do, what I want to do, what I dream of doing, it's my passion! And I've just started entering short story competitions. they can pay REALLY well, even the third-place prizes. First prize can range from £50 - £6000, and higher if you know where to look.

Hey, maybe that's another good idea for some of the other DFW's here, SHORT STORY WRITING!!... ummmm... did I just get myself more competition? lol.

Interested to know what 'Pigsback' is, too...

EmptyPockets x

Seaxwyn

HI Empty Pockets

Glad to see another short story writer!

I'm determined to enter a few writing competitions this year. I've had some modest successes in the past but alas the big cash prizes have eluded me so far.

I've compiled a list of a few short story comps this year and would be more than happy to exchange information and ideas, or be part of a DFW story writing challenge.

EmptyPockets

Seaxwyn,

Wow, a story writing challenge - that'd be FAB!! Would be great to get others doing it and, like you say, swap info on comps, etc. How great if one of us got some juicy cash out of it (yep, the big ones have eluded me too, so far, but only entered a couple upto now...) I did get one published in the local newspaper a few months ago, although it wasn't for a prize :rolleyes:

SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN TO ME!!

EmptyPockets x

Skint_Catt

Justa question - how easy is it to get the council to take council tax payments over 12m? Is it only if you have financial problems?

Seaxwyn

Great! I'll PM you re the comps I know of and if anyone wants to join us, we could start our own thread.

I'd love to do a challenge as it might motivate me to enter - so often I mean to, think up my story and then never get round to writing it down.

Well done getting a story printed. So far I've won a set of ten books, a voucher for an Indian restaurant, and a 'special commendation' (no prize but I got a letter saying my piece was excellent and should be published).

right better get on but I'll PM you first.