Our long dark road towards the light of freedom

Lizloz

Evening diary - hubby has just gone out for a few beers so I'm sat here, on me todd on a Friday night about to watch The Theory of Everything.

Today....we added to the debt by £109 . The old CC came out of hiding today and was used to purchase a new handrail kit from B&Q as hubby has finished decorating the hall, stairs and landing and needed a handrail and with all the hard work he's put in to the painting and doing his night shifts and barely getting any sleep, I could hardly say 'No, we'll save £10 a week out of our allocated spend each week and you can buy one nearer Christmas' because by then DD1 would have undoubtedly mucked up the wall going up the stairs by dragging her dirty, tiny little hands up there which would have ensued in utter hatred towards me, and I would then have to re-paint the whole darn wall and I am no painter/decorator!! (I am, however, psychic! )

I finally got round to paying in my £5 sum of copper coins in to the bank today! I had to buy a few bits from Boots but saved about £4.50 plus had about a pound's worth of points added to my card.

Not much else done today (in the way of money saving....that went out the window didn't it?!).

TTFN

Lizloz

Morning Diary - what an awful night's sleep I've had! It wasn't helped by my friend texting me at 2:30am asking if my husband had got back because she couldn't get a hold of her husband (who was out with mine) and she was worried...cheers for that!


Then DD1 started crying and wanted to come in our bed so I ended up in hers, then DD2 started crying (which is unlike her in the night) so I got up, gave her a feed and went back to bed. 1/2 an hour later DD2 starts up again so I had her in our bed and then, finally managed to get some sleep! Not a great night the night before I'm due to go out and do a bit of bar work for a friend, I look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards!


I don't think we'll be doing much money saving today . We have to go back to B&Q as there were some bits missing from the handrail, and he wants to buy a roll of nautical roll paper to do something 'arty' in the hallway.


DD1 has got a hair appointment today (school photos are next week!). Thankfully she enjoys going to get her hair cut, I know many 4 year olds that put up such a fight!


I haven't used that £5 I paid in yesterday to pay off on a CC yet. Hubby's tasks today are to ring his mobile phone Co' and find out why they're still charging him well over £70/month when he thought he had taken out a new deal to cap his bills to £50/month (this will of course be reviewed again in March when he is due an upgrade) and he needs to text some people who he has bought tickets for to the cricket next year...the bill needs paying!


TTFN.

Lizloz

Hi Diary - gosh I'm so flippin' tired! I worked my little bar job last night and loved it! I got £50 for it, which I think was a little eye-opener for my hubby. I've been asked to do some more dates, which is fab and I've decided I'm going to spend the money on Christmas - present money will not come out from anywhere else, it simply can't.


I have been non-stop all day since DD1 woke me up (at a reasonable time thank goodness), and now I've sat down my eyes have gone mega-heavy - even my fingers feel heavy while I'm typing this out! I'm going to need 5 minutes shut eye before Downton comes on.


Did my food shop today, which came to just under £40 (within budget).


Anyway....can't keep my eyes open...TTFN

Lizloz

Morning diary - just catching up with the Kardashian clan while DD2 is napping - what a life they lead eh?? Sitting there, getting their make up done by someone else, one of them with 3 (count 'em) kids, just lounging around reading a magazine, looking flawless....ugh!


So today, I'm popping to Momma's, I need to send a baby girl dress that I sold on ebay and pick up a few bits and pieces from town.


I feel a lot better after a good night's sleep but a bit more wouldn't go amiss!!


Hubby had a good week at work although he's been a bit of a twit and didn't clock in last night - the last time he did that he didn't get paid his OT until the following week so I've had to ring in to his work to make sure that he does....crisis averted!


TTFN

Lizloz

Dear Diary - goooood evening!! I am buzzing I tell ya! I am so in need of an early(ish) night but I couldn't go to bed without putting this bit of good news on!


Today, I received a letter from British Gas with my yearly summary of gas consumption. Back in July, I changed to a new tariff which came with a £50 voucher to use at Amazon. In today's letter, it stated that if I wished to exit this tariff and/or switch suppliers, there would be no penalty fee....hmmm, think they c**ked up a bit on that but who am I to argue?!


On the front of the letter, in very small writing, it said (and I quote) "Good news! You're already on our cheapest tariff, however, if you want to save an extra £380/year, why not switch to Sainsbury's." This got my grey matter ticking over big style so I got straight on the phone to clarify this information and was told that I was indeed, free to switch suppliers and any outstanding money owed could either be paid off when the final bill came, or I could set up a monthly DD to pay it off. Brilliant!! (There isn't much owing btw).


Off I tootle on to the laptop, type in USwitch, enter a few details and BAM..!!! £474/year saved!! I couldn't believe it! So around £40/month on top of the £33/month that I had already saved last week, that's like a whole heap of money I feel that I have been 'given', which will go towards paying these debts off a lot quicker!


The next thing I did was compare mortgages and in theory, we could potentially save another £180/month but we can't really proceed with anything (I don't think), until I'm back at work and I've got a full month's pay slip.


Oh my days, I am on such a high right now! I am loving this money saving project!


TTFN!

Lizloz

Dear diary - (if there is anyone out there reading this, just give me a quick hello! It would be nice to know that I have at least a little bit of company!).


Today has been a lovely, low spend day. I took momma to a museum in town where they have some of the Staffordshire Hoard collection. It is soooo amazing to think that all these beautiful items were hand crafted by someone all those years ago, I could have spent so long in there.


What was interesting was a section of the museum that was part of the Victorian era and there was a jail door that belonged to a debtor's jail - how I am so grateful to be living in the year 2015 where you can't be jailed for being in debt or going bankrupt - there were slots in the door where passers-by who felt a little bit sorry for the person in jail, could push through any loose change they had....(think I might stick a few slots in my front door, see if anyone pushes any money through for me! lol!).


I have decided that my official return to work date is the 16th November I have got enough holiday to work 3 days a week until the start of March and I'm hoping that by then, we'll have sorted a few things out and will be on a good road to make a good dent in our debts.


I forgot to mention yesterday that I received yet another call re: PPI - they asked for me by my maiden name (I've only been married since 2008!) and I'm starting to get a bit shirty with these people because if they want my business, they could at least get my name right! Anyway, during the conversation they mentioned that in my maiden name, I had a Barclaycard (from 2001 - 2009) which to be honest, I can't re-call having. Now, if I were calling someone I would, at the very least, not mention the name of the company which you're trying to investigate to the person whose business you're trying to obtain because guess who I'm on the phone to now, making my own investigations without it costing me a penny...?!! I'm guessing this PPI company may have been fishing for information as I honestly don't think I had a card but why would they say I did?


TTFN

Lizloz

Dear Diary - good evening, what a hectic day! I spent the morning at DD1's school at a session designed for parents to see how the kids are taught their phonics...still not sure how useful the session was as it all seemed a bit rushed but I got to have lunch with DD, which we both really enjoyed and will probably be something that she will talk about for a long while (& is something that she now thinks is going to be a regular occurrence!).


Popped to Sainsubury's and had a voucher for extra points if I spent £20 on their clothes - DD1 needed a new coat anyway so I got the extra points, plus I had another voucher for triple points so that added a couple of quid on to my card. I then put £45 worth of fuel in and got 10 points for every litre, so that was equivalent to around £2.20 so I got some good savings.


I've had a bit of a charity shop, pre-Christmas (toy) clear out tonight - I have to say I hold a bit of resentment towards Disney now for making it difficult to decide which toys we're going to 'cull' in time for the new (rubbish) delightful room-taking plastic that we shall be welcoming in a few short weeks!!


TTFN!

dreamywings1

Hi Lizloz, ive just been reading your diary and wanted to say well done you! Ive had my LBM recently (again) but unsure at this moment in time how im going to deal with it.
Good luck on your journey xx

Lizloz

Morning Dreamywings! Thank you for responding, it's nice to know there's someone following my journey...it's going to be a long one, but we'll get there together!


The coat I bought for DD1 yesterday had to be returned - she is 4 years old, I bought an aged 5-6 and it was too small so I've had to get her an age 7-8 (how is that possible??!). It also cost an extra £2 (for an inch more fabric!) so, a few extra points on my card.


Right...can't hang about as I've got tonnes to do as we are going away for the weekend tomorrow so I'll be off line until Monday (unless anything amazing happens today that is diary-worthy!).


TTFN!

dreamywings1

Have a lovely break away