Flo's Debt Free Diary

Florence_J

All is Fine!!!!!!

Just miscommunication, I finish at 12pm on the 23rd, my xmas eve train tickets are fine

Bobarella

Phew! That's good then.

Florence_J

Hi everybody.

Just had a lovely catch up on here.

I have returned from a short break to Newport Pagnell to visit a friend who moved there. It was essentially a lad's holiday-my OH, two of his best friends (who are brothers) and the friend who had moved there. I am an honorary lad. :rotfl:

Had some surprise wages come through from the last temping job I did before my new job, not sure how I didn't know that was coming, but that certainly made me happy and saw me through the holiday and will look after me next month.

Not sure if I mentioned this but in my mind the train tickets i bought for Christmas should be £4.25 each, as we used £57.50 in vouchers on them. But my OH has kindly said he will pay me the full £33 his ticket cost, because the vouchers came from a horrendous journey that I alone suffered. I was all set to share my good fortune, but won't turn down an extra £28.75 either.

I think, and it is early days still, but i think this will be my first Credit card free Christmas since 2010. But will only demand a celebratory dancing llama on December 26th once I know for certain.

Had insomnia last night, maybe as a result of drinking more than usual, sleeping on a small sofa bed and sharing sleeping quarters with two flatulent brothers!!!! As a result I am very very tired and feel rotten, though a coolish shower did revive me a little.

This is my last working week staying with my in laws as long as the works on the severn line go to plan. I am having to travel part of the way to wales tomorrow to meet my OH to collect my prescription as originally i wasn't going to go on holiday with my OH, so i was going to collect it at the weekend.

I take two medications for my mental health, and luckily I have enough of the main one, but I have run out of the secondary one, and I have noticed bad thoughts creeping in. If i forget to take the main one I become depressed or sad very quickly, if I can't take the secondary one then I am more prone to anger and a little slide show of 'bad moments in Flo's life' plays in my head. Knowing it is because I am temporarily without my needed medications has meant I have become aware that they aren't real thoughts-they are just a chemical imbalance or something like that. I don't appreciate having them but I will be with my prescription tomorrow.

I am going to have a very small disposable income come payday till next payday, I'll have to manage somehow. I'll use my creativity.

I just need money to pay my National Insurance bill from my self employed earnings last tax year. I won't know for certain how much it is till they send me the bill but i know it will be close to £150.

Does anyone know if I have to declare my earnings from things like Pinecone and also when I get amazon vouchers for things like shop and scan, shopprize etc? I won't have to worry about it till I do my taxes next year but would like to know how detailed an account I'd have to keep.

I plan on having an early night tonight. I have a busy day tomorrow.

xx

Florence_J

Hi everybody!

I am back home, back in the arms of my coughing but cuddly OH.

I travelled back to South Wales yesterday, and I won't be staying with my in laws anymore as the Severn Tunnel has reopened. Phew!

It has been lovely being cared for, and not having to do any chores, but actually I get incredibly anxious about being fussed over and prefer to be left to get on with things myself. And I haven't been sleeping well because, I'm not sure if this will make much sense, but in the bedroom at my in laws I don't know which side of the bed is mine. By which I mean in my bedroom here I know which side of the bed is mine and what position I need to be in to fall asleep with no trouble.

In an unfamiliar bed I am left to guess how I need to be to fall asleep.

I went shopping today, just bits and pieces for the home-medication and a small amount of groceries. Am over the food budget for this month by £6.31 but it resets on the 27th, so not long to go, and also whatever I over spend by I will take off next months budget. Which should be easy as our cupboards and freezer are chock a block with food.

Also bought some Christmas and Halloween stickers, and lots of things for my desk at work-hand sanitizer, hand cream, a pen pot. Posted some halloween treats to Nephew and Niece set 1 and Nephew and Niece set 2. Also took my leather jacket to be fixed as there is a rip in the sleeve.

My OH and I put the winter duvet on the bed. I tidied up the kitchen, my OH treated me to a takeaway and I technically did a cycle on the exercise bike but as it was only 20 minutes I am going to discount it.

My OH is ill, poor guy. I am being mindful not to catch anything as I have my responsibilities increased at work next week and we are short staffed so I don't want to let anyone down.

Work is going really well, unfortunately I am doing more customer service stuff next week, and as you may have picked up from my diary I am a little anxious about talking to people. Ok make that terrified.

I wish I could work in a back room somewhere and just do admin tasks but I have to go to the people that offer me work.

I'm sure I'll get used to it. The sad thing is all I want to do is help people, but I'm terrified of talking to them! It is something I will have to get over if I want to do well at my new job.

My problem is I am terrified of conflict. I will do anything to avoid someone who is even a tiny bit 'conflicty' I have made my OH promise never to shout at me as raised voices scare me, and to his credit he never has, but I think this is his general character rather than something he has actively done for me.

I know if someone is being a d*** to me it says more about them then it does about me, but I just remember that terrible phone call I had in my last job and how I cried at work....(shivers)

But I am now a librarian, and it is lovely to work in a library. I love books. I am very happy. I keep expecting there to be a catch....but there isn't. It really is that lovely.

I get paid on the 27th. Huzzah. First big paycheck for many a month. I am looking forward to having money coming in.

TT Broadband want to increase the cost of my bill even though I am not at the end of my 12 month contract so will have to investigate that and sort it out. I don't take price increases lightly anymore!!!!!

Well that is all I have to report. I am quite excited about Christmas because I have a plan, budget spreadsheets and some savings (as well as an ever increasingly heavy sealed pot) which means I am not fearing Christmas the way I have every other year since leaving University. And I am sure I won't put any of it on a Credit Card this year.

As you all know I love Spreadsheets and today's highlight has been learning how to do Pie charts on excel and I now have a plan of doing a pie chart showing the percentage of all the categories of my disposable income spending since I started keeping a spending diary. I am just a very sad and boring person and I like analysing data. :rotfl:

Florence_J

TO DO LIST

Sunday

30-45 Minute Cycle on exercise bike
3k Jog
Hoover
Iron clothes
Complete Shop and Scan tasks
Do cupboard and freezer inventory
Buy Bread
Do wash loads
Put away clean clothes
Put out washed clothes
Put unwanted foods onto the Olio app
Do pie charts of my spending data
Do some reading-books and MSE threads

Florence_J

TO DO LIST

Sunday

30-45 Minute Cycle on exercise bike
3k Jog
Hoover - OH is watching American Football so may have to wait
Iron clothes
[STRIKE]Complete Shop and Scan tasks[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Do cupboard and freezer inventory[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Buy Bread[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Do wash loads[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Put away clean clothes[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Put out washed clothes[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Put unwanted foods onto the Olio app[/STRIKE]
Do pie charts of my spending data
Do some reading-books and MSE threads

Florence_J

Hi Everybody!

Just a quick post. I have finally caught up with all that is going on on MSE, some great work guys.

This was my first week commuting to work from my own home, not my inlaws. Wasn't late once which impressed me, and the most of the time I got the early train so was super on time for work.

I celebrate my 1 month anniversary at the new job soon. woooo!

Payday was on thursday, so paid nice chunks on my cards, let's get this debt smashed!

The house is all tidy and cosy, we have a MrT delivery coming tomorrow, my OH and I went to a halloween party yesterday (he went as the very scary Donald Trump-except he was wearing a pumpkin on his head carved in the shape of Donald Trumps ugly mug)

We put the spare pumpkin (incase OH made a mistake when making his first pumpkin) on OLIO and have a collector for it tomorrow.

We will go to our friends house on Tuesday to watch the latest WWE Pay Per View because we are those sad people who like professional wrestling.

About to go out for a meal with OH and his sister, got a £5 off £25 spend so would be rude not to go out.

May see Doctor Strange this Friday, at our cheap £4 a ticket cinema.

I have never felt so content. I am very, very happy. I realise a lot of my self worth comes from working (though no one exactly likes being unemployed so it is to be expected that i would feel happy working)

I am looking forward to Christmas and I have thursday off work to cash in my sealed pot. I am hoping for £100 minimum in the tin. Ideally lots lots more.

Well OH's sis will be here soon so must dash. Nice to see how well everyone is doing. Take care all.
xxxx

Smolly

Just popping in Florence to say I've subscribed. Lovely positive post - thank you for sharing. Has really cheered me up.

Take care x

Bobarella

So good to hear you so cheery Florence. Life is good!

Florence_J

Life is very good to me at the moment, apart from the fact I have finally caught OH's cold (despite preventative hand sanitiser not being far from me) and had to have my first day off work in my new role, which is a double disappointment as today is my month's anniversary and I was going to bring in treats.

Oh well.

I have been re-reading a library book I read earlier this year called 'In The Red' by Alexis Hall. It's a book about how Alexis-who had a serious shopping addiction- ended up over 30k in the red (not including her half of the mortgage-which she said was smaller). It is a diary of a year in her life in 2006/7 when she set the rule that she couldn't make any unnecessary purchases for a year.

Initially I didn't enjoy the book, but I had been thinking about it a lot and decided to re-read it. It's basically a book form of anyone on here's debt free diary, and sometimes learning how to save money on your bills can be delivered in a cold, technical way. Sometimes you want a little heart and soul on your debt free journey. Which is why i turn to the diaries on here and also this book.

I was also doing research because I want to start a blog/write a book about all this. Debt is usually something you keep to yourself-I know I was too ashamed to admit it to most people, there are still many I haven't told. So you take solace in reading about others journeys. Knowing there is a way out, knowing that you're not alone.

I know some people may not offer much sympathy to someone in debt as some people's opinions is that they got themselves into that mess, but I know that no one on here is like that.

For people who don't follow the sealed pot thread I am pleased to report that the sealed pot I started in July was cashed in yesterday and I have raised 156.88 for Christmas. Woo hoo!

OH has just come back so I will leave you for now briefly. x