My debt free diary - getting my life on track

rexelpink

Savings:

Account £700
Sealed pot £316.51

Debts:
Lloyds £215
Vanquis £1,391!
Loan £9,832

rexelpink

Evening diary.

First things first - steps logged for today, 13,878 I’m on track with my between 10-15k plan, so I’m pleased with that!

If only everything else was on plan!

This morning I expected to have £110 to last till Friday payday, but Vanquis had taken out £62 as min payment, so that left me with roughly £60.
Should be doable as long as no other bills crop up this week.
However, the money coming out prompted me to look at the website, and my statement show that for jan I’ve accrued £69 interest!!
Turns out that I gave been paying £20 a month for a premium membership. Do I called their cudymoner service and cancelled.
I’ve changed the payment dare to just after payday whilst I was on the phone, and registered my debit card so I can make online payments. I think I might pay £1 every day in feb just to chip away at it a bit!

That also promoted me to FINALLY cancel my Equifax subscription (I’ve been meaning to do that for months) so all in all I’ve saved myself roughly £50 a month with 2 calls. Was feeling very MSE afterward!

Plan for this week is to call all my other utilities companies and negotiate better deals (or at least try to!)

rexelpink

I just can’t get over that interest!

If my interest is £7 MORE then my min payment every month then they card would have never have cleared!

Looks like I’ve found my diary again just in time!

rexelpink

Morning diary,

Slight set back this morning as last week I put £40 of petrol in my car at the pay and pump. I thought that it had already come out, but it obviously hadn’t as it’s only just been taken this morning!
Eek must get better at tracking this!

Makes my available balance for the week £20. Might have to move some across from my savings....

rexelpink

Evening diary

Ending today at 12,889 steps. Still on plan for that which is good.

Been an emotional day today, tough at work (was fighting back tears earlier and I love my job so that’s very unusual for me)

DS fell over at school and lost a tooth! That’s 2 teeth this week! (One for each child!)
Took him to the dentist and luckily it was a baby tooth, but he’s been very tearful and is bruised and sore. Might have to keep him at home tomorrow. Will see.

I called n-power today and updated my meter readings, asked them if they can reduce my bill, and they changed my tarrif for me, monthly payments reduced from £160 a month to £118. Pretty pleased with that!

So this week in 2 calls I have:
Cancelled equifax £15
Cancelled vanquis gold membership £20
Reduced power bill by £42

£77 a month saved in 2 phone calls. Not too shabby! And given the eye watering interest charges for the vanquis card it’s probably more then £77 really!

Spoke to DH about the £20 a month left in my account and we have agreed not to transfer any money across but instead borrow from the ‘sealed’ pot (it’s not actually sealed)
He’s then going to put the money back in from his wages when he gets paid at the end of the month.

rexelpink

Morning Diary,


Well as predicted I have had to keep DS off school today. Means I am working from home, which I guess has the benefit of meaning I can log on here and post from my laptop rather than my phone as usual - Should reduce the spelling mistakes! :rotfl:


Had to use the car to take DD to breakfast club earlier as I left DS in the house alone whilst I took her, its only a 5 minute drive so I knew he would be fine, but its put my step total behind for the morning. Also wont be able to do my lunchtime walk. Working form home also means that I am never more then 10 steps away from needing anything even if I do get up. So I will have to do a lot of marching on the spot to reach 10,000 today!


Looked at my account earlier, £14.40 till Friday. :eek:
As I said yesterday it will be fine, we can use the cash to tide us over if needed.


Plan for today:


Look after DS
Work (obviously)
Ring o2 and see if they can reduce my phone bills per month
Post update after calling o2
Write list of other bills I could possibly reduce.
Current step total 1,546 - Increase this to 10,000

rexelpink

What a productive hour!


DS got us asking for breakfast and so I made that, then he held my phone and counted the steps for me whilst I marched up to 2,000! He really enjoyed that little bit of 'helping' (and I probably would have given up around 250 steps in if he hadn't been counting them for me) so he's going to be my motivational step coach for the day!


Then I called o2 turns out I only have one more month of my contract left, then my bills will reduce from £43 to £18. Ive managed to negotiate a discount on that (don't ask don't get lol) so from February onwards my phone bill will be £15.


£28 saved!


Add that to this weeks savings of £77 and I've reduced my monthly outgoings by £105 this week!


Must go and do some actual paid work now, :rotfl: but I will be back later with my list of other companies to call where I can reduce more!

rexelpink

Amazon Prime just cancelled. No brainer really as I've only used it a handful of times and not at all in the last month as they have automatically refunded me last months payment!


£7.99 a month saved.


Add that onto my savings this week, and I am now at £112.99 a month better off!

rexelpink

Steps for today: 5,790 FAIL!

turns out that the novelty of helping motivate me wore off really quickly for DS and marching on the spot is extreeeemly boring. Also had a busy day at work so apart from a quick 20 mins stop for lunch I’ve basically been sat down nearly all day.
Tomorrow I have a big meeting at work that I will need to go in early to prepare for, so will have to take the car, and it runs through lunch... so I doubt tomorrow’s steps will be much better. Sigh.

Ok back to business, list of things to cancel / negotiate:

Netflix
Deezer
Sky

I signed up for deezer a while ago when it was on offer 3 months for £1. I do find it useful for parties and when friends come over. But it’s january, there’s no parties coming up till the summer (and even then I’ve made no plans for any at the moment but that’s when all our birthdays are) so I’m going to cancel. I can always look for a deal in the summer when I’m more likely to use it.

Netflix is my guilty pleasure. However I think I can live without it till June when oitnb re-starts. So I’m going to cancel it. I will miss it though. But I’ve realised this week that these small monthly amounts really add up when you put them all together. That being said I’m feeling sad even thinking about cancelling so I’m not going to beat myself up if I re-join. Although I will miss it. But the monthly saving will be worth it. But I do love it... hmm might have to think about this some more.

Sky provides my tv and broadband so it’s staying. They have always been really good in the past about reducing the price when I’ve asked. I will call them tomorrow to see what they can do.

Off out with work Friday evening in central London. Luckily they are paying for dinner, but I will have to pay for drinks and travel. I’m feeling a bit stressed as they haven’t provided any details for the venue or times so I haven’t been able to plan a route or anything. Must chase for details tomorrow.

rexelpink

Morning diary

‘Sealed’ pot: £299.66
Account balance: £14.40

DH took £17 out this morning as we need to do a small shop including dog food after work.
Have woken up this morning to a text reminder from the school that the payment of £15 for DDs school trip is due today! Completely forgot about that. Oops.

Reason for posting: with everything going on yesterday I forgot it was a NSD!