Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Seasidegal58

Thanks a bundle everyone for popping in while I've been absent – I really appreciate it.

And apologies for being away – a combination of an increasingly hectic and stressful time at work and feeling rather depressed has kept me behind with most things. To be honest, I don't have much to be depressed about compared to a lot of people and hopefully I've got over myself now and am back to normality.

I've had a few things to buck me up – a couple of theatre trips and a lovely weekend away with my family – so I should be grateful with life and just get on with it. I think the retirement thing is eating away at me too – it's getting nearer, but still seems a long way off sometimes.

Moneywise it's been a bit of a rollercoaster – I needed a crown for one of my teeth and the cost was enough to knock me off my feet! The emergency fund is rather depleted and I've now got to concentrate on replenishing it back to where it was!

The diet has been completely demolished over the last month due to my emotional eating. I am still down by 8lbs from my original weight but this is nothing much to crow about as I've supposed to be dieting for some months now.

Re. the PPI – they were supposed to let me know by end of last month whether my loans qualified. I didn’t receive a letter so I wrote to them last week for an update. Also, every time I phoned them it just rang and rang at the other end. I gave it another go today and, lo and behold, someone finally answered! Much apologies from them – sorry they hadn't replied, they have a huge backlog of complaints and, yes, they had received my letter and an answer is on its way to me (ha!). In a nutshell, the girl explained that one of my loans didn't have PPI but the other did – they are in the process of calculating the result that includes the interest of 8% - really! I would have thought a financial institution would have a system that could calculate that in a matter of minutes! Nevertheless, the good news is that I will be getting something so I'm just going to hang on in there. The result might just help to defray the cost of the crown!

I'm not going to give a full update of my Scrimpy diary seeing it's been some weeks since I last updated on here. Scrimpy Week 4 started yesterday and as at this moment I have £94.90 ad hoc spends until payday next week.

I'm typing this in work and it's time to go home so I'm going to have a marathon session this evening on catching up with diaries.

Hope all is well with everyone.

SSG x

milann

So pleased to hear from you - had wondered if all was well and I’ve missed your posts.
It’s good to hear you are coming out of the other side of feeling down and hopefully life is a little less hectic for you.
Rubbish news on having to pay for a crown - fingers toes and everything crossed to hope your ppi covers it for you. At least you had the emergency fund to help rather than it going onto a credit card. Not what you’d choose to spend it on but at least it was there for you.
How long until you retire now.....I’m finding I’m really resenting my time at work - it’s strange as I do enjoy my work.. I just don’t like that the choice to finish has been taken from me I think - although I’ve not been there since June as I’m on the sick...I just keep thinking that at one time I would have been happily retired with a bus pass :rotfl: probably skint but happily travelling around on the bus or tram, instead of worrying how long before work start getting shirty about me being off.....
The theatre productions sound good too.
Don’t even get me started on weight loss. I’m using it from my purse paying for sw and that’s about my lot:eek::eek:

Seasidegal58

Hi there Milann - good to hear from you.

I have 22 months to retirement and it can't come soon enough! I think I've just had enough of the early mornings, crowded commute and internal politics that always seem to be swirling around at work, plus all the enhanced regulatory work really clogs up one's day. I think your image of happily touring round with a bus pass, albeit, a bit skint, with no employer to answer to sounds pretty good to me...:D

Re more on the PPI - the girl I spoke to today gave me the account number of the loan they're paying out on but as my paperwork was at home I couldn't check which one it was till this evening. It's the older loan which I took out jointly with an ex-partner I'm a little concerned on whether we'll both have to sign something before they release any funds. I don't mind the fact that I'd only get half - that's only fair, but I've no idea where he is - we split up over 25 years ago! :eek:

Munchin

Hi SSG - glad to see you back. I hope you don't have to chase up the ex for any signature - how random would that be .

in_need_of_direction

I know when my ex claimed we were missold our mortgage, he needed by signature to accept the offer but I think ppi is more formulaic. Well done on getting it and welcome back. You were missed

Seasidegal58

Thanks Munchin and inod,

I hope you're right inod - tbh, without sounded too miserable, but he might have passed away for all I know!

Seasidegal58

At last - the start of the weekend!:)

Had plenty to occupy me in work today though office looked a little depleted of manpower - people are away on holiday, including the boss who is out for another week and a bit.

Moneywise nothing spent apart from a nightie in M&S - £8 from the clothes budget. I needed another light camisole type for the warm weather. I was hoping to have dropped at least a dress size now summer is in full swing so I could get rid of a few too-big clothes, but fat chance (oh! that's a pun!:).

Finally managed to speak to my decorator who has been rather elusive to try and sort out when he can give me a quote for the living room and hall. He's got a lot on at the moment but I said I didn't mind waiting. It suits me at the moment not to have any upheaval.

Tomorrow is housework in the morning then off to run some errands. Sorting out paperwork afterwards and then ironing. I know how to live!:D

Hope the rain keeps off - we had a bit of a monsoon here today for a while!

LABMUM

I needed my husband's signature for my PPI claim which wasn't a problem as we are still together but they did say if it was a problem I could just have my half.

Sun_Addict

So pleased you’re back - I was worried about you xx

Don’t feel guilty about feeling down it can’t be helped. I hope you manage to dust yourself off and get back on track:)

Seasidegal58

Thank you very much for your kind post LABMUM - if I get half of the total payout, I will be very happy - however much it comes to!

I'm feeling a lot more like my old self SA and it's very sweet of you to worry - especially as your own life is so busy.

I think I've never seen so much rain fall as it did this morning - thunder and the monsoon of monsoons! It kept me in the house and I didn't venture out till the afternoon! Did my greengrocer run, food bank, and dropped off some scarves, a top and a pair of sandals into the charity shop as I didn't think they would interest the dress agency.

I have in my mind a tremendous clear out of clothes if I ever get my weight down and all the different sizes can be weeded out. One thing I am quite pleased about though is my summer shoes - with a mixture of donations to the CS and dress agency and being a bit circumspect on buying new I think I 'summer shoe capsule wardrobe' has finally evolved.:

- Three pairs of loafers - white, tan, navy,
- pair of black diamant! studded flip flops
- two black pairs of smartish sandals, one black one nude,
- two pairs of casual sandals - one black and one pewter
- One pair lowish heeled black suede courts
- one pair rubber flip flops that I use to go have my pedicure
- one pair of white trainers
I also have a pair of good trainers for walking which span the seasons.

The above list may seem quite long to some but compared to the amount of shoes I've had in the past and compared to some people I know, it's not too bad! Most of the shoes I've had since last summer. The bottom of the wardrobe looks quite spacious too!:D

I'm meeting my friend for brunch tomorrow to catch up as I haven't seen her for a couple of weeks - hopefully it won't rain!