Starting Afresh in 2017

boxofpaws

Well done on the hsbc and resisting temptation. :T At least you found out the boy was stupid very quickly so no harm done, eh

StartingAfresh

Thanks, all!
Enthusiastic Saver - I am paying around £30 a month in fees on the overdraft (it's usually around £1800) so I am aiming to rid myself of this first - it should be cleared in seven months, all being well! i have already paid the equivalent of all the interest on the Zopa loan, so all the payments are now just paying off the amount, so I'm going to stick with that one!
So, finally made the HSBC transfer! Once it's through, cutting up the Barclaycard - also going to cut up the Halifax card and the Natwest credit card! Eeek! It feels good knowing I'm saving around £600 a month!
I spent a bit today - £20 on taxis and £10 out on lunch - as I had to go to the emergency eye hospital today - i scratched my eye, ouch! So I had absolutely no sleep last night trying to deal with that:( I'm not having too much luck of late! On the bright side, tonight I was meant to be going out and now I have no choice but to stay in and nurse my painful eye. Is that a bright side, actually? A financial bright side.
My dad asked me why I wasn't visiting my sister this weekend. I told him it's to save money and he told me that I should be living my life. To be fair, he doesn't know how much debt I am in! I do want to move back closer to them all, to be honest. I do feel lonely here. Things like today showed me that. I had to schlep up to the doctor's alone in a taxi, and my colleagues didn't really care, and no one answered the phone when I called due to work. I've been looking at jobs, but nothing has come about as yet. Life has been a bit hard of late! I really thought everything would start falling into place once I started properly looking at my finances and life, but I guess things aren't so simple! I'm quite a positive person usually (believe it or not) so I know it'll be okay. But today....I am tired and have a sore eye!
This weekend, I am going for brunch and a walk with a friend tomorrow, and yoga Sunday, and resting up the rest of the weekend in a darkened room, haha! I don't feel I'll spend much this weekend, as I have food in the house and yoga has been paid for already. I'm also cancelling my phone insurance this month - £15, so expensive! - so that;s one more money-positive thing.
I was going to buy a pizza tonight because I feel sorry for myself, but I'll be good and stick with beans on toast.
Hope you all have a good weekend, all! I'll post progress on how much i spent on Sunday.
xxx

StartingAfresh

Hello All! Hope you are well.

So, today I only spent 85p on a pastry for breakfast, as I was running late for work. I bought a big shop this weekend - it came to around £40, although £10 of that was a little wasteful to be honest - a box of chocolates, some flowers, biscuits, etc. I tend to eat veggie a lot of the time at home, so that does save money. I do like cooking, too; I just get lazy sometimes! I have enough food for the week now, except I may top up the fruit and veg towards the end of the week! I brought lunch into work, and made dinner from the weekend's groceries! Tomorrow morning, I'll have breakfast here.

I checked my account today, and - for the first time in literally years - I seem to be on budget! This doesn't mean I'm rolling in it, by any means; in fact, far from it. But it does mean that I have ample amount for the next few weeks if I stick to my budget, and I won't need to use my credit cards this month. This was a pleasant surprise, as I had a few purchases last week that were unexpected (new glasses, a few work tops, taxi to the hospital for my stupid eye incident, etc) and I hadn't expected to spend so much on the weekend - I went out for lunch one day, and coffee and cake, which added up alongside the grocery shop. It's inspired me to carry on with the budgeting!
I am going to take out £30 for the week and see how I get along - now my food is all bought, it should be more than enough!

Positive money-saving points:
I went into town today and didn't spend any money - I bought two birthday cards, but I had a free voucher from Paperchase which covered that.

Things I would have spent money on today:
I would have gone into Boots and got some new make-up - I look soooo tired today!

Things to work on tomorrow:
Don't spend any money on food - I have lunch with a friend booked tomorrow, but I have soup to bring in, so we can sit in the canteen and chat
Cancel my phone insurance.

Bobarella

You poor thing doing that to your eye. Sounds so painful.

StartingAfresh

Thanks, Bobarella! Luckily, it seems to be healing nicely now - amazing what the body can do, eh!

Today was an okay day! Not bad, not good. I spent £9.50 on a team birthday lunch (in cash!), which was a super-delicious chilli, and also £3 on some bread, a bar of chocolate and a mini-bottle of wine. I checked my account again just in case of surprises, and I still seem to be on track. I'm often caught out by the contactless payments - I only found out recently they often don't show as "pending" in your account. Phew! It feels weird to be on track, but good! I know March will be an expensive month, so I need to keep focused this month.

I was rejected for a job I wanted up in the city where my family live - the feedback was "I didn't have enough experience in that role to be considered". I'm a bit sad, as it was a fairly generic role?!? But...onwards and upwards. It was a bad day today at work, which didn't help - but is also inspiring to keep looking. I'm looking at jobs today!

I'm currently roasting a batch of veggies to have for tea and for lunch tomorrow, and got toast for breakfast tomorrow and soup for dinner.

Tomorrow is just another boring day at work, plodding along. I am meeting a friend after work, though! Yay.

At least it's hump day!

boxofpaws

Sorry to hear about the job but there will be others. Well done for having little treats and keeping on track at the same time:T

Bobarella

Sorry to hear about the job. There might be more to it than they let on. Maybe they had to give it to an internal candidate or something like that. It might have nothing to do with you after all.

StartingAfresh

Hi all
A quick message - so HSBC still haven't done the balance transfer and when I called, they had no evidence of this ever happening - despite being on the phone for hours! I am fuming! I have a generally bad feeling about this bank. I know my interest rates are high now but I've never had such problems with a bank before. Honestly, is this worth pursuing - I've been dealing with this for over six weeks now, with still no results and just lots of stress and tears and being talked down to? Is it worth just cancelling it and trying again with another card???

Naomim

Hi,

If I were you I'd give up on the credit card with HSBC. Have a look on the credit card transfer tool on here and see if you'd be accepted by any others. I've found MBNA to be good and their new card NUBA has 40 months 0% interest.

With the carbs etc.. do you meal plan? I've found it really helps to plan the meals for a week and try and only buy what we need. And do you have access to a microwave at work. I keep a box of cereal at work and have breakfast when I get there. Use their milk

You're doing really well with tracking spending. I use an app called wallet and just log my spending in there. It certainly does concentrate you when you realise you have £5 left till payday!

I also find the debt diary useful, just to write down what you are doing, how you are feeling. In a while when the debts are lower you'll look back and be amazed at how far you've come.

Keep going!

Naomi x

Bobarella

Hummm doesn't sound good at all with the card.