My 5 year plan

fatrab

Well another day and another gripe I'm afraid.

One of my big mistakes of recent times was to be paying so much to Vodafone for a service I hardly use. It's over £70/month for 2 phones and a tablet (data only). The breakdown of charges is:

Tablet - 3GB - £10/month - Contract ends in July
My phone - Unlimited calls & texts & 3GB - £24/month - Contract ends in October
Wife's phone - Unlimited calls & texts & 1GB - £37/month - Contract ends in December

I have been issued with a works phone so I barely use my own phone. My wife uses hers but rarely uses any data. We made the mistake of taking the handsets on monthly deals, and it had to be the latest rose gold fancy phone with bells and whistles for my darling beloved.... I've got a cheap Chinese brand, in fact my last 3 phones have been the same make and they've all been great handsets. Mine is still going strong with no issues, breakages etc but Mrs cracked hers within the first 2 months, then dropped it again last week and the whole screen is shattered.

To add to this, the tablet is no longer taking a charge. It wont even work when plugged in. So it looks like I'm going to give my handset to my wife, throw away the tablet, and find out if her phone is worth fixing, if not it'll be in the bin too. So basically I'll be paying £70+ per month for a cheap Chinese phone on a 1GB contract.

So there's a lesson for anyone reading this, take a sim only deal and buy your hansdset outright otherwise you could easily end up where I am now.

I will never be in this situation again.

Jenjenjen17

Hi Fatrab

I think you mentioned before you are in Glasgow?....there is a shop on argyle street in Finneston called Irepair that will replace a shattered iPhone screen for £45. I appreciate is £45 you would rather not spend but might be able to salvage something from the situation. Hope you’re day improves.

Jen

fatrab

Hi Jen,


Thanks for that, we're just outside Glasgow but I'll pass that on to Mrs fatrab. We're not over that side of town very often though. It's an S7 edge so I reckon it'll be more than £45


Cheers,


R:)

fatrab

The bulb holder saga continues! (Glad I've got nothing better to worry about)


It turns out that the parts I need are on back order, well 50% of them are! I need 2 of them, but there's only 1 available in the UK. Won't be in stock for 2-4 weeks!


Luckily I'm not using the car this weekend! But that means that I'm going to knowingly be driving with a bulb out for a few weeks which I'm not happy about.


Oh the joys...

fatrab

Well I've finally managed to crack the 16st barrier! 15st 13lbs this morning, not as much as I'd hoped to lose but heading in the right direction again! Hopefully lose a bit more by Monday's official weigh in.


Had to use the works van to collect some things from head office in Glasgow that wouldn't fit in my car so that's saved me around £50 in petrol this week . Unfortunately it's not an option to use it every week but I'm hoping I can wangle it once or twice a month. That would be a far better option than running a second car


Have a great weekend

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on getting below the 16 stone mark.

We are a lover of sim only deals in this house. My husband has my old iphone5s which is still great apart from needing to be charged every day and pays £10 a month sim only. I have a basic Samsung which has a rubbish camera so I will be replacing that by buying a decent phone outright and moving to sim only once it is out of contract in July.

Lesson learned not to buy cheap contract phone. Buy outright and sim only deal next.

fatrab

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Well done on getting below the 16 stone mark.

We are a lover of sim only deals in this house. My husband has my old iphone5s which is still great apart from needing to be charged every day and pays £10 a month sim only. I have a basic Samsung which has a rubbish camera so I will be replacing that by buying a decent phone outright and moving to sim only once it is out of contract in July.

Lesson learned not to buy cheap contract phone. Buy outright and sim only deal next.

Thanks! It's been a struggle as I haven't had any alcohol or takeaways but my other eating habits are proving difficult to change (bread and sticky buns being a big part of it but at least they're bought as part of the weekly shop now and not individually as snacks!).

I won't be keeping any of the mobile contracts, they'll be cancelled outright when their respective time comes. Mrs fatrab is going to get her own sim-only deal at the end of the year - it looks like her screen can be fixed relatively cheaply (thanks to Jen for her suggestion on that one).

As Mrs fatrab is going back to work next month we'll have more money coming in and things should start to balance out a little. We've always split the core bills 50:50 but kept all other finances completely separate (due to an arrangement she has on another property jointly with her mother, but that's another story). I've been paying everything while she went on maternity pay and the great thing I've noticed is that we're not struggling in the slightest, which is due to the money saving help and guidance I've received on here since my lightbulb moment. For that I am extremely grateful!

I just need to keep my hare-brained ideas under control and get trough this debt mountain. The mortgage doesn't bother me, the HP and loan I have something to show for them - but regarding the credit card, the insurances and the mobile contracts - I've made massive mistakes in these areas at various points along the line.

Feeling very positive today, things are heading in the right direction.

jwil

Well done on the weightloss!

Annoying about the bulbs, car and phones though.

fatrab

Morning! So I fell off the wagon last night and had a small takeaway, £4.95 kebab and I didn't enjoy it. Mrs fatrab paid so I don't feel guilty about the spending (lol) but I'd been looking forward to it for weeks! I think the guilt of eating something unhealthy put me off. I didn't even finish it.


We've also booked a meal on Sunday for Mother's Day, I'm driving so no temptation to drink and I know the menu prices haven't been inflated just because it's Mother's day. It's a local pub/bistro type place but the food is all homecooked and reasonably healthy, plus my Dad was good friends with the owners and we've not seen them for a while.


The chap who viewed the car at the start of the week called back last night and made an offer, he'd been to see 7 other vehicles and I think he knows ours is one of the cleanest out there. Unfortunately he's not quite offering enough. We're £500 apart.


Hopefully we'll reach an agreement halfway

[Deleted User]

fatrab wrote: »

The chap who viewed the car at the start of the week called back last night and made an offer, he'd been to see 7 other vehicles and I think he knows ours is one of the cleanest out there. Unfortunately he's not quite offering enough. We're £500 apart.


Hopefully we'll reach an agreement halfway

That's exciting stuff! Fingers crossed x