No More Mrs Nice Guy

Procrastination101

Afternoon all, happy Sunday!! :j


Although it may look like I am a stalwart member of the community here, I signed up years ago and started a diary etc...let's just pretend I am a newbie...:cool: everything has changed since then haha


You could say I'm a bit flaky. :A You'd be right!!


Basically, I ended up in tons of hot water when I decided to become a guarantor for a friend. Who didn't pay up. I now have a CCJ (debt is paid now, it's just the terrible credit to deal with:rotfl: )
Long story short, I finally have my head above water in terms of being able to afford all of my outgoings. But that's a very recent occurrence.


I'm a professional woman, I have a good job, I had a little debt but nothing that wasn't manageable and then I made a stupid decision that has been haunting me for years :mad: There's light at the end of the tunnel though!


Now that's dealt with, it's time to really focus on rebuilding back to the place I once was and getting clear of unnecessary outgoings.


I'm lucky enough to have around a £400 surplus each month at the moment, thanks to a lodger. Until July, that money is being thrown into savings (I know it's meant to pay for debt first, but there's a massive expense coming in July that I have decided to go ahead with - my son turns 16 and has been through a rough few years so I am taking him on his dream holiday)


That being said I want to get ahead of the curve and ideally earn enough to pay the travelling expenses so my monthly £400 can go into debt and kill two birds with one stone rather than tackling them separately.


For context, I have a £500 overdraft that needs to be paid, £1200 on a credit card and £750 on a Littlewoods account.


Rent money and what's already in the kitty will cover that, almost to the penny, so my goal is to accumulate an additional £3000 in 3 months...unsecured debt all paid, travelling all paid. Clean slate to start going for the mortgage.


There's £80,000 outstanding on the mortgage, another 14 years left if it stays as is. I want to get it clear in 5. :cool:


Not much to ask, right?


I've had a look round the debt boards, think there's a couple of challenges that I'll take up.


£3000 in 3 months. Easy!

Procrastination101

Well it's been productive today.
I have filed a claim with my bank for unfairly imposed charges over the last 6 years.
When I separated from my partner in 2011, my income halved while bills effectively doubled. It was a tough time and there were some months where I had over £100 in charges so nomatter how hard I tried I couldn't get out of it. Add on the guarantor situation and it was just impossible for a while there.
It's only been the last 6 months that this has really stopped (payrise at work and no longer having to pay the guarantor loan helped!)


Didn't even register that the charges had impacted the situation and made it even more difficult to get out of.


I'm not holding out a great deal of hope but you never know. Even a little something, enough to get rid of the overdraft, would be an amazing help!


As a side note, I travel a lot within the UK for work (not as glam as it sounds) but that is stopping in a few months - so I am fully stocking up on tea/coffee/milk/biscuits and toiletries haha. Might save a few bob for the next couple of months!


About to head over to the old style board, I love reading tips and tricks, let's see what I can muster!

redofromstart

:hello: Just dropping in to say good luck with your plans

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.
Hope all goes well for you.

Procrastination101

Thanks for dropping by!!!


No major breakthroughs today, I didn't find £50k just sitting at the side of the road (of course if I did, I would report to relevant authorities, duh!!) and I can't decide which challenges are best suited to me. Ugh too many and I reckon I will fail. Too few and I won't get the fast results I want! PROCRASTINATION haha


Grocery budget is already probably as low as it can be, is set to increase when I am no longer travelling for work as I will be feeding myself too (and it will be homecooked meals with actual meat in it, none of this processed rubbish!). Though batch cooking is a thing when it's cooked from scratch so may balance out!


Cancelled a couple of subscription boxes and services today, saving a total of around £40 a month. Had no idea we were spending so much, got one as a treat, one as a one off etc and 6 months later, getting them an not using anything from them! NO MORE! I was using a lot of the goodies as gifts, but I can get similar stuff waaaay cheaper if I was just a little less lazy and actually LOOKED for gifts :-)


Got confirmation from my bank that they are looking into my complaint about charges. Let's see what they come up with! Anything over £500 would be an absolute win for me, even though the total charges total well over £2k. It would pay the overdraft, massive dent in the bills, and has the highest interest going on.


I suppose I had better do some work, not much got done in the office (always the same on a Monday) so I am working from hotel tonight to catch up :-)


Have a lovely evening, hope you're all doing great!

beanielou

Hope the bank comes up trumps for you.

Procrastination101

Today was a great day!
In a totally unrelated bank complaint (hadn't received my new bank card despite requesting 4 times), I got £50 to say sorry for all the inconvenience.


Have transferred it right over to the savings. Total out of £3000...£50 haha ok it's not perfect but it's reasonable.


£1000 a month for 3 months is £34 a day so that's nearly 2 days worth already. Exciting!!


Not that I will be able to replicate that but perhaps my luck is turning around?


In a slightly MSE turn of events, I got some freebies at work today, fizzy juice, so I won't be buying any with the shopping this weekend. Saving myself a massive 50p :-)
On top of that, I recently bought tickets to see a show and my mum wanted one too. I bought it and she has offered to pay for my weekly groceries to repay me - they are more than the ticket is worth but she says to count it as "interest" ...cool mum, thanks :-D maybe I'll get that fizzy juice after all!


Feeling positive today. Yay.
****Runs over to the £10 a day challenge and commits to £30 a day****

Procrastination101

Evening all


Finally got out of the office today after a hectic day.


Not such an awesome day in terms of moneysaving. Turns out I made a boo-boo with my interpretation of the bank charges situation so because there's not as much financial hardship as there was before, it's really just a case of waiting for the rejection letter. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, no point getting hung up on it!


I'll get where I need to be regardless of what gets in the way, or I'll try anyway. May just take longer if lady luck isn't on my side :-D


What are my plans/goals for the rest of the week?


Get logged back into, and start using, TopCashback. Though I also need to NOT SPEND ANY MONEY, so earning on there is also kind of a bad thing haha


Have a look at mystery shopping. I know there's a lot of airside ones and I take 2 flights a week at the moment, so if I can earn a little something while I'm waiting, that's definitely a good thing!


Remember to thank my mum for dog sitting today so my young lad could go to Easter Study class at school. She loves the sentimental stuff so it won't cost anything but perhaps a poem or note to say that I appreciate her. It's so easy to forget that as I get older, so does she - it's not as easy for her to do things as it used to be yet she's always the first one to put her hat in the ring to help out!


Hope everyone is well! Back same time tomorrow :-)

Procrastination101

Evening lovelies!


Update isn't really much of anything I'm afraid. I have signed up to a mystery shopping company and will endeavour to do maybe one a week airside. One of my flights is really early in the morning, pretty much before anything opens but the other one is within the hours that they need. Excellent!!


Although I'm not sure how many times I can go to the same place, get a sandwich and ask where the toilet is before I am clocked. May need to get my super sleuth outfit out of the fancy dress box!!


Managed to get some 3 in 1 jackets (the ones that are fleece and waterproof) from charity shops (and from the clothing budget) for me and my son to wear when we go hiking on his big 16 holiday. Trying to give him amazing experiences while spending very little money! Spent £8 in total for the two of them, decent well known brands for outdoor gear too. Happy times! They'll also come in very handy for walking the dog when it's freezing outside!


Haven't made any extra money today either. This £30 a day isn't going well, I'm already £60 behind where I need to be :-( No overtime available at work. Will need to see if there's a car boot sale or something I can do at the weekend perhaps. Get rid of some stuff quick and without postage costs/listing fees etc on ebay


Well, that's all from me. Have a lovely night!

Procrastination101

I!!!8217;m not sure how this happened but my sons dad has just paid £480 into the bank for backdated money (I hope he!!!8217;s not embezzling money and hiding it with us haha just my luck!)

It!!!8217;s gone straight to the 16th birthday fund!!

If he actually pays the £20 a week he!!!8217;s committed to, son will have lots of extra spending money too. If he chooses to save it rather than buy Doritos and PlayStation games!!

I also found a stash of euros in a drawer...haven!!!8217;t counted it yet but fingers crossed it!!!8217;s a few bob

Procrastination101

Stash of euros had over £130 in total including some !!!8220;proper!!!8221; money too.

Could have afforded bread that time I was checking down the sofa for change after all!!

Feel like I!!!8217;ve had an amazing week of luck. Long may it continue!!