I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!

beanielou

SOA looking good.

To add to your signature go up user CP in the first green band near to the top of the page. Third from left.
When you click on user CP you will see an option reguarding your signature.

JoJoC

You're making good progress! I'm always thinking ahead and working towards the next month - new month, new and lower totals. You are not alone there!

Mum2Nan

Thanks Beanielou and JoJoC

It's been a very good and productive day workwise. One of those days where most of the smaller things I have been putting off doing over the last few weeks got done. I hope I feel the same again tomorrow so I can finish off the remainder.

I fell asleep on the train home (hope I wasn't snoring lol) and felt completely disorientated when I woke up. It took a couple of minutes to register my train was pulling into my station. Until last Friday I had my alarm set to go off 5 minutes beforehand but with the change of the new train timetables, I haven't decided what regular train time suits my journey yet so it's been switched off.

I am so tempted to pay Barclaycard and Halifax £315 to bring the Barclaycard fractionally under £7K and the Halifax under £6K. I might do this on Friday once my Barclaycard statement closes. These extra payments would reduce my D/Ds so it wouldn't affect the overall total of the payments but just bringing both of them forward. Something to think about.

Evening meal was lovely. Took 20 minutes to cook.

I am being taken out for lunch tomorrow, a thank you for helping someone out of a fix a couple of weeks ago so no need to take in one of my ready made frozen sandwiches so another one for next week.

I am having intermittent internet issues this evening and as I feel tired tonight going to have an early night.

beanielou

Pay the money~~you know you want too
Enjoy your lunch

Mum2Nan

When I said I wanted an early night last night, I didn't quite mean before 9.30 but the last time I looked at the clock was 9.15 when I checked the alarm on my phone :eek: I woke up just before 5am but felt so much better for it. Made a brew and took it back to bed and got up at 5.45, 45 minutes earlier than usual so managed to have a quick tidy up before I left for work this morning.

Beanielou, yes I do want to make overpayments and so I paid £172 to Halifax 2 earlier to bring the total Halifax debt down to £5,999.75. I can't do anything with Barclaycard until my statement closes on Friday otherwise I shall have to pay the £144 again next month. I now have a signature (I hope!).

I am ploughing my way through the remainder of my 'leaving things to do for another time' list and hope to get it all completed by the time I leave work later today.

Off out for lunch with a colleague shortly. I must admit, it will be nice to have something other than a sandwich for lunch!!

Back later with an update.

beanielou

Enjoy your lunch

enthusiasticsaver

Signature is looking good and :j:j:j to getting Halifax under £6k. Milestones are good to keep you on target.

Mum2Nan

I am feeling very happy tonight! I was copied into an e-mail this afternoon to the ‘bigwigs’ about my contribution towards an event I had worked on last week and thanking me for my input! This doesn’t happen too often.

Tapas was for lunch and it was lovely. I always think the small dishes of food never look enough but they really are. It’s made me realise I miss having the odd hot lunch so am going to factor in something for this in my lunch plan. May be soup or a jacket potato.

My meal plan has had to be changed as there is no way I can have another meal this evening so will have tonight’s dinner tomorrow and push the meals back and drop Saturday’s sausages I think.

So, it’s been another productive day all in all. My list of ‘leave things to do for when I am less busy’ pile has been greatly reduced. If nothing too major crops up tomorrow it will definitely be finished.

I was hoping for a day of no spending but forgot it was a work colleague’s birthday coming up so put my £5 contribution in. It’s a set amount and we do it for all our team (of 10, part of a bigger team in my company) so don’t mind this. I did factor this into my present budget earlier this year so will come out of that. As we have all been working together for years and generally know each other’s likes and preferences we always buy a voucher that will be used.

No sleeping on the train home for me tonight! I really think going to bed early last night has had a positive affect on me. As I didn’t have to worry about food tonight, even microwaving my HM ready meal I used the time to list 2 items on eBay. I checked what other sellers had put them on for and undercut them by 40% which personally I still think is too much. If they sell they sell and I’ve freed up space and if they don’t I will relist them.

Enthusiastic, I do agree about the milestones and think this is the way to go for me. I am not a very patient person and have realised this where my debt is concerned so my milestones / goals to keep me motivated are:

Pay Barclaycard to get it under £7K either Friday or Saturday. The next one will be next Friday when my debt will be under £21K even if it means making an additional payment to Barclaycard 1 or Halifax 2. I will try and break it down into £500 chunks and see how I get on.

I have 2 weeks and 2 days until my Sainsbury’s credit card closes and so far I have spent (although not all on the card):

Grocery shopping: £28.01 / £100 or £150 (this is unheard of)
Fuel: £30 / £50
Miscellaneous: £25.99 (made up of balance of remote control / £10 charity donation (never again due to my own charity preference) / solar lights)
Health & Beauty: £18.49
Presents: £5
Boots & Nectar points £29.98

I will only be food shopping this week for milk, bread, fresh fruit, salad & veg and the cats will only need litter. I am still not seeing anything of the bottoms of the freezer drawers yet but they are no longer groaning under the weight.

Thinking ahead to my 5 days off I plan to:

Go through my wardrobes (note plural ) and drawers. TBF, I am quite good with clothes buying so don’t expect to be getting rid of too much.
Meal Plan for next week. Prawns and peas will feature heavily in this.

I’ve never had a diary before let alone a public one but I am definitely feeling the benefits from it in my everyday spending.

beanielou

How lovely about the email.

Mum2Nan

I desperately want to leave work soon as I am on leave from then but I’ve caused myself a major headache today and totally of my own making. Basically, I often use my credit card for work expenses and today decided to use my Quidco account for the cash back. I am starting to regret this as it’s put me in a moral dilemma that I could have done without. The choices are:

• Do I claim back the full amount knowing I will get cash back from these transactions?

• Put in my expense claim deducting the cash back in which case the total of the receipts will not match what I am claiming for?

The cash back percentage was for 5% on nearly £200 not that these facts actually matter!

I wished I hadn't bothered for the sake of almost a tenner.