Sort of debt-free but hope to be a super-scrimper in 2019

gallygirl

Great news on the debt front and wow to all these competition wins :j.

I used to work in the newspaper industry and would often see the bags of entries for competitions. Bizarrely the ones with the best prizes often had relatively few entries as people thought they had no chance of winning.

I went through a spell for a few years, mainly entering ones on the MSE thread. I won two decent mobile phones, both sold for several hundred pounds :T. One of them was from an in-store magazine I'd picked up while doing a mystery shop in there . Also got £100 from a very specialist mag I just happened to come across, and £50 from Bella or Best, I forget which.

Hmmm,, need to look at them again I think.

beanielou

So very pleased for you carbootcrazy :j :j :j :j

MrsLottie

Really pleased for you CBC that must be a big weight off your mind .Well done !.

teapot2

Great news re your debt figure :j worth the wait. Signature looks amazing now especially if you look at where you started :beer:

teapot2

Re doing competitions, don't think I'd want to use my FB account for them as it would mean other people having to put up with them as well I'm not on Twitter and not sure I want to be. Difficult though if thats where most comps are these days.

The other win I had was from competitions I enter with book related prizes. Sadly I won the box of books I wasn't interested in as they were all prize winning sports books . I had an email to say I'd won them them but I was staying in the hospital with OH at the time. When I got home to have a few hours sleep there was a note to say they'd been left in the brown garden waste bin :eek::eek: I had a heck of a job getting the box out as it was heavy and I'm quite short. I listed most of the books on Amazon and sold them and gave a few of the really big heavy ones to a local charity raffle :rotfl: One day I'll win something I can actually use :rotfl:

Sallyforth

Just popping in to wish you massive congratulations CBC on the penultimate debt payment. Only one to agree now and you’re free! I know you are sort of paid up now and totally understand why you are holding out.
Sally x

enthusiasticsaver

Almost there now CBC. Hope final creditor also agrees to F and F. Would all be gone then.

jwil

Congratulations on the F&F :T

Lifeisforliving19

Just catching up now I am back from my break and wanted to say well done on the F&F. :TIt does feel good when your total goes down, doesn't it?

[Deleted User]

I came on here this afternoon to find a bit of sanity in a crazy financial world. You lovely posters on my diary always give such good advice and reassurance:A


Firstly, though, a massive thank you to everyone who posted such lovely good wishes after I mentioned settling my penultimate debt. Your encouragement is so much appreciated:T:beer:


Right, on to the issue that is driving me mad:o. I've gone on about it at length in recent weeks but a quick resume is that I'm trying to get one of the debts which I had on my DMP defaulted. All my other debts will drop off my credit file this year:j but that one, although settled in full in 2017 and not by a partial settlement, will still be hanging around on my file for another 4 years:mad:

Neither the original creditor (Santander) or the debt purchaser (New Day) will take responsibility for it. They just keep referring me back to the other one:mad:. I wrote to Santander on 4th Feb which I sent 'Signed For' on the advice of beanielou. I checked the Royal Mail website and they'd definitely received it on 5th. So far so good.


No acknowledgement has been received so I decided to bite the bullet (again:mad:) and phone them. They again say I need to speak to New Day about it but as far as I see it Santander owned the debt during all the months when it should have been defaulted when all my other creditors did. It's a waste of time contacting New Day as every time I contact them they can't find any trace of my account even though it was only closed in December 2017:mad:


The last time I contacted New Day a very helpful lady suggested all she could suggest was that I contact Experian. I did this but it was a total waste of time as they can't backdate or add defaults to accounts unless asked to by creditors. The reference numbers they have for the account in question are exactly the same as the ones I quoted to both New Day and Santander both by phone and letter. I triple checked each just to make sure I was doing it accurately.


I feel very strongly about this issue although people reading this might wonder why I have such a bee in my bonnet over something so minor in the general scheme of things.


Sorry for being such a moaner so I'll end on a lighter note:j. I had an Asda home delivery today and noticed the crate that contained various dairy items had a tiny bit of white liquid at the bottom. I just said to the driver that I wondered what it was and quick as a flash he said it was probably milk leaking from the seal at the top of one of the bottles (which were on their side). He then instantly refunded me the full cost of both bottles without checking which was leaking and said I could keep the milk anyway. I examined them closely before putting them in the fridge and it was just a very slight, barely detectable opening of one of the seals below the top of the smaller bottle. Not a health issue or anything. Result:T. I gained £2.13 altogether:j.


Another good note. The sun is shining and a lot of the snowdrops are out in the garden. There are big drifts of them and seeing them always lifts my spirits:j. It will be weeks yet before the daffodils bloom but they too are on their way.