Sass' 2008 DFW ramble thread

Sassamac

Thanks Denise, you have inspired to stop being cynical and give it a go.

SarahNeedle1872

Hiya Sassamac...... defiately give Freecycle a go, people don't usually put stuff on there that doesn't work, so you will probably be lucky!

Sassamac

Thanks Sarah, nice to know its mostly used by honest people. Sounds like Freecycle is very popular amongst DFW's.

Well its been a productive morning debt wise. Just kncoked 3 more months off my DFD, now Sep '12. I havent actually really done anything, but just managed to spank £400 off the secondary OD - the normal £50 from this weeks wage, plus £350 in holiday pay.

I wont change my sig as I have to do the end of month balancing act on Monday to see the true figure, i.e. counter how OD we are on the current acc with how much we have stashed in the savings fund, and compare all that with last months figure.

And I still havent upped the snowballing amount, its still calculated as the minimum monthly payments, as we're yet to prove that this spare £220 we have on paper at the end of every month, is getting put to good use. So far something always crops up to spend it. Ah well, heres hoping for an April that costs nothing in unforeseen circumstances!

Sassamac

Lots of spends today, as per usual for a Friday.
£58 on groceries inc cat food, £10 on clothes for DD in a charity shop and a whole 55p on a birthday card for next weekends party.
Got a whole trolley full of food in Tescos, most of which will last a month, and spent 12 days worth of budget in the process. So there should be a fair bit left in the kitty to buy the perishables for the rest of the month.

Sassamac

Woohoo the end of the month. I will be back later to work out my final debt busting total for March. The minpay for my BCard went out today and I forgot that its still based on the pre BT balance, so its only half what I was anticipating which was a nice bonus.

More spends to declare - having an expensive week!
Spent £30 on a dress to wear to a wedding next w/e, but its versatile enough to wear to lots of occassions, so thats how Im justifying it. Also £3 on lunch. DH took out £50 in cash to entertain some clients on Friday night, but hes getting that back on expenses, hopefully this week.

We're seriously struggling as a result of all these spends. Ive had to rob the mortgage account of £180, just to get us through til today, and then theres £100 worth of DD's coming out tomorrow, so I shall need to borrow some more. Shouldn't have stashed all that holiday pay away.

Solved the t.v. problem - DH's neice had a spare one they dont use so have donated to us. Its only bedroom tv sized, so not a long term solution, but perfectly adequate for the time being.

Sassamac

'LBM Debt (23/12/07) £9,826.34. DFD Dec '12. 57 to go. Now £10,057.46. £153.20'

Right thats last months debt figures. It now reads;
'LBM Debt (23/12/07) £9,826.34. DFD Nov '12. 56 to go. Now £9727.73. £335.39'

To pay off £335 is fab, but rather disappointed that without the holiday payout, we would have been in more debt than last month.
Still we are now in less debt than when we started the DF journey, so have undone the damage from the defeceit budget in the early months.
And overall our DFD is a month nearer (and in fact less than £50 away from knocking another month off).
We need to have a seriously low spend month for April as all the spending in the last 10 days has crippled this months figures. I dont envisage many expenses, except that DH's bike needs MOTing, and some cash for a wedding. Hopefully the school hols wont cost too much - if we get some decent weather, I can entertain the kids for free.

Sassamac

Sassamac wrote: »

Just contributed my aims for March to that thread, so here they are:

stick to my £125 March Grocery Challenge target, DONE
pay off both OD's (with the TC's backpayment), NOT DONE - NOT MY FAULT
make an extra payment on both the expensive CC's, BT'd MOST OF ONE AND HAVE THE MONEY IN OD TO CLEAR IT, NONE OFF THE OTHER.
join quidco OOPS, FORGOT
do comparisons on all utilities and insurances, NOPE, DH SAID HE WILL HELP THOUGH
do a 'nearly new sale' or two, aim to make £50 from each after costs, NOPE, DH COULDNT GUARANTEE TIME OFF
get DH a permanent job or at least an ongoing one with an agency, - DONE, VERY PROUD OF HIM!
do a new SOA with revised income from new job and new corrected TC's (which will change again when DH gets a new job) - DONE ON SPREADSHEET, MINI VERSION ON HERE
arrange to pay council tax (when we get the new bill) and water monthly rather than over 10 and 8m respectively. TRIED BUT DIDNT FOLLOW IT THROUGH, WONDER IF ITS TOO LATE?!

Pity I only just remembered this. Might have been helpful to refer to it during the month!
So for April;
Aim to do 2 nearly new sales and make £50 profit from each,
Overpay DH's CC,
Clear my HSBC CC and then do a BT deal back onto it,
Look into getting a deal on my dormant Abbey CC,
Stick to grocery budget,
Come under budget for petrol to counteract last months overspend,
Come under budget for kids stuff to counteract last months overspend,

Sassamac

Started on one of the above already. I have set up an online payment of £10 to overpay DH's CC to go through on Friday. I will see how it goes this week, then hopefully set it up as a permanent feature, which will knock £40 - £50 off every month, then I can gradually increase it, so that we're overpaying to the tune of that elusive £220 per month. I need to prove that we can overpay by £220 before I alter my snowball to that effect and bring the DFD crashing down. I must start adding up how much were spending paying off the debt, as well how much the debt is actually decreasing by.

Keeping_Positive

Great progress Sassamac. Its tough to predict unforseen expences so I think you are wise to overpay in stages first.

Sassamac

Sassamac wrote: »

'LBM Debt (23/12/07) £9,826.34. DFD Dec '12. 57 to go. Now £10,057.46. £153.20'

Right thats last months debt figures. It now reads;
'LBM Debt (23/12/07) £9,826.34. DFD Nov '12. 56 to go. Now £9727.73. £335.39'

To pay off £335 is fab, but rather disappointed that without the holiday payout, we would have been in more debt than last month.
Still we are now in less debt than when we started the DF journey, so have undone the damage from the defeceit budget in the early months.
And overall our DFD is a month nearer (and in fact less than £50 away from knocking another month off).
We need to have a seriously low spend month for April as all the spending in the last 10 days has crippled this months figures. I dont envisage many expenses, except that DH's bike needs MOTing, and some cash for a wedding. Hopefully the school hols wont cost too much - if we get some decent weather, I can entertain the kids for free.

Ive fluffed it up! When I did this yesterday afternoon I thought anything that was going to clear through the acc would have done so already. Checked this morning and theres loads more gone through, our spends from the w/e, plus a tank of petrol for DH. So having adjusted the figures, this is where we stand;

LBM Debt (23/12/07) £9,826.34 DFD Dec '12. 57 to go. Now £9858.04 £205.08

Im really disappointed as we're now back to 57 months, and still more in debt than when we started the DF journey.
I was really hoping to get my hair cut this w/e (for the first time in over a year) so I dont look a mess at the wedding. I have a really limited time to get ready and have a kids party to go to just before, from which I normally return, looking like Ive been through a hedge backwards. I really cant justify £30 for a hair cut now. Wondering if I could get away with a trim, as I cut it myself not too long ago, it is quite short already, just messy and needs layering properly. I dont even know if a trim involves putting layers in, or if they literally just trim the ends. whinge whinge...

...Anyway some positive news. Free prescriptions etc for us! We had our TC NHS exemption cards come through in the post this morning. I wasnt expecting it as no-one had told us about them, I had read on here that they just send them automatically if you qualify, so assumed we didnt.
Its a bit odd though, they have dated the card from when the TC claim dates back to (June) and its only valid for a year so I have just 3 months left before they have to renew it.
But it implies that we should have been claiming free treatment / prescriptions etc since then, yet on the form they send, it says you can claim refunds for anything in the past 3 months only! Something else we've been diddled out of due to their error! DH had a load of dental treatment done last year, will have to check exactly when it was, but if it was since June Im going to give them grief!