Back to Wales, Back to Reality

elantan

i'm sure it is as sazzicee says one student 25%discount all students 100% discount but still have to pay water charge (in scotland we still have this attatched to our council tax)

backtowales

Thanks for all the advice. Sorry for the late reply but it took me 3 and a half hours to get from Swindon tonight. Floods again! Given me some motivation to do the application forms for the jobs in Cardiff that I've found.

Re Council Tax: Will get the 25% discount, OH just need to send off a copy of his student exemption from his Uni when we get the forms from the Council.

I can't get rid of the car as I'm tied into a finance deal for 2 more years and I still need it for journeys other than commuting especially as it is cheaper to drive to both mine and OH parents than get the train. Also I won't be commuting by train for more than about six months so seems silly to get rid of the car and then have to buy a new one, and if I'm honest I don't want to rely solely on public transport for shopping, and all my travel - today has confirmed that!

I don't go out much and rarely have my hair cut so that's why they aren't in the budget. Also OH pays for the some groceries and the odd trip to the cinema etc, but we still need to figure out how much he is spending. As for groceries, we are still to get organised to do weekly "big shops" - will be doing that this weekend and doing a meal plan.

I've signed up for a free credit check through Quidco, just waiting on the letter, I've also applied for a 4.9% until 2011 on balance transfers credit card and that comes with £41 cashback on quidco.

I book the leisure advance train tickets which are the cheapest possible way. It was the only way that I could afford to move to Cardiff and commute back to Swindon.

Birthdays tend to come out of the money I have left at the end of the month, its never more than £10 in any one month as there aren't many birthdays and they are spread out. I'm starting to think that the QuidCo and any other earnings money can be birthday/xmas money.

pavlovs_dog

with your train tickets, have you checked whether split ticketing is cheaper for you than buying a standard return? (ie buying a single for each leg of the journey, or sometimes even several singles, breaking the journey up)

In_Search_Of_Me

Hi there & welcome back to Wales!! Re the tyres theres a reat place I can recc for them if you want to pm me I'll try & find the name! I had a puncture this am and they patched it for a £5! Also as a single woman nice not to be ripped off for a change - its just round the corner from the Royal Oak off Newport road but is tucked away & you'd miss it if you didnt know it was there IYKWIM!
Re trains have you tried South West trains via quidco or pigsback ...dosh back for puchase.
Good luck on getting a job in Cardiff one advantage of being inthe capital is more jobs around!
You could get rid of love film while you sort yourself out.
Any way of doing extra eves w/e work or selling stuff on ebay/amazon? Local freecycle group is quite active too!
Also have a look at cost saving articles for cheaper insurance etc & wath out for cameras in Cardif - they;re all over the place & I really would recc keeping to the speed limit as "they" have a habit of having random speed vans all over the place. My mum got 2 tickets in one day & learned that lesson the hard way!
Just wated to say welcome really. Nice to have another local DFW!

lunar

Hi just wanted to pop in and say welcome, and not to appologise for posting your SOA. I love reading others diaries as it motivates me and gives me ideas on ways to save money and reduce my debt. well done for what you have done so far. keep on posting and you will get loads of support on here.

asp746

hi back to wales- just writing to wish you look and congratulate you on sorting you debts out now rather than when balances are much much higher. fortunately, your debts seem just about manageable. If you put your mind to it you should be able to kick them into touch by the end of the year. Now there's a challenge.:j Even if you can't clear them all you should have at least put a serious dent in them and paid off completely the ones with smaller balances. I found that psychologically motivating - paying the smaller ones quicker to get shut of them.

backtowales

Thanks for all the replies, and thanks to In Search of me for the local knowledge, something I'm lacking as I've moved somewhere were I don't have any friends in the area.

Been to tescos and farmfoods to do a "big shop" for the meal plans. We made a list and were pretty good, anything extra we bought was on offer and will keep for further meals in the future. We also got a 1/2 price pineapple at Tescos for a yummy (and healthy) treat.
Also got some bargains from Farmfoods as needed a couple of ready meals in the freezer until the bulk cooking kicks in. Work is pretty hectic at the moment so my free time after commuting is very limited.

Had a sort out and got some books, CDs, DVDs to add to my Amazon Marketplace account and a couple of rugby shirts to put on E-bay (mine not bfs so will list those tonight.

I have decided to get rid of Lovefilm at the end of the month, as there are still plenty of free trials for DVD rental on quidco.

Trying to clear my debts by the end of the year is certainly a challenge. I'm going to aim to get as MSE as possible in my ways by the end of the month as see where I stand with what cash left over to pay towards the CCs etc next month.

I can't believe its 6.15pm already - today has just disappeared. Time to go and get on with listing things on Amazon and cooking tea. Tomato and chorizo spaghetti - yum!

backtowales

Good afternoon everyone.

The spaghetti turned out really well and we ended up making pancakes out of some packet stuff from the back to the cupboard for pudding.

Well I've put about 20 books, cds and dvds on Amazon Marketplace so hopeful some of those will sell.

Been fairly good money wise today - only spent £1.00 on a paper and a bar of Cadbury's fudge Had a nice walk to the park around the corner which I hadn't been to before - duck pond and everything!

Still got a lot of sorting out to do in the spare room, so that's the next plan for this afternoon.

Bagpuss741

Bute Park in Cardiff is nice for a walk ( It's next to the castle) It doubled up as a Hooverville (New York) in Doctor Who:D

backtowales

Thanks, I walk through Bute Park and Sophia Gardens on my way back from Town at the weekends. Its a lovely place. Cant wait for spring for it all to bloom. I'm lucky to live 10 mins walk from there and 5 mins from Llandaff Fields and Thompson park. Soo much better than when I was in Swindon.

Bf is in the process of getting his spare bike fixed and then we'll be able to go out and explore the Taff Trail and Castell Coch. Can't wait!:j

Thanks to everyone for their support so far :beer:

Off to go and stomp on some cardboard boxes to get them into the bin - good exercise.