My debt-free diary

laura2481

Pay day today, so the start of a new 'month', and on my spreadsheet everything is looking in order. I'm annoyed with a £25 charge by HSBC for an overdraft arrangement fee thay never told us about. GRRRRR but other than that it feels nice to have a plan.

Have had to have a good look for my willpower today as I kept having lots of 'I want..' thoughts, I'm so used to splurging on pay day!

I did spend £3 today on beads and bits and pieces for making a couple of braclets for a friend, which I intend to charge her £4 for (not much profit, but she is a friend...) I spent £2 on a diet coke and a bag of crisps as a special treat (ooooh, crazy) so will have £14 left for the week.

laura2481

Check arrived from Argos today!!


Whooo hooo, going into Barclays account to pay £35 off of overdraft!

laura2481

Ok, busy day ahead today

1. Count money been putting aside to put into Barclays for overdraft PaD. Done. £19
2. Go to town: Barclays, pay in £35 Argos cheque and any bankable change Done
3. Go to Argos, pick up Xmas present reserved Done
4. Check barclaycard balance Done Should be £0 says £40 ish-poss they added interest grrrrrr wait for statement due in next few days
5. Go to Morrisons:
   Beef joint done
   mushrooms done
   onions done
   bread making mix (hot beef sandwiches in home made bread for tea!) done
   Mulled wine done
   Mince pies? bought pastry mix and mince meat and have made 15 for £1.60 + enough left over to make another 45 pies. Price per pie 3p! :j
6. Update signature! Done
7. washing up Done

Not necessarily in that order!! :rotfl:

I think I will start with counting my PaD money.

What a busy day I've had, and still need to cook beef and bake bread. No rest for the wicked. And me. :A

laura2481

Transfered £6 to Barclays ovedraft today, so now down to £70 from £120.
Also transferring £51 from Paypal account to bank so will send £50 to overdraft, leaving just £20! :j

Got another holiday day tomorrow so gonna stay out of trouble, make some more mince pies (all the ones I made yesterday seem to have disappeared!) and then do some food shopping in the evening. very exciting.

laura2481

well, it's been an exciting day on the reclaiming credit card charges front.

Drafted a letter to Barclaycard this morning as I had not heard from them asking for £110. At 2.30 the post arrived with a reply, talk about skin of your teeth!! They have credited my account with £8, whooo hooo!

So I am now writing another draft saying thank you for £8 now can I have £102 more (but fancier than that!) Can't deceide whether to just ask them to clear by balance instead which is £84 meaning they have given me a total of £92 back.

Hmmm, not sure what to do. Anyway, got to do some washing up!

Darn, just heard some bad news on the news- they may be banning happy hour in pubs! Grrrrrr. I LIKE happy hours!

laura2481

Right, letter all printed out and ready to go- not sure I'll make it to the post office to send it recorded delivery as I'm the only one who made it to work because of the snow!!

laura2481

Not sure what is happening with my credit card direct debits... I'm sure they should have gone out by now.... everything looks ok on online banking, will check throughout the day and see if it just hadn't been sent yet.

laura2481

ok, have just double checked and halifax says will take payment for halifax card tomorrow, not sure about HSBC. Will have to check paper statement tonight. I'm sure it's fine, I haven't changed anything, or done anything with my direct debits- I'm just worried about something random going wrong when I'm trying so hard to do everything right!

laura2481

There are now words to express how uttery pi**ed off I am right now. After careful examination of my credit card statements/overdraft balances etc it appears that after a month of fretting/faffing/transferring balances/watcing every penny and making overpayments I am finally free of £8 of debt. £8. 8 bloody pounds. :mad:

I guess I've just got to have faith that the balances will start to come down when the payments start out weighing the interest ec. but it is damn annoying.

Gonna go eat some pizza and drink some beer.

I hate money. I'm gonna go live in a tree with my beer and pizza and never spend any money ever again. ever. :beer:

laura2481

So, today is the day of works christmas. Don't feel like going out. Bought a new top: the grand price of £7.22!! And intend to spend no more than £20. Taking cash out...

Just don't feel in the mood. Well, I'm going to pop off and make a bracelet to match my necklace for tonight....