My own diary to keep me on track 22 May 2008 at 8:27AM in Debt free diaries 172 replies 7.2K views

angie_baby

Hi there, I thought i would start my own diary online as i seem to do really well, then i mess up one month. Putting me back to where i started. For example i pay off my next account then go mad and spend £400 on clothes.

In our house, well flat theres me (23) DS (6) and our kitten Dennis. I work full time, have done since the day before DS birthday for a transport company. I mainly work in their accounts and have just finshed a sage payroll course. Im hoping that in 2 years time this will give me excellent job prospects as i would of had 7 years experience in accounts and 2 in payroll.

Anyway, the money bit.

Take home salary £1325

Debts

HSBC Card £2200
Vanquis £ 500
Next Acc £ 450 - have a £90 credit still to be taken off
Littlwoods £ 237 - will be paid in full in June
CIB (private course) £94 - will be paid in full in June
Overdraft £500 - always in use.

Going out each month
Rent 500
C Tax79
Gas39
Electric41
Water 29
H Ins18 - due for renewal in June - new quote £10
Pet Ins10
BT37
TV Licence12
Dad50T
Travel45
Food120
DWP 10

TOTALS990

Living £100

This leaves £235 left for debts and other bits.

I also have two holidays booked this year,

Pontins - free :j 7th of July and Tunisia in November

I need to find about £150 for July and another £700 for the November holiday. £500 payable in September.

I havent included my child tax credits as they go directly to childminder.

Is there anything i may have missed?? And if you got this far thanks for reading!

Angie xx

Snaggles

Hi Angie - when do you have to pay for the November holiday? What about joining in one of the 'make £10 a day in May' type challenges? If you managed it, you would have enough for both holidays in 3 months. There are plenty of good money making ideas on those threads.

angie_baby

:j Ohhhh, someone posted on my thread :j

The November holiday is payable in September, only £500 though. £200 for spends, im not sure i will need it all though as its all inclusive.

Off to see the thread now.

Angie xx

angie_baby

Ok, i have gone and had a quick look at the 'make £10 a day' thread. I think i could do this. I cant ebay or amazon anything as i dont have anything left as i done all that to get rid of a credit card account i stupidly opened for an ex boyfriend 3 years ago. Most of the HSBC debt is his too. Insted of ebay etc i am going to do as many clicks on pigsback, quidco, and top cash back. Are there any others i could join. I also have a few renewals coming up - Home Insurance and BT.

I am also going to do an hours overtime every day. This should be easy as I can work from home for this. So if i managed one hour every day at £9.60 thats £48 per week, inc tax along with my daily clicks i think this challenge is possible.

Thanks for the idea Snaggles

Angie xx

Snaggles

Just a couple of other thoughts - if you are paying for your water rates over 8 months, ask them if you can do it over 10 or 12 months - only a small saving but every little helps.

Likewise council tax although some councils make you stick to the 10 months.

There's a thread somewhere that has a list of all the free money to be had on Quidco too - I'm happily married but have joined numerous dating sites just to get the odd couple of quid cashback!

Have you had a play around with the snowball calculator (www.whatsthecost.com) - it will give you an idea of how best to use your money to pay the debts off in the most efficient way. And it's also really motivating to watch your debt free date getting nearer every time you are able to make an overpayment.

angie_baby

All my bills are over 12 months, i am two months in advance with my rent as well which i didnt relise. I quite like that though, so will keep it like that for the moment.

My aims over the next four months.

Debts - in order to be paid off

Littlewoods £237 - June
CIB £94 - June
Vanquis
Next
HSBC

I will keep on with my payments of £70 month for the C/C's

I will also aim to do as much as possible on the cash back sites. As well as an hour overtime when DS is in bed.

I do get a buzz out of paying my debts, but i think thats the problem, i pay them, fell good about it. Do really well for a month or two then go have a big blow out.

I know my holidays are not a priority but to me they are, its the only proper time i get to see DS 247.

So today i have done all my clicks, have £27 showing as paid on quidco and 935 points on pigaback and only 30p on top cash back. All the pigsback vocuhers will go towards xmas and the quidco will first go towards debts. Vanquis first as it has the highest APR

I know i will get an extra £200 i my pay packet this month so i can going to out £150 away for the July holiday as i know then that it is sorted. The extra £50 towards Vanquis.

I best get back to work now, thanks for your posts snaggles.

Angie xx

Uniscots97

Angie, have you thought about signing up for mystery shopping? or seeing if your friends have anything that needs clearing out that could be ebayed but they havn't gotten around to by you for a share?

angie_baby

Ok, im a bit skint at the moment. Have enough to get by but its tight. Roll on payday!

Ive stared making bread again as im just wasting money and i have all the stuff in for making it, so ive got the dough on for a tiger loaf at the moment. DS has been out playing all morning at a mates and is now on the sofa watching a bot of telly, i think, well hope that he will crash out for a bit so i can tidy. I have £19.50 in pound coins and a £5 note from the jar, im also going to cash up all the pennies in the jar which should be about £20.

I have loads of food in, one of my habbits, i just panic if i dont have at least 2 weeks worth, so we only need a few bits like milk, butter, cat food, fruit and veg. I am only going to spend a maxium of £20 topping up for the week.

I am also going to cut next months shopping bills as we are of on holiday in July and am going to run the frezzer and cupboards down. So we can survive on £60. Im also going to take in a packed lunch, i make DS so its silly i dont do my own, there still loads of HM soup in the frezzer.

My list for today,

Washing, loads of it, iron and put DS uniform away

Kitchen, clean floor

Make bread, might do a fruity one for breakfasts as well

Make Mash potato to go on top of sheperds pie from freezer

Bathroom, compleate clean

Im just going to finish my cuppa and have a quick nose on here first.

angie_baby

unixgirluk wrote: »

Angie, have you thought about signing up for mystery shopping? or seeing if your friends have anything that needs clearing out that could be ebayed but they havn't gotten around to by you for a share?

Thanks for the ideas, i tried ages to do some mystery shopping, but never had any feedback when i signed up, can even rember the name of it now.

I been signing up for all the bits on quidco, also some other bits like the surveys. Which reminds me to go and actully do them as i havent today. And the pigsback comps as well.

I will have a ask around, my dad might have a few bits. Im trying to get my boss to let me have all the junk around the office too. And the old/broken phones so i can either ebay or use envirphone (sp) on quidco.

angie_baby

Had quite a good weekend even though we have been skint. Spent the morning walking the dog which was quite good fun, even the rain. Well it was until DS sliped into the lake and got the hump as me and his grandad were laughing.

On the money side, i had £20 in change so i stocked up on a some fresh bits we needed. Am going to take in lunches for work and as its half term i can get a lift into work with my dad so that saves £2.40 a day, but on the other hand i need to find an extra £50 for childcare at the end of this week.

As im going in with dad at 7 it means an extra 1 1/2 hrs at work so the £10 a day challenge will be easy this week.

Going to spend the rest of the day having a bit of a tidy up and make a loaf for the frezzer. And we are having pizza for dinner tonight so i need to make the dough for the bases. Oh and some popcorn for DS later when we have a cosy up with a film later.

Have just got to get off of here first....

Uniscots97

Angie check out the freebies board too, lots of goodies there. I got a relaxing cd which has been put in a friend's birthday hamper. Last year's haul from the freebies board included :- men's gilette razor, ladies wilkonson razor, nivea body lotion, nivea hand lotion, original source shower gel, thorntons chocolatates, keyrings, SIM cards (PAYG), cinema tickets, foundation, mascara, chocolate, magazines and loads more. Its a great way of stocking up as well as having little bits for presents if you need them.