PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint · 1 June 2012 at 6:36PM

I have just noticed that I mentioned in an earlier post that I had nearly finished paying off the Crapital One card - that one became history in February! :j

atush · 1 June 2012 at 6:43PM

Pig, good to see you are making progress, and have fun on the Uni open days.

My OH tried to take Twin 1 to one last saturday, and despite having to pay 2 airfares, and car hire, the flights were cancelled. Couldn't book the ferries as they were all full. So have lost about 200 quid.

Will try to get the airfare back, but not guaranteed. It was a day trip, and a flight did eventually go 8 hours later, but was too late to get to the open day and back to the AP for the return flight so they gave up.

PigginSkint · 2 June 2012 at 1:41PM

Ouch Atush! I bet that stung! It's one thing spending a lot of money when it is in a good cause, but when you don't actually get anything out of it - you have my utmost sympathy.

We are having to travel quite a distance for the ones for DS because he wants to do marine biology and we are about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in the UK.

I did look at train or coach for the open days. The coach was a no go for the journey times anyway, but I discovered that it was considerably cheaper to hire a car, even with the cost of the petrol.

PigginSkint · 6 June 2012 at 11:31AM

First day back at work today, after a week off sick - thank goodness for the bank holidays as they gave me an extra 2 days to recover! I have to say that this feels like the last place I want to be today! Chest infection, asthma, and to cap it all a migraine yesterday - will be very glad to go home today.

I managed to host an intimate afternoon tea party yesterday - just me, OH, DS, my Dad, stepmother and youngest brother - to celebrate the Jubilee. Luckily I did all my baking on Monday afternoon and evening so I didn't have to do too much yesterday - just making the odd pot of tea, a few sandwiches for those who had not had lunch, dished out a few cakes and then we all collapsed on the sofa watching the telly.

OH played a gig at a local village festival for the Diamond Jubilee in the pouring rain on Sunday afternoon - rather wet and cold but I think everyone had a good time. Luckily I just about got myself together to drive the hire car home on Saturday morning (so that we had transport to get to the festival) but spent all of Saturday afternoon asleep on the sofa!

Oh well, I had better do some work.

Bye all!

PigginSkint · 7 June 2012 at 2:35PM

Hi All:hello:

Day 2 back at work and I am just so tired! :(I am doing my very best to get some productive work done, but it is a very slow process – my brain just doesn’t want to play. Also I just can’t get motivated – I would really much rather being at home. I am beginning to think that I should have let the doctor sign me off until the end of this week, to give me a bit longer to recover – too late to worry about that now though! As it is, I am having to avoid stairs (there are lot between home and work!) because I just haven’t got the strength to cope with them – I am having to use lifts wherever possible (much as I hate them).

The weather is so grim it doesn’t help. When I got off the train last night, the rain was coming down in stair rods. I had planned to walk to the bus stop (perhaps stopping off at Aldi on the way to do some shopping) but I realised that I was going to get soaked just doing that – even with the long coat, waterproof walking shoes and umbrella. As I didn’t to feel up to walking anyway, I decided to get a taxi home just this once – luckily there is a taxi firm booking office and taxi rank at the station, so they got one to me within a minute. I was home in time for Pointless!:D

I suppose I ought to report on some money news. There is not much to tell at the moment, but my thoughts are definitely moving towards plans for our holiday – just over 6 weeks to go (not that I am counting or anything!). :DWe will be camping in Wales again – same site that we have been to for the past 2 years, because we just love it! I booked the site and car hire a couple of weeks ago – this is the last time that I will be able to pay for DS at child rates as he will be 18 in October. This year, site fees for DS are £37 (for 13 nights) – if he had been 18 already the cost for him would have been £111 – next year is going to be a bit of shock! Of course the main cost for our holiday is the cost of the car, which will be more expensive this year – an extra £10 a day to add OH as an additional driver. I always go for the extra insurance (but I get a special rate for that – because I always tell them that they usually give me a special rate!) - I could save money by not having it (the excess if anything went wrong would be much larger), but I would much rather have the peace of mind. All in all, I have worked out that the cost of the car hire this year will be not much short of £1K. :eek:That will sting a little bit, but it is still probably cheaper than going abroad (I don’t know – I haven’t been abroad in years so I don’t know how much it would cost for 2 weeks abroad in the main summer holidays) and it is certainly considerably cheaper than buying a car! (That’s what I keep telling myself!) And anyway, camping is what we love to do!

I am starting to formulate plans in my head about how to manage everything money-wise while we are away. As always, I shall use my debit card for food shopping and other small expenses. Everything else will go on the credit card. There is a very good reason for this – we will be on a campsite with no electric and no computers for 2 weeks (we could have these, but I choose not to!) so I won’t have my spreadsheets or access to internet banking to monitor everything. Therefore, I have to be careful not to spend too much so I don’t risk dipping into the overdraft (feels weird saying that – for several years what I would have mentioned is not risking going over the overdraft limit!). :j

In addition, I need to give some thought to the payments that will go out of my bank account before, during and immediately after our holiday. I think it will be minimum payments only for most of my credit cards (with the exception of the one that OH gives me money to pay – because it is all his debt – which will stay at its normal level of £70 per month). For the rest of the year I pay more than the minimum for my regular monthly payments and at least 3 of my cards get additional payments as well during the month.

Another thing I need to consider is the regular payments I make into various savings pots (done by weekly standing order). The one for the Camping and Caravanning Club membership fee is already down to £1 a month rather than £1 a week, because I have already saved up for this year’s fee. The one for DS’s driving lessons really needs to stay at £10 a week, because I need to make sure there is enough to pay for them. The savings pots for presents and holiday costs are currently £5 a week so do I change them, perhaps to monthly? My ISA is only £5 a week so I don’t know whether to leave it as it is or change it on a temporary basis (it is not earmarked for anything in particular but it is useful to have in case of any unexpected expenses). The house maintenance fund is currently £10 week (increased from its previous level of £5 a week) as we are saving up for a new dishwasher, but I suppose I could change that, just while we are away. Hmmmm – decisions, decisions! I don’t really want to change any of them, but I need to consider that I shall want to pay off all the holiday costs as soon as possible after we come back – especially as I am still paying off little bits from last year and the year before! I shall have to give this matter a little more thought!:think:

In other money news, I have remembered that I really need to read my electric meter as I have just had an estimated bill for quite a bit more than I have already paid them – I pay monthly by direct debit. My gas one is fine but I need to see how much I really owe them and then make a decision about how to pay them back. My preference would be just to increase the DD payment to cover the additional cost.

Right, that turned into a bit of an essay so I think I will sign off for now!:wave:

Bye all!

PigginSkint · 13 June 2012 at 4:14PM

Hi All

I have decided to take the plunge and ditch WW and give SW a try instead – seriously need to lose some blubber so I have got to try something. A friend at work has been doing SW for the last few weeks and has already lost 9 lbs while eating a remarkable amount – that sounds like my kind of diet! Since WW changed its system, I have been unable to stick to it properly because I get so hungry as a result of eating so little.

I have decided to have a go at online only and see how I go – when I was at WW we had several defectors from SW because they didn’t like the way the meetings were run. I have decided to go for bronze membership (which excludes the magazine subscription, which I could always buy separately if I feel so inclined, and the books – all the information is contained in the downloads anyway). The full price is, I think, £79.95 (give or take a couple of pence). Currently there is a special offer, saving £20, taking it down to £59.95. On top of that, I bought a magazine for a couple of quid (I forget the exact cost) the other week, which contains a code to knock an extra £5 off the price, taking it down to £54.95. :money:

The best bit of this is that I happened to have just the right amount in one of my online savings pots, so I have been able use my debit card for this (transferring the money from the savings account to my current account) instead of using a credit card. :money:Very pleased with myself about this! :j

I am having a bit of an expensive month at the moment and I had a bit of a shock when I updated my ‘current month' spreadsheet yesterday – there is not as much spare money this months as in other months. I was a bit down-hearted about this until I considered the reasons:

I now have a full ‘batch’ of regular outgoings again (having had 2 months off paying for my council tax and 2 months off paying for my travel pass)
I took out a new loan to pay off my overdraft, which means that debt is actually going down instead of staying the same, which it had done for several years!
I am making some quite significant overpayments to various debts, including quite a large one (double what I normally pay and 5 times the minimum payment) for my IF card this month, bringing the balance down to below £1000 (from over £2.5K). Considering this is one my lower priority debts (low balance, low min. payment, low APR for life of balance) I think this is pretty good going.
A few out of the ordinary out-goings (jubilee, car hire and petrol, new clothes for the first time in ages, some new camping kit and walking boots, organic veg delivery – which I only have at most once every 2 months)
I am putting quite a lot of money every month into various savings pots (so that I have money ready for various things, instead of having to use my credit card for all those additional expenses)

I think I should stop beating myself up quite so much and realise how much I have achieved! :T

It is nearly time to go home so I shall sign off now.

Bye All!:wave:

PigginSkint · 15 June 2012 at 3:13PM

Hi All :hello:

What grotty weather! And it looks like we are stuck with it for the rest of the weekend. Groan! Luckily I haven’t got to go far this weekend – just a trip to the bank and a bit of shopping tomorrow morning. My Dad is away this weekend so there will be no point going to his house on Sunday to take him his Father’s Day card!

I have got that Friday afternoon feeling when I have just run out of steam and can’t get motivated to do any more work, so I thought I would have a quick pit-stop and write a diary update.

At lunchtime I finally got round to phoning my bank to get the relevant details to set up a standing order to make overpayments on my loan. I just need to go on my internet banking when I get home to set it up – I would have done it at lunch time but you have to be by your phone in order to receive the call to complete the process. I am at work so my home phone was no good, I managed to accidentally leave my mobile at home this morning and my work phone wasn’t set up as contact number – it is now, but there is a delay of 7 days before a new number can be used for setting up new payment instructions etc. I shall just set it up for £5 weekly to start with and then in increase it once we are back from holiday. It is a really good feeling to be tackling this particular debt (the loan I took out to pay off my very large overdraft). :j

The SW journey seems to be going well – I hopped on the scales this morning, just to reassure myself that nothing horrid was going on (I felt in need of convincing that I am able to eat as much I am and still lose weight) and I was 2 pounds less than when I weighed myself earlier in the week! Happy days! :jI just need to relax and try not to be tempted to weigh in again until I am meant to!

Right, I suppose I had better attempt to do some more work!

Bye all and hope you all have a good weekend!

PigginSkint · 18 June 2012 at 1:27PM

Hi All

Well I finally got round to setting up a standing order for overpayments on my loan – just £5 weekly to start with, I can always tweak it up or down as needed according to how much spare money I have got. The first payment went out today.

Things are going to be very tight this week – I have tried to spend as little as possible this weekend, but it was difficult as there were a number of things that had run out grocery-wise that needed to be replenished. The 3rd week of the month is always the hardest for me as nearly everything has gone out (bills all tend to be during the first half of the month) but not everything has gone in – OH gets paid weekly so his contribution to the family finances gets paid into my bank account on a weekly basis.

Because I have updated my phone numbers on my internet banking, I have to wait 7 days before I can amend any standing orders online. I know full well that I am going to have to use some of the money that I have in savings accounts to assist matters this week (luckily transfers happen instantly) rather than amend a standing order, I shall have to transfer some money back again once it has gone out.

I have decided that I probably shan’t touch my driving lesson pot, nor probably my presents pot or holiday pot (not this side of my holiday anyway). However, I shall definitely use what’s in my ISA (not a lot at the moment as I used what was in there to pay for SW) as that is for sundry/emergency expenses anyway. Also, I think it is not unreasonable to use some of the money in my house maintenance pot. I shall have to monitor my bank account very closely to work out what needs to be paid in and when – a lot hangs on when my last WW payment will go out (I think there is one more to pay) which I think will be sometime this week. Things will definitely improve once OH’s next payment goes into my account on Saturday morning – I may even be able to make some overpayments after that!

Right, I had better get on with some work now.

Bye all!

PigginSkint · 19 June 2012 at 2:07PM

Hi All

I decided to attempt a solution to my temporary ‘financial embarrassment’

– I went onto my internet banking today to see if I could amend some of my standing orders so that I could just skip a week (most of my standing orders are weekly) and discovered that I could! I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it because of changing my contact telephone numbers the other day, but luckily it let me do it. I didn’t bother changing any of the ones that I have already gone out this week, nor the monthly one due out on Saturday (seems a weird day for a standing order) because it is only for £1, but there were 2 due out tomorrow (a total of £15) and another 2 due out on Friday (a total of another £15) which I have managed to just skip this week, so the next payments will be next week. It’s not something that I really wanted to do, but needs must. That definitely gives me some breathing space – it comfortably leaves me enough to do any essential food shopping this week. Phew!

I had a bit of a shock last night – albeit a pleasant one. During a discussion about opening bank statements (mine don’t usually get much further than me opening the envelope, peering inside and saying to myself, ‘oh yes, it’s my bank statement’ because I check mine daily online), OH revealed that he does actually use his internet banking....daily! :money:I should have been sitting down really! I think I might actually be having an influence on him. Regular readers of this diary will know that OH’s money-management skills (or lack of) have had me tearing my hair out on numerous occasions!

Right, back to work now.

Bye all!

PigginSkint · 13 July 2012 at 3:01PM

Hi All

I have now updated by sig with my 1st July figures - it's not as good as I hoped because we have hired cars 3 times in the last month (jubilee weekend and 2 university open day trips), plus petrol and OH had to have new glasses. Having said that, when I updated the percentages in my sig they were not much different - total non-mortgage debt stayed at 47% reduced (was 47.34%, now 47.09%) and the total credit card debt only moved by 1% (actually it was less - was 31.83% now 31.0%). So I suppose in the scheme of things, it isn't too bad.

1st August figures (when I do them) won't be great, but that's OK because we are going on holiday in 9 DAYS TIME!!! I really can't wait! The car hire is by far the most expensive part of the holiday (it will be close to £1K this time) but it will be worth it!

Time to do some work now!

Bye all!

PigginSkint's DFW Diary

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