Silly student debt diary

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  • lashie
    lashie Posts: 70 Forumite
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    Card factory is great for cards, wrapping and gift bags if you have one near you. Cheapest I have ever found!
  • in_need_of_direction
    in_need_of_direction Posts: 7,284 Forumite
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    While it's a bit dearer normally, bhs has lots of gift wrap, etc half price at the minute. Btw, my dd, who worked for a few Christmases doing gift wrap recommends fashioning a card board box to fit your gift from whatever is to hand and you then have a regular shape to wrap that is a lot cheaper than gift bags. We have used everything from inside out cereal boxes to amazon boxes.
    Mortgage at 01.01.14 £119,481.83:eek: today £0 Emergency fund £5.5/5.5k & £200/200 cash.:jWeight 24/02/19 14st 7lb now 11st 8lb determined to stop defining myself by my mistakes. Progress not perfection.:T100%through my 1% mortgage challenge. 42.4% through my pb challenge.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    edited 12 December 2014 at 2:01PM
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    in_need_of_direction wrote: »
    While it's a bit dearer normally, bhs has lots of gift wrap, etc half price at the minute. Btw, my dd, who worked for a few Christmases doing gift wrap recommends fashioning a card board box to fit your gift from whatever is to hand and you then have a regular shape to wrap that is a lot cheaper than gift bags. We have used everything from inside out cereal boxes to amazon boxes.

    Yes this is what I'm thinking of doing! I hate wrapping things not in boxes. I got my first lot of wrapping from BHS but I've bought BF a very large electronic which ate up THREE rolls. I bought a selection from BHS but it was a bit of a rip off as you actually only got a few metres per "roll" rather than the standard 5m.

    Managed to dig some giftbags out of the cupboard so reused three already.

    Last night's christmas party was good. Got a cab home with 3 others so only cost £4 in the end. I need to put £2 in the Christmas Jumper charity pot today. I withdrew £20 last night expecting to have to get a cab on my own. So I'm going to try and make that last £12 last this weekend so I don't get any more cash out of the bank.

    Having a drama with eBay. Claiming I didn't send anything and the stupid receipt the shop gave me doesn't have the address on the receipt (the tracking doesn't show the exact address just "delivered"). Person was so rude and mucked me about, opened a case while the thing was still in transit then when I complained begged me not to message back as her husband would see it! Urgh.

    Did all the OnePoll surveys I could this morning. At £14.80£15.30 now, it goes up quite fast and it's easy to do on my tea breaks!

    Recommended 2 people in the office to Quidco. If they both sign up that's £5 done. I am cashing out all Quidco bonuses to Amazon vouchers as it means 6% added and we have Amazon Prime which I use for all household bits. So much cheaper than the highstreet and I can get things we need and presents for my Quidco bonus so that's good!
  • lcc86
    lcc86 Posts: 2,364 Forumite
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    Hi greensalad,

    I live in Surrey too and have a similar amount of debt, I'm subscribing, maybe we can reach our targets at the same time!! Good luck!!
    Save £3,000 emergency fund #79 - £2,073.28 as of 05/24
    Pay off credit card by December 2024 - £0/£2,000
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    lcc86 wrote: »
    Hi greensalad,

    I live in Surrey too and have a similar amount of debt, I'm subscribing, maybe we can reach our targets at the same time!! Good luck!!

    Surrey is such a nice place to live, but so expensive! It makes me cry when I see the rent payments of my friends in Manchester :( So cheap.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    edited 15 December 2014 at 11:19AM
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    Not the greatest spending weekend. In fact, I'm now pretty much broke until the 23rd.

    But ALL MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE. And the majority is wrapped! ALL done. Can't believe it's finally over. Now I just need to resist buying any little extras!

    Skipping going to London on Saturday with my friend. We are going to walk round Woking town instead as there is a French market. Mmm, cheese samples.

    23rd I will be paying off the following:

    £100 to CC no.1
    £125 CC no.2
    £116 to SLC

    That will bring me to 21% paid off. Getting there!

    Plus an £80 NI payment.

    Hopefully in a few months my electoral roll entry will update and I will have good enough credit to get a 0% balance transfer.

    Positive things

    1. It's now only 4 more payments until my bicycle finance is all paid off and I fully own my bike! That'll free up £44 a month :D

    2. BF has cancelled his Spotify so on the 18th I can set us up for Spotify Family, saving us £5.

    3. We ate chicken thighs on Friday night (tasty and cheaper than breasts). I put the leftovers (including the leeks and other veg leftovers!) in the slow cooker with the bones and skin to make chicken stock. Will use chicken stock for our Christmas Eve dinner which will be more chicken thighs but in a Port sauce. Going to try and use the Port I've bought for the cranberry sauce in a good way (instead of drinking it!)

    4. Christmas food shop is done. Managed to get groceries to last from next weekend until the New Year, and our Christmas recipe ingredients, and the booze we are taking to family Christmas for £81. Sounds a lot but I'm quite pleased as our weekly shop is usually £40 anyway, so £81 not bad for a week and a half plus Christmas.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    edited 16 December 2014 at 11:09AM
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    Yesterday

    Yesterday not so good. Bought a takeaway! Well, BF bought it for us. Still!

    Was hoping for a NSD yesterday, but I had to buy eye cream from the chemist as I have horrible dry rashes round my eyes, stress enduced!

    Had a really good day at work. Very pleased with the code I wrote yesterday, ended up staying 45 minutes over to finish it, which means I can get away with leaving an hour early tomorrow!

    Today

    NSD today. I've got lunch. BF pulled a sicky so is cooking dinner for us :)

    Tomorrow

    Going to the theatre tomorrow for my Auntie's birthday. £8 to spend on train tickets and might need some change on my Oyster card. Will grab dinner before I go to avoid spending on food.

    The future

    Payday is 23rd. Keeping to my debt plan and repaying:
    £81 to National Insurance
    £100 to CC no.1
    £125 to CC no.2
    £116 to SLC
    That means my January* repayment takes me to a total of 21% repaid of my goal.

    *I pay in late December and consider it "January" repayment
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Yesterday

    Truly was a NSD, woo!

    Today

    Theatre this evening. I have a quick ready meal thing to cook as soon as I get in, so I won't be tempted to eat when I'm out. But I do need to buy lunch as I have run out of soup.

    The future
    Best friend coming this weekend, hopefully we won't spend too much. We might go out for dinner, will use vouchers. I haven't seen her in so long.

    Getting excited about Christmas now, it's our work christmas meeting tomorrow, so that means no work at all, just watching presentations!
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Just did my SOA again after having tried hard over the last few months. I've been using money dashboard to help me see, but it's been a bit skewed because of Christmas and a recent holiday.

    I can still see that I am spending far too much on clothes. £150 a month, it seems. I tried to average this across the year.

    I really really need to reduce it, it's £1800 a year!

    So I am going to allow myself to only spend £400 a year on clothes, £100 maximum at the start of each new season (and if I don't need anything, then don't spend!), and a further £50 per year to spend on updating essential clothes (bras, socks and knickers). That should let me buy at least one new bra a year and a few pairs of socks and knickers (I really need to update as my socks are all so old!!)

    I will do the sock/bra/knicker update with January paycheque. I don't need any winter clothes. I will wait until March when I'll allow myself to reassess my wardrobe and see if I need any cooler clothing.

    I also need to assess what I'm doing regarding Christmas present shopping. This year has really wiped me out, and it seems sensible to tuck away a little each month to pay for it, but then it doesn't make sense while I'm still paying off credit cards. So perhaps I'll just have to keep paying it off and wait until I'm debt free before I work on a Christmas saving pot.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    £16.65 on OnePoll now.

    Work gave us big Christmas hampers so no need to buy any snacks for this weekend (my friend is visiting) as we have so much food!

    Stuff coming this weekend to make Christmas desserts. I'm making trifle, and also a quiche.

    Was supposed to be a NSD today but I forgot my lunch :( so I'll have to save my homemade pizza for Monday lunch.
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