LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

lonelyrat · 3 March 2018 at 6:29PM

Just checked and the flights have been refunded. Now just waiting on the bus tickets but have had confirmation from CityLink that refund will be issued within 7 working days. Will keep my eyes peeled :cool:

Feeling very positive on the debt busting front today. I think being off work just has me in a good mood in general :rotfl: Less than two weeks to payday

Plan is to do £650 to the Santander card to bring it down to £1000. May be a tad bit ambitious and as always I'm not sure how much I will end up getting paid. But I think it's an amount I should (hopefully) comfortably manage. As ever things are open to change once I see my payslip.

Still snowing here - I actually feel like it's never going to end. Will be venturing out for a walk once OH gets his bum in gear.

105 days

Poor_Single_lady · 3 March 2018 at 11:41PM

Hello. I have been reading your diary recently. Mostly lurking. Hope you are getting on ok. Not sure where you are based or if it would be a bit soon for you and they may have rehomed them already.

But somebody in Leicester abandoned 4 rats at 2 months old in a box in and RSPCA are looking for new home and to rehouse them all together.

They say they are quite timid and looking for a nice home. There was an article on the internet but I can't paste the link.

Not very mse friendly tho sorry if I'm s bad influence! xx

Silver_Queen · 4 March 2018 at 8:59AM

It’s so nice to have the time off even if you aren’t going away! And on the plus side, you’re going to be so far ahead on the debt busting front!

lonelyrat · 4 March 2018 at 10:42PM

Hey PSL... Hope my ramblings haven't been too boring! I'm such a lurker as well. I do pop up every now and again on other threads but it isn't that regular. I'm just a creep by nature it seems

Thanks for the tip about the ratties. Unfortunately we won't be taking in anymore. It's just too hard mentally to say goodbye and it's easy to try and fill the hole that they leave with new babies... But then you just have to go through it all over again. We've decided that these two boys are our last

Which is a shame as they are just such lovely pets... But mentally I don't think I can take any more losses!

Yeah Silver Queen I am very much enjoying being off! Had thought about going back in today but woke up and promptly changed my mind! I've also decided I'll take one more day and won't go back until Tuesday. I'm working the upcoming bank holidays (double time and a half :cool:) and will get days back in lieu so think I can stretch my annual leave and still have tomorrow off. I really don't want to go back!

Done zip all today. Changed the bed and gave the room a bit of a tidy but that's about it

Have not unpacked the suitcase still. That will now be a task for tomorrow. Plans for tonight are to watch Netflix with the ratties and maybe OH if he runs out of steam playing video games. We've been together three years today and we marked the occasion by taking a romantic walk to Tesco to see if they had any bread :rotfl:

104 days

lonelyrat · 8 March 2018 at 10:07PM

Am feeling generally very boring and poor at the moment. Have 61p left in my Monzo (that'll buy me loads :rotfl:) and just over £12 in change in my purse.

OH got his student finance yesterday so today we went to Asda after I finished work and he got his food for a week and a half (I have so much food in the fridge/ freezer so I didn't need to get anything). The plan was to do it for £25 but he didn't manage that and spent £35 instead

He didn't meal plan before going and I think that's where it all went a bit wrong... I'm going to have a look at the receipt and see what the most expensive things were and see how to combat that for next time. I feel relaxed knowing we don't need to do a food shop in a while and knowing he's sorted AND it's a lot less than he would normally spend after getting his finance. Baby steps, baby steps.

OH got a letter through today from one of his Credit Card providers (one he paid off in Jan) telling him they're upping his limit by £350 due to the way he manages his card :mad: This will not be happening. There's a line at the end about 'responsible lending' which really ground my gears.

Applied for a new role at my work today. Bit of a spur of the moment decision.... Someone on my team mentioned it to me so we've both gone for it! Should hear back within 2 weeks whether or not I'll be considered. It's still a low/ entry level job but there would be a pay rise and I'd be dealing with corporate customers rather than regular customers which could be an interesting change of pace. It would be full time again but the hours would be a lot better than my current role at FT. Finishing no later than 5.30 and Monday - Friday which would be lovely. Not going to get my hopes up too much but still feeling proud of myself fo applying. Would actually be really, really nice to go back to getting paid a decent amount again :rotfl:

Today is 100 days till I'm debt free and it feels good :cool: Will feel even better being under 100. Got a week (or a week and a day - unsure) until payday and then i'll make some payments. Very excited to get the Santander card to £1000.

No plans for this evening. OH currently working on his dissertation (FINALLY) and I'm just faffing around watching TV. Just done my first survey on Prolific in a while - a whopping 40p.

lonelyrat · 9 March 2018 at 3:43PM

99 days jjdhfdjfh dhfhdjfdhfd jdfjjdjfdj

lonelyrat · 10 March 2018 at 11:44PM

Not an NSD - went to Tesco and got OH's mum some chocolates and card and was going to get her flowers too but saw a lovely orchid for £8 which was just actually cheaper than the flowers I liked (I'm a flower snob

) so got that instead. An orchid will last longer than flowers so really an MSE decision? Probably not. We did half in so not too bad.
OH abandoned me in the card aisle... He just said "you're dealing with this" and wandered off :eek: I was less than impressed! But he did buy some wine so all was forgiven

Currently watching TV with a (large) glass and lurking on diaries. Off work tomorrow so I can justify it, kind of?

Getting very excited for pay day - less than a week now :cool: Not had any notification about bonus amount which is strange. Last bonus was September and I'm sure I found out about 2 or 3 weeks before payday how much I was due.

I also had a look on an external job site for the role I've applied for (as the internal site doesn't specify salary) and it actually seems to pay £400 less than my role at full time. I'm not sure if that's a mistake (hopefully) on the external site or not as I'm sure Corporate used to earn more than Retail. Am confused... I would still go for it even if it did pay less as I would like to go full time again if the hours were more suitable. I need to stop thinking about it as I seem to be getting ahead of myself! I won't hear back for weeks about the application and even then I probably won't be successful. Reign it in Lonely.

Debt busting wise I think I'm going to join the Payment A Day challenge. Currently I round down my balance after making card payments (as I'm obsessive about numbers looking right) and pay into a savings account but I do then end up taking the money out and using it. What I'll do instead is round down to a, pleasing, balance and pay it to the Santander card. I'm not going to join until I get paid next week as currently I don't have any money to make payments.... So would be off to a rather shocking start!

Very excited for payments this month... It will be the end of the dreaded RBS Loan. It's been a year and a half of £102.81 and nothing to show for it apart from a Sofa which is currently getting damp in the shed :rotfl: I cannot wait to be free of it. Having an extra £100 a month will make a really big difference to getting the rest of the debt paid down. Especially if, worst case scenario, I don't get the new job so stay part time and can't pick up overtime. Gotta make my £750 a month work harder!

98 days , almost 97

lonelyrat · 12 March 2018 at 11:44PM

Asked my line manager about bonus today and he emailed me my figure - £522 and some pennies. Not too bad. I got slightly more the last few times with the same performance rating but that was before I went part time. I should also have about £80 - 90 of overtime as well so this month is looking like it will be nice and healthy. I did do some working out and it looks like I'll maybe be just over £1100... Which used to be what I earned every month

I miss having that much money. Still keeping my fingers and toes crossed about the new role.

Excited to join the payment a day challenge once payday rolls around... I've actually started it a wee bit (just with pennies) to get into the swing of it. I'm finding looking at the Santander card balance and it not being in multiples of 5 quite stressful though. Need to just push past it. £1647.5 is better than £1650.

Been feeling pretty sick today... Nausea and weird tummy cramps all day at work so got in bed when I got home and haven't left it really. OH ordered an Indian for dinner which was lovely but didn't do much to help my poor, crampy tummy. Will I ever learn? The diet is now well and truly screwed... I boiled chicken myself but did have rice and sauce from the Indian .... probably the least healthy bit

Need to try really, really hard to shift some weight so going to go hard with it as of tomorrow (always as of tomorrow :rotfl:). I'm going to see my Dad in England in mid April and he always comments on my weight and I want for once for him not to have anything bad to say. Or at least less bad than usual.

Off work tomorrow and have no plans currently. I am so, so boring. Might take the dog to the Lochs again but all depends on how much dissertation OH gets done. It's due in April and he's hardly done anything. I'm actually getting so stressed out.... Purely because I remember what it was like when I was doing mine and it's bringing back all these anxious memories. He's just quite far behind where he should be at this point. He's still only on his introduction chapter :eek:

We've banned computer games until it's all finished so hopefully a few weeks without playing with his friends and he'll be feeling very motivated to get it done.

96 days until I'm debt free and only 4 days until payday (I think).

lonelyrat · 13 March 2018 at 3:45AM

95 days. Although the very, very early hours of.

Suddenly full of beans when I've been feeling exhausted all day. Not sure what's happened there but am not enjoying it :rotfl: Going to put some Netflix on and turn the lights off and see what happens. Wish me luck

lonelyrat · 13 March 2018 at 1:58PM

Didn't end up falling asleep until about 4. I just had so much energy, literally no idea where it came from

Woke up at 10 which isn't too bad considering. Determined to have a productive day and an early night as back in work tomorrow.

Today
1. Insurance
- Print claim form
- Contact Easyjet for confirmation no other flight was available
- Query excess (policy said £0 but they're now saying £75? No idea why. I do not understand insurance).
2. Message friend from University to meet up
3. Add upcoming shifts to calendar
4. Re-organise wardrobe/ chest of drawers as is (once again) a mess
5. Hoover
6. Shower (+ dry and straighten hair)
7. Call resourcing (missed a call from them earlier today and am now scared to call back).

Made a little payment to my Santander card today and also put 2p into a savings 'pot' with Monzo. Am going to be trying to get a savings habit started. Yesterday was 1p, today 2p, tomorrow 3p etc. It's not a lot but am hoping I will get into the swing of saving regularly. Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the debt busting I wan't to start getting into the mindset of saving. BUT I also don't want to get ahead of myself... I found myself doing a 'future savings' tab on my Excel and it was easy to get carried away. I can't wait until my money is my money again though. Ashamedly that hasn't been the case since I started University. I think there was one summer when I was working in a bar and making quite a lot so ended up paying off my student overdraft but I'm sure as soon as Uni started again I was back in it. It will feel good knowing I literally don't owe anyone anything.

Today will not be an NSD... Going to walk up to Aldi and get some fizzy water and squash. Trying to cut out the coke and find fizzy squash is a good alternative. I have a few £ change left in my purse so will just be using that. Good thing too as I am so, so very low on money. I usually like to leave a buffer in my direct debit account of about £25. I do technically have an overdraft on that account but haven't ever been in it so don't count it. With the small payments I've been making the buffer has been depleted to only a few pounds which is making me a bit nervous!

LonelyRat's (not so lonely) Road to Riches

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