A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim wrote: »

Monday lunchtime. I logged onto my bank account to update my spreadsheet with my weekend spends and there were 61 pending transactions. :eek: 56 of them were to Google Play.

I immediately called the bank thinking I had been a victim of fraud, they put me through to Google. It turns out all the transactions were for one game. A game 10yo plays. I was arguing that I couldn't understand how it had happened as it was password protected and she doesn't have the password. On Friday evening MrM had let her have a £10 spend on the game, he'd left the password visible and she'd gone on a spending spree.

£649.44 :eek::mad:

Google were telling me there was nothing they could do as the transactions weren't fraudulent. I was devastated. MrM told his parents and luckily they put £600 into our bank account. We already have a "loan" with them so it's just been added to it and we're paying it back until the year dot.

Google have since refunded £55. I put a complaint in with Natwest as I felt although the transactions were authorised by a password, 56 transactions to one supplier in such a short space of time should have looked suspicious. They said they couldn't refund me, which I expected however they have given me £100 as a goodwill gesture :money:

Remember this back in November? Well I have been toing and froing with the game people on email since then and they have decided to refund the whole amount!

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Technically if the money is allocated to emergencies and birthdays, vets fees, car maintenance etc it is not savings and I agree you need to have money put aside for this. I would continue with this even while debt busting.

The overdraft really is a concern, firstly because it is quite high and secondly because these are now being targeted big time by banks both by them hiking overdraft rates and because an overdraft limit can be withdrawn at any time by the bank. You are doing the right thing by setting credit card repayments above the minimum, reducing the overdraft each month and saving for things.

I have decided to leave the refund game money in the account to help clear down the overdraft. Because I balance transferred a chunk of my Barclaycard debt to a new 0% card, Barclaycard haven't taken a payment this month. The usual payment is around £260 so I'm wondering whether to make a manual payment to Barclaycard anyway or leave that payment so it also clears against the overdraft. I've been playing with my spreadsheet and with these two payments and MrM's pay-rise to take into account, I reckon we can halve the overdraft by June.

I'm plodding along with my Prolific surveys. They were gung-ho just before the General Election but now are quite slow. I've got £7 to payout but think I'm going to hang on until it's a bit more substantial.

Not had many NSD's but also not spent much. They are from my Monzo personal monthly spend pot and I have £49 left to the end of the month. Just need to keep an eye on these small bit's drip, dripping out of my account.

10yo is moving up to Scouts in a couple of weeks so I need to budget the money in for new uniform. I'll see if I can get anything on eBay. At the moment there isn't a Scout troop in our area where she does cubs, they are setting it up and she will be one of the inaugural members. She's ecstatic about this.

No more to report for now. Stay frugal.

Naomim

Nothing too much to report at the moment. We're coming up to the middle of the month lull. I did check and see I get paid in two weeks time. Which is nice. Although MrM doesn't get paid until 31st. Not so nice.

14yo has just called me to say his trousers have ripped. I only bought two new pairs from M&S last week so I will be returning them as not fit for purpose. I've been very disappointed with M&S quality the last couple of years. Last year I bought 10yo pair of leather lace up brogues for school. She wore them for 4 days before the sole started coming away. However the Manager at the store tried to make out that we hadn't looked after them! :mad:

NSD yesterday but not today as spent £3 on a Mr T's lunch deal.

Big news = still not smoking :j 9 weeks smoke free. :T

I am however fighting the urge to look at holidays I know we can't afford it at all. But there it is, niggling away at me.

I think I have decided not to pay the Barclaycard this month after the BT and use that extra £260 to lower the overdraft. I was talking at work about the banks upping the interest fees on overdrafts, my boss looked decidedly peaky. I wonder how many people don't know. I wouldn't of if I wasn't on this site and by her own admission one of my colleagues who is constantly overdrawn said she doesn't read letters from the bank. Definitely got her head in the sand.

lunch break over, back to the grindstone.

Stay frugal

Naomim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Oh well done you on the not smoking - that's fantastic, and think of the benefits already, both health & financial! The holiday thing can be tricky - not least as there is SO much advertising around this time of year encouraging people to spend money they don't have on heading off to exotic places. What sort of things can you plan in for the time that you might otherwise go away that will give you something to look forward to?

Saving money towards known future expenses is budgeting, rather than saving. So for example if I pay £300 car insurance on the 1st August, I know I want to set aside £350 over the following year to pay the next lot, so I budget and set aside £30 a month but that money isn;'t "savings" as it's already allocated to the next year's car insurance, it's not being saved "just in case".

As for the overdraft thing, I'm sure you're right about how few people really know what is going on there!

I'm ok with not having a holiday. Last year we rented a cottage in Cornwall with the in-laws. We took my neice and my 14yo brought a friend. We did a kitty between us and split the cost of the cottage. I think including petrol the whole holiday cost around £1000 which is MUCH cheaper than the usual £4k+ we used to spend going abroad for two weeks. We did find a fantastic Lido not too far from us at home, but I'm struggling to remember where it was It was really reasonably priced for a family ticket and whole day out, we took a friend for the kids each and brought a massive picnic. I think it was the best thing we did all summer.

And of course you are all right about the budgeting. I need to stop looking at it as savings as it's there for a purpose. Although my budget has gone up the creek as I've just had to buy a text book for my course. £45!! It's a new one for this year but I'm hoping I'll be able to ebay it once I'm finished. I've just been in touch with Amazon to try and get my student prime back as it's £39 a year and very worth it at that price.

Managed to change 14's trousers with M&S at the weekend and had to get 10yo some more underwear so another £10 spent. It's also my nephew's birthday on Wednesday. We don't do Christmas presents for the nieces and nephew, only birthday. Almost at the end with his as we stop at 18 and this is his 17th birthday. Nando's vouchers it is! :rotfl:

Talking of budgeting. So far I'm under for my groceries... not a lot but under. Meal planning is going well and I definitely save shopping online. Next month I'm going to move it into a Monzo pot so I can actually see how I'm doing. I'm also going to play with my snowball and see if the figures come down from doing fixed payments.

Once again my lunch break is over

Stay frugal

Naomim