Silly student debt diary

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  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Yesterday

    5:2 diet was absolutely fine. Great even. I found it so much easier than I thought and actually wasn't interested in finishing my tiny dinner. Protein is definitely the key. Only consumed 600 calories yesterday (it's supposed to be 500 for women but I'm as heavy as a man so I'm doing it with the BF's numbers!)

    Today

    NSD sort of. I am going to go and buy something extra at lunch as I'm not managing to get up to my calories. But I will use change in my pocket that BF gave me for something the other day. So I'm counting it as a NSD as no money comes from my bank ;)

    Tomorrow

    Nothing interesting happening :(

    The future

    Still relying on the plan to clear my OD in one month.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Quick design job came through. He paid 30% deposit and I've already worked up the first design so pleased with that :) Set aside the tax immediately from his deposit so when the rest comes in it's mine :D I'm sticking everything in a savings account at the moment because I don't want a repeat of December where I overstretched my repayments and then ended up short just on living. I'm going to set aside everything for debt repayment over the month and then only pay it off once I actually have my next lot of salary.

    If this job goes well and he wins the pitch with my design then I'm hoping he'll come back to me to design the full site and possibly build. The whole site and build could total about £650 on top of what I have already charged. And if he likes me he says he has another redesign job coming up :)
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Very pleased! Success today regarding Talk Talk and their bill. This is what happens when I don't bury my head in the sand.

    As an update, TT sent me a bill for £41 out of the blue. I had TT at my old property but I moved out in July 2014 and thought I had cancelled. Well it looks like I had a final payment of £21 to pay which I wasn't told about. They had then slapped on an extra charge of £20 for "late payment fees" despite the fact I hadn't heard anything from them. I'm assuming they sent the bill to my old property.

    Well I was pretty peeved so I paid the £21 (which I rightfully owed) but refused to pay the £20 fee. I just wrote them a letter saying I wasn't paying it.

    Got a very apologetic email back saying they've credited my account with £20 and I'm therefore back to zero, and the account has been closed. Yay! This is what happens when I get my !!!! into gear and just say NO.
    This isn’t the kind of experience we want you to have with TalkTalk, and we’ll do all we can to put things right for you.

    I have checked your account details and can confirm that your account has been disconnected on 21/07/2014. I also see that we have received a payment of £21.38 on 10.01.2015.

    Please be informed that I've applied a credit of £20.00 to your account. The amount has been adjusted with the current outstanding bill. The current balance on your account is £00.00.
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Didn't manage a NSD today as I purchased some dressmaking patterns. I have all the other bits for them, so for £16 I should be able to make some more clothes and keep myself entertained! I've been getting a bit bored in the evenings since the Christmas rush is over.
  • AleMrsT
    AleMrsT Posts: 577 Forumite
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    Awesome news about the Talk Talk account :T
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    Ooh exciting news. just found out Three mobile is adding Spain to their feel-at-home deal which means I can use data in Spain. Great for me, I decided to switch from Orange this month and I'll be signing up for Three on the 26th January. Off to Spain in July so perfect! More money saving!
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    I keep writing posts then accidentally closing the tab!

    Yesterday

    Finished design work for client, sorted out lots of washing and had a chance to chill out for the first time in a while. All good!

    Today

    Fast day today, second of this week. Need to go to supermarket to get lunch so a SD today.

    Client was happy with my work and paid this morning.

    Used £45 to pay off my spa day for my birthday from my credit card. I know I'm not supposed to be using my CC to buy things, but it made sense as I was waiting for my friend to pay me back and needed to get it booked quick. So it's all paid off, and only the day after :)

    £180 in the "savings" pot to be used for debt repayment on the 28th. As I said before, I am not paying it immediately as I don't want to overstretch myself if something goes wrong, so am setting it aside and paying my debts when I get paid and know I have money to get through.

    Tomorrow

    Not much planned but will need to buy dinner as BF is at work Friday night.

    The future

    Still aiming for project overdraft pay-off in February!
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    edited 19 January 2015 at 12:20PM
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    I wrote a big long post reviewing everything, and then it deleted it all when I hit reply. Soooo....

    NSD tomorrow, got a £90 design job to do this week, bought sewing supplies but out of money made from selling crafts so it never hit the bank, good all round :)
  • beckie89
    beckie89 Posts: 47 Forumite
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    Sounds like you're doing really well! It's handy having design work to help increase the income...I'm trying to do the same too. Do you freelance through any particular channels?

    Keep up the good work!
    Debt Free by Christmas '15 £0/£4452.28
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
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    beckie89 wrote: »
    Sounds like you're doing really well! It's handy having design work to help increase the income...I'm trying to do the same too. Do you freelance through any particular channels?

    Keep up the good work!

    I'm not really using anything in particular at the moment as I'm too busy to take on lots of work. At present some work is coming from an old colleague (who left to have a baby and now helps run the marketing on her sister and partners businessess). I did both websites for her when we worked together so now I just do updates, she's just asked for a redesign.

    The other is a contact through a web forum who is local.

    However I have used PeoplePerHour before - I submitted an awful lot of things and never got a response but then I finally got chosen for something and it turned into a regular income stream (about £60 a month worth of leaflet design) so you can find work via PPH. I ended up giving it up in my final year of uni because I couldn't keep up, wish I had it back now!

    Having a good presence on Twitter also helps. Getting involved with web design or print forums so you can be there as "the designer" is also good. You just need to let everyone know that you can do that sort of stuff. Before you know it people are saying "oh my niece is a designer!" or whatever. It works!
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