Bah, let myself get drowning in work catchup and didn't pay in enough money to cover one final direct debit. Cue bank charge. Beyond fed up, will just have to swallow it, at least they won't bill me before the end of the second bank holiday this month by which time I will have been paid again.
Bah, let myself get drowning in work catchup and didn't pay in enough money to cover one final direct debit. Cue bank charge. Beyond fed up, will just have to swallow it, at least they won't bill me before the end of the second bank holiday this month by which time I will have been paid again.
don't know if you know about this or not, but if your bank charge you the standard £35 then you can claim it back. Here's a link that gives you everything you need to claim it back if you don't.
Things are reasonable at the moment, seeing as it's the 18th tomorrow that's only 15 days to pay day now. Not even worried about interest rates given the stuff I'm giving up to save cash.
It's less a case of saving, than making the most of the money when it's spent IE getting out at the weekend and using the travelcard which has been paid for to go to work, to see the films for which I've already subscribed. Electric bill has arrived and when I send in the correct reading I won't get much change out of £100, then again I'd grown lax when it came to leaving on my Freeview box and all those other little things that trickle out energy overnight.
The first issue of my £1 subscription to a mag arrived as a different one finished. Got to make sure the letter to cancel with the two week notice deadline is ready. Will be back on Ebay because I have one set of operating system software too many and if I put it up tonight, it'll have the bank holiday traffic for bids. The last copy I bought was the Home Edition in January, so now I have Media Centre as well, one of them can go. No qualms about it, it won't even take a decimal place from Micro$oft's 18billion and it's another dent in the bills. Even though the £100 I managed to pull back must go on my electric bill, it can sit in my ISA until the weekend and then I'll pay it.
Disaster! I have three cards with the same firm, I paid the wrong totals online for two of them so one is now in credit by a fiver and the other's £100 short. The third I only pay by post.
I've had enough of it now. Standing order set up on the underpaid card so I would only receive an interest hit if I managed to forget, instead of a late fee. There is one more balance transfer to be done at the end of June, but it's the only one.
Cut up two cards and transferred the linked fees (internet/itunes/Paypal) over to the newer ones. I can see that the trend is more towards interest free on purchases rather than a balance transfer, and it's better discipline to pay them off and leave them behind, and enjoy no interest on what you buy anyway but be able to control repayments.
It's annoying to have the money in the bank but then there's a card to pay off, so the money never gets to your ISA. Everything has to be sorted by the end of this, not just the cards, but the ISA, the pension, the works.
Triumph! Sold some computer software not through Ebay so no charges, and by the time the money arrives it'll tide me through the final week of the month.
It's part financing my final treat - Muse live at Wembley, paid in two instalments. My final final treat and that's it.
Pay day tomorrow, scratch two cards which have been cut up and when the strike has finished, pieces will be posted back to the respective lenders. Like the last surplus will try to put it through my ISA first of all. Now the trick is to ensure none of the routine costs rise above what's expected and at the end of July, I'll be a very happy man.
The final big debt's been transferred again...for the final time. Still interest free and not going to keep the card it was transferred from. Would have been nice to try to retain the Nationwide card but there isn't going to be another overseas holiday until I'm debt free so I can re-apply at the time.
Excellent- I like this thread, it is a really interesting accoutn of something I think many people should do.
Personally I am OK for money, I earn good salary and my outgoings are fairly limited. I am tempted however to do a similar thing and really just cut out my silly spending- I 'fritter' away money that I could easily save.
I buy my lunch every day- if I saved that money I would probably save about £30 a week. That is well over a grand a year!
I pay too much money for my car insurance- I had a cheaper quote but it was easier to stick with my providor as I was very busy at the time and needed to get it sorted quickly.
Sure there are mor but I just cant think of them yet!
The only explosions that went off this weekend have been in my bank account!
Three cards...paid off. Paying the last one with the biggest payable balance on it, gave me a rush for 30 seconds before the inevitable "Now I've got no money" feeling.
The fact that I couldn't save any of the extra to run through my ISA will be a lesson, no point making interest next March if I'm incurring 10-13% more of it right now, to my detriment. Best drop the financial nuke!
Final card balance...transferred onto Natwest's Interest Free until August 08 deal, but I've no intention of leaving it on there that long. Still did the minimum payment on the old card so as not to gamble, so there will be a £7 credit for the final month I will have the old card - will treat myself to something on that, and it can be cut up after the August bank hol.
All other outgoings are interest free and budgeted. That means no fun in July but screw it, my fun is pre-paid at the cinema and when I'm on a travelcard I have to make the most of it by seeing stuff.
The money from the computer software sale is safe in another account for now, and that'll have to go to my ISA. Will have to move all DDs to the one single account so my monthly phone bill will have to change. The mobile phone company finally coughed up my cashback so that cheque can go straight to the ISA and just not be considered as active money at all.
That leaves any potential utility bill to contend with but definitely the Council Tax which will be a decision - I have put it on credit card because it's the first year they've allowed it, and because I don't want my debit card details on the net for transactions even if I bank online.
Ok this is neither triumph nor disaster, just plain freaky. Got my mobile phone cashback, which I'm about to pay in today by cheque.
My final credit card bill and electric bill add up to 10p short of the same amount. So I really am living to my means, and the big bill payout's going to constrain July to the cinema only, once again. Have returned to Ebay by picking up something I bought at a discount that I will flog again near the end of the month to get that pin money back, starting small and building up. Any profit's a bonus.
[EDIT] and in very good news, the building society never charged me for that OD. They've changed their policy which effectively states "you are expected to get back in credit sharpish", and since my money that went in was 24hrs later, I seem to have complied with that new fair policy. Even if I'm cutting up their credit card I'll stick with them for that, Nationwide have always been quite fair with their charges.
I've got until the end of the month to decide whether I'm keeping this final magazine subs on a direct debit. You know the story, been reading this mag (EDGE) since issue 1, I was 21. 14 years later on issue 178 when I'm being mercenary and trying to cut everything, I've got to ask myself how essential some things are, particularly if I'm getting back into books, where you can save cash on the same thing by going paperback or secondhand.
[EDIT 2] Interest rates just went up, screw that mag!
