Lost my voice :(

My main job involves a lot of talking, and I'm naturally quite a chatterbox as well.  I had a cold at the weekend, and on Monday my voice started going, and yesterday I had to struggle through with nothing more than a raspy whisper.  Today I have had to cancel my normal work and work from home to rest my vocal chords as I don't want to do any long term damage.

Have lost my voice a few times when I've been ill, and it's so frustrating as I just can't function! 

Am hoping I'm better soon as I have various social engagements this week as it's the run up to Christmas...

At least working from home today gives me time to catch up on a load of admin I need to do - oh the joy!  Well, when I'm not blogging of course ;p

2013 - Wishing & Hoping

...that I don't get blown off course next year.  By the end of 2013 in theory I should be only a month away from being debt free (due in January 2014) but there are various things that could mess this schedule right up.  They are:

• Mileage claims for job 1 changing - they want to change my expenses base (and that of others too) to a central base I never go to, meaning that instead of having a personal mileage to my existing office (due to shut) of 1 mile each way, and being able to claim for every journey on top of that, I may have a personal mileage of about 30 miles each way.  If this happens it will totally screw me over as I regularly drive journeys around 25-28 miles, which will then come completely out of my pocket.  Add to that 4 years of no cost of living pay increase and it works out as a massive pay cut.  If this happens I would have to pay about £200 a month less on paying off my debts to cover the cost of petrol.  We're fighting this but it could well be imposed anyway.  :(

• Moving house - I mentioned earlier this year that my landlady (and friend) was thinking of selling, but this didn't happen in the end.  However, she is very stressed at work and seeking a new job that would be a demotion, meaning that she will have less money to cover the extra expense of her flat I live in (because of maintenance charges she has to top this up by about £200 a month).  What this means is that I would not only have the stress of moving (and trying to find somewhere that would take me with a cat), but also have to find deposit money for a new place (as she is my friend I never gave her a deposit), and also pay associated costs around hiring a van, etc.

• Redundancy in job 2 - both our nearest stores have recently shut and I fear we may not be too far behind.  They have shut though because either their leases were due for renewal, or they were regularly making a loss.  Our store doesn't make losses, and I don't think our lease is up for renewal soon so fingers crossed...  If I lost this job I would have to cut back on debt payments in order to be able to eat, as my job 1 wage only covers bills and debt payments.

Fingers crossed for a good year 2013 then!  2011 and 2012 were bleak for many reasons; I'm hoping I'm owed a little luck! :)

Lessons learnt

I mentioned in my last post that with the arrival of my new shiny, I now have a lot of credit available. I've just totted this up (including overdrafts) and I could, if I so desired, go on a spending spree up to £18,150!! Obviously, I won't. Ha

It is a relief though to have come so far from a few years ago when my credit file wasn't great (from a couple of late payments on credit cards), so that I couldn't get the example APRs or even be approved for some credit cards. I remember in early 2010, being turned down for consolidation loans. Best thing that ever happened though. I have learnt that credit cards are not the baddies, it is how you use them that counts. Over the last few years my credit score has been improving, and if I had taken out a loan I would have been locked into a set amount of (sizeable) interest to pay. By not having taken a loan, as my credit rating has improved, I've been able to use 0% deals to my advantage, and for the whole of the last year I've paid zero interest on my credit cards. Small balance transfer fees are nothing in comparison to the interest I would have paid.

The other good thing about having been turned down for a consolidation loan is that I have had to learn to manage my money better and get to grips with best ways out of debt etc. I have consolidated before, and not learnt any lessons. In fact, I was looking through some old bank statements yesterday and to my horror spotted that almost straight after taking a consolidation loan in 2008 (the one I'm still paying off) I was back spending on the credit cards. 

Looking back through those old bank statements shows me how much I've progressed with my mentality towards money - looking at them now I can see just how ridiculously extravagant I was.  £60+ here and there on supermarket shops (for 1 person!) really is far too much - I never spend more than about £10-15 a time on food shops now. 

This is how I'm now using credit cards:

• My new shiny to pay off credit card 2 as the 0% was ending and I hadn't paid it off (slapped wrist)
• My now empty old credit card 2 (going to hang onto for now as a potential option in case I need a card for further balance transfers)
• Credit card 1 - at 0% until May 2013, which I used to consolidate all my credit card debt onto, and have been paying off monthly ever since
• Cashback credit card - I earn 3% on all purchases and use this only for petrol, to save me having to find money upfront for travel expenses for work.  I pay it off in full every month when I get paid my expenses back.

My new shiny has a 3 month window for balance transfers with only a 1% fee (yipee) so I think I will transfer my credit card 1 balance early in February onto that card as this'll give me 13 months at 0%, just enough to have it all paid off in time.

Pay day already?!

Wow, I really must have reigned it in this month, without even trying!  I just looked at my calendar and realised I get paid from my second job tomorrow (get paid fortnightly), and I still have over £100 in my second job earnings bank account!  That's taken me a bit by surprise!  I'm normally trying to hang in there, desperate for pay day to come around. 

Good timing I guess as I have only bought a fraction of the Christmas presents I have to buy...  Amazon's telling me I have 5 days left, better step on it then!

New shiny card

Ooooh just after writing my last post my mail was dropped through my door - my new credit card which I did a balance transfer onto from my credit card 2 has just arrived :)

F*** me, they've given me a credit limit of £4900!  Add that to the £8200 credit limit on my main card that I'm using to pay off debts and the £3000 credit limit on my credit card I've just transfered the balance from, and that's access to a hell of a lot of credit!

Thank goodness I'm not so easily tempted these days... ;)

Off the rails

So, I've not only not been writing my blog, but I have also fallen off the wagon in terms of sticking to a weekly budget and saving money.

Instead I decided to get a few things for my wardrobe on Ebay, and have just been buying stuff without consulting my finances.  Bad debt girl!

However, the good news is that I haven't been spending any money I don't have, and have still been paying down my debt.  As of this month, it's now just below £7k, not too bad considering when I started paying off my debts I owed about £19.5k!

Just over 1 year to go, provided everything goes according to plan.  But that wouldn't be normal life now would it?!

Looking back at my last post, I can update you now that I didn't get the other job I interviewed for, but did manage to keep my own job working for the same company.  However, it's harder graft than it was following various changes, which is partly responsible I think for taking my eye off the ball financially; I just don't have as much time any more to be so financially geeky.

I'm no longer writing in Money Saving Expert forums, no longer getting points (and therefore money) with Swagbucks, no longer looking into a variety of ways to make extra money...

However, this weekend is a free listing weekend on Ebay, and I'm hoping to get some stuff on there today to try and claw back some savings (as I have spent most of the money I saved over the last few months).

I didn't manage to pay off my small credit card by November when the 0% ended so I have moved the balance across to a new 0% card.  It's 0% for 13 months which takes me exactly to when all my other debts finish.  I am going to try and pay £50 a month on this to get rid of it.  I can't really afford £50 a month, which is why I must try and get my Ebay on at all points possible!