Totally Uninspiring Diary

A question about : Totally Uninspiring Diary

Greetings muggles,

This is a totally uninspiring diary thread on my progress with my savings and other bits. But as I know that you're probably reading this as an interested or less than interested, spectator, I will fill you in with some personal details.

I'm a 23 year old woman with a full time job (good) and a passable level of savings (10ish k) (good). I am still living at home (eh) but I have fibromyalgia (bad), my job is pretty undesirable (bad) and the money is pretty poor (bad) but recently got a raise (yay). However, I will be improving my situation because I'm, well, annoying like that.

So I have some goals that I plan to achieve so I will be popping in to keep track of my progress.

Goals
Save Ј7k
Start and complete AAT level 2 (~1k)
Start and complete AAT level 3 (~1k)
Redecorate my room (this is desperately needed)
Cut my phone bill Cut by Ј10 a month
Look at the skill set I need to improve my career prospects
Get over my stubbornness about pictures to get myself a learner's permit and a season ticket to work.
Declutter the house
Earn enough outside of my normal job to buy this badboy
Start pension and contribute Ј160 each month.

To expand on my financial aim for 2014:
Minimum Savings: 1.6k (10% of net salary)
Desired Savings: 7k (45%)
Challenge Savings: 10k+ (63%+)

I have minimal outgoings as my mum is very kind to allow me to contribute very little to the house. I'd actually like to contribute more but this isn't a topic for now.

Thanks for reading, if you do, and have a good day.

Best answers:

• Hey!
  I just had a read of your diary, I'm 24 and also still living at home.... I think that's pretty normal now as its so expensive to move out!
  Looks like you have some really good goals for 2014, I look forward to seeing your progress! I am hoping my goals will be very similar, but for 2016 as unfortunately I haven't had my head screwed on as well as you have and stupidly got myself into debt. 2016 is the year I will have it all paid off by and be able to start saving.
  Anyway sorry for rambling on about me, good luck with your goals. I will subscribe to your thread as I am very interested to see how you get on
• Hello Laura! It's lovely to hear about you so no apologising from you. It's more luck than not being "stupid" that I haven't gotten into debt. When I first went into Uni, it was the year that SF really messed up on the loans and I didn't get my loan until well after christmas in first year. My mum and dad supported me but everything I did I had to ask them for money for and it was mortifying. It just stuck with me.
  How are you finding living at home? It's been just over a year for me now, I love my mum but I miss the freedom.
  The day's uninspiring update
  Today I have:
• Met up with a friend in town. I'm on holiday from work so am filling my time. It was lovely and managed to spend Ј15 on everything.
• Washed up. I really hate washing up, it makes my hands ache. Urgh.
• Cleaned my windowsill. It's been put off for a fortnight now because I couldn't find the attack duster.
• Earnt Ј3 on a survey. This should increase hopefully by the end of the night

The attack duster was very much needed, it has a +1 to hit with spider melee and I'm only good at ranged attacks.

• Feeling a bit under the weather today. It's making my pain spike. I'm not sure what to do about it, when I was in Uni I was prescribed some strong painkillers but now my doctors do not believe that this is a good idea. To be fair, the old doctor was sort of scared into it, he touched my neck and I cried and snotted for about 10 minutes. I haven't done this to the new ones.
  This is not the way I wanted my holiday to end, I wanted to have a very productive week! I still need to hoover, wrap my presents, do some surveys, clear Peaty corner (I accidentally took over a large portion of the living room) and sort out my phone.. But we have at least decorated the tree today?
  Last week I saw some hope in terms of house buying, I found a flat that I would be able to afford given another 10k in cash savings. I never would have thought this possible as I live in the London commuter belt although still quite far away. Give me five years to get my career on track and maybe I'll actually get one.
• Feeling truly rotten at the moment, but I have hot chocolate so all will be fine.
  I'm very pleased with myself, after a month of dallying about, popping into my phone provider's shops (different ones each time so no one would get overly annoyed) to ask questions, I have sorted out my phone! I got advice to ring them up to haggle, I was scared to but I did a few moments ago! I didn't even have to haggle, I had what I wanted infront of me on the phone and told her exactly what I wanted and then the lovely girl took off the Ј10 contribution to the phone AND added and under 24s incentive thing onto it. So I'm getting (literally) over a thousand more minutes and many more internet minutes for Ј10 less each month! Look at me all organised and stuff. >D
  I'm back to work monday, so my survey taking will probably take a dive again... But I'm very motivated right now so with any luck, I'll have my trunk soon.
  Next job: decorate the bedroom. Or start a pension.
• Feeling much better!
  So progress:
  I have ordered Ј40 from GMT towards my trunk, once I've received that, I'll be up to Ј70!
  Got paid on thursday, very early. So I'm going to have to transfer my money about.
  I have a new diary, I'll be inputting dates when I need to shift money around, dates that I'll be getting money in or going out and then my social stuff. I'm terrible at remembering anything.
  I still haven't wrapped anything up. :-/
  My phone is dying a very undignified death so I'm glad the new phone will be coming soon.
  Also need to sort out what's going on with my mattress, managed to wake up this morning by falling between the mattress and the wall. It was strangely comfortable.
  Work tomorrow. Goodbye week off.
• Hope everyone had a lovely christmas!
  Mine was great, I'm actually still celebrating as I'll be having a meal with friends tonight and another present. I love presents, giving and receiving. I didn't get very many useful things this year but I did get some work books, pens and thermals. I was almost on budget this year until my sister asked me to buy her gift for mum as she'd changed her mind on what she wanted to give.. Oh well. Plus my present was totally outshone by the boyfriend's, he got me my favourite pokemon card.
  Been calculating, I need to save 833.33 a month plus another 83.33 a month average for the second AAT qualification. This is a lot. However if I allocate 160 a month to a pension (no company scheme unfortunately ) I'm actually saving 200. Swish.
  I bought myself a diary to fill in all of the dates I need to remember, payday, phonebill day, days I need to switch money to and from accounts, etc. Then promptly lost it. It's somewhere.
  I have received my new phone. It's very pretty. At Ј16.99 a month, I'm very happy.
  I'm trying to work out whether an IGCSE is a GCSE or not. I have two Cs in English and I'd like to get a B at least. However to go on the physical course is actually on a very inconvenient day for me.
  Went to poke around the sales today, a dress caught my eye but it was a size too big. Otherwise, the sales were uninspiring.
  Things I must do tomorrow:
  Arrange AAT level 2.
  Do the washing.
  Call my ISA provider to work out how to access my money.
  Do surveys
  Clean the mess that is my home.
• hi hun great diary i will be subscribing to this.
  glad you had a good crimbo, me too i love pressies and will get more when i see my folks on new years eve
  quick question - how large is the company that you work for at the moment as at some point (within the next few years dependent on their size) they should commence auto enrolment?
• Thank you NCM, that's very useful to know. It's also a lot cheaper than the physical courses so I think I will take advantage. I'm also a lot better at exams so that plays right into my strengths.
  WTS, oooh, I'd love to know what you get. I don't think I will have any more until the birthday but they're precious when they come.
  My company has around 15 people in it permanently but some are contracted in. I'm not actually sure how many are true employees (but I am one) so we're so small that we're not affected until 2018 and that's too far into the future for me. I don't want to get to 70 and think I have to keep working. I'd prefer to go part time at 50 and continue like that, maybe have a part time business...
  I'm at the time in life that I should be investing in me and in passive resources. I have my plan for me but not quite there yet with the passive resources as I haven't worked out which funds, how many (probably one to begin with) and how much (thinking 1k every quarter). Then planning on diversifying as my income increases and my skills increase. My biggest issue is that I'm not confident so networking is just terrible.
  I'd also like to move out, but the time isn't right. My dad died just over a year ago so I don't want to leave my mum and have her unhappy or lonely.
  I spent Ј30 on the meal yesterday. Ouch! Worth it, but ouch. Then I spent another Ј30 on things today, I need them as they are storage and bedclothes. Hoping not to spend any more this week other than bills (Ј150- mixture of household bills and presents).
  The washing machine is full. Of things that aren't mine. This quite annoys me because almost every weekend there are other personal washes going on when I am the only one in the house who works full time. They have weekdays!
  Unreasonable venting over, should do something useful now.
• To be honest living back home is hard, I love being around my mum but when you have moved out before and come back it never really feels the same I don't think.
  However on a positive note living back here will allow me to clear my debts and hopefully get some savings behind me before I move out again!
  How is your debt clearing going?
• It'll be worth it Laura, besides in previous generations people lived at home for a long old time. My grandad and uncle were both born to the same home and my uncle still lives there.
  There was an article on the BBC about the Spanish living at home, did you see it?
  I don't actually have any debt, unless you count the occasional CC bill that is paid in full each month or the not-a-debt student loan. I'm just worrying about not being in debt, to rent a room alone near me is Ј450-550 or a studio flat is Ј1k a month. My monthly after tax income is Ј1316 so yeah, it's just not do-able currently.
  How is your debt clearing going? Have you set up milestones and milestone treats?
  Any plans for new year's eve? I'm going into London to a house party so it won't be as extortionate as it could be.
• I am guessing you live near London area or outskirts? I live near Bournemouth which is where I was born, but I lived in Wimbledon for a few months two years ago as I got a job offer up there... That is where the debt escalated, my rent there was Ј1000 a month, and some months I only earnt that!
  I didn't see the article? I will have a read of it though.
  My monthly income is the same as yours but unfortunately almost half of it is debt payments. My aim is to wipe half of my credit card debt off in 2014 and the remaining in 2015. Basically... I am going to save everything I can to pay towards the credit cards and clear them.
  That sounds similar to my new years, Im going for a meal and then to the local pub as going out is just to expensive!
  Did you have a nice Christmas?
• The BBC article.
  I live not that near to London but in an incredibly middle-class area who almost all commute into London. The employment rate is quite high here, the crime rates are relatively low and overall it looks pretty much green.
  Ouch, that must have been so stressful! But you're in such a better place now. Good luck with your two year plan.
  It's ridiculous how expensive new year's is. I think I've only ever clubbed on NYE once and ended up sober for the whole night. Eugh. They can't make that much more money since they drive everyone away!
  My christmas was lovely, the food was great, the company was great and the presents were awesome. How was your's?
• Thanks for the link, I will have a look!
  Sounds like a nice area, very much like mine so I am lucky and very much near the beaches!
  Thank you, to be honest I doubt 2 years is long enough to clear it all but I am going to try.
  Christmas was amazing, loads of food... back to the gym in January, and got spoilt with presents
• Aww, I'm glad you had a great christmas. You deserve it.
  You never know, two years might see with a raise! : )
  Tomorrow I'm off to london, my backpack is missing...I might be able to steal my sister's... mm..
  So progress for today:
• Finally signed up to my AAT course, will start on the second.
• Earnt Ј2 on surveys.
• Set up my washing for tomorrow.
• Paid Ј150 in bills and money owed to family.
• Happy New Year! Hope you all have a great 2014.
  Last night was not as monetarily expensive as anticipated but was very time heavy, waiting 3 hours for some fireworks is um.. interesting. No that's wrong, it's boring. Came across some interesting characters though, a man had a hissy fit at his 5 year old for the amount of people there and I saw at least 4 different people with buggies! Madness! It was a lot of fun though, the people I was with were great. : )
  Overall the last few days have been expensive, with the course (Ј700ish), last night (~Ј40) and me taking advantage of a wilko sale (Ј40). No more unnecessary expenditure for a couple of weeks me thinks.
  Savings for 2012: Ј1,000
  Savings for 2013: Ј10,314
  Savings for 2014: Ј0
  Overall savings: Ј11,314
  Here's to progress in 2014.
• YEAH!!! YOU have a diary!!! Gonna subscribe! Your musings amuse me! Well done Peaty!!!
• Hey NSK. How's it going?
  First part of the course done today. I'm hoping to get it all done in three months since I have a headstart, then I just need to pay for exams/AAT membership, boo.
• Enjoyed reading your diary to date - will keep following. Good luck with the course and well done with the savings to date !!
  you seem very focused i'm sure you will meet your goals !