Olivia demonstrates mechanic skills…
Wednesday 15th October, 2008 - £7,899.83 in debt…
You might have deduced - whether from my creative use of language, my love of boybands, or my name - that I am a woman. Strange but true. Unfortunately, men who run garages also tend to notice this. They hear a shrieking ‘car dunce’ alarm when I step onto the forecourt, and try to charge me for a new engine, gangway doors and some magic beans.
Perhaps because of this, my car’s MOT last year cost nearly £400. If this is going to happen every year I might have to give up my Daewoo Matiz which, despite having a 0.8 litre engine, is an incredible car and has served me well. But it’s looking like I might not have to do that quite yet…
My secret weapon is the council MOT centre. These exist all over the UK to put council vehicles through their MOTs, but they must be open to the public as well. As they only test vehicles and don’t do the repairs, in theory they have no particular interest in telling you there are millions of things wrong with your car.
Unless there are millions of things wrong with your car, of course.
My Matiz is about eight years old and is slowly falling apart, wheezing along like the last staggering corpse in a zombie film. I know I’ll have to put her out of her misery one day, but the things that fall off her tend to be tyres, brake pads and headlights - nothing important.
If I was any good with cars, or equipped with a Haynes manual and willing to learn, I could have checked this list for anything I could repair myself before I had the car tested. Unfortunately, I am neither.
Obviously she failed her MOT, but I’ve been given a list of what needs doing and had a quote of £230 + VAT for the repairs, which are booked for Friday. So far, so good…
Dunce
Friday 1st August, 2008 - £8,378.83 in debt…
Time goes so fast when you’re scrabbling around in the gutter for pennies and working 14-hour days, doesn’t it? I’m now at the end of my third month (or first quarter, in finance-speak), and here’s how it’s going.
I’m clapping my hands like a trained seal because…
1) I’ve learned that the best way to pay off your debts is to work until your brain bleeds and earn lots of money. This month has been my best so far in terms of workload, and I should be able to shift more than £1000 to my credit cards in total once all the money comes through. I’ve paid £605 towards my debts this month, which reduces what I owe by £472.15 when you take the interest off.
2) I saved £10 on my grocery shopping by visiting MySupermarket and then Asda. The Asda shopping experience was harrowing, to say the least, but I’m trying Morrison’s next month, which isn’t on MySupermarket but looks pretty cheap to me.
3) I also saved £7.45 by getting McFly’s latest body of work, Radio:ACTIVE, free with Beelzebub’s latest body of work, the Mail on Sunday.
4) I used the snowball calculator on Whatsthecost.com to help manage my debts better. It told me that, if I pay off £470 a month (including interest) in a particular order, I’ll clear my debt before my 30th birthday and save £650 in interest.
5) I received a letter confirming that I’d opted out of the Barclays personal reserve. I already knew that I’d done this, but it’s nice to be acknowledged.
6) I earned £118.50 mystery shopping for GfK, which is by far the nicest mystery shopping company I’ve worked for. It doesn’t bombard me with irrelevant emails, the jobs I’ve done are quick and easy, and it’s even paid for a lovely bowl of soup and a Cornish cream tea. Yum.
I’m slapping my forehead like a cartoon dunce because…
1) I spent £52.80 on one weekend in Nottingham, buying things I wouldn’t normally buy because my companions didn’t know about my debts. This has made me think about confessing to everyone, but there’s a very good reason why I haven’t done this yet: I’m ashamed. That’s normal, right?
2) What with temping up to five days a week, mystery shopping and disliking the idea of cabin fever, I’ve been filling up my car’s petrol tank every nine days on average. Because it’s a beautiful and tiny Daewoo Matiz, this only costs £35 a time, but it’s still about £46 per month over budget.
3) Speaking of budget, I might have also bought a couple of McFly tickets. And a ticket to a theatre adaptation of my favourite Edward Gorey book. But that’s all – I swear. Oh, and a ticket for Blood Brothers starring one of the Nolans. I just can’t help myself.
4) My eBay so-called “buyers” have been nothing but trouble, with four of them refusing to pay up. Hopefully I’ll be able to re-sell the stuff or settle on a good eBay alternative but, until then, I’ll wear a constant look of vague disgruntlement.
I’m jittering with anticipation because…
1) I can’t yet be sure whether I did the right thing switching to an E.ON capped energy tariff - this will only be worthwhile if all the other energy bills in the country rise by more than about 10%, which looks likely but you never know.
2) I’m not yet sure what kind of impact my bridesmaid duties are going to have on my finances. The next step is dress shopping with the other bridesmaid, who lives 40 miles away, and casually tossing around some hen-night ideas without sounding like I have a budget of £3.50.
Generally speaking, I can’t complain about how this month has gone. After last month’s disastrous performance, July’s sudden onslaught of evening work has given me a ‘get out of jail free’ card and got me back on track. And, although I can’t expect this level of work every month, at least I know that I can be trusted to put the extra money towards my debt when it does happen. Well, most of it anyway…
—
First quarter results:
Amount paid towards my debt so far: £1376.63 (average £458.88 per month)
Amount I’ve reduced my debt by, after interest: £1120.62
Not a Daewoo Matiz
Wednesday 18th June, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…
Stop looking at that debt-counter up there. Please. It’s really not fair that my success should be measured in such bold, unforgiving terms. I mean, what are numbers anyway? Just meaningless black squiggles on a page really, when you think about it.
Anyway, let’s not worry about that for the moment. Always look on the bright side: The new job is going well, I haven’t yet overshot my budget for the week, and the sun is shining. Occasionally.
My budget for this week is:
- Budget for June 13th to 19th = £18.47
- Spent = £15.07
- Remaining = £3.40
Going well, isn’t it? I’ve only bought a Fathers’ Day present and a parking ticket. I am truly amazing.
But I’m about to hit my first real snag in this budgeting malarky: my next tank of fuel. I reckon I can make my current one last until the weekend but, apart from not driving anywhere, are there any other tricks I can use to make my petrol last longer?
The basics of fuel conservation seem to be:
- Drive smoothly
- Don’t carry excess weight in the car
- Keep your tyres pumped up
- Don’t leave the engine running
- Don’t use the air con unless you really have to
- And buy a beautiful little fuel-efficient car like mine (a Daewoo Matiz - small engine, small car, very few cool points).
According to this article, the optimum driving speed is 55mph - for every mile per hour faster, your fuel economy will drop by about 1%. And that’s what I’ll be telling the next police officer who pulls me over in a 30 zone.
This Is Money does a nifty little fuel calculator thing that works out your annual fuel bill (and how much of that is tax - not that you can do anything about it). And, if you feel like you haven’t had enough heart palpitations recently, ask it to calculate how much more you’ll pay per year every time the price of fuel goes up by a few pence a litre.
To make sure you’re getting the best value petrol around, use www.petrolprices.com - enter your postcode and it will find the five cheapest petrol stations in your area. It also gives you weekly email updates if you want them.
Not that any petrol stations around here are actually selling petrol at the moment.
Anyone else have any more tips? How have you been conserving petrol during the Shell strike? Are any petrol stations near you stocking more than just charcoal briquettes and the Daily Mail?�
