March Review

Goal for the month was to clear £1440 from my Flexiloan account but I am ending the month £215.54 short of that goal. Still not to worry I have opened a Regular Saving Account (RSA) and have deposited £260 into it. The account has an interest rate of 6.4% (net) and 8% (gross) but this is only for 12 months. Also by opening this account I will not have to pay the £10 monthly charge for my new current account. Sure the money deposited into the saving account would more than covers the short fall to my flexiloan payment but I'm happy to have the money in a high interest saving account.

Goals for April:

Flexiloan - clear the final £1627.76

RSA - add £300.00

Emergency Fund - add £60.00

Quick Update

Got a text message this evening advising me that the text messaging service for my new bank will be activated within the next 10 days. So I take that as a yes, I am changing banks!! All my direct debts and standing orders will be transferred over for me and being the end of the month they have already been paid. Oh and I even get £100 for switching my current account.

Now I have to sort out what accounts I will need once I'm debt free - what saving accounts, ISA's and interest rates?

Changing My World......Financially!

Coffee jar snow flaking for March is £31.55, down from last month and £6.45 short of my monthly gym membership. I really have four days left till the end of the month but I will count the rest of the month as April.

Tomorrow I'll bank my last pay cheque for March and I'm hoping that it is the last time with my current bank as I'm hoping that I will be able to change banks this week. I have been wanting to change banks ever since last year when I was turned down for a 0% transfer balance credit card deal. All the interest and charges I have been paying over the years to my bank and with a really great credit report and they turn me down?

Tuesday should be when I hear from my new bank and I am hoping that all will be okay. I have a plan B bank just in case, my experience with UK banks has been ropey at best. I had no problem opening a bank account in the States but I went from bank to bank when I first arrived in London trying to open an account. The first bank that decided to risk it would only allow me to hold a basic bank account, so no cheque book and cheques took about 5 days to clear but they gave me a credit card after only 6 months. For three years I banked with them and applied three times for a current account and was turned down each time. A bank clerk from another bank encouraged me to apply with her bank and I had no problem opening a current account. Since then my second bank has changed name and over the last few years has gone down hill as far as I am concerned and I want out.

So fingers crossed for Tuesday.

Missing March's Goal by Two Fillings

In light of my February review I will not be able to achieve my goal for March to pay £1440.00 off my Flexiloan but unlike my over spend in February, this time it is an unforeseen expense.

The joy of the NHS (Nation Health Service) is that you don't have to pay for any medical expense (well you do as it is included in our tax bills) but what is not covered by the NHS is dental and optical costs. So things like eye tests, glasses prescription or tooth fillings, root canals and the like are not free.

So a way over due visit to the dentist is going to knock my payment plan this month and even though it's only £45.60 this visit (two filling and x-ray), I have been advised that I will need to return in June and will need further treatment then which is going to cost the a lot more. Not looking forward to that visit I can tell you.

This will all be putting my DFD back a week or so which is not what I really want but that's life!

CAUGHT BY THE CUTS AND BREAKING UP IS SO HARD TO DO

It's half way through March and my finances are okay, everything is on budget and I haven't been buying things online. However my snow flaking isn't so good and I have only saved about £17.00 or so. This money is to cover my gym membership which I have been informed by letter will increase as of the first of April by £2.00 to £38.00 a month. Yes finally I can say that government cuts have caught up with me but only via my gym which is run by the local borough council.
One thing I keep telling myself to do is change banks and I have more or less decided which bank to change too. Why should I be loyal to a bank that turned me down when I applied for a new credit card transfer balance deal last year. It's been a rather one side relationship with me paying lots of interest and my bank ignoring me and just take, take, taking. Time to forget my loyalty and say good bye. Breaking up is hard to do.
Will this effect my credit rating? Should I care too much about that if I am getting rid of all my credit accounts anyway? What do you think?

February Review

Having crunched the numbers for my spending last month I find that I've spent £63.98 that I didn't need too and a further £25.00 for expenses that weren't budgeted for. The £63.98 relates totally to Internet purchases and that means £60.00 less going to pay off my Flexiloan in February which is not good news.
The £25.00 is for my mobile phone and wifi both are pay-as-you-go and well the wifi is used way more than the mobile - I really don't like mobile phones much. Am I the only weird person?

Blogging is my way of being accountable with my finances, so I feel I should be precise in what I want to achieve for this month.

Current Flexiloan balance is £2,852.22 and I would like to pay £1,440.00 by the end of March bring the balance of my total debt to £1,412.22.

Well that's the plan now I need to step out and "just do it"!

Be brave and be different!

Rock the flock and live like no one else!

End of the month and all is not well!

The total balance from my coffee jar for February is £59.25 a further £18.25 added since last week, great snowflaking or what and very needed too. I have told a few of my friends and family that for me this is the year of the bitch! Yep I need to focus on clearing my debt (again) and saving up the start of a deposit for a house - so no little gifts etc,. to anyone. But okay I did buy two books on Amazon for my oldest God-daughter as she loves the Wilma Tenderfoot book I got her ages ago, and had asked if I could get her the latest book but found that there were two new books as this is a kid who never asks for very much and has had it really bad these last few months, how could I not get both?
Still my debt total is now below 3K and only two months till it's gone for good!
The only cloud for the month is that the direct debit for my gym membership was take from my account today the last day of February. This is not due till March, so I am not very happy about this and will speak to the manager tomorrow when I go for a work out. This had put my account into debit and I am now worried that I will incur a bank charge because of this. I have since deposited money into the account to correct it.
Don't some things make you wanna go Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......