2012 Plans and Dreams

No spend days: 6

Everybody seems to be doing Carla's No-Spend challenge for January I thought about participating too but as I have a very set budget for January and my spending money for the month is £155.85 my current account balance left over from last year. So 100% of my income for January is all budgeted for and there is no room for saving anything extra.

January is Tax payment month for the year ending 2011-2012, so that is my biggest expense for the month. It's due by the 31st and I will transfer the payment on Friday 28th therefore gaining as much interest on the money as I can get.

I am continuing my saving plans from last year and so will be aiming to save £500 a month into my Freedom Fund and £300 into my Building Fund. My Freedom Fund is an ISA and I am planning to fully fund it by the end of the Tax Year in April. I may have to use my Emergency Fund to do this but feel it is all for a good cause. I can save up to £5,340 tax free for the tax year of 2011-12 and then this amount goes up to £5,640 for 2012-13.

I am planning several trips overseas this year and have already paid for the first trip which is to Venice in March. I have promised to attend a cousin wedding in New Zealand in August and would really like to visit both Kenya and Uganda maybe in December?. And then I have been looking at city breaks to Moscow too. Oh there is so much world to visit isn't there!

Do you have any major trips planned for 2012? Where are you off to??

Goals for 2012

It's 2012 a new year with all new possibilities, new goals and new opportunities

I have been working on my new budget for the year. First I have my big income tax bill to pay at the end of January and then it's going to be a bit tight for the first few months because of a trip I have planned a trip to Venice with three of my godkids in March.

I will have to start leaving my debit card at home or leaving my purse at home when ever I go down the road to the high street. Online is also a big temptation for me especially when it comes to books and music. I have spent way too much on the iTunes site last year and so will have to really be careful this year not to repeat that. My next purchase will be for my birthday in April and not before!!

Hope you've sorted your budget and wish you every success in reaching your goals for 2012.

Planning the New Year

Hope you all had a great Hanukkah/Christmas!
Now that the festivities are done, it's time to sit down and see what damage it has all done to our finances.
For me - so much for not doing Christmas, I have spent way more that I thought I would on my Godkids and even sent some pressies back home for my younger brothers family. And of cause something for my Mums too.
My biggest thrill this year was a text from my Dad wishing me "Happy Christmas" - haven't seen him since 2000 and last contact I had with him at Christmas was when I was 9 years old.

But back to my finances I will end the month with £500 less in my savings than I had planned for December. So not a good end to the year.
Christmas and New Year are good for me as I get double time and so this will greatly help with my expenses for January, which includes the first payment of my income tax for 20011/12. As I have very little in the way of expenses to worry about next year is now all about saving and paying in cash for all my spending. I am planning some trips in March and in August, possibly even a trip to Africa in May. The African trip is purely vanity - I just want to see my sponsor kids again. It would be better to just send them the monies I would have to pay for my flight and accommodation but I would really love to see them. May is the end of the rainy season and is said to be cheaper at that time. Will see how well I keep to my budget between now and March.
The plan for the next month is as follows:

1. Pay 1st payment for 2011/12 tax year in full.
2. Save £300 in my regular saving account.
3. Save £500 in my ISA.
4. Keep to my expenses budget of £200 (ie. don't overspend on my phone or Internet usage)
5. No food purchases unless out with friends. (This for my wast line as much as for my finances)

Wishing you all a very happy New Year!
(this one is a big one for the UK)

And like the pub landlord said - "it's going to be a little bit shit"!

Now that it's December I can eat mince pies with a clear conscious!

It's offically the silly season and as it is December I feel able to start shopping for Christmas not that that will be a lot of shopping for me. As I tell all my friends and family - "I don't do Christmas or birthday". That way I never forget a birthday and no one is disappointed at Christmas time. But am so very glad that I did purchase a Heston Blumenthal's Christmas pudding last month as they have sold out 'again' at Waitrose.
According to The Telegraph.........

"That is because Northern Foods, the supplier, has bought up the complete supply of Valencian cured oranges – the crucial ingredient – and no more existed. It takes seven weeks to cure a Valencian candied orange, meaning that after this short production run no more were possible until after Christmas."

The pudding was for a friend who now resides in New York and so is lacking in the basics for a good English Christmas but I really should have gotten him two of them.

November Check Up

November is roaring through like a express train and next thing you know it will be Christmas.
My spending hasn't really improved since last month and it's all small purchases, a coffee here, an item of clothing there and downloads from iTunes etc. I need to start leaving my debit card at home to prevent wasting monies on things that I don't really need.
So far I have paid £500 into my Freedom Fund and am on track to pay £300 into my Building Fund. As yet I haven't opened a 2nd regular saving account but have been looking around. Interest rates are not great as you can expect.
Turn on the telly or the radio and all you hear is how bad the world economy is and the crisis in the Eurozone. It makes you worry about the future but I have to be honest and confess that I haven't been effected at all by the current wave of economic crisis. I don't drive a car, I don't have to pay any power bills, I don't have massive holdings in the stock market. My only real expense is my tax bill. Yep - HM Revenue and Customs is my only creditor.

Happy Guy Fawkes everyone!!!

All October

It's been a great month - the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup for the second time after 24 years of chasing the dream, I have dropped a 'jeans' size and I am still debt free! Yep, a good month all round!
When I open the newspaper in the morning the first thing I do is chuck the sports section but not in October this year. I have been pouring over all the articles I could find on the Rugby World Cup, especially anything about my team the All Blacks. A local pub on the high street has been flying the New Zealand and the All Blacks flags - so it's been great. Didn't get to see all the games because of work and the time difference which meant a lot of games been played in the early hours GMT. It's only once every four years so am so happy that we beat the French even if only by one point!
However my spending has been way out of hand, what with birthdays and lunches for my godchildren, food buying (that I don't need), clothes (more about that later) and Internet buying like iTunes etc. - have stopped me saving more. But because I don't have a credit card I am not spending more than what is in my bank account.
I could have saved £500 more this month than I have. Thinking about it makes me cross with myself but as I haven't broken my budgeted saving plan I have to accept what is spend is spent and leave my debit card at home more often in November.
On Friday I had a lunch date with a friend and while I was waiting for him to arrive, I decided to try on a pair of size 10 (UK size) jeans at Next and couldn't believe it when they fitted me perfectly. So I bought them! I did check with the lady behind the counter that they were indeed size 10. It's been more than twenty years since I have been about to wear size 10 jeans. I know I am going on - it's a girl thing I guess. Today I picked up two shirts and a sweat shirt at a local op-shop for just under £20. Expensive because they were all brand names items. You used to be able to get a shirt or most items of clothing at an op-shop for about £2.50 but not any more.

November Goals:

I have another birthday present to buy for this week and then I have my sponsor kids Christmas fund to sort out. Also have a dentist appointment to see the hygienist so that will cost me £45 and I need to get an eye test (will probably need new glasses) - it all adds up doesn't it!

Savings: £500 Freedom Fund, £300 Building Fund, £100 stocks and £100 to open another high interest (yer the interest rates are a joke) saving account.

Richie and the boys preparing for battle 2011

What was my Year End Goal?

It's September and I was trying to remember what my Year End Goal was and if I even had one. Well I found I had stated in January;

Goal 1. to clear my debt

Goal 2. save emergency fund of £5000

Goal 3. savings over and above this amount to fund house building fund.

Okay these are the only gaols I found and am a little disappointed I wasn't clearer on what I wanted to achieve for the year financially. In saying that, will I be able to achieve the goals that I have set out above?

Goal 1. Achieved this one as I have cleared my debt

Goal 2. I have not even got chose to this goal and currently my Emergency Fund is at just over £100 so needs to be topped up again

Goal 3. I have saved £1,800 so far and by the end of the year my total here will be £3,000 that will be the goal amount


I have started to save about £500 a month (okay I only paid £250 in August) into a Freedom Fund. A term I have used in the past but have now changed it's meaning to be my pension saving or if your in the USA think Roth IRA. I am putting it into an ISA which is a tax free saving vehicle, the interest rate isn't great but that is more to do with the current financial situation. I don't trust pensions and I don't like the way they are operated or how you have to buy an annuity with your pension, so I am going with an ISA instead.

I did have a ballpoint figure in my head to save $10k (NZ) towards my Building Fund, that is equivalent to about £5k but I will be short by about £2k or $4k (NZ). So that will have to go into my Goals for 2012.

As 2011 comes racing to an end, how have you done with your Goals for the Year?

Months End

I have banked my final cheque for the month and now have to sit around waiting for it to clear before I can credit any of my accounts. It will clear by Thursday but it is aways such a drag having to wait.
In the mean time I have to confess that my Emergency Fund is almost not there and will have to built up again over the next few months. My holiday to the North cost me more than I had planned as I had three days of not walking and so did a little sight seeing instead. There were lots of Roman forts to visit and I got to see Aydon Castle which my grandmother was convinced was an ancestral home. Before my visit I was pretty sure she had been wrong and since I am certain she was wrong! (Sorry Grandmere!)
Anyway back to finances - once my cheque clears I will be adding £800.00 to Freedom Fund and Building Fund. My net worth will be down on last month but still at over the £4k mark (cash). Once I am over the £5k or there abouts, the plan is to close the Flexi Loan account that I am still holding on to. May do a credit reference check to see what my status is now with the Flexi Loan still listed but not being used.Next month the only radical thing I am planning to do is going to a Glen Campbell concert (don't even go there...) and that is already been paid for. So hoping to have done well and kept to budget, time will tell.

Back From The Front

Yes I am back from the edge of the Empire - the old Roman empire that is, as Hadrian's Wall was just that. And I have to confess that I didn't complete the wall walk either. I completed three days, walking from Bowness-on-Solway to Steel Rigg and then did the final day walking from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Wallsend in Newcastle (I did that last day wearing jandels, aka flip-flops).

But for three days I had to give my feet a bit of a rest after getting blisters on the balls of my feet as well as my heels and (?) little toes too. This was very frustrating as I have spent three months breaking in my walking boots! But as someone pointed out I had been walking in mostly urban areas which for the most part were flat (most of London is very flat) and on footpaths. Then on top of that the longest I had worn them was about three hours so five hours of solid walking was going to be a bit of a shock to my feet.

But regardless of all that I had a great time I did walk about 61 miles and would like to go back and complete the part I didn't do but that is for another day.Looking back at where I had come from, with King Arthur's Turret and beyond that Walltown Farm.

Walking towards the highest point on the wall in the Northumberland National Park.