Getting Gazelle Intense!!

 

Autumn is slowly making her presents felt, leaves are starting to change colour and fall. It's much cooler in the mornings and the rain is arriving with a little more frequency.  I am having to juggle my budget to account for clothing purchases which are much needed as I got rid of a lot of my old winter wardrobe when I moved jobs in April.
My snowball has been very slow in moving my debt balance and the big culprit is my Flexiloan account. Yes, I should have got rid of that along time ago but I hung onto it like a crutch and have paid the price for that. I helps me know how much I need in a fully funded Emergency Fund - at least £5k! And £6k ( my current Emergency Fund plus the additional £5k) would probably be idea for me.
My current debt balance is £6030.85, which means it is going to take me until at least March next year to clear my unsecured debt in full. And that is only if I am absolutely gazelle intense about paying it off. I am working on a zero balance budget - giving every penny a name and it is hard!
I have been listening to the Dave Ramsey Show on my laptop and I really do like his stance on Personal Finance. Listening to the show is good for me as it keeps all my goals to clear my debt in focus and is a great encouragement to continue with the slog.
Time to get gazelle intense about my finances again and be weird!

 

 

Ahhhhhhhhh........ computers!!!!!

Wow I can't believe it I have finally got back onto my dashboard page. This is truly a miracle. For the last few months I have only been able to read the blog but not add any. Perhaps that is a good thing. May be not, either way I am very happy to be back online again. And with so much to add, most of which isn't really so good. But at least I can update everything and sort out my finances (again!).

As of my last post I have debt to pay off in the form of two different loans. One was taken out with my current account bank and currently totals £3,683.34 and has twelve payments left to pay of £307.18. The second is from my Flexiloan account I still hold with my old bank. This is an open ended credit facility of £5,000 of which I currently owe £4,097.89, payments on this are monthly at £260.00 while there is a balance on the account. So my total debt as of today is £7,781.23.

On top of this I now have, what I am calling my mortgage account, into which I am making monthly payment of £760.00 which then has to be transferred into my home account in dollars. The final amount for this payment can fluctuate a little depending on the value of the pound.

My major goal for the year is to clear the debt a.s.a.p. and I will be stacking all my tax payments into the Flexiloan account to lower the interest I get charged month on month. This will be around £500.00 a month.

Monthly Budget:
                                                       Spending                    160.00
                                                       Expenses                    250.00
                                                       Tax                             502.00
                                                       Bank Loan                 308.00
                                                       Flexiloan                    260.00
                                                       Mortgage                   760.00

                                                       Total                      £2,240.00           

I am back on the cash only spending system I used to use when I was trying to get debt free the first time. And if I have done it once I can do it again!

This year has been full of changers - I have had to move house and have changed jobs twice so far this year which hasn't been great fun. My current job is okay but I am still getting use to my change of address and find my way in my new surroundings. It is all very "posh" but I am finding it hard to settle in. I am further away from all my friends and haven't found anything of interest to do in my time off. Lets face it, as lovely as Hyde Park is there is only so many times a week you can walk around it before you start to want to go down Oxford Street which is a big no, no, if you want to not spend any money.            

All Change....and in debt once again!?

I wrote this last year but have had problems getting into my account and so have only just posted it today. Have lots to update on my blog now.

Well it's almost December and I have only posted once this year. I have been busy (but not that busy) and I have had all kinds of ups and downs this year. Things always seen to come along when you least expect and then your plans and all your great intentions are then knocked for a six. That happened to me in August - three weeks no pay and on top of that spending for lots of unexpected items as a result.
My finances for the year hadn't been great but they had been okay up until August - I had used my Flexiloan to pay for my tickets to fly home for Christmas and was planning to pay that back in August as well has repay some monies I had "borrowed" from my mothers "extra" saving account. Because neither of these plans happened I ended up taking out a loan to clear the Flexiloan amount and to cover some of the spending I had had to make in August. I took out a £7K loan as this was offered at a lower rate and then put £2k of it into my saving account.

It's a New Month, It's a New Year.........

Happy New Year to you all!

I have just finished updating my accounts for last year and as I said in my last post I am on budget for December, which is a relief as I have a big tax bill at the end of the month to pay and I know that that is now covered in full. So now there is just January's budget to stick to and I will be okay. 

Mostly of use can keep to what we have planned for a month or two but then things start to fall apart. A bill you forgot about, something in the store or online that you just have to have and then the whole budget starts to slide. I really really don't want to do that this year. But my job could be gone tomorrow so I have only budgeted for the first quarter of the year (up to April) to cover this fact. So from January to April what do I plan to do? (Again all this depends on my job being there for the next four months). Okay it's not as desperate as it sounds and I don't think I would have too much trouble getting more work if my current job ends. 

I need to sort out a few things in my expenses budget on Monday as I changed my life insurance policy in December and I have a charge from my old policy on my January bank statement. Also I have yet to cancel my subscription with Lovefilm.com [note to self: get it done]. Regardless of these two issues my monthly budget is a mere £250 a month. (I just love the fact that I don't have any debt to pay off!!)

•           Expenses            250

•           Spending            200

•           Savings            1,000 

•           Sharebuilder         50

•           Sundry                 100

•           Total                  1,600

Dave Ramsey said you should 'name ever dollar' so I have done the same with every pound. My budget is very simple, which I think is very important. Each category has a breakdown of it's own but is set up with direct payments to make life easy. I think that 

like December, January should be fine but for the rest we will see - stay posted.

How does your budget for 2013 look?

Looking Back At What Happened!

Well 2012 is coming to an end and what a year it has been - my trip to Venice with the kids, the big trip to China to cross off a goal on my bucket list and then there was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the summer Olympics and Paralympics, the end of the world and spending the first two nights of Hanukkah with my god-kids.
But what of my finance plans and goals for the year? I think I have broken most of my goals - if even only by a little bit, they were as follows:

 Goals for 2012

1.  Stay debt free.
2. Save £7,000 in my building fund.
3. Fully fund my Cash ISA by the end of the Tax year in April and then start my second.
4. Add £2,500 to my NZ account.
5. Keep to a tight budget with all my trips.
6. 200 No Spending Days in 2012.

 Did I stay debt free for the year - not really as I increased my overdraft while I was in China (and used it ).  I haven't saved as I had planned at the start of the year nor was I as frugal with my trips as I should have been, I lost count of my spend less days, so that idea went by the wayside.
All this is a perfect example of why my planning goals is not a great idea because I can have a brain wave, as I did in February this year and then totally change what I plan to do for the year.  So all the goals I made for the year, I probably could have achieved if I hadn't gone to China.

Am I sorry I went? Never!!

So my financial goals for the year didn't really happen but it's the 30th of December 2012 - I am debt free and I have one more pay cheque for the year - so if nothing else I will at least have covered my budget for the month.

As Time Flies By.....

 I have been updating my NetworthHQ site but not my blog - it's very lazy of me!

Roll back to October and I ended the month with an over-spend of £14.61. 

November ends with a credit balance of £29.03, this sounds good, however I have reduced my savings for the month by £300.00, this is because of birthday gifts and Christmas gifts that I have purchased (for the most part!).

December has an extra week which will be lost as I am planning a long weekend off in the middle of the month to spend some time with my godkids. That will mean spending lots of money!!! 

Budget for December:

Spending        £150
Expenses        £250
Savings       £1,150  

Looking at my goals for the year and I am not going to achieve any of them. I think this is partly because of my trip to China (overspend on that one) and also not putting monies aside for my July Taxes. Since I got back I have been very good about putting money weekly into a high interest account and will have it pretty much covered for the end of January, which is my next due payment. 

Confession From the Bookshop

Okay so, this is totally not my fault - I wasn't aware that it was even available yet and you know how shops always put temptation right up in front as you walk in. It's all done sciencifily you know - none of us stand a chance!

So on Wednesday afternoon, there I was browsing the shops in Putney and I walked into Waterstones and there it was on a table right next to the escalator. I mean you'd have to trip over it not to see it. The latest book - in hard back - at half price (sigh).

What's a girl to do??

I had just spent my daily budget of £5 but I had my debit card in my purse. I picked up a copy and had a quick read of the blurb before putting it back down and going up the escalator and browsing the philosophy section. Who was I kidding - I tried to look interested in what I was seeing but it was a lost course. So back down the stairs while pulling out my debit card and making a beeline for the counter to purchase what I could no longer resist.

 'A Wanted Man' by Lee Child.

Old Habits Die Hard

At the beginning of August I had great plans to be very fugal with my money and how and where my monies was going to go. But I had an unexpected Dental emergency which cost me £63, I bought a few books from Amazon and posted some souvenirs I brought in China for my brothers in New Zealand, amongst other things. None of these things were included in my budget for the month and all added up to me totally stuffing up my budget goals for August. My old bad habits back again.
So there is no way I will be able to get rid of my Flexiloan this month.
But I have been working hard these last two weeks of the month to get a grip on my spending by doing all those little things which got me out of debt in the first place.
Things like:

• Cash only purchases
• Putting my debit card away (so I can't be tempted to use it)
• Sticking to my £5 a day spending plan

 Funny how it is the little things that make such a difference.

I am also going to get rid of a couple of my monthly expenses like Lovefilm.com etc. As I am just not watching the DVD's and have had one for at least three weeks now. My expenses budget is £250 a month but I will not reduce that amount rather I will allow a bit of a balance build-up which can act as an extra cushion. (I much prefer to round up figures in my budget it just makes it tidier and also easier to remember.)

 Hope your finances are ticking along better than mine...........

Pinch and a Punch it's the First of the Month (Just)!

August has arrived and I am determined to write a quick blog today.

Looking at my Networth makes me feel very depressed as one of my goals for the year was to stay debt free! Oh the plans we make for ourselves in January hey! but then the dreams we go for in February muck up all our plans. Still that's life - I have crossed another goal off my bucket list and I feel really good about that.

This month I plan to pay £2k off my Flexiloan, which is my only debt, so that's a good thing. There was a time when I was paying off three credit cards and several loans, so really I can't be too depressed about my debt.

I got a letter from one of my sponsor kids in Africa and he writes "we (he and his family) wish to see you again but we are still hoping that you are coming over this year". (Oh man, I sooo what to go and see them all)

Maybe January 2013....??

Debt with Credit too!

Well I have been crunching the numbers and here are the results.

I have used £1k of my Flexiloan which has put me in debt again but I still have my Emergency Fund of the same amount. Should I use the Emergency Fund to clear my debt? Or should I just pay off the Flexiloan quickly and be done with it. I am currently working on the latter - I like the idea of keeping my Emergency Fund for .....well, emergencies.

Budget for the month is as follow:

Monthly expenses     £250

Saving                      £300

Dentist                      £45

Sundry                    £108

Spending___________£60

Total                        £763

Of cause this is the idea but as we all know - this is a dream. I know I have spending money since coming back from China. Mostly for necessities but one or three items, not even close. I will end the month in debt anyway, as I have my 2nd Tax payment due on the 31st July and I don't have the funds to cover it. Guess it will not be until September that I will get back my credit balance. Looking forward to that!