EF Spending Spree

I am back from holiday and as usually I went way over my budget, well that is the problem I did really do a budget. So as I had no real plan for my holiday finance I spent may more than I should have. Part of the problem was I didn't organise the holiday, that was supposed to have been arranged by my god-children's father - however no planning was done at all.
I arrived with a travel guide I borrowed from the library - which included a basic map of the area, and that was all we had or used.
The trip was to Spain, to the Costa del Sol in fact or as I was told the Andalusian coast. Very popular with British traveller's - not a good fact!! But at least we were there just out of season so most to the Pom's had gone home. Well except for us!!
The main cost was food - the first night out we spend just over £100 which for two adults and three children. It include one bottle of wine. We ordered way to much and even took some of the meal back to our holiday apartment. Not knowing a language can be fun but also can cost you more when you can't ask what else comes with a main course dish.
My plan is now to get my baby Emergence Fund back to it's thousand pound balance and also get my expenses balance back to a one month extra balance. After that the only debt I have pending is my tax bill due next January and I really will have to save for that one. Christmas will be tight this year!

The lovely village of Frigiliana

Learning To Live Without An Overdraft

(this has been sitting as a draft for a few months now but I am posting it as it has been a good step on my road to getting my financial life in order)

My final debt vehicle is the £300.00 overdraft on my main current account. Currently I have this amount in my Emergency Fund, so technically I don't need my overdraft at all. But I have been hanging onto it and using it too. Which is why it needs to go - as I will stuff up my mortgage application. The mortgage bank will want to see three months of my bank statements and I don't want them to see my account in overdraft.
On Monday I will be sending my next payment towards my mortgage deposit fund and will clear the little bit of overdraft I currently am holding. Then in the last week of April I will be able to add about £500.00 to the Emergency Fund bring the total to £800.00. Surely I can get rid of my overdraft. 
My bank gives me an interest free overdraft up to £250.00 as standard so really I don't lose anything anyway. I need to get use to living 'cash' only.
I don't have any credit cards but I do have several debt cards and I do not want my debt cards to replace my credit cards. So cash only! 
People will think this crazy but credit is bad - it robs you of not only your future but also your self control and self esteem. Credit is debt and debt is slavery. 
I want to be in control of my money and not let my money do it's own thing. 

 Dave Ramsey's Baby steps in English

Baby step 1

£1000 to start an Emergency Fund

Baby step 2

Pay off all debt using the debt snowball

Baby step 3

three to six months of expenses in saving

Baby step 4

Invest 15% of income into Stocks & Shares ISA's

Baby step 5

Pay off your home early

Baby step 6

Build wealth and give

The above is 'my' baby steps guild for those of use who live in the UK. I am pretty sure that ISA's are the same as Roth IRA's - don't judge me if you think I am wrong (but please do leave a comment. I am at baby step 3 and will be for the rest of the year.

Working The Baby Steps in 2015

I have had a great week and kept to my cash budget!! 
This is a great success for me as I have been struggling with keeping to my spending plan.
Last week I cancelled my current account overdraft and for the first time in months, my current account has been in credit for the whole week. I need to do this until August and then I can send copies of my bank accounts to my potential mortgage company without being embarrassed.
I have completed baby step 1 and saved £1000 in my Emergency Fund. To this I have added a further £200 and added it to my Expenses Account as part 1 of my complete Emergency Fund. 
Now I'm saving for the rest of the Emergency Fund which will take some time and I don't expect to complete this until some time next year. Basing it on my income rather than expenses I estimate I will need another £5500 to cover three months of income.
This is not the first time I have gotten to Baby Step 3 but unlike the last time when I was very half heart'd about saving, I now understand just how important it is to do this - to success long term. 
Sticking to my budget will get me to my goal and this will get closer to my dreams.

Working the Baby Steps

This month it is all about my baby Emergency Fund. 

Currently it is sitting at £300.00 and if I am really, really good about my spending this week it should be at £1k by the end of the month. Another £200.00 paid in next month and I would have completed my next goal to save six months wort of expenses into my expense account. 

Two goals to complete after that are:

1. Save for my tax bill in July
2. Save £1k per month for the next five months

Not exactly Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps but ether way I will have cleared an up coming debt while holding just over £1k in an Emergency Fund (step one and two) and would have started to save towards my fully funded Emergency Fund (step three). I don't think Dave would be opposed to my plans.

As a side note I logged on to Noodle, a free credit check site and found that my credit rating with them is 4/5. Which they stated as being very good and that I should be approved for most loans I apply for. What a laugh - okay I wasn't turned down for that last loan but I might as well have been! 

Noodle also listed me as not being on the Electoral Roll, which I am and received a conformation of that very fact today by post. So have placed an error alert regarding this to be dealt with by Noodle and will check the site again next month.

I'm Debt Freeeeeeee..........

I have done it again...... I am debt free again and this time I will not let things slide, I will save up my full Emergency Fund and stick to my monthly budget, where I will assign every pound.

How much will I need to save in my Emergency Fund?

Well that has been the question since the first time I became debt free back in 2011. Working towards a goal has been my saving grace when it comes to my finances and so I need a goal amount. A ball point figure that will cover all my needs for a three to six months period. Dave Ramsey's baby steps call for 3 to 6 months of expenses but my expenses are really low i.e. 6 months expenses would only be £1,200 which is not enough for an Emergency Fund. But that would be an amount to save towards. 

Part 1. of my Emergency Fund would be to save £1,200.

Part 2. of my Emergency Fund is to save a further £6k.

All going well - part 1. should be done by the end of May but part 2. is going to take a lot longer. It should be done by December 2016. This is budgeting £300 a month but I could pay more towards this goal depending on work.

Having an Emergency Fund is so important and I have learnt this the hard way. I got back into debt because I didn't have an Emergency Fund fully funded the last time. This time I will follow all the baby steps without question because I don't know better.

....Not long to go now!!!

 ....it's March and I am less than a week away from clearing my last debt and being Debt Free again!!!


I have one more loan to payoff and I can't wait to call my bank to get the settlement figure on Monday. Then I am back to Baby Step 1. Save £1000.00 to start Emergency Fund. Saving up £1000.00 shouldn't take 

too long and then I can jump to Baby Step 3. Save 3 to 6 months of expenses into savings. This is the fully funded Emergency Fund and the baby step I didn't really complete the last time I became debt free. I believe it is partly the reason I got back into debt back in 2013.

Getting Flexiable With Money

I am almost there!! As I stated in my last blog, I decided to sell most of my shares and use that money to help clear my Flexiloan account and then close it. And so last Wednesday I jumped online during a fee reduction period and sold the share for £1,900.00 which was a profit of about £700. Not something to be sniffed at as far as I am concerned. It is my first venture into share dealing and I only wish I had brought a whole load more at the start of the venture. Hind sight and all that good stuff. Anyway my Flexiloan is now down to under a thousand and I want to clear that using my Emergency Fund but will hold off until Monday as I don't want to risk having almost no cash in the account should anything problems arise.
Once that is all complete I will be left with my final unsecure loan account which I plan to clear by early February 2015. Then I can say I am totally debt free!! But only until I get my mortgage which should be around October 2015. Between now and then I am going to try and but as much as I can into both my savings account (for my proper Emergency Fund) and my mortgage deposit saving.
Is it me or is it really hard work to keep on the straight and narrow when trying to stick to a budget when clearing debt? I want to get debt free asap but still buy stuff (and I do need what I am buying) well some of it at least. I don't know if buying the next book in a series counts as needed?

Moving On Time Again

I am just back from a weekend away visiting my godchildren. As always I had a great time and spent too much money - nothing was budgeted, as the visit was a last minute decision. Last Tuesday I found out that my job would come to an end the following day. This was not totally unexpected.
During the Christmas holidays I had, had to cancel my Christmas visit to see my godchildren due to my job. So decided on the Wednesday that I would go and visit the children while I could, using my Emergency Fund to pay for all my purchases and then spend the last week of January finding my next job.
This will mean I am a week behind my February budget and will not be debt free until early March. Also I will need to repay my Emergency Fund. Of cause this all depends on my getting a job within in the next seven days. It is very do able but not guaranteed.
My main financial goal for January is to pay my taxes and this is still on-track. My expenses are all up to date and I have funds to cover my first week or so of expenses for February.
My lovely friends are all being so helpful with possible job contacts. So I am very blessed!
Lets see what Monday has to offer.....

One Step Closer

Another goal ticked off!!! I have paid off my Flexiloan and closed the account!!!
Yes - getting rid of credit is only a good thing. My Flexiloan account was keeping me indebt and costing my hundreds of pounds each year in interest. I cancelled the account at my banks local branch, using their phone to save myself money and was asked, "Why I was closing the account?" I gave my reason as - no longer needing the credit facilities.
I now have to get rid of the £300 overdraft on my current account (aka checking account) and I will then have cleared all my credit. That will kill my credit score for sure! I will have to have a check that out next year some time.
I've got Baby Step 1, my Emergency Fund account back up to £1000 and now need to clear my final debt, an unsecured loan which currently stands £1840.26. My current plan is to pay that down by February and then get on with Baby Step 3 - Save up 3-6 months expenses - in my case that will be about £6,500. So taking into account my current Emergency Fund, I will need to save £5,500 which will take me at least a year because I am also working on Baby Step 6.

But before I can get any of this great stuff done I have first to get past Christmas and my Tax bill which is due on the 31st of January 2015.
                                                        Such fun!!

Can't Wait to Dump the Debt!!

I have been crunching numbers to see how I can clear my debt quicker than my current plan of the end of March 2015. Dave Ramsey is always saying you should sell everything you can to clear your debt but I don't really have a lot to sell. I am a bit of a gypsy and all my worldly goods are in boxes or a couple of bags. But I do have some shares. Before I got into Dave Ramsey money plan I had been purchasing shares in two different companies and both lots of shares have done okay. I wish I had purchased more than I did as one of the shares has more than doubled in value. If I sell these shares and use most of my Emergency Fund I could totally wipe my Flexiloan and in doing so stop being charge the high interest rate each month. I could then build up my baby Emergency Fund again in December and clear my final debt (my bank loan) by the end of February. I don't want these two unsecured debts hanging around my neck longer than they have to be. And I can't wait to close the Flexiloan once and for all.
One of the shares is due a dividend payment at the end of the month, which would be added as shares and so I had planned to wait until that had happened before selling the shares but the company I hold the share with are having their monthly reduced transaction fee on Wednesday, which would save me much more than I would gain on the dividend payment. Now I could wait until next month for the next reduction in transaction fees and get both but then I would lose it all in interest chargers. So next Wednesday it is!
 

Not Quite by the Baby Steps

Okay - so I have been tweaking my budget to hopefully sort out my over spending of the last two months, which have resulted in no snowball payments and my going into my over draft on my bank account. Yes that is another credit I need to remove from my life but that is for another day.
I would like to be debt free (again) within six months so that is March next year. Between then and now is Christmas which is always a nightmare for personal finances, I have some ideas but more about that later, the other major player for my finances is Tax which is due on the last day of January.
Going my Dave Ramsay's Baby Steps Plan I am or I should be working Baby Step 2 - which is clearing all debt except the mortgage using the debt snowball plan. I however am also in Baby Step 6 - which is paying off your house early. It is a bit of a stretch but it is do able and it would mean only having a three year mortgage, once I get a mortgage, which hopefully will be towards the end of next year. If I can get rid of my debt by March getting the deposit for the mortgage will be much faster and I will also be able to move on to Baby Step 3 - which is to build up a full Emergency Fund of three to six months expenses.
The madding thing is I have had since February of this year to clear my debt that is more that six months but have had little progress until now.
 

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...........