T H I R T E E N

I have banked my pay cheque and it will not clear till Thursday morning but I have decided to update my charts today. I pay off the last of the debt I own on my credit card with this cheque, and that debt relates to the flight tickets I brought this year for my trip home. So it is not old debt that I have been paying off for years.

Next Monday I have an appointment with the nice folk at Her Majesties Revenues and Customs (HMRC), to check my 2008/09 Tax return. I have until the end of October to have the HMRC to assist me, after that I am on my own. Hopefully they will be okay with me to clear my arrears by the end of the month. If not then I can used my Flexi account as it is only for a few weeks.

It is weird how my Tax arrears arn't listed on my Credit Report - seeing how it was due by the 31st of July. The interest charge on the arrears is only 8% which is why I have left it till last.

So it is now all about taxes now - the arrears I own and what I owe for the current year. Still with the Labour government printing money like there is no tomorrow - I guess they need all the help they can get.

F O U R T E E N

Oops did I say weekly report???

I have been busy - sort of... but I am back and doing okay as far as my finances. I'm still on track with my £5 a day spending and am slowly whitling away at my debt. As far as my monthly goals go - I have cleared my Flexiloan (again) and will clear the final payment on my credit card with my last pay cheque of the month. So all is going very well!!

Other news which I am very pleased about is my credit rating, which I have updated as of the 8th of September, now stands at 999. Which is amazing - as I started this journey with a credit rating of 696 which is "poor" and am now "excellent". According to Creditexpert.co.uk, "my score is above average - 71% of people have a score lower than excellent".

At the end of this month I will be paying only my tax bill and no debt. I will be technically debt free by by the end of September (and would have paid off my trip back home in December).

Oh well folks only fourteen weeks to go till the end of the year.

S E V E N T E E N

That's it, all there is, only seventeen pay cheques left till the end of the year.
Wow that is so scary!
Having written out my spread sheets for the rest of the year, I find that to achieve every thing needed, I will have to follow my payoff plan to the letter. My £5 a day will have to cover all my personal expenses and all spending. It's all going to be very tight from now till the end of the year.
Weekly updates from now on to track my progress.
Goals for the month are:

• Pay off my Flexiloan (17/09)
• Clear my credit card (30/09)
• Totally keep to my £5 a day rule (totally)

After that I will only have my taxes to clear and then what is left will got towards my trip home. Where does the time go because this year has really flown by!

Almost Gone

Just when I had cleared all my cards I have to put my travel expenses onto it, all £1,146.92. Still I am glad I have confirmed my trip home and can now give dates of arrival to my friends and family instead of just vague statements of "the end of December" or "just after Christmas".

But I have a balance on my credit card again which I need to clear - I also have a new balance on my Flexiloan account which also needs clearing. And I haven't even started on my tax bill yet!

I use to read other peoples blogs and when they would add to their debt just as they were clearing it, I used to think "nooooo, you're almost there". But stuff happens, like life - so it is my turn to add to the balance. Still as I have said before, this is all new debt - as I have cleared just over £20k of debt.

My current spending plan is still in place and will not be changed until there is nothing left to pay.

Closest Thing To Closure

Okay, this is partly a date thing - it is the seventh of the eighth of the ninth today - surely a reason in it's self to make an entry on your blog?
The other reason to make this posting is that I have just closed my Halifax credit card, having been put through to their "special" closure department. I think all banks have them, as this is the second one I have dealt with of late. And they really tried hard to keep my business - offering me interest free payment transfers for the life of the balance and also a reduction on the interest charged on the credit card, etc. But I stood firm and said no thanks - as the balance on my only remaining card will be paid off by the end of the month.
"Why do I want to close my account?" I told them I was down sizing my finances, then I was told that I was "a very good customer and they didn't like to lose good customers". Gee, if I'm such a good customer why do you charge me such high interest rates, especially when the base rate is so low.
Anyway I am down to one card now - I am keeping it open for the time being as I have two direct credit's coming off it each month and am too lazy at the moment to sort out moving the direct debts to my bank account. I have one bank account which has all my other direct payments and standing orders. So really I should sort that out.
In December I want to go home for a visit and have been told in no uncertern terms by my travel agent, that I must book now or miss out getting a seat altogether. The other other piece of not so good news was that the ticket was going to set me back about £1,300 (gulp). I should have been making my plans at the beginning of the year apparently and I could have saved myself a few hundred pounds. I usually only pay about £750-£850 but with some new "C02" related taxes on long distance flights (thank you Mr Brown!) the prices are really taking a hike. So I am waiting for a call from my travel agent to see if she can find me any seats in the last week of December. I will have to just grin and bear the price I guess. Once my tax is paid off my air fare will be the next bill to clear. It's never ending isn't it!
My Mums is going to kill me, as I have been telling her for months that when I come over I will be staying for about six months or so, and now I am going to have to break it to her that I am only planning to stay for two. Not looking forward to that phone call.
Can't wait till that last £722 is cleared off my account - not quite debt free but boy! I will feel debt free - it's funny but now that I am so close to my goal I sort of feel like I did when I started my blog. Is that just me?

Wagers Day

Okay - I am a little ahead of myself, I have paid in my paycheck along with some extra income from the last few weeks, onto my last credit card (with my snowballing debt). The cheque will not clear until Friday, as I didn't get to the bank till after 3pm. Never mind!

I have also transfer the last £82.18 from my Emergency Account to clear the card but that will not be taken from the account until Wednesday. Don't ask me why.

So come Friday I will be making a phone call to cancel that credit card for good!

I still have a balance of £722 on my only remaining card which I will clear by the end of the month. (I'm still debating what to do with that one - keep it or cancel it?)

Once that is all paid I will be left with only my tax bill to pay.

Lets hope these guys would be proud of what I have achieved!

No Spending Week

Well it is the end of my No Spending Week which I have completed with very little problem. My usual £5 a day spending plan was budgeted for and so I paid the monies for the week onto my final credit card. A little step closer to my closing that last credit card.

I did have to ration my chewing gum, as I hadn't thought about getting more until last Monday afternoon when the challenge had already started and I was down to almost half a bag (I like the value pack bags). Can any one tell me why they pack chewing gum in odd amounts? The value pack had 39 pieces and I think the plastic container has about 59 pieces.

So when is your No Spend Week? You know you want to.....go on.......

End of July Update

Well I have added my tax bill, which is now due, to my debt balance which brings it back to just over the balance I had a the start of June. Gosh it seems like a big step backwards. Still on the positive side I have paid £1,429.19 off my last credit card, better than I had planned and really once that is paid off I will feel I have clear my debit. Okay I will still have debt but it will be all relating to 2009 and not debt I have been carrying around for the last decade. And of cause I want to clear it also.
Anyway this month my budget was divided up as follows:

9.6% Expenses

85.1% debt

5.3% Spending

Next month I plan to clear my last credit card, cancel it and then to start clearing my tax bill which I will probably transfer to my Flexi account. (Yes, the account I should have cancelled but am glad now that I didn't) I will wait until I start getting calls from the Revenue it's self before I do so. Hopefully I may have paid it off before that happens.

For August my goals are as follows:

Clear my last Halifax credit card £1085.18 (+interest)

Pay towards my Tax bill £1,133.23

Keep to my £5 a day spending plan

All Things Are Possible!

I have taken the challenge of having a "no spend week" and will put my weekly spending money towards clearing my Halifax Credit card. A card I should be able to clear by next month.
My extra work is only going to fetch me an extra £450 and not the £700 I had hoped for but still - something is better than nothing.
I have £2.08 in my purse from last week which I will add to my emergency fund. My little red purse has been put away for the week as I don't need it.

Anyone else game for a "No Spend Week"?

Go on....... Go on.......

Little Update

Had a great week last week with my £5 a day and ended it with just over £15 in my purse. Down to half my total weekly spending allowance of £30.

No More Spending is going on a No Spending Week but as I have already been out spending a little today I would like to have a go at a no spend week next week. Last year I did do a lot of no spend days which was okay but sometimes I found that I would then spend more on another day.

Do you find that sometimes it takes forever for payments to arrive on credit card accounts?

I am still waiting for last weeks payment to be credited to my Halifax card account and will be making another payment on Thursday/Friday (depending when my pay cheque clears). Luckily Halifax allow you to make as many payments as you like, unlike some cards, which is news to me.

Planned snowball payment for the month - £1,200 (so far have paid £558).