A new year – update

Monday, April 20th, 2009 | Environment, Life, Money Saving

So part of my plans for 2009 was to:

Paying off debts and money saving, I have been doing various things to accelerate the paying off debts. Collecting £2 coins in a sealed jar, collecting small change in another sealed jar. The best thing though and the thing I think is really going to make the difference and I’d urge anyone in debt to give this ago, is making a payment a day to whatever it is you owe money too. In my case it’s credit card. I don’t make a daily payment direct to the card as it’s interest free so I make my daily payments into an online savings account linked to my current account. How it works for me is that I sweep any odd monies up to £5 in my current account over to the savings account every day leaving my current account at a round figure. For example if I have £398.54 in my current account I will sweep across £3.54 to my savings account leaving me with £395.00. This lets a nice amount build up and earn interest until I have a lump sum that I can then use to pay off the card. Obviously you still have to make a payment to the card every month, but it just gets you there a bit quicker and you really don’t miss the money!
Physically saving money at the moment is a bit pointless when I have debts, so my money saving is concentrating on not buying things I don’t really need. Cutting down costs by not using expensive chemical cleaners, batch cooking food, making sure food doesn’t get wasted. Sorting out my things and selling on stuff that I really don’t use any more (I have so much stuff I hold onto thinking it might come in use)

I am pleased to report that small credit card number one has been paid off in full. It was £536.19 and has now gone. I managed to pay it off firstly by not spending any more on it! secondly by paying £20 a month off and sweeping odd bits of money over to my savings account. I also transferred to my savings any extra money I had made either by working extra or selling things.

Large credit card number 2 is also doing great. I’m not using it and I’ve been paying off £100 a month and again putting any extras into my savings account to pay it off later. It started out at £1750.66 and is currently £1300.

In line with the simplifying and de cluttering I have been able to sell a few things to raise funds to pay off the card, and of course doing some extra has given me a nice little saving nest currently standing at £592.08 to make the final pay off. So as it stands I have £707.92 of debt outstanding to date.

The savings nest is also acting as a cushion, in these uncertain times it wise to have a bit of money put back just in case the worst happens!

My £2 coin collection is coming along nicely… I think I have about £78 in the tin so far.  i have no idea how much is in the loose change tin but it’s not even half full yet, for some reason I don’t seem to have much loose change, but that’s a good sign really… If I’m not spending I’m not going to have any change!

Since the new year I haven’t purchased any costly cleaning products, instead using up the old chemical cleaners and concentrating on the more friendly natural versions. I’ve not had to buy clothes washing liquid/powder for a couple of months since the liquid was finished and I started using my home made powder along side white distilled vinegard as a softner.

I’m continuing on the crusade to use up all my toiletries. I am just about at the end of my deodorant supplies, when I can fully switch over to my Tawas Crystal – a fantastic natural deodorant that will last me for 9-12 months for the wonderful money saving price of £6.50 + P&P

Toothpaste is nearing it’s end! I had lots of “milk teeth” tooth paste that was given free when the little person was little. unfortunately the little person doesn’t like mint and it had been sitting taking up space so I decided I’d make use of it before it was past it’s use by date.

Shampoos & conditioners have gone. I still, however have a mountain of moisturisers to get through. So in terms of my own personal grooming products I have only had to buy shampoo this year. I have purchased a cheap bottle and at the moment I’m finding it’s doing a better job of keeping my hair clean than the expensive John Freida I had been using!

Finally the advent of a new phone has seen my day to day phone book trimmed down, numbers and people have gone! All that it left now is to update the hard copy… I have a new book, I just need to sit down and sort it out!  my email address book has also been sorted out and streamlined.

It’s slow but it’s happening!

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