A debt free wannabee diary of a 16 year old!

edinburgher

Happy New Year Jess

Glad to see you've been super busy since I last dropped in on the thread. Congratulations on the job, it's good to see that your employability has been recognised.

Starting the Christmas 2009 shopping now might seem a little off the wall, but I suspect that a lot of people do it. I was having dinner with my elder brother and his GF (28 and 25) last September and I mentioned Christmas. To which his GF replied 'yeah, we finished our shopping by May!' I've also got my wrapping paper, giftbags and cards for next year in the sale this year and have made about 30 very nice gift tags by recycling the pictures from Christmas cards. Now all I need to worry about is giving the same 'card' back to the person who gave it to me

Are you planning on saving any of your cleaning wages bar the sealed pots (which are ideal if you have the patience for them)? If at all possible, I'd recommend putting 10-25% (higher is better) straight into a savings account, using a Direct Debit, so that it will come off every month without your intervention. My younger sister did this (I should mention that she was working 13.5 hours a week, so she had a slightly bigger pay cheque) and after 2.5 years she was able to give up working part-time for a year to focus on her University exams. She graduated this year top of her class and it just goes to show, relatively small amounts of savings can give you the freedom to not worry about money for a bit when it counts.... or you could just go on a good holiday

junior_j

Well i do put probably about 10% of it in my sealed pot maybe..

I have already brought 2 presents for next year for people.. knowing that its only jan 2nd and i am getting very much prepared makes me relax a bit lol..

Jess x

junior_j

Things are still going great! xxx saving money , buying in advanced! looking for bargians and all sorts"! x