My 2009 Plan

Fire_Fox

Just wanted to say hello from another student! I don't have any notable debt either - just my student loan and some disputed management charges for my flat. I am similarly in a good position to save, so will keep an eye on your progress.

:beer:

Do you know what your mum is spending all this money on? She sounds a bit desperate with the manner in which she acquires extra spending money. Is it possible she has an addiction or mental health problem that has not been diagnosed?

Miss_314

Hi Fire Fox, thanks for the comment.

No, I don't really know what exactly she was spending the money on. I looked at her old statements when I first took over her accounts and I saw that in the month before I took over (Sept), she withdrew about £300 in one week and ran out of money by the 15th! (Her THP is only £800-900pm) There's no new furniture in the house or ornaments, etc and she doesn't really have that many clothes so there's no evidence of any sort of spending spree. My only guess is that it was all spent on smoking/alcohol. I'm not implying that she's an alcoholic of a chain smoker; I think she's just over generous and buys other people drinks constantly when she's at the pub (she goes 2 nights a week, sometimes 3 but rarely more), thinking that if she has a lot of money in her pocket then she should be doing that at she has more than then at that point.

I also know she'd borrow constantly at the end of the month and approx £200 at the start of each month would be to pay that back right away.

As for mental health, I think she's probably depressed though she'll never seek help for it as she doesn't like to point out when she's not feeling well (e.g. She once hid the pain of kidney stones for about 2 years until the point she had collapsed and had to be hospitalised to have the kidney removed). I think if anything, she's lonely and likes the company in the local pub where she has lots of friends and where she meets up with my aunties/uncles/cousins and she can be distracted for a night.

Hmmm.. anyway. I've already spent £25.47 today on petrol/parking. I don't feel too bad as I haven't filled the car since before Christmas so it could have been worse. Also, I went to Tesco so I got double clubcard points too :cool:
Also, paid an additional £130 off the credit card today so that should finally bring the balance back within the credit limit and not occur any bonus charges this month for the first time (I hope).

Student loan also came through this morning (bit late but got here eventually) so now I need to think of what to do with it. My ISA is already full for this tax year and I was thinking maybe Premium bonds? What does anybody else think? My ISA rate is now only about 1-2% so I was thinking maybe to put money (as I get it) into premium bonds until March next year then transfer back £3600 of it into my ISA just in time for the end of the tax year. I know the odds of winning are ridiculously low, but I also thought that even £3600 in an ISA at a rate of 1% and dropping would never really get more than £40 in a year so maybe it's worth the risk and give me a little excitement every month in the hope I win? (Even though I know I probably won't ).

Anybody have any better suggestions that I haven't considered?

Miss_314

Miss_314

Just an update.

I got paid from work last night. I was underpaid by 2.75 hours but I'm going to chase that up this week. I have decided to run my budget from Tuesday-Monday as it's the most regular way to do it. I gave myself £45 to spend this week (including petrol) and anything left over I will put into my sealed tin (coins) or my 'bank it/emergencies' tin (for notes only) as a sort of payment-a-week. I put £3.82 in my sealed tin last night and £20 in my 'bank it/emergencies' tin.

I also started a spending diary today and it's already going quite badly but I'll post that at the end of the week (Monday/Tuesday).

Anyway, onto the weekly to-do list to keep me motivated.
To be completed by 11.59pm Monday 19th January:

1. Arrange CJ Presentation
2. Arrange S&M Presentation
3. Finish Chapters 1-10 of M&B
4. Read books I got today (5 of them)
5. Clean up
6. Chase up underpaid monies
7. Give S&M Presentation
8. Do an additional 50 pages (at least) from C&D textbook
9. Arrange official papers for when I go into hospital
10. Send off more forms from post office
11. Reply to letter from my friend
12. Attend meeting on Wednesday
13. Make a decision regarding premium bonds/saving

That's all I can think of for now...the rest are just minor tasks I need to complete, Get the feeling that this week that I'm going to be busy doing nothing.

Fire_Fox

Miss_314 wrote: »

No, I don't really know what exactly she was spending the money on. I looked at her old statements when I first took over her accounts and I saw that in the month before I took over (Sept), she withdrew about £300 in one week and ran out of money by the 15th! (Her THP is only £800-900pm) There's no new furniture in the house or ornaments, etc and she doesn't really have that many clothes so there's no evidence of any sort of spending spree. My only guess is that it was all spent on smoking/alcohol. I'm not implying that she's an alcoholic of a chain smoker; I think she's just over generous and buys other people drinks constantly when she's at the pub (she goes 2 nights a week, sometimes 3 but rarely more), thinking that if she has a lot of money in her pocket then she should be doing that at she has more than then at that point.

I also know she'd borrow constantly at the end of the month and approx £200 at the start of each month would be to pay that back right away.

As for mental health, I think she's probably depressed though she'll never seek help for it as she doesn't like to point out when she's not feeling well (e.g. She once hid the pain of kidney stones for about 2 years until the point she had collapsed and had to be hospitalised to have the kidney removed). I think if anything, she's lonely and likes the company in the local pub where she has lots of friends and where she meets up with my aunties/uncles/cousins and she can be distracted for a night.

Miss_314

If she is depressed or has another mental health disorder, your mum may be self-medicating with the cigs and alcohol. Is it possible to ask around the family how much she was spending on an average night, to ascertain whether this is where all her cash was going? It's very difficult, but I don't think the problem will be resolved unless the root source is tackled ... somehow.

Miss_314

Just swung by to update this.

To be completed by 11.59pm Monday 19th January:

1. Arrange CJ Presentation
2. Arrange S&M Presentation
3. Finish Chapters 1-10 of M&B
4. Read books I got today (5 of them)
5. Clean up
6. Chase up underpaid monies
7. Give S&M Presentation
8. Do an additional 50 pages (at least) from C&D textbook
9. Arrange official papers for when I go into hospital
10. Send off more forms from post office
11. Reply to letter from my friend
12. [STRIKE]Attend meeting on Wednesday [/STRIKE]
13. Make a decision regarding premium bonds/saving

Oh dear, I'm really not doing well this time. I've been working on task 1 all day and it should be completed tomorrow. I've done chapters 1-4 and started on chapter 5 for task 3. I've read 1 of the books from task 4, and I will have completed task 8 by the end of tomorrow (in theory) as it's tied to task 1. I need to get more done and faster.

I have no idea what to do about #13 and I think I will probably end up applying for premium bonds by the end of the week just to say I've done something. Bad idea?

On the upside, I've just checked the Mother's cc balance that I've been paying off and thanks to overpayments, the balance is now stood at £1158.00!!! Not bad for 3 months work :j Hopefull I'll have it paid off by the summer. Might go update the signature...

Miss_314

Thought I'd update my (lack of) progress for this week :

To be completed by 11.59pm Monday 19th January:

1. [strike]Arrange CJ Presentation[/strike]
2. [strike]Arrange S&M Presentation[/strike]
3. Finish Chapters 1-10 of M&B
4. Read books I got today (5 of them)
5. [strike]Clean up [/strike]
6. [strike]Chase up underpaid monies [/strike]
7. [STRIKE]Give S&M Presentation[/STRIKE]
8. [strike]Do an additional 50 pages (at least) from C&D textbook [/strike]
9. Arrange official papers for when I go into hospital
10. [strike]Send off more forms from post office [/strike]
11. Reply to letter from my friend
12. [strike]Attend meeting on Wednesday[/strike]
13. [strike]Make a decision regarding premium bonds/saving[/strike]

I think I'll leave task 11 for next week now when i'm convalescing. This time next week I'll be about to go under the knife *gulp*

I'm giving my presentation this afternoon so I can at least strike that off then. I decided to invest in premium bonds in the end; just waiting for them to send out a form for me to sign to see if they accept. I read two books last night (i.e. I didn't go to sleep until 5am this morning) so only two more to go...those may have to trail into next week's list too, along with the M&B chapters, of which I still have 4 to finish.

Good news however is that today is pay day and both Saturday & Sunday were NSDs for me :T I promised myself I wouldn't spend any money all weekend as I think I spent too much on non essentials all last week. Funny how my first week of a spending diary saw me spend more than I normally would in two weeks. I'll have to trim back a lot more this week. Anyway, off to update the signature now...

Miss_314

Miss_314

Just another update.

Got paid last night and so far today I have spent £1.30 on parking at university. I'm in the middle of totalling up how much I spent last week (tues-mon) in my first week of having a spending diary so I'll put that up later when I've finished. I have managed to put £80 into my "bank it"/emergencies tin so there's now £100 in there. I'm going off work sick for two months as of Monday so that money may come in very handy as of then, which is why I haven't gone down to the bank with it yet.

I've also managed to do my payment a week but I only had £2.32 in change so that's all I've managed to put into my sealed tin. I'll work out a budget for this week after I've tallied up last week's spends.

On the upside, the money has come out of my account for my premium bonds so I now have £1,200 invested (so long as I get the signed form posted off tomorrow...).

Off now to book a place infront of the TV to watch the Inauguration...