PGDE Course, Scotland

HockeyDuo8083

Hi All:hello:

I am starting my PGDE in Secondary School Home Economics (getting the OS word out!) in August this year and thought it might be a good idea to have somewhere to share our student moneysaving expolits.

Kind of like a Student Money Saving Club!

I am working full time just now and will be up to end of July. Application for SAAS funding for 09/10 is open online from 20th April.

Anyone want to join in?? Really want save a min of £2K by Aug.

HockeyDuo8083

So far i have saved £409.00, will be eBaying like mad and have also started a Spending Diary for this month. Will do a weekly update to let you know how it goes.

Should be fun cos OH and I are in the middle of house buying too..so it will be one heck of a journey!

HockeyDuo8083

Spending Diary is going ok but I must admit it has been tough so far. You really have to write down everything. I will post my results soon.

Purchased a couple of second hand bookson teaching on Amazon via Nectar for the course.

I have also signed up to TES Online which is superb. They have a great forum on there for prospective and current teachers.

Anyone else want to share?

HockeyDuo8083

Well the student finanace has all been confirmed now with SAAS/SLC. First payment will come in Aug and then monthly after that. I will be getting £460.00 per month which will cover my half of all bills.Think it is paid about the 7th of each month? This will be my sole income when I am studying with OH covering everything else.
Trying to build up the savings though so we won't be '2 sheets to the wind' on the financial front through my course:rotfl:

The following has been put in place:

- Own sealed pot challenge (all change at the end of each week going into tin with £5 left in wallet for start of week)
- Continue to batch cook from scratch
- Continue shopping budget (Currently £200 but hoping to get this down to £100:eek:)
- Selling items on eBay and musicmagpie.com
- Have opened savings account (syphon off money after all bills paid at end of each month):A
- No current debt apart from Mortgage (have one cashback CC with zero balance which is now for emergencies)
- Quidco payments all into JA to help build a buffer for bills
- PAD to savings ac

SAVED: £500.00 AIM: £2000.00

So... Current financial position..dah dah daaahhhh..

Savings: £500
Debt: £0


Any other tips?:D

HockeyDuo8083

Morning:hello:

4 NSD's this week! Hurrah!

Not much banter on the saving front his weekend as we are off to see friends down south. So we are getting a bite to eat in airport:eek: yikes on the money front there. Saved a lot on the flights though as booked them yonks ago and used cashback card at time.

Have soup and bread with me for lunch and hope to get out of work a little early later on.
I also have Monday off work so I shall be catching up on all housework and aiming for another NSD.

Found some dvds last night to list on musicmagpie which came to the princley sum of £4.95..wow! Every little helps though:A

TGI Friday everyone

HockeyDuo8083

Afternoon,

Still waiting on savings ac info coming through. Sealed pot challenge is going well with emptying wallet on a Sunday night.
Bugeteering is going strong as is the grocery spend battle.

Slow cooked my butt off yesterday with a jumbo shepherds pie and a pot of soup. Will be all organised come August time with a fully stocked freezer of goodies.

Is it sad for a 26 yr old to take a flask and lunch box to uni?? Don't fancy paying uni cafe prices when I'm there.

Also looking into rail ticket prices too. As a full time student I can get a railcard -WHOOPEE!!:T

HockeyDuo8083

Finally the Saving AC paperwork has come through so it's now viewable on my internet banking:j Payment will start at the end of the month.

Slowly but surely stacking up the coinage for the PGDE fund.

8 NSD's this month which is pretty damn good. Been also comping like mad for just about anything so if I win and don't want/need it then it's getting flogged on eBay.

I have been pondering the student bank account banter. Really not sure if I am going to bother tbh. I have a perfectly good current ac and a cashback credit card which are both maintained impecably:money: Therefore I don't think it's worth getting a student ac.

I don't see the point in the free overdraft either. I have never had or needed a overdraft luckily so don't think having potentially up to £3k of debt after a year is very MSE! Lol

I really doubt I will bother with the student ac. Student loan however will be getting paid into current bank ac. I know that they are essential for a lot of peeps and this is just my personal choice.

So I continue on the frugal saving route so the House of HockeyDuo will stand strong:D

HockeyDuo8083

Did a mini audit over weekend and found out I had 3 savings account with sweet f-a in them -

RBS - £17.50
Lloyds 1 - £0
Lloyds 2 - £0.01p

I thought best to just get rid of these now I have new shiny RBS PGDE fund. So I am closing the RBS fund today and putting money into new ac. Lloyds branch is a little further away so that will get closed tomorrow.

I am not sure if I left these accounts open how they would affect me financially anyway I don't use them so best to cut all ties! I had also discovered an old Post Office National Savings Ac with vintage pay in book:rotfl: I think I will ressurect this as it is safe and it is less tempting to with draw cash out of.
Thinking I may name this 'Secret Back-Up Fund for if it ever goes pear shaped':D

Other news I have just written my letter of resignation to my current work. This will be getting handed in on July 1st. I don't think it professional to just leave it on my bosses desk so will ask for a 5 min chat to let him know state of play. Not looking forward to that. I have enjoyed my time at work, not the actual work, more the peeps I work with but I have to say I am not sad to be going. Sometimes I feel a little selfish when I think of all those peeps out of work but I remind myself I am doing this to make a better life for us in the future.

So jobs today:
- Close [STRIKE]hated[/STRIKE] RBS AC
- Pay money into BOS AC:A also need to hand in a copy of ID to them as got ac opening paperwork through.
- Pick up Boss's dry cleaning.....ah I [STRIKE]hate[/STRIKE] love my job..
- Have a look through wardrobe tonight and see if there is anything I can sell on eBay

Any other student savers out there??

HockeyDuo8083

Been having a browse on the Scotrail website and discovered I can get a railcard even though I am not 16-25;) If you are 26 and over in full time education then you can get a rail card.
You just need to download the form and get your uni to stamp it.

I think this will be worthwhile so I shall be taking the form along with me on Matric day to be stamped. I will also be taking along my council tax form so we get the cheap rate:j

HockeyDuo8083

Weeee bank busting excercise DONE!

RBS no longer has me in their sweaty grip:rotfl: promptly cut all ties with them and now have funds in super new jazzy all singing and dancing BOS savings ac:beer::dance:

Payment a day will commence from 1st of July. This should give me enough time to organise all the household pennies.

I am thinking it may make sense to post a statement of affairs on here. I think an SOA is good for peeps in debt but why shouldn't a saver use one as well?

This might give me a better idea of how much money we are going to have after all the dreaded bills have been paid.

Also from what I have researched it is a good idea to have at least 3 months worth of salary saved up so everything hits the fan you are covered. Is this right? hmmm:think:
So maybe to tailor our needs due to my drop in income I am going to total up our 'important' outgoings and then aim to save 3 months worth of this amount put to one side. Important outgoings would be( not in order of pref.)

- Mortgage
- Council Tax
- Insurance payments
- Gas & Elec

As I said before we have a zero balance credit card so that is a back too in an emergency.

PGDE prep is still continuing to go well. Just reading some course books and waiting for the Uni info server to be back online.

Bye for now:wave:

atypical

Don't forget that you may be eligible for a council tax discount. See here for details.