New (financial!) year's resolutions

Imelda

Well, the new financial year starts next week so what resolutions are you going to make?

Mine are:
1. Keep my spending diary up to date
2. Not use the credit card at all
3. Save for things rather than "buy now pay later"
4. Say no to things if I can't afford them
5. Open a separate account for "me money" so that I know how much I have to spend each month
6. Save at least £1000
7. Keep checking out MSE website and the forum to keep me motivated and on track

I'd be interested to know yours, I may even add them to my list too!

devils_nose

1. Pay off egg loan
2. Get down to one credit card debt
3. Save enough to go to China
4. Earn some money in a 2nd job
5. Stick with it!!!!

Batfink

Mine is to complete by tax return before the end of April rather than rushing to get it done in January. Means I'll get my tax rebait quicker and probably have less to pay the accountant too as they'll not charge me top whack

Phil

dinkylou

Mine would be:

- Overpay every month on loan to finish before next financial year
- Keep up money saving habits
- Save up for a holiday
- Stick within current budget even with payrise coming in
- Keep saying 'no' to unnessessary frivolous expense

KEZZAE_2

Mine is to:-
Pay off Next card, Argos card, Kays account and 700 pounds of Halifax card, should all be done fairly quickly as I have cashed in my ISA and my parents owe me some money
To try to get Halifax to reduce the rate of interest on my credit card (currently 19.9%)
To cancel all PPI on credit cards and take out one low payment protection plan
To get a second job (or at least try to)
To try to keep overdraft down as low as possible
Not to buy things I don't need and be more budget concious

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

Mine are:

*Pay off Next account - snowball says August 2006
*Carry on paying money into my savings account to cover all my car
e.g. tax, mot & maintenance :A
*Continue to menu plan and stick to my food budget
*Tackle my overdraft and reduce limit
*When I'm feeling low and have no motivation, remind myself how
much progress I've made so far
* Continue to save £2's to pay for my haircuts/colours

Lewby

Great idea - instead of the 'what are your goals for the week' it's 'for the year'! My longer term goals are;

1st - Pay my brother back what I owe him.
2nd - Completely pay off 3 Credit Cards and keep snowballing the others.
3rd - Definately pay cash for everything we buy! No 'Buy now, Pay a lot more later!'
4th - Saved £1,000 for a holiday in March next year.
5th - Start my Christmas shopping in June.
6th - Keep my spending diary up to date - if I don't fill in it I know I'm guilty of overspending.
7th - Stop buying the children clothes they don't need.
8th - Only buy 1 magazine a month as a treat.
9th - Don't buy 'BOGOFs' that I don't usually buy.
10th - Be proud of myself everyone when I have reduced my debt, not bought anything on credit and have more than made ends meet. :T

Lewby xx

xela_17

Mine are:

1. Pay off Natwest card (£550)
2. Pay off egg card (£4960) :eek:
3. Use upcoming payrise to pay off above debts quicker.
4. Continue saving for our house deposit.
5. Use tesco cc for all shopping and pay off each month (lovely clubcard points to pay for fitted wardrobes, if we ever move house :rolleyes:)

Gerradene

I'm not very good at resolutions

1. stop wasting money on lunches and snacks
2. get cc balance down to zero
3. build up emergency fund
4. continue to be a DFW nerd :j

rlm_3

It's really great to see everyone making goals for the next financial year! I haven't really had chance to think about my own goals yet but wanted to add a few tips that might help people achieve their aims. In sport psychology there's an acronym to give you a framework for goal-setting: SMARTER

Specific: If goals are specific you know exactly whay you're trying to achive. Think about what resources you need (including other people) and what you need to do.

Measurable: You need a way to judge how you're doing. In terms of paying off debts this is pretty straightforward as you know how much you've paid off.

Action-oriented: Your goals should be something that you are in control of, something you can do something about yourself.

Realistic: Goals shouldn't be too hard or else you'll just get demoralised if you don't achieve them. Too easy and they won't hold any value.

Timed: When do you plan to accomplish your goal? This week? This month? This year? You might already have an idea of this if you've know your debt-free date and have used the snowball calculator.

Elasticity: set goals within a range, i.e., "I plan to between £100-130 off such and such debt", rather than "I plan to pay off £120 exactly".

Repeatablity: Not sure how well this one applies to debt but essentially you should try to meet a goal more than once before you move on to a more challenging one, to give you a morale boost.

Sometimes one the 'R's is changed to Recorded. If you commit your goals to paper you're more likely to adhere to them. Of all the tips, I've found this works best for, as long as I make sure I go back to it and check where I'm up (though I do have a tendency to leave it in a drawer and forget about it )

All of these might not be right for everyone but hopefully one or two of the points might be of use.

HTH

rlm

clairey_em

Mine are:

1. pay off credit cards, at least halifax one as soon as poss
2. save up to move to bigger place
3. stop buying endless rubbish and stick to weekly food budget
4. put money away for babies (although none allowed until move to bigger house, see point 2!)