Russell's 'New Leaf' Spend Less, Make Money, Pay off Debts Diary

rustysmart

I teach primary - my current class are 9/10 yrs old. Wish I could leave my work at work!

Herewego

Not sure I could cope all day with a group of kids that age, I used to be a childminder and loved the little ones but also loved the bigger ones when they went to school.
Then again I certainly couldnt cope with a class of teenagers i would want to clip half of them these days

rustysmart

My ISA statement came this week and I completely missed a payment of £14 interest! Not sure how, but a nice little start to the new year. On the downside however the same statement told me that my interest rate will be dropping to 0.5%

Never fear though, I have set up a new ISA and if I make a min. payment into it for six months I'll get £50 cashback - no savings account would get me that in interest so I feel like I'm a winner!!

Payday is either tomorrow or Monday - not sure, but new signature update is in preparation as we speak!

I'm upping my shares investments from this month from £30 a month to £50 a month. I'm also wondering what and when I'll start to get dividends paid - but more about that when it happens!

Feels like I am on top of the moneysaving mountain looking down at the lovely view, even if I'm not out of the forest of debt at the moment!!

rustysmart

OMG, just updated my signature (payday yesterday!) and I feel so incredibly close to the end of the journey of becoming debt free and starting the new journey of living in credit!

Savings took a hammering last month, but only because I paid a lump sum off the credit card. I think I'm going to do that again this month with another lump payment of £1000 as it felt great!

Nothing else huge to report really. Signed up for a FTSE linked ISA and going to make a regular investment into that - this is def. a long term option and I have intention of taking the money back out any time soon - that's part of the reason why I went for this type of ISA instead of a Cash ISA (which I already have).

Maybe some more eBaying this month, although not sure what on. Sold some more Amazon books in recent weeks - think I've made about £20 in the last two weeks which has topped up my playing money rather than going towards debt.

Feeling great on this Saturday morning, I hope everyone else can feel this positive, hopefully reading my diary has given you a little boost.

Herewego

Signature is looking good, your so close to the end now, what your plans when you make that final payment. Will you be celebrating ?

rustysmart

Thanks HWG, not sure about celebrations yet. We have booked our holiday for Easter, but that has been booked for a few months now.

I think I'll treat my wife to a night out somewhere, and probably treat myself to some new gadgets!!

rustysmart

Going to bake some bread today - there, I've said it! My dirty secret is out

Then I'll spend the rest of the day tidying the kitchen as I would have made a mess!

Following my savings overhaul mid-week, I found out last night that one of 'savings' accounts is currently paying (or not paying me) a fabulous 0.08% - you haven't read wrong, 0.08%!! Needless to say last night I applied for a new savings account (2.75%) and will be in the process of closing the other one ASAP.

I've also applied to transfer my current cash ISA to a new cash ISA - this will be a change from 0.5% (bonus % ends end of month) to 2.85% so whilst I won't have millions to earn interest on, I will certainly be making my money work harder!

rustysmart

Confirmation of Virgin FSTE ISA through the post today. First direct debit payment is due 28th Feb but I've taken a positive step and transferred £100 today. What's the big deal? Well a year ago I would have looked at it as "they don't want the payment until February so I'll spend it now".

Still waiting for confirmation from Santander about the new Cash ISA and savings account that I've opened, but they should be on the way any time soon.

Happy days.

Herewego

Amazing thats all really positive news you will be ready to save some of that spare cash as soon as the debt is gone

rustysmart

Thanks HWG, yeah I'm not too sure I've had the opportunity to save 'spare' cash ever - but I'm sure it will be great feeling when I get there. Will have to make sure that I don't go silly though and overspend when the time does eventually come - that's how I got into this mess in the first place.