Hedgesparrow stretches her wings again

hedgesparrow

Okay so mini goals:

* Personal Money is weekly except in planned special circumstances.

* I'm going to write a list of all the books I own but haven't read (have already done this for DVDs)

* I'm going to try to wear everything in my wardrobe. Starting from left to right. This should help me be aware of all the choice I already have and allow me to declutter too. This will be at home only as I wear a fixed set of clothes to work.

* Plan a mini adventure every week within the budget.

That feels like enough challenge for now. I feel so easily begrudged because I have to put any limit on my spending but that's pretty selfish and immature. I'm hoping these challenges will help me see how lucky I really am.

hedgesparrow

Missed my weekly Monday update. Though I did tot it up I forgot to write it here.

I'd spent £40 of my £100 personal spending in one week on books, an album, charity shop clothes and cake!

I'm dishing the rest of the months money out in weekly dollops as I clearly can't be trusted!

Normally this will be £25 a weekish (depending on how many weeks) but with what I have left it's £20 a week for the rest of the month.

I've spent £60 of the present money already but I've now bought all my birthday gifts for February and March. I just need to buy a Valentine's card and things for mothers day.

This weeks mini adventure we are going to do experimental travel in our home town.

hedgesparrow

I've been a bad girl with the weekly Monday update. I've been a good girl with money saving though.

I haven't overspent on my budget so far this month.

Personal spending left: £16.50
Present spending left £2 (bought mother's day gift)

The splitting the money weekly is working much better for me. I'm actually planning ahead. This month I've bought some second hand clothes, been to the cinema, been for a meal out, bought some books and bought some music so I don't feel hard done by.

hedgesparrow

Weekly update and end of month update!

My budget is on target but I still increased my overdraft by £9.48. I can't seem to crack this. This is because I keep miscalculating interest payments. I've triple checked and I haven't overspent on anything else.

Also the credit card isn't as paid off as far as I thought because I forgot I was now paying interest on that too. I am rubbish at maths and this is getting confusing. My budget clearly isn't covering the interest, which of course it has to do or this isn't going to work. I wish they would charge the interest at the beginning of the month because my balance goes down, I update it on here, and then the interest is charged and it goes up again. I never really paid off that money if you see what I mean?

What I've decided is just to update my debt in my profile on the last day of the month from now on. That will be more accurate than trying to calculate it myself and updating it more regularly. Currently my debt stands at:

Overdraft £1254.48
Credit Card £225.01

The good news is I made £25 selling a piece of furniture so I have that extra to pay off the debt. I guess if I keep throwing money at it I will get there eventually, but I am a bit disappointed.

I have £20 cash to carry over which is good (so I will get out £20 less from the bank this month) and £1.95 in loose change for the loose change celebration.

hedgesparrow

I've been lazy/busy and haven't written in my diary. But I am still sticking to my budget. This makes me hopeful. If the system still works when I'm lazy/busy, it must be a good one for me.

End of Month debt totals for March:

Overdraft: £1109.43
Credit Card: £62.98