2018 is my reinvention

adventureofmemories · 6 January 2018 at 1:07AM

I'm starting this diary as I am terrible with money and have been in a few situations that has scared me enough to want to change the way I live and think about money & finances. I've always lived with a few pounds to spare or have been living in the negative or relying on others especially my fiance to help me out when I have spent my bill-money. I've always viewed money as a throw-away object that I get monthly ... for me to enjoy.

I had £0.00 in savings with big things to save for ; Wedding, A "beautiful" house that we actually own, children in the future and an emergency fund

I've recently had a few nasty experiences with being short on money that I would like to use 2018 as the fresh start of my life. I want to start again from here on in. I'd like to become financially "free" and live much stress-less life when it comes to money. I'd like to wake up everyday being able to know that my future is in good hands.

My financial goals of 2018
1. Pay off all debt to Adam (£444.00)
2. Save £1,000 in Emergency Fund
3. Save £2,400 in Help To Buy ISA
4. Keep financial life updated in this diary
5. Aim to have 3 No Spend Days a week
6. Not be negative in my accounts
7. Try not to live pay-to-pay

Tools I will use to help me
1. Airtable - I have made a base for my financial life during each month.
2. Creating and following a guide of "pay day allocation" - Setting 3 tiers for where my money should go, starting with the most important to what can be left out
3. using my budget planner , keeping record of bills paid, savings and my debt to fiancee, no spend days , things I've done to save money etc...
4. Checking my bank online
5. keeping an expense log to see WHERE my money goes once out of my account
6. M.S.E challenges
7. January money challenge on another site

Background
Me and my fiance live in a rented house. I pay around £700 a month on bills, food and energy for us whilst my fiance pays the rent and internet as well as netflix. We try and half every big purchase down the middle - for an example our tv was £400 so we split it to allow us to pay £200 each for it.

I'm literally starting from having nothing in my bank accounts.
My bank accounts are:

NATWEST;
Current account for bills
Bills holding pot
Powershop sinking fund
Food shop holding pot
Help-to-buy ISA
Emergency Funds - Savings builder account
Health
retirement

SANTANDER :
I don't use this account now as I've found Lloyds Bank offers more for me.

LLOYDS:
I am currently waiting on Lloyds bank to send me the activation code for my new bank account with them so I can sign up for the save-the-change system and also use that account for personal spending so it is much easier for me to track and keep things separate. I also love the other things that the Lloyds account offers.

Challenges I am in & current progress
January penny pincher challenge - 0 pts
£1,000 Emergency fund challenge - £102.00 / £1,000
Sealed Pot Challenge - £6.90 (money is going towards Wedding , Anything less than £1 is deposited there until Emergency fund is built up)
Help-to-buy challenge - £200 / £2,400
January NSD - 3aweek 3/15
Saving for Christmas 2018 £1 a day challenge - £32.00 / £356
Retirement - £10.00 in Bank account | £61.08 in B&CE
Save £12,000 in 2018 - £371.90 all together

adventureofmemories · 6 January 2018 at 1:23AM

Pay off all debt to Adam (£444.00) (9.01 %)
5/1/18 - £40.00 Paid , £404.00 Left to pay

Save £1,000 in Emergency Fund (10.2 %)
1/1/18 - £3.00 Deposited into Emergency Fund Piggy bank
5/1/18 - £100.00 Deposited into fund

Save £2,400 in Help To Buy ISA (8.33 %)
5/1/18 - Transferred £200.00 from wages into H2B fund

Aim to have 3 No Spend Days a week (1/52 weeks completed)
5/1/18 - Tuesday 2nd , Wednesday 3rd & Thursday 4th were a No Spend Day

Not be negative in my accounts (1/12 months completed - Runs from my pay day to pay day )
5/1/18 - Had £40 left though £39.39 is due to come out but I have been paid £1295,21 today so it's all good. No negative signs in my account :j

Try not to live pay-to-pay
this will be hard to track .

5/1/18 - Powershop: £100.00 put into my powershop energy sinking fund. Will only pay for energy used each week unless good powerpacks are available . Anything not used will be kept in that account and roll over to the next month.

Putting £20 away each month into health fund in case I need to buy some prescriptions or have dental work etc... done,

I am going to put some money away to buy household items (not essentials) that we need
hopefully I will do this each month If my wages allow me to.

I will be having £100 of spending money for myself but anything I don't use will be put into a savings for my own fun money. I will try and only use £10 a week for myself which can be spent on coffee / sweets / make up etc .

jwil · 7 January 2018 at 10:05AM

Good luck

enthusiasticsaver · 7 January 2018 at 10:13AM

Good financial goals. Is your fianc!e on board with saving too? Is that £404 the only debt you have? No loans or credit cards?

adventureofmemories · 7 January 2018 at 8:47PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Good financial goals. Is your fianc!e on board with saving too? Is that £404 the only debt you have? No loans or credit cards?

He has A lot of savings in his bank account, he puts £200-£400 each month and what ever he uses from it he always puts it back. We keep our finances separate but I have told him i want to save more of my money so we can save for the Help-to-buy scheme and I need to build the Emergency fund up too.

Yeah, that's the only debt i have and it's only because he's learning to drive & or wants to use it for buying a car when he passes.

I don't have any credit cards - I really want to avoid ever having one. I've never had one.

Thank you to everyone.

Update
Another £110 has been added to my emergency online fund,
£3.00 has been added to my Emergency fund pot
84p has been placed in my wedding fund.
I've removed £20 from health but placed it into the emergency fund
I had 2 spend days today & yesterday but will be taken out of shopping funds.

ValiantSon · 8 January 2018 at 12:06AM

adventureofmemories wrote: »

I don't have any credit cards - I really want to avoid ever having one. I've never had one.

There's nothing wrong with credit cards per se. The problem only comes if you spend more on them than you actually have. Used wisely they can actually help you to earn money, possibly through cashback, but more importantly by leaving your money in your bank account earning interest. Two points to bear in mind:

1) If you are keeping a careful eye on your spending then you will only ever spend on your credit card money that you actually have in your current account, so you can simply pay it off when the bill comes (setting up a direct debit to pay the balance every month avoids any risk of forgetting).

2) The money in your current account will stay there longer and (hopefully) earn some interest. If you don't have an interest paying current account then I'd advise switching to one. For example, TSB will pay you 3% on balances up to £1500, and the minimum monthly deposit is only £500.

Credit cards can actually help you if they are used correctly.

Oh, and they also give you Section 75 protection on purchases over £100.

adventureofmemories · 12 January 2018 at 11:11AM

crredit cards aren't for me, i don't have the right mindset to use one right now.

update
It's been a bit of an 'expensive' month but i've used my emergency fund for only emergencies or expensive needed house items / work items. I've decided my emergency fund isn't just for emergencies but for needed house hold bits too (within reason) so I've changed the name to the MOJO fund...

I have a little bit of personal money,
£50 in cash & around £50ish online - I split it so £25 is in my new lloyds bank which is for personal spending. I don't have a lot of personal money because I've put a lot of it into some savings.

Wedding = £28 (started with £6.90 on 1st jan)
Retirement = £40.00 (started with £10 on payday)

I've set up a save the change account on my lloyds bank as well.

Only 1 no spend day so far this week

Aiming to get 1 today & tomorrow / sunday

MeenaM · 12 January 2018 at 11:46AM

welcome and good luck !

I agree with you , don't get a credit card ! you don't need one and they will only lead to trouble imo , you get protection with a debit card these days too so don't be tempted is my advice ,

will you join your income when you marry?

adventureofmemories · 13 January 2018 at 9:55AM

We won't join our finances , I've already spoken to him about this. He doesn't see the point.

Yeah I'm just more so afraid that I won't be able to control my spending with credit cards. Done fine without them.

enthusiasticsaver · 13 January 2018 at 12:53PM

Whilst I commend you for not having a credit card when you come to apply for mortgages having a well run credit card account helps your credit score.

It is difficult though if you are convinced you will run up the account and not pay it off in full each month as you should. It is just something to bear in mind that mortgage lenders will score you higher if you have well managed credit. If you do get one then just spend once a month on it and pay it off in full by direct debit.

Opening up the help to buy ISA is a good move too.

Personally I would keep the emergency fund purely for emergencies rather than buying household stuff which should really come out of your joint household account.

The best way to save for retirement is in your pension if you have an occupational one. Saving in a bank account is a waste of money as the interest rates are low and inflation means it is actually going down in value, retirement is a long term savings plan and the returns are better in a pension or some sort of investment plan and saving in a pension is more tax efficient and usually also means your employer will match contributions up to a certain point.

adventureofmemories · 14 January 2018 at 1:19PM

ah okay - I didn't have enough in my normal budget for the little bits but it's okay.
We don't have joint finances. He doesn't have an emergency fund but loads of cash stashed away.
I have a employer pension fund with around £61 in.

2018 is my reinvention

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