The last few days before payday, a post by a Scottish man

Ok, I'm interested, I've talked about the NEED for doing fun things with your money, and including these in your budget. It doesn't have to be much, a trip to the cinema or bowling etc. And there is never a more important time to have fun that the last few days before payday!

Now, being a Scot my idea of fun is watching the 80's night special on channel 4 with a munchy box. For those who don't live in the heart attack capital of the world, a munchy box is a pizza box filled with all the most artery hardening delicious food you can imagine. Depending on the takeaway you could have chips, pizza, donner meat, pakora, bhagis, spiced onions, sauces, free cans of juice etc and all for ridiculously cheap prices!! And being an NHS employee I get 10% discount from my favourite takeaway!

Please note from a health perspective I DO NOT recommend eating unhealthy food, but I do recommend having the occasional good time doing whatever makes you feel good! Even the occasional large outlay of cash can be an ok thing if you are going to get enjoyment out of it! The moral of my story is:

If you try to save EVERY single penny you will only break yourself sooner than you would allowing yourself a couple of treats a month. Budgets are done so that you can save for your future, future outlays of cash, and to spend smart.

What are YOU saving for?

Ok, time to spill the beans, what are YOU saving for?? (Comment below readers!)

As I have discussed before, everyone has their own goals, and for most goals you need money to achieve them. Generally speaking the more ambitious the goal, the more moolah you need!

I have spoken about what I am saving for, new windows for my house, a new garage A FREAKIN' DELOREAN! YEAH! And trips all over the world, (Germany is getting ticked off this year!) So I want to know what makes you tick, what makes you get up in the morning and grind IRL to get what you want? Knowing what my readers are trying to achieve will help me write better advice for you!

What is Skimming??

Well, from a workmate's idea, I just made it up! Read on!

One of my workmates (who is a fellow budgeter) told me about his method of budgeting which I had never heard of before, I don’t think it has a name, so I am going to refer to it as

SKIMMING

Basically what he does is check his bank account on a regular basis (perhaps every two days or week) and “skims” the top off the number (for example if he had £22.55 he would skim the £2. 55) and transfers it into his savings account (I LOVE that online banking can allow you to transfer your money between accounts in mere seconds!!) and because you can only withdraw cash from ATMs in increments of £10 (or £5 at some rare bank machines!!) in theory he will never “miss” the money he is skimming off the top! A great effortless way to save money into your savings, by the end of the month you could see potentially massive savings of money, and every little helps!

On that note I will leave you with some advice from my Grandma, which is:

“Squeeze the pennies till the Queen crys for mercy”

Budgets ARE sexy, my side hustle post

Tomorrow my fellow (and far more experienced!) Financial blogger J$ money of http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ is going to post a topic about my personal "side hustle" car cleaning, I wrote the piece for him after emailing him asking a question about "The long game" and he gave me some great advice, because I was really stumped on that one! We got to talking and the subject of side hustling came up, and I explained to him that I valet (or clean cars as it is known in the USA) cars for money. I am SUPER excited that he is going to post something I wrote on his blog (please check his blog out, it is absolutely brilliant!!!!) and I cant wait till tomorrow to see it! I consider it an absolute privilege. Check it out for the full guide on cleaning cars for money written by yours truly over at www.budgetsaresexy.com

A story from my childhood, my earliest memory of saving

My earliest memory of saving was when I was roughly 7 or 8 years old. My parents took me and my sister to a shopping complex in Heathfield in Ayr, this was big news to us! We were from a very small village and didnt go outside of that area very often, so this was exciting to a 7 year old and a 5 year old. Anyway, one of the shops we went to was poundstretcher, a british budget shop. At the time I thought the place was incredible, it seemed to have everything! But whenever we went there, my sister and I always went straight to the toys aisle, and on this particular trip I saw a big box with a toy robot in it, it was about 14 inches tall, and was red and silver, very mechanical looking, with futuristic lights and sounds advertised on the box (it didnt come supplied with batteries) I saw it and I knew I had to have it! I asked my dad if I could have it, but I was told "No, but if you really want it, then you can save your pocket money and buy it for yourself"

To add a bit of backstory here (which I did not know at the time, but found out later) my parents were not all that well off. They were paying a mortgage and had two kids, my dad worked very very hard as a cemetery keeper, and my mum worked a couple of hours a day in a shop. But they never once let me and my sister think that we werent well off, we were provided for excellently with clothes when we needed them, and we were well fed and had toys which we loved, we had an extremely happy childhood, our mum and dad loved us very much (and still do) My mum and dad have long since paid off their mortgage, my dad was promoted about 15 years ago, and my mum works a few more hours, but they have saved hard and done without for themselves to get where they are, and I am extremely proud of them.

So as you can imagine, the price tag of £8.00 was a quite a lot by their standards, Im sure my dad would have liked to buy me the toy, and buy my sister one of roughly the same value too as they always kept us equal, but my dad didn't want to spoil us, or make us think that we should get a toy just because we wanted one, he wanted to give us an idea of how money works, which I am sure is an issue for every parent. I must point out that I didnt complain or beg for it, or make a fuss in the shop, I simply accepted that what my dad said went.

My pocket money was 50pence a week at that time, but I was very determined to get the robot toy, it seemed so cool that I simply had to! So I saved my 50 pence a week, not buying any comics or sweets, I even did odd jobs for my gran and family to earn a little more, and eventually I had the £8.00 together in coins. I waited till the next time we went to poundstretcher, and I took my money, I can remember lifting the robot off the shelf and taking it to the cashier with my dad, I felt so proud of myself! I got it home, put some batteries my dad had in it, and started to play with it when I very quickly realised....

It was a crap toy, im sorry to say that dear readers, but it was. I was very dissapointed (while still being proud that I had saved hard for it by myself) the lights were dull and the sound was crackly, there was virtually no articulation at the joints of the robot, so I couldn't make it fight with my action man or move it in anyway but roll it along the floor on the wheels on the bottom of its feet.

I learned two valuable lessons there, which have served me well since I was 7, and I will pass them onto you.

1- You can save for anything as long as you take enough time, and try your hardest to save for it. This goes for achieving goals too, try your hardest!

2- Be careful what you buy, research every purchase before you make it, and spend wisely!

grinding in real life

My best friend recently moved country to be with his girlfriend, and also to get employment. He started off as a cleaner in a big supermarket chain, and has worked his way up to staff member in a VERY short space of time due to his work ethic. (Was spotted by the management) He is taking on overtime and doing very well, and also he helps out in his father-in-law's sign-making business (He trained as a graphic designer but has been unable to get work in Scotland even though he finished his course at college with honours and was awarded the student of the year award.) Naturally I am very very proud of him and his achievements, as are his family and his girlfriend. He is extremely hard working and this is starting to pay off for him, these days hard workers are difficult to come by! Hopefully the work experience will enable him to get a job in graphic design, as most places want someone who is experienced working with them.

But to the crux of the matter, my friend plays online games such as World of warcraft and Cabal, (I play cabal too) and to get anywhere in these kind of games one has to grind.

Definition: "to perform a repetitive task in a role playing game in order to increase one's character's stature."
"Informal To devote oneself to study or work"

My best friend and I use this phrase that we use in terms of online gaming, and in terms of real life work. The same principles of dedication, and hard usually repetitive work build ones wealth and character apply. For example my friend works overtime at his job and helps out in a signmaking business (sort of like a freelance graphic designer) to make ends meet and to make his budget work out, and save as much money as he can.

I take a slightly different approach, but use the same principles of dedicating myself completely to the task at hand of making as much money as I possibly can to support my household and family. (Please note that neither my friend or I engage in a "hustlers" definition of grinding which basically involves stealing or other illegal activities.) I have a decent 9-5 job with a permanant contract (Im a clerical officer) which in these days of recession is worth its weight in gold. I also get a decent amount of overtime, which I use to up my wages, its monotonous and time consuming, but pays at "time and a half". On top of this I sell unwanted items on gumtree(which is free to use), sometimes If I spot a classic video game at a car-boot sale, I will buy it cheaply and sell it on at a profit. I also Valet cars at the weekend. This is a hobby of mine which I have turned into an earner when I have time to do it. I also "check in" at shops using a mobile app called "quidco" which pays small amounts (5-25p) for standing in a shop and checking in on your mobile. If you are visiting a city or town it can actually be quite profitable! Its money for using your mobile and walking around, not hard, but monotonous and somewhat time consuming. I also make youtube videos and write this blog, and adsense pays me to allow adverts on my videos and blogs. I budget hard and dont spend money where I dont have to generally, although I allow myself a few small "treats" every month, I like having a takeaway meal which is fairly cheap, because you will only get miserable very quickly if you dont give yourself a couple of treats every month! This is grinding, making ends meet, and trying to save more money and spend less. Often difficult, time consuming and monotonous, but good for character building and making money honestly. If you can turn a hobby such as cleaning cars or an interest in classic video games for example, into money making opportunities then so much the better.

Thoughts?

Do you pick up coins or money on the ground?

Ok, this is going to be a "marmite" post, you are either going to love the idea of this, or HATE it, its that derisive a topic, here goes!
Almost every day I find money of some sort on my daily travels, I don't even do it on purpose anymore! But my eyes just seem to find the coins (And in some very rare cases notes!) wherever they are on the pavements/ground etc. I once found a ten pound note as well in a business in Ayr, I reported that I had it, they took my details and said that If noone claimed it by the end of the day then I could keep it! Any more than that though and I would hand it in to the police. Everyone has a different level of tolerance for finding money, from a moral standpoint. To be honest most people don't pick up coins or money from the street anyways, they think its "dirty". Which is 100% TRUE. But only because the money in current circulation has been handled so many times, by so many different people, and kept in hiding places by many different people, so its as dirty as the rest of the money in circulation by my way of thinking. So far THIS YEAR I have found somewhere in the region of £25, in these hard financial times, thats got to be a welcome bonus in 4 months!! Simply from picking up coins in the streets!

So my question to you budgetlifers, is do you pick up coins/notes from the ground/streets/sidewalks? And what is the reason for yes or no answer?? Looking forward to hearing from you budgetlifers!

My next post will be about ways to make money on the side, (not from your day job)

MARCH 2013 YOURBUDGETORYOURLIFE How To Improve Your Credit Score


Welcome to the second month of my financial blog, I’ve decided to do it monthly as this fits in better to the way I budget, and to the way my wages are paid, I know some people are paid weekly, and you can still apply my blog to that, but mine are monthly, plus it means you only do 12 budgets in a year rather than 52! So that’s got to be better!J Saving time as well as money, and not getting confused with too many numbers!


This month I’m going to be talking about (among other things) improving your credit score. Your credit score is what companies look at to see if you are “an acceptable risk” (in the financial sense) or not. Here is a quick rundown of how to improve it.


1- Take out a credit card, but only use it for small amounts about once or twice a month. AND PAY IT OFF IN FULL WITHIN THE WEEK. DO NOT LET IT ACCUMULATE! Look for a credit card which does not charge interest for a certain period after purchases. RBS for example is 56 days before an interest charge is incurred. When you do this it goes on your credit score and it shows lenders that you are an acceptable risk as you pay money back when it is lent to you.






2- Have an overdraft facility on your bank account (if your bank account charges you for simply having one then change your bank account) and DONT USE IT. It goes on your credit score and shows lenders that you can be trusted with money lending facilities.






3- Shop around for a mobile phone contract, and get it as cheaply as possible for your specific needs, and then pay the amount owed without fail every month, its that simple. Even if it’s a sim only contract, it shows lenders that you can be trusted with paying a specific amount every month.






4- Use debit card instead of cash at least occasionally, this is for two reasons, 1 it shows lenders that you can be trusted to use money from your account without taking out a physical amount in cash, it shows you are savvy about your money. The second reason this is good is that if you lift £10 then the physical cash is with you, and it is easily spent, or put into a jar for months, till it gets put back into your current account. Why not skip the middle man and keep the change in your current account? It helps more than you would think!






5- Take out a small loan NO NOT WITH A PAYDAY LENDER, ARE YOU NUTS?? Its 1792% APR!! I mean with your bank or building society, again, check the small print and terms, and pay it back very very quickly indeed! Avoiding incurring any interest charges if you can.






A good credit score is ESSENTIAL for making a “large purchase” such as a house or a car (I don’t agree with taking loans out on cars, buy second-hand people! But that’s a different story for a different day, and not everyone can) because let’s face it, no one is going to lend a large sum of money to someone they can’t trust financially! Do this for a short while and soon (it is possible because I did it using these exact methods) you will have a credit score of 999 the best you can get! This opens A LOT of doors for you, mortgages are suddenly attainable, and in these economic times, that is something that is VERY desirable, both for yourself, and for the lenders! My other advice where these things are concerned are READ THE SMALL PRINT, TAKE YOUR TIME!

Your budget or your life 1

Welcome to your budget or your life! In this blog I am going to be posting about how to make and maintain a budget, and also helpful guides and tips on:

*saving for a deposit for a mortgage/car/anything
*pitfalls in finance
*how to build up your credit score
*information on different types of bank accounts
*paid surveys

and much more to come over the life of this blog!

First of all here is a link to a standard budget in ODF format (sorry I dont have excel, but you can convert easily or use open office which is free like I do if your excel wont open it)

http://www.2shared.com/file/pmX-Tn0A/BUDGET_TEMPLATE.html

In this template on the far left hand side you have some examples of expenses you could have. Change any of these to anything that suits your own personal circumstances. Enter the totals into the second column. I work my budget monthly, but you can do it weekly to the same effect, and when you save your spreadsheet file always save the week or the month as the file name. E

The third column is for your incomes, enter as many as you wish here (for example if you have two or more jobs, or sell on ebay/gumtree etc)

The fourth column is for your isa total, If you dont have one (yet) obviously leave it blank, but I will cover ISAs more in the upcoming blogs.

The fifth column is for Savings Jar 1, this could be where you save a certain denomination of coin (such as pound coins or dollars if you are american)

The sixth column is for savings Jar 2, this could be where you save just any denomination of coin or notes.

The seventh column is for your wallet or purse, the money you carry on your person

the eight column is for the emergency fund, this is REALLY important. I would say try to get about £200 or $300 dollars saved here for emergencys, AND ONLY USE IT IN EMERGENCYS. I will speak about this more in the future as its pretty important.

Once you have entered values in all these columns the totals and totals left over (or negative) will display in the lower cells. This tells you how you are actually doing financially and theres no guesswork or "rounding up" involved. I HATE ROUNDING UP. This is for the fact that people seem to think that to budget you should round up values. I think being honest with yourself financially is the very best way to start. 

Ok, so you have your totals and you are seeing (perhaps for the first time) exactly where your money is going and how much you REALLY have. Now you try to get a better deal on every bill you possibly can.

Insurances
http://www.comparethemarket.com/
http://www.gocompare.com/

Energy and broadband
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/

line rental
http://www.primussaver.co.uk/

Make cut backs, BE HONEST, and be brutal if you have to, this is your financial future we are talking about here and noone can do the legwork for you unfortunetly. Here are my 10 golden tips:

1- Cut back on buying branded goods (heinz, walkers etc) and try the supermarket or budget version, buying the aldi version usually cuts back about 60% of spending, and the stuff they sell is actually great quality

2- Walk places where you can rather than taking the car or public transport you will get fitter and  walking makes you feel good by releasing endorphins in your brain.

3- Turn off lights when you leave a room, there should only be one lightbulb on in your house when its dark, and thats for the room that you are in.

4- Dont buy DVDs, take out a free trial for lovefilm and then cancel it before the 30 day limit is up

5- Watch films online, there are actually a lot of films on youtube now, such as rocky 2

6- Dont let food you buy go to waste or out of date, make meal plans and use all the food before it goes out of date, make a soup, all you need to make soup is a stock cube and any selection of diced vegetables and meats. You can freeze it too and eat it later.

7- If you have a job can you do overtime? Its a good way to make money and get in your managers good books!

8- Can you sell anything that you dont ever use? Many people on ebay or gumtree will pay good money for that playstation you have had sitting for years

9- If you have a television subscription cancel it, freeview is really good now! Its like sky without all the crap shows

10- If you make videos on youtube, see if you are eligable to monetize your videos, its a great way to make money!

More next time on Your budget or your life, I will be blogging weekly every saturday.


If there are any questions or comments, please post here or email me on onemanmade@hotmail.co.uk