Friday 18 September 2009

I have a financial guru

It's quite trendy to have a guru, and now I have one for the only aspect of my life where I *really* need help. My finances!
This lovely lady has revolutionised my spending and the way I view money.
With her help I shall pay off my overdraft in four itty bitty months. The answer? Have about a hundred accounts!
I'm kidding, but my financial guru is correct in that I need to move my spending away from my overdraft account. The way it's going up and down all the time makes it pretty difficult for me to see how much I'm paying off every month. And I may as well just put all my savings into the overdraft account, no point having them sitting there when I'm paying loads of interest on the overdraft.
So now I have four accounts:

Account One: The dreaded overdraft account, for the foreseeable future I am not allowed to take any money out of this account. But I must put in £200 every two weeks.

Account Two: My essential outgoings account. This is the account my salary will go into and the account my bills, rent and travel will come out of.

Account Three: My weekly spends account. This is the account I will use day to day. I will put a certain amount in every fortnight (I get paid fortnightly, yes, it makes the whole monthly spending thing quite confusing) and if I run out of money here? Well, then eating isn't an option.

Account Four: Contingency fund. Every month I will put a certain amount in here to cover costs that might crop up when I least expect it, i.e. a huge dentists bill, or if my coat falls apart and I'll freeze without a new one.

And when I'm debt free I can change the purpose of the accounts. So instead of a paying off debts account, my overdraft account can be a long term savings account (to save up for my own flat, you see) and the contingency fund can also be for the Bravissimo bras or that perfect pair of boots. (However, must be careful not to go too crazy, I will still have dentists bills when my overdraft is paid off.)
When I went into the bank and set up all these other accounts the bank manager did look at me as if I were crazy. And I admit, I do feel somewhat overwhelmed and confused with the whole process. It's like a blur of numbers. But it's ok because my financial guru is going to make me a spreadsheet to make everything clear.
It's just quite how I'm going to survive each week on my new weekly budget of £97 that is the small issue.
And that's where my new guru jumps in once again. She can revolutionize the way I buy food, instead of £40 a week on groceries it will be £20 a week, as well as substantially cheapen my nights out. Apparently it's about really enjoying the two nights out a week I can afford, rather than getting trashed all the time and giving all my money to a bartender. So it's the old adage once again: Shoes not booze! It seems to be shoes not posh food too.
But you know what, I feel really rather excited about this new plan. I am in control again. And four months is not that long really. I can really do this!

Current Overdraft total: £1,424.60 Well, I'm only at the start of the plan!

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