The perfect gift
I do not lie…
Chancellor Darling’s new tax measures are coming into force this month and as a result, all of us basic rate tax payers will be receiving £60 extra in September’s pay packet!
(Well, actually the taxman will just take £60 less than usual, but that’s good enough cash-back for me…)
About 22 million people will receive the rebate, followed by a £10 raise in their net pay for the rest of the tax year. This means basic rate tax payers will save a total of £120 in tax over the year, all because the chancellor has increased the personal allowance for basic rate tax payers by £600 to £6,035
Don’t believe me? Check the HMRC.
But on what should you spend your windfall? If you want to splash out with your £60, you could treat yourself to:
-
-
30 Bottles of Bucks Fizz
-
-
48 Tins of SPAM
-
-
Or… 315 Curly Wurlys!
Sound’s like a party to me.
So, what will you buy? Share it in our Forum.
*Disclaimer*
Obviously, the spare cash should go straight towards our ever increasing energy bills, mortgage and debts. But it’s fun to play pretend…
At the first month junction
Tuesday 3rd June, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…
So, I’m a month into my two-year pledge to pay off all my debts. So how’s it going? Well, I’ve had a few victories, a few disappointments, and the jury is still out on a few things. The jury being me.
Unbridled triumph!
(1) My biggest success has been filling out my tax return and paying the resulting £421 rebate straight onto my Barclaycard. This has saved me about £63 a year in interest.
(2) Second only to that was paying off my NatWest card by selling a few things on eBay. This has got me back into the habit of Ebaying things I don’t need, and I’ve made a total of £142.78, with more on the way.
(3) I’ve changed my current account to a Barclays First Additions account (which is only available to existing Barclays customers). This means I’m paying a monthly fee of £6.50, but the preferable overdraft interest rate will save me money in the long run: About £18 a month, if my calculations are correct.
(4) My Capital One card is now charging interest after the introductory offer, so I’ve chopped it up. Even though there’s a picture of a pig on it.
(5) And, through doing Martin Lewis’s budget planner, I’ve discovered how much I spend every month. It’s a lot more than I earn. This could be seen as a failure, but at least I know what I’m doing wrong and I can change my ways.
Failure! Doom! Disaster!
(1) Online surveys. After spending about a billion years (give or take) on the sign-up processes for these things, I’ve made no money from them because I don’t meet the criteria for answering any surveys. I might have to start lying.
(2) Trying to change the interest rates on my credit cards didn’t work at all.
(3) I quit my part-time job. Although this has been very good for me, mentally speaking, it means I’m £181 more skint every week. The four recruitment agencies I’ve spoken to so far have produced no jobs.
Not Quite Sure Yet…
(1) I’ve written to my bank to reclaim the charges I’ve paid over the last six years, but this will take up to two years to sort out, so I’m not putting any of my eggs in that basket.
(2) I really must get around to switching my energy, broadband and home phone suppliers, but I always seem to find more interesting things to do, like creating Facebook profiles for my cats.
(3) Mystery shopping for www.retaileyes.co.uk has the potential to be a good little pocket-money-spinner, and an excellent way to get someone else to pay for my shopping. It’s gone well so far, but I haven’t received any actual cash for it yet, so I’m still erring on the side of caution.
(4) The same goes for www.consumerpulse.co.uk – a site where you answer a few questions about the things you’ve bought during the week, building up points, which you then exchange for vouchers. So far, so massive-waste-of-time (is what I thought at first), but I’ve got a good tenner’s worth of points in a fortnight. I haven’t yet received my first voucher, and the site doesn’t give me any smallprint, so I’m crossing my fingers as it seems too good to be true. Again, watch this space…
Women being cock-a-hoop
Friday 30th May, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…
Look at that up there! That amount of debt! Under the £9,000 mark – WOO! I am literally cock-a –hoop. Yes, literally.
And I’m so proud of myself too. When my tax rebate arrived in my bank account yesterday, my first thought wasn’t “shoes!” or “Milkybars!” or anything deranged at all – it was “Now I can pay that amount off my Barclaycard – I can’t wait!” and I did it straight away.
This is a huge turnaround for me - a couple of months ago, I’d have gone out shopping with that money, but my attitude to money has completely changed and I’ll tell you why.
Originally I thought that writing this blog would be a good way to get tips and ideas about paying off my debt. And that’s exactly what has happened – thanks very much for all the help, by the way – but it’s had another, unexpected benefit…
Because I’m keeping track of my debt and writing about it, I’m constantly thinking about money. And I mean constantly: thinking about how I can save a couple of quid on a cinema ticket, how I can make a couple of quid on Ebay, and how I can roll around in piles of cash once I’ve paid my cards off because every penny I make will be MINE and I can goddamn do what I want with it. So there.
Yes, the rumours are true: paying off even a little bit of your debt is one of the best feelings in the world. Getting rid of my NatWest card was just the start of it, and making that payment today felt just as good as poking a Barclaycard staff member in the eye with a stick.
So, I’m one month into my debt-paying-off experiment and my debt has decreased by a grand total of £579.26. I’m not saying this is going to happen every month, but it’s a good start as far as I’m concerned. Please leave your messages of awed congratulations and worship below.
