organize my finances

There are some specific things I need to do:

• Start a Childs Trust Fund for my baby girl, put in the 250GBP from the government and set up a regular payment to it
• Review what I am paying for gas & electricity and see if I should change supplier
• Find the best value public liability insurance when it is up for renewal
• Move money from my current account to a high interest account

I have a budget now, and all my credit cards are either paid off or switched to low-interest accounts. Not perfect, but much better.

As of right now, my finances are pretty easy; I have rent and utilities, food, gas, college expenses, car insurance payments, and that’s it. I don’t own a credit card, my only debt is via student loans, and I generally don’t waste money.

However, soon enough I’ll be out of college and renting my own apartment by myself; life won’t quite be so easy. I will be entering medical school, and I know I’ll get behind and end up racking up more debt than I need to if I don’t prepare myself now. I want to be financially responsible, set money aside so I can prepare for emergencies, and perhaps see if I can put money away into stocks. If I act now, hopefully I can prevent surplus debt and stress from building up.

My goals:
1) Obtain a credit card, and feel comfortable with using it in order to build up my credit.
2) Research the stock market; perks/downfalls of long term investment and penny stocks.
3) Map out prices for my future expenses.
4) Determine how much I want to put away by the end of the summer and pick up enough shifts accordingly.
5) Categorize where I currently spend my money, and what corners I can cut.

I have some work to do!

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m aSelf-Improving Healthy Extrovert

Staying on top of my finances has been interesting. On one hand, I’m kind of depressed about how difficult it is to live within my income. I’ve got very little wiggle room—I had some unexpected medical bills in January, and by the time I’d paid all of my other bills, I had only $3 in checking. HOWEVER: because I was carefully tracking all of my expenditures, I didn’t overdraw my account! There’s a definite sense of satisfaction in knowing exactly how much money I’ve got.

My grocery budget for February is going to be much smaller than it has been in the past, but I’m also working hard to get a month of “emergency money” saved up, just in case something happens to my job. I’ve reached every goal I wrote down a month ago, except for the last one, “establish a budget and follow it for two months.” Almost there!

I’m so pleased with the way Microsoft Money is helping me stay on top of my finances. A couple of times I’ve found myself reluctant to sit down and enter the day’s expenses, thinking it would be “too hard” or something, but it’s never yet taken me more than ten minutes. I keep my receipts in my wallet, and enter them all when I get home from work, or before I go to bed.

I’ve scheduled my regular bills, and if they are due before my next paycheck, I enter them into my register immediately. That way I see my “real” balance, which is usually a lot different than the day-to-day balance of my accounts.

I’ve been here before, regularly entering my expenses, but whenever I’ve let myself get a week or so behind, I’ve stopped tracking everything rather than do the work it takes to get caught up. Hopefully this time I’ve learned my lesson—knowing exactly how much money I have really makes my life a lot easier, and my money seems to go a lot further.

change to a new current account (with same bank). can’t be that difficult, surely? just need to work out which one suits.

I’ve been keeping my finances on track using Microsoft Money, and it’s already been an enlightening experience. I post my upcoming bills in advance, which adjusts my cash balance accordingly, and it’s kept me from overdrawing my account at least once.

So, doing this through January should help me establish a budget to follow in February.

no need to fuss over this now. I just needed to get enough money to cover expenses and stop wanting so much. that’s all. easy as pie.

Oh, and using Mint.com and mostly using card purchases helped finding out what i’m overspending on.

If I can organize my finances, I’d feel more independent, and less like a dummy wife whose husband has to handle all their finances because I don’t know what I’m doing. If I can manage and budget myself, I’d feel all the more confident of myself. And I’d be saving my family A LOT of money.