The Jump

I have debt (thank you to my credit rating for continually reminding me of this). Most of my debt is currently costing me 0% interest, thanks to "balance transfer" on credit. Anyway, I did a bit of a review of my finances today, because I have two days off work and am currently enduring a Skint Month™, or more accurately, two of them. Here's what I learned.

1. In four months' time, and eleven months' time respectively, each of my 0% interest amounts will fall due. It's not a huge amount of money. I am on track to pay them both out, but if if for any reason I can't pay out the balances, I have a backup plan of just taking out a new 0% transfer card (which I already know I qualify for). I am quite disciplined and haven't accrued any more credit since these transfers.

2. It's currently quite a cheap time for borrowing, which means it's a cheap time to invest. My caravan is in the process of being listed for sale, so even though I am currently skint, I probably should prepare to get into an investment mindset somehow.

So I started investigating new savings accounts, and I wasted two hours and learned that they're all rubbish. They pay a pittance in interest or charge you an account fee, or both. The cashback offers are poor, and the benefits of switching banks are trivial. If you're like me, you have your bank details saved on a dozen websites - lovely when someone like PayPal fails, or a rewards website deposits your hard-earned cash into an account that's closed. No thank you.

They led me up the path of the only places paying decent enticements: building societies I have never heard of. But they simply want too much money for me to afford.

So I ended up back at the one I've known about for years and which almost EVERY early retiree out there in Internet Land recommends: Vanguard. I mean, why reinvent the wheel? People who have no vested interest in telling me it's the best, are telling me it's the best. If they put their life savings into it, well I can put my piggy bank in. In the UK, that is called an ISA - an "individual savings account".

I am now the proud owner of a Vanguard account (currently empty, but scheduled to start debiting me every month, starting in just over a month). I have chosen a fairly high-risk option for the investment, which is the FTSE Global Index Fund. I don't aim to touch this "trickle in" account for years, so I am comfortable with the fact that it will go up and down.

Broadly speaking you can chuck up to £20,000 per year into ISAs and not pay tax on the earnings. To understand more, it's simplest to search for the offer that looks best and then read the bank's guidance on it, then read a handful of competitors, and pick the one that suits you best.

NOTE: If you have never owned a home and plan to buy one day, you can, and should, go for a Help To Buy ISA. It is crazy not to, it is FREE MONEY where the government GIVES you up to £3000. You should go with this type first, and then if you've maxed your Help To Buy contribution, consider adding firstly the Lifetime ISA (for under 40s, which also gives you free money) and then finally, any other ISA for further savings.

Just Something Profound

Every now and then I think deeper thoughts than what I'm having for breakfast.

Poor Pugsley

Pugsley is leaking oil. It doesn't seem to be a lot, but the number of little spots on the ground means it's been going on at least three weeks :( I will just have to keep checking his oil levels and hope it will wait a while. I had been planning on getting a full service done on him in 5000 miles as he only had a minor one done last time, but it seems this will need to happen sooner than expected. This is where I remind myself that I bought a ten-year-old car and expect to spend a few hundred each year on maintenance. It's just not ideal timing since in theory I am supposed to save to visit Australia later in the year.

As promised, the pic of my March medal for 50 miles.

Win: I found a forgotten cheque in my wallet from overpaying my council rates at my previous address, and a credit rating company that I've had terrible service from has spontaneously decided to send me another cheque as a goodwill gesture. Lose: the second cheque can't be deposited as they got the wording wrong on the amount, so it will need to be reissued. The cynical me wonders if that was on purpose! :)

Hey ho, the frugality continues as always :)

The Skint Continues

But I will survive, so the song says!

I went into the Co-op to recharge my electricity key during the week. I generally try not to go in there because it's definitely not the most affordable place to buy food. But I saw and nabbed these (in case it's a bit tough to see, that's two boxes of mandarins for 25p each and a half-loaf of white bread for 15p). I don't eat bread very much anymore so this fits in my freezer. :)

I am trying to eat the food in my house already. Pay day is only a week away, but even so, it will be a "subsistence" pay - barely enough to last me until my next one - so I am making a concerted effort to use up what I have and avoid shopping as much as I can. More than half of my diet is made up of fresh foods so that is a bit of a challenge. But, challenge accepted!

I now eat muesli every morning for breakfast, blended myself with extra nuts and bran, but unfortunately there are seven boxes of "ordinary" cereal in my house from before my diet started. Four of them were a pound shop bargain, I don't always stash seven boxes of cereal, honest! But I figured there is no harm in a mixture. So I'm adding a cup or so to into my muesli tub every time I refill it. I can't taste the difference anyway and it all helps to avoid waste.

Extra spend: vitamins. The aforementioned diet is a very low calorie one. Even though it's packed with vegetables and protein, it's near-on impossible to get everything I need from less than 1000 calories a day, and I am also burning another 350 of them on a treadmill. Weight loss is pointless if I turn myself into an unhealthy stick, so this is worth the expense.

Yay: I remembered my large stash of coins, left over from when I had to pay for parking every day - I am currently trying to spend it down and touch wood I won't whip out the bank card for another month.

And So It Goes

I got my (small) holiday pay for the financial year in my March pay packet, which mostly covered my week off to visit Finland. It was lovely catching up with everyone and the tickets were insanely cheap - turns out that it wasn't popular to travel in the week everyone thought would be Brexit :)

Of course, meals out and transport costs in Finland cost me a bit. But we did do quite a few cheap & free things, including lunch and new-flat visits, plus a lovely day spent playing board games together. I lost, of course!

Spendy has indulged on a handful of sub-fiver items from Amazon. Nothing completely essential, but items that'd be nice to have, like a more accurate thermometer. I'm partly annoyed at myself for doing it during a super-tight-budget period and partly annoyed at myself for not thinking it's ok to spend two pounds now and then. But that kind of thinking can lead up a slippery slope...

I achieved and received my first medal for fitness - unbelievable - me, the girl who always finished in the final 5. I'll post a picture when I remember. Hopefully this month I can do even better!

Slowly, Slowly

American Express, my biggest limit card, again said yes to raising my limit. I don't understand why, but I'll take it. It's currently at a zero balance so it makes no difference to my costs, but the higher limit should raise my credit rating slightly in the future. Baby steps all the time.

As expected, the new balance transfer card I opened at 0% interest has dinged my credit rating substantially. No big deal, and when the Amex limit increase shows up, I expect it to bounce back up somewhat.

I paid back most of a rather large debt - which was nice to achieve. I also got notified that I qualify for a discount on my council rates and have overpaid, so there will be no bill this month. That part is good timing because April & May will be Skint Months™ in which every penny will matter (every penny does matter all the time, but usually, it's a choice rather than necessity!).

My fridge decided not to play recently. It's owned and maintained by my landlord, but still, when these things happen, you have to buy ice every day just to avoid throwing food away. He came to investigate it, and it seems to be working again - for now - so we just need to wait and see if it behaves, since it's only a year old. I have a great landlord and pay a pittance for my rent, so this is just something to take in my stride I guess!