British Finance Network Aggregated Feed http://money-watch.co.uk/blognetwork Merged RSS feed of all of the blogs in the British Finance Network: personal finance bloggers. en-us HSBC “Online Access Disabled” Spam http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/IF6Ihvon_Yw/hsbc-online-access-disabled-spam I've just received yet another email stating that an account I don't actually have has been disabled. Not a rare occurence, but this one had a couple of differences to the usual ones I receive.

HSBC “Online Access Disabled” Spam was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 The Future Of Money http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/wXhn9lEp6rY/the-future-of-money Wired recently published an article entitled "The Future of Money: It’s Flexible, Frictionless and (Almost) Free" which is worth a read, if you have a spare 20 minutes. But don't believe all you read.

The Future Of Money was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Fees Will Hold Back Mobile Payments http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/-hhcq4QqZYM/fees-will-hold-back-mobile-payments Meghan Keane at eConsultancy has some thoughts on PayPal's new iPhone app which features Bump technology to allow users to transfer money quickly between iPhones.

Fees Will Hold Back Mobile Payments was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 PayPal iPhone App: “Bump” Phones To Transfer Money http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/9ttxlp9UwwE/paypal-iphone-app PayPal have just released a new version of their popular iPhone application which allows two iPhone users to quickly transfer money using a "bump".

PayPal iPhone App: “Bump” Phones To Transfer Money was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Extra Money Earned: February £118.93 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/d-rfFeSxbUA/extra-money-earned-february-11893.html Overall from different sources my goal is to generate at least £2,010 of extra income in 2010. This money can either be passive or alternative.


January was better than February, but still some progress was made; I'm not counting my tax refund as extra money earned as I knew that I was going to get one, just not quite so much; I put most of it straight into a savings account and want to forget about. It's only there if I ever really, really need it.
 
February Earnings:
 
£13.51 Amazon
£34.13 Savings Interest
£71.29 Site Sponsors
 
If you are trying to make a little extra money, how did you get on?
 
:: You can subscribe to this site here. Get free updates to your in box!
 Bank Charges: Yet Another D-Day Tomorrow http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/WpZRp_Nx9LY/bank-charges-yet-another-d-day-tomorrow The banking issue that refuses to die sees yet another D-Day tomorrow (16th March), as the Office of Fair Trading will announce the future of bank charges.

Bank Charges: Yet Another D-Day Tomorrow was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 10 Simple Get Out of Debt Tips http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/mvN0b7VVji8/10-simple-get-out-of-debt-tips.html This post originally appeared on No More Spending in November 2008

My Top 10


1. Stop using your credit cards - cold turkey

2. Keep a spending diary and examine every area of your spending

3. Reduce your grocery spending

4. Menu Plan

5. Sell anything and everything - snowball your debt

6. Educate yourself about personal finance - borrow books from the library

7. Start blogging or join a forum - this provides extra motivation

8. Organise yourself -missing payments only adds to the debt

9. Live frugally

10. Increase your income
 
What about you, what others would you add?
 
 
:: You can subscribe to this site here  Get free updates to your in box!
 Swoopo: Clever Auction Site or Just Pure Evil? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/4xSZbhUxYDg/swoopo-clever-auction-site-or-just-pure-evil An article by "Undercover Economist" Tim Harford discusses the economics behind the auction site Swoopo.co.uk.

Swoopo: Clever Auction Site or Just Pure Evil? was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Bank Bonuses “Infographic” http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/jFX6ev7GdkE/bank-bonuses-infographic Here's a great infographic which really helps to put banker's bonuses in perspective, from Money.co.uk.

Bank Bonuses “Infographic” was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Accomplished this week http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/T_TjltExW5c/accomplished-this-week.html I've realised this week that I've been focusing too much on things that I haven't achieved, opposed to things that I have, so I'm starting a weekly feature on things I have done.

This week I've..

Had my haircut and it feels great. I feel so much better about myself and its make me feel even more motivated about the whole lose weight/get fit goal I'm currently on. The cost was £35, including tip, so not too bad.

Booked flights to Lisbon in July. The flights were a little expensive £269 for three; it's my own fault I left it too late. I had a chance to book in January and didn't, so this has cost us £100. I've also put a deposit on an apartment on the Lisbon coast, which was 165 Euros; travel wise this has been an expensive week.

Walked every day. It's becoming a {free} habit. I'm wondering if I'll ever get to enjoy it though! I could walk around cities forever, but I find the area near my house quite boring :-( Proof again that I'm a city girl!

Sold one item on eBay. I think I'm finally over the whole selling stuff on eBay gig. I made £10 though.

What have you accomplished this week?

:: You can subscribe to this site here. Get free updates to your in box!
 Unemployed? There’s An App For That… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/1NH5l1rD8-A/unemployed-theres-an-app-for-that The JobCentrePlus app allows job seekers to search and locate relevant jobs from the Government's job centre database.

Unemployed? There’s An App For That… was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Government Now Offering “Free Financial Advice” http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/UwIay1eOWr4/government-now-offering-free-financial-advice The Government has today launched a new service, Moneymadeclear, which offers "free financial advice" over the phone, on the web and face-to-face.

Government Now Offering “Free Financial Advice” was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 Google Finance Redirecting To Hong Kong? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MoneyWatch/~3/PwcM66L14Y8/google-finance-redirecting-to-hong-kong A few people have noticed that Google Finance has been having some problems recently, sporadically redirecting to the Hong Kong version of the site.

Google Finance Redirecting To Hong Kong? was originally published at Money Watch a UK personal finance blog. Sign up to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

 A Tax Refund http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/DGsynIS3snM/tax-refund.html Yay I got a tax refund, a £1,067 tax refund. So happy. I'm going to put £1k into my personal savings account, and £67 into my clothing fund account.
 A Rollercoaster Ride http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/YYPhXkuq_Kw/rollercoaster-ride.html I've been reading back through some of my old blog posts and they make funny reading; the highs and lows that I went through paying off my debt are well documented and I now realise just how much of a rollercoaster ride I was on; not that I would change anything. I needed to go through it all to change my habits and move on.

The same principals now apply to my weight loss goal; there is no quick fix to twenty years of overspending, like there is no quick fix to twenty years of over eating. What I have to do is resolve to change things and work towards my ultimate goal bit by bit - so this is what I'm doing; resolving to change.

Re-solve: verb (used with object)
1.to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine (to do something): I have resolved that I shall live to the full. source: dictionary.com
 March To Do List http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/2K9CGhevEMU/march-to-do-list.html Nice and simple. What I would like to accomplish in March.

Health
1. Lose 7lbs; continuing with my one main goal focus this year I want to lose another 7lbs in March. I've lost 8lbs since Christmas so it's heading the right way. I'm not calorie counting I'm just concentrating on the food I'm eating, no crap.
2. Make 6 a day a habit; this ties in with the above; I'm concentrating more on my fruit and vegetables intake than anything else. In February this went quite well; in March I want it to become a habit.
3. Walk for one hour three times a week; enough said

Personal
1. Get a {good} haircut; after getting random dry cuts at the salon over the last few years {to save money} I'm going to get a proper haircut using some birthday money I received. {thanks Mum}
2. Find a CV {resume} template I like and complete it. This is a difficult one for me as it's been so long since I did this; probably 16 years! eek.
3. Re-do my bucket list using this great template provided by LobotoME via SeeJaneFly. I can't say enough how important it is to have a list like this. After wasting 20 years spending and aquiring it's pretty sobering to realise just how many experiences you could of had with that wasted money. I'm not dwelling on that though I'm just focusing on what I do from now on :-)

Finances
1. Make £200 in extra income by selling at least ten items on eBay and doing a car boot sale. Hopefully the weather will improve this month and I can get out in a field and sell my stuff.
2. Purchase flights to Portugal in July. We're going to Lisbon in July and I want to find the cheapest flights I can for me, hubby and youngest daughter.
3. Stick to grocery budget by continuing to menu plan and cook as much as possible from scratch.
4. Save £350 even after paying for flights. This means I need to make some extra money and keep my grocery budget down

:: Subscribe to this site here
 Cash only system, my solution http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/LfvPyi_wsAA/cash-only-system-my-solution.html Thank you for all your recommendations on cash only systems. After thinking about it for a while I decided to stick to using my debit card, but use my spending excel sheet columns like cash envelopes. I've attached a copy of how it looks below.

Each spending category, which falls into cash spending, has its own column/s with the budgeted amount at the bottom; when you put any spending in the sheet, its set up to take the money off the budget figure and leave the amount left to spend. This solves my problem of not wanting cash lying around the house.
{click on the picture}
 My next big goal http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/PFHaazZvC1M/my-next-big-goal.html Can you attack two major goals at the same time? I know I can't. For the last five years, alongside the debt payoff, I've been trying to lose [lots of} weight, and it just hasn't happened; for whatever reason it seems I could only tackle one big goal at a time.

Anyways now the debt has actually gone {I still struggle to believe it sometimes} I'm moving on to my next major goal; losing the fat.

I wasn't always overweight. Eight years ago I weighed a happy, for me, 140lbs. I felt great at this weight and I want to get back there. In theory it should take me until the end of the year, which in the scheme of things, compared to paying off debt, is a lot less time. But, for some reason I find cutting out spending a lot easier than cutting out cake!

I'm not going to post the amount of pounds I need to lose just yet { it seems too personal at the moment} but I probably will in time. Wish me luck!
 Mini Goals Progress; The Procrastination Edition http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/wRcd4dEU3NA/mini-goals-progress-procrastination.html It's the last few days of the month and so far I've not completed one of my mini goals for February! There are no excuses as I've had the time to complete them all, just no inclination. Why? I have no idea.
 Extra Money Earned: January £206.16 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDiaryOfAReformedSpendaholic/~3/AZbRHh_L3zI/extra-money-earned-january-20616.html Overall from different sources my goal is to generate at least £2,010 of extra income in 2010. This money can either be passive or alternative.

I had quite a good month in January; I received payment from a sponsor of one of my sites and got cashback for recycling two old mobile phones and a broken mp3 player. The breakdown is below.

January Earnings:

£10.05 Amazon
£34.66 Interest
£44.20 Phone & MP3
£117.25 Site sponsor

Did you make any extra income in January?

:: Get free updates from this site to your inbox here