When Is It Okay To Say No?

First of all, my savings now amount to £1700 with the money I added from this month's salary. It's nice to see four figures on the bank balance!

Secondly, I have already met with my first major dilema. At the beginning of the month my sister decided that I was going to lend her the £800 she needs to take a dental assistant training course and then my wonderful brother added that he also needed to borrow money for a deposit on his new home. Now my sister I am happy and willing to help as she is good with money, makes an effort to save and doesn't splash out on ridiculous items as soon as the pay cheque comes in. She has lent me money in the past and vice versa and it is always paid back in full by the agreed date. The money is being put to good use and £800 I can afford to lend out for a few months. So I said yes.

My brother on the other hand is a natural gambler. He earns considerably more money than I do at a younger age and spends everything he has - and anything he can get from other people! He wastes thousands on the stock market, casinos, holidays abroad with his girlfriend and his insane money making schemes. He has borrowed money from me in the past and has never managed to pay me back on time. I have had to constantly remind him to get the money back at all! I learnt very quickly not to feed his habit. Aside from that, he wanted to borrow several thousand pounds in order to buy a house miles and miles away from anywhere at the worst time possible (if you follow the housing market). He couldn't be bothered to wait another year to save up some money himself. He wanted a house right there and then damn the consequences! So I said no to him.

Now I love both my brother and sister dearly and have a pretty good relationship with both of them and naturally I felt bad refusing my brother. But at the back of my mind I know I am doing the right thing. He is barely in his 20's and is so used to hearing 'yes' from my parents that he has no financial discipline whatsoever. He has already maxed out his credit cards and is currently trying to pay back a loan he took out to pay for a holiday. He is going to have to make himself (and probably his girlfriend) bankrupt before he really learns a lesson and that is going to be a hard thing to watch. I only hope he gets it over and done with at a young age so he can move on with his life!

The Only Way Is Up!

It's only half past August, but I had to make a mini announcement - I managed to get a raise! Woooo! Yours truly is very excited and now moving at a slightly faster pace towards the finishing line!

New Beginnings

Well... one month and one pay day down and things are going pretty well. July's rent was already paid off, so I had the majority of this month's salary to put into savings. I put £900 away in a cash ISA and opened up a high interest savings account with HSBC. The ISA limit is £3600 per financial year, so I will need a good home for the rest of my savings.

I've had to make several changes to my lifestyle in order to save as much money as possible. Firstly, I sat down and drew up a list of income and expenditure for the year and then broke that down into a monthly list. The main thing to go was clothes shopping. I can easily blow £200 in one trip if I'm having a bad day - brings a smile to my face, but a makes a huge dent in my wallet! Next to go was online shopping for DVDs and books. Another £50-£100 gone! Takeaway meals are out too. I've dusted off all the cook books laying around the house and decided to teach myself to use an oven. It's about time I learnt to cook for myself anyway! Other than that, I'm now walking to and from work instead of getting a bus or taxi, taking my own lunch instead of visiting Starbuck's every day and money previously spent on after work drinking is now going into my savings account! I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself and it doesn't even feel like hard work!

I should point out the new 'motivational feature' I've added to this blog - the 'Fortunometer'. I find it helps having something visual to measure my ongoing progress, so I've created this little bar to track how much money I have saved and how far I have to go to reach my ultimate goal. Each month I will update the Fortunometer as a new post is added.

I'm sure my motivation won't last forever and there will be times when I'm tempted to go on a spending binge, but for now life is good, the sun is shining and that million isn't looking so scary after all!

Enjoy the summer and save hard!