Show Me The Money!

I received my pay rise letter late last week, and I'll be getting a 6.5% raise starting the 15th July, which is a healthy increase considering the current economic environment.

Since July 2007, my salary has increased by 21%, not too shabby! I went after and got a promotion last October which really helped that number along, but I've done well in that new role and have been rewarded accordingly, if I do say so myself.

I spent the weekend (no, not the whole weekend – what do you think I'm like?) tossing around what I should do with it against what I really want to do with it. I’m happy with the compromise I've decided.

One of the easiest ways to pay down your debts or save for your goals effectively is to not increase your lifestyle along with any salary increases you receive.

This makes for a substantial snowflake to add to your goals each month.

I did this when I started in my new role back in November last year (having already started paying down debts by then thank goodness), and will do this again in a modified way with this new increase.

I'm really looking forward to using 50% of the extra income to increase my debt repayment efforts, and will allocate the other 50% to the 40th Birthday UK Tour Fund.

I'm comfortable with how my lifestyle is these days, with a healthy focus on debt elimination, while planning for upcoming expenses, and still having something left over to enjoy my life along the way.

I have nothing but admiration for those who have a single minded, do without all 'wants', nothing until the debts are gone, 'gazelle like' intensity to eliminate their debts, but I know myself well enough to understand I need to find a level that would address everything I want, including paying off all my debts.

Just like the name of this blog, paying down debt is like a diet. If you go too extreme for you (what extreme constitutes is entirely subjective of course), you’ll end up 'bingeing'. In my case on unnecessary items, like trashy novels, unplanned trips to Ikea and takeaways every night.

Or maybe that’s just me.

Are there things you've kept in your budget that others might not consider necessary?

I'd love to know what you budget for that's may seem frivolous to another, or are you extremely focussed and have cut out all 'wants' until you’re debt free, I'd love to hear about that too.

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Fraud Refund Came Through

I got my $49.72 paid back to me from the dodgy taxi driver that used my stolen credit card to charge me small amounts two months in a row.

The money is being snowflaked straight onto one of my cards to boost my debt elimination efforts for the month. It’s shaping up to be a good month so far debt

Yay for snowflake flurries, for actually reviewing my statements, raising the issues and following it through to resolution with the bank.

They were pretty good with the whole thing; it was only one phone call, then sending in a form as a statutory declaration that I didn’t incur the charges.

I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to not only open all your monthly statements, but to check them for any unusual transactions, and to investigate them with your bank as soon as possible.

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