I've come to the end of another year of a StickK Commitment and I have to say that I don't think I would feel as in control of my finances as I do, without it, so I will renew it for the coming year in the hope that I can continue to succeed, especially because I am now working for myself totally.
As I end this commitment, I feel quite proud of myself. I've self-refereed myself and have actually failed myself once this year! Self-refereeing only works if you're really honest and take yourself out of the frame to look in from the outside. I'm able to say I can finish this particular commitment on 97% for the year - I've had to mark myself down for a frivolous purchase of a top I bought for New Year, decided to keep it, but then never wore it! Even so, 97% is a huge achievement but I don't take it for granted and make sure I mark myself quite harshly.
Thank you to my supporters who have had to wade through tirades of angst - for me it's all part of managing my finances because I'm able to give myself a good "talking to" and can see how I've progressed ....or not....along the way.
So, here are my finals scores for this year:
1) Current Account in Credit in its Own Right: 100% (A)
2) Keep Remorseful / Frivolous / Wasteful Spend to a Minimum: 90% (B)
3) Full Payment by Customers / Family / Band*: 100% (A)
(*This is where I've sent an invoice/asked for payment)
Therefore, I award myself the following Score/Grade: 97% (B+) Pass
Happy New Year everyone |
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Christmas has just finished, and my current account is still in credit (just). I managed to stick to my budget except for a couple of things that, in theory, were house things but I owe the band box a bit of cash, so I’ll ‘suck it up’ and put the cash Mum and Dad gave me for Xmas in the band box instead of spending it frivolously.
I was fortunate that I was paid by all my clients and even had my December amount paid in early by WDS who asked me to put my invoice I, so that was a bonus.
Generally, I do have to increase my hourly rate this year and I have to keep an eye on everything I take out of the business – or spend towards things for the business. I don’t quite earn enough to pay myself so I am dipping into the pot from Olivetti, but only a small amount so it’s ‘swings and roundabouts’.
So here are my scores for the past week:
1) Current Account in Credit in its Own Right: 100% (A)
2) Keep Remorseful / Frivolous / Wasteful Spend to a Minimum: 90% (A)
3) Full Payment by Customers / Family / Band*: 100% (B+)
(*This is where I've sent an invoice/asked for payment)
Therefore, I award myself the following Score/Grade: 96% (B+) Pass |
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The biggest mistake I’ve made this week is not turning my Wifi back on, on my phone, after using it to download a Spotify track during our band rehearsal on Tuesday. That cost me £13 extra!!! Annoying but not enough fail myself as it was a genuine mistake and I didn’t realise I would be charged as Virgin sent me a reminder and I turned my WiFi back on then. Still, I’m officially today’s “Knob de Jour”.
I do have an invoice outstanding that I’m expecting to be paid by Friday. I’ll chase that on Wednesday, if it hasn’t come through. I have also informed another of my long-term clients that I’ve worked more hours for them than they’re paying me for, so I’ll claim for those in January. It comes at a bad time for them, personally, but, as Terry says, “there are no friends in business”.
My current account is in pretty good shape, in spite of Christmas, but I did budget and I’m there or there abouts, so I feel good that I am still in credit and all my Christmas presents are in the bag (so to speak) and have been delivered. Mum hasn’t asked me to buy her anything, so I haven’t had to chuckle about her under-paying me. Last year I was about £20 out! 😊
The other positive thing I've done, is open a savings account that I can transfer up to £200 to a month, just for 12 months though, and it pays 2% interest. Ok, there's not much to earn on £200 but I'm going to move all the money that's sitting in a stagnant account, to this new account and earn a bit of interest rather than it just sit there earning cobwebs.
I bought myself two new tops last week, but they were direct replacements for 2 old ones I threw away – so even though they were for me, I haven’t been frivolous.
So here are my scores for the past week:
1) Current Account in Credit in its Own Right: 100% (A)
2) Keep Remorseful / Frivolous / Wasteful Spend to a Minimum: 100% (A)
3) Full Payment by Customers / Family / Band*: 90% (B+)
(*This is where I've sent an invoice/asked for payment)
Therefore, I award myself the following Score/Grade: 97% (B+) Pass |
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As Christmas approaches my motivation for working is seriously waning but I know that if I don’t invoice for what I’ve done, then I won’t have anything to back me up for January and that would be terrible – or would it? I do have some reserves from my Redundancy money but how far will that take me if I keep dipping into it?
Obviously, Christmas is a massive expense, but Terry (bless him) has contributed to the cause as he never buys his family presents and never sees them, so it makes sense that he contributes to pay for the presents for my family. I’ve set myself a reasonable budget this year and (fingers crossed) I can stick to it. I do need to make sure I claim a few items from the “House” like stamps, cards and crackers for Xmas day. In that respect the house owes me about £80.00.
My current account looks reasonably healthy and my credit card hasn’t taken a massive hit this Christmas because I’m paying for presents from my current account that I have budget set aside for.
Fortunately, the trip to the dentist, last week, just cost me a check-up fee, so not major, and I probably won’t need to put fuel in my car this month. I am owed some money from refunded items but, as usual, I’ll lose out on the postage.
One thing I forgot about is that I have a regular order with Clarins that comes around every 3 months. Is it a necessity? Yes, I believe it is. I will add it to my list of regular out-goings.
I do have an invoice outstanding but I only sent that on Friday and I need to invoice WDS for some time I’ve spent on their work. I also need to start phoning round the dealers and customers I haven’t heard from in a while.
Here are my scores for the past week:
1) Current Account in Credit in its Own Right: 100% (A)
2) Keep Remorseful / Frivolous / Wasteful Spend to a Minimum: 100% (A)
3) Full Payment by Customers / Family / Band*: 100% (A)
(*This is where I've sent an invoice/asked for payment)
Therefore, I award myself the following Score/Grade: 100% (A) Pass
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