Anna Aden Writes

This isn't bad for a year's long challenge which has been tedious, cumbersome and boring! The final cash savings was £1,004 and the IOUs were £374. As frequently with this long term saving projects there was some double counting - I think mostly to do mixing up weeks so I had to got by the cash savings! The Details On Boxing Day,  I went down to my mother so she could assist in the counting. To help with this count down, I asked Ma who willingly obliged as she had been keenly reading my blog posts about this. Sis acted as an independent observer. Well she was on the sofa while Ma and I counted the cash and the IOUs. At first there was a debate about what surface to use, and Ma and Sis advised it was best to use red since that represented money and wealth in many cultures, so that was taken on board. As a result we used the Christmas table runner. We poured the contents of the money pot on the table and proceed to sort out the cash in diffe...

Happy Holidays! This was touch and go because Christmas is an expensive time, and I wasn't sure if to put in a final IOU but I thought it was good to end on positive note for the year. So I get the cash together from my bank accounts.  I'm posting this earlier in the week - basically week 52 - because I have other stuff to do, like buy Christmas presents - I tend to be late.  I guess it's probably a good time to do a final review.  Review of 52 week money challenge This challenge is based on saving money 52 weeks of the year, but the caveat is you save the according to the week number. So in the first week of the year £1 or $1 is saved and this increases as the year goes on until the final week of the year - week 52. What's good about it  1. It highlights saving. So as result, I did review my 'proper savings' plan which is a regular amount each month.  2. It is fun to start with! 3. It simple to understand. What's not so ...

So it's my festive effort. I was considering putting in an IOU but decided since it was penultimate week of the year it was best to find the cash. Also before I start spending on Christmas presents, I thought just to get some cash out and put it in the box. Happy Holidays 

There are only two weeks left to this challenge and I'm not even sure I'm going to pay the IOUs or the early weeks I missed. This is an insane challenge - like I said before the best way to save is to have a regular savings plan preferably an automatic bank transfer which goes straight to a saving accounts, preferably on your payday!!! This challenge is just stupid and blog-fodder, it's not realistic! Regular savings you can afford is better.  Why? Well, some weeks I just plainly forget or didn't have the cash or the time. Not sure what I can do to review, perhaps get my mother to help count. To be frank, I'm pretty bored already but there must be quite a bit of cash in the pot though. The only rule I kept to was not breaking into the tin so I guess we should count the takings. I'll ask Ma and we can both could the takings. I'll see. 

I've not updated my blog for a few weeks now, but I'm putting £100 to the money jar! However I owe weeks 46,47,48 and 49  all add up to £190! Next I put the cash against week 49 and 48 with three pounds to week 47. After which I prepared the IOU for £90. Anyway only three weeks left!!! So glad, and I won't be doing this next year!

Ops, I actually miscounted the weeks and I missed out week 44 so here we go! I have a hundred pounds, yes a WHOLE hundred pounds fresh for the ATM machine and I actually managed not to break into it as well. Why? Well this month has been very busy at work, I also had to work from home for a few days due to a sports related injury this meant I wasn't spending as much money on lunch or other things. Basically the busier I am at work, the less time I have to spend money. This pays for weeks 45 and 44 which is £99 pounds but I have £1 change which I can use the pay off an IOU!  So from Week 41, I owed £11.00 and I've reduce that by £1 to make it £10. I guess that's it until next week.

Things have been very busy!  In the last three weeks I've gone on a short holiday break to Brighton, then had to catch up with others things. So yet another week passes and I have no funds to put in the money jar. Yes, indeed, no funds at all. So this week, I'm simply going go write another IOU to the tune of one hundred and twenty six pounds sterling . When I first took on this challenge, I thought it would be easy and plain sailing but so far, I've had to navigate some rough waves. I don't have the money pot in view but I shall put this IOU of £126 in it. I guess the real lesson here is if you want to save, DON'T HOP ON TO A BLOG CHALLENGE. Please note the below is not FINANCIAL ADVICE  - FOR FINANCIAL ADVICE PLEASE CONSULT A QUALIFIED FINANCIAL ADVISER The best way is to Work out how much you want to save - like your goal for the year. Even better work out what you want to save for. If it's rainy day savings that's fine. Work out how muc...

Life simply happened this week with the money I had planned to bank in the money jar. I was organised this week, and took out the full sum of £40 plus I had a pound coin in my bag but then I broke in the one of the ten pounds for lunch. I had a nice vegetarian lasagne at work. It was so delicious that  I'm considering making at home. So that accounted for £4.50. My phone camera is playing up and took the money challenge in soft focus, perhaps that is hint I need a new phone. That left three ten pound sterling and one five pound notes and a one fifty pence coin. Yes change of £35.50, but I'm not sure where the rest went. I probably bought some breakfast, or chips. It's hard to remember, that's the problem with carrying money around. I probably should have withdrawn it on the day.  Anyway it just means I only have thirty pounds in cash this week for the money pot. 

So forty pounds in the pot, and no IOU this week. 40 weeks gone and another 12 weeks to go to completion. Wow!

Finally I had the cash to put into the money pot in FULL. Yes, it's been recently pay day so I decided it was time to be a big spender - or saver. However this was only week 39 so I had a whole extra pound to put towards an IOU! So I pulled out one of the old IOU for £2 and paid off a £1. Possible Plans for Money! My phone screen has cracked so I'm thinking of investing in an iPhone 6. I'm not sure yet. At present I have One Plus but at the time when I bought it, no one made cases and when it went wrong - with the screen it cost me about £200 to fix it. This was the same price as a new phone! So I'm thinking of getting an iPhone with proceeds of the 52 week Money Challenge, but that depends on me paying off all the IOUs and completing it. Next week will be week Forty. Whew! And in the meanwhile I shall be looking at new or reconditioned phones.

So I've missed a few weeks and I only have £60 to give. In fact, I had this money in week 36 but forgot to post and two weeks more have passed since then.  I have four weeks of outstanding payment and I'm wondering which ones to pay off. Week 35? Week 36? Week 37? Week 38? Typical it makes sense to start off with the earliest but why? What's the fun in that! So with all the weeks combined I owe a £146! Yes, that much. Since I've only got £60 pounds, I'm just going to have a massive IOU for £86, the biggest amount yet.  So that's me covered for the last four weeks with a massive debt of £86. I think my debt to the money pot is now over a hundred pounds. Still probably not as much as my credit card. It seems foolhardy to collect debt here, there and everywhere.  So finally the money pot is out. You can see the other IOUs at the left side of the jar -basically white folded paper and the real money. Oh well until next week 39. Yes, week 39!...

Apologies for the late post! I've been so busy I nearly forget, then yesterday I went visiting my mother so I couldn't do it. Anyway, it's not that exciting. So all I could scrap together was sixteen pounds. I did have twenty but when I got home, I got some takeaway chips from the local fish and chip shop. I had a portion of oily chips and a saveloy sausage. They aren't best chips but only local chippy round so they have the market share. The other chip shops sell french fries. I don't think their oil is hot enough when they fry.Yes, there is an art to selling chips, but then again, they are the only ones for miles around. So the cost of the my chips and sausage cut into the twenty leaving me with a handful of change and those two notes. Anyway, before then I had a nice evening with my mother, spoke to my sister and watched a bit of TV.  Not digress anyone, above is a picture of the money jar with money. You can see some of my old IOUs from the pot.

Week thirty three and  I can only spare £10 as my own funds are running low. So this means I'll have to owe the money jar, nothing new there. It will probably be like this until payday which is in a few weeks. Maybe I should call this the IOU game. So I went to the cash point thinking I could withdraw at least thirty pounds but I only had forty pounds left in it until payday. This mean I had to be what accountant call 'prudent'. If I took out £30 - yes, I intended on owing £3, I would only have about £10 to live on until payday. I've had a few expenses, like I decided to top up my oyster card, instead of using my bankcard. We are basically cashless in the UK. However I put on a fair amount, probably more than my monthly transport would cost. Then other incidentals which I can't remember. Also I think because I'm now in the thirties so it's a lot of money. So it's getting harder, people, harder. I have seven more weeks in the thirty pound zone, th...

I decided to start paying towards my outstanding money jar debt. So even though this week was £32, I had £35 so I decided instead of taking change back, I was seriously considering picking out £3, I should just cancel the amount from one of the IOUs. Yes, its three ten pound notes and a fiver with the money jar. So I got out the IOU which had a balance of £5 and cancelled £3 pounds leaving on £2 on the debt. I mean the debt for this particular IOU. There are a couple more IOUs in the money pot. I guess, I should be about to cancel off the entire £2 debt in the next money session, provided it's not another IOU because I forget to go the bank to take out money. It defeats at the point doesn't it. Taking out money from the bank to put in a money pot. Who does that? Oh the perils of internet money challenges!

Another week, more money and the pound had dropped. I was only going to take out thirty pounds and do write another IOU but I decided it was time to start paying. So I took out forty pounds, so at least, I could pay my thirty one pounds in full and the change will go towards my one of my debts. To be honest, I first I thought to take out nine pounds change but then thought better of it. I could I take out change when I owned the money jar some cash. At present I owe the money jar SIXTY SIX POUND STERLING in IOU notes. So I decided which IOU should I pay back? Should I go for the thirty pounds and end up with a balance of twenty-one pounds? Or should I do the twenty-two pounds? That would give me thirteen pounds left on the note. Or just scale down to the fourteen pounder and owe five pounds on that bill. There is so much suspense to my choice, right? Well, drumroll...... I went for the fourteen pounds IOU and stuffed the other IOUs back into the money pot.  So no...

I'm late again! I forget to get some money out yesterday, then forgot again when I went out so I'm dropping in another IOU for week thirty. Yes, another IOU. I guess this makes it all unpredictable but so much is going on at work and in life. It's one of the busiest times of the year in my area and I'm working to a hard deadline.  Yesterday was so the hottest day on record in the London, and I didn't leave the office until about 7pmish. It's fine, there is air con installed, so it wasn't so bad. Anyway let's talk money...or my IOU. So that's the money jar and the IOU behind it is my remote control and yes, I still have a CD Hi-Fi. You can see my taped lead, as I said before I don't think some Apple products are as sustainable as PC. This lead is fast wearing and I need to tape in again to stop exposed wires. Also the insulation tape doesn't stick properly so I reenforce it with sticky/cello tape. PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THIS  WAY, AND IN...

It's been a funny old week, I forgot to post my 'show my desk', I wrote it but didn't publishing. My family is still coming to terms with our bereavement so things have been a bit up in the air. This week, I only have £15 cash to put in the money pot so it been £29, I've put in an IOU for £14.  Nothing much to say, other than my phone fell again, so I might put the money cash towards getting me a new phone. I'm currently on android One Plus but I miss my iPhone with all the apps. But again there is always a but, this one has a dual sim so I can have two sims cards. I don't know. At first the One Plus was a good buy until the screen broke and I had to replace it. Yes, that was where I got stung for nearly two thirds of the phone. I could have got a new phone but it's all about data...data. Which reminds me, I need to do a backup. I'm not sure how much there is, as I currently owe £36 plus the first weeks I didn't pay in. So far, I'm st...

I decided it as time to start play back my debt so the money jar so I saved a five pound sterling note and swapped it for five pounds worth IOUs. Don't get excited, I still owe about twenty-two pounds though, and there is still the first six weeks to play up. Plus this challenge is going to get a wee more difficult. Current change for week 28 of £28 So this week, I finally managed to get the right change as you can see two tens, a fiver and three coins. The top picture of one of me walking over the Waterloo bridge and the sunlight spread across the River Thames. I thought it was a nice moment to capture on my phone. Back to savings. Note this is a bit political so move on if you aren't inclined. Well it seems the pound sterling is losing its power against other world currencies which is such a pain. The exchange rate has plummeted, the politicians just seem like characters in a cheap reality show. The entire situation is bizarre, and obvious the markets have no conf...

It's a late one today but I only had £25 pounds so I put in an IOU for £2. Those are the pictures, the picture above was taken in St Pancras Square, King Cross - where Google is -  where I saw waterlilies growing in the fountain. Total IOU I decide to see how much I owed the money pot and it came up to £27 and maybe a bit more because I missed the first six weeks- I started in week seven, but I'll see if I see if I can afford to do it. That is a picture of the City (business district) of London below the picture of my IOUs.