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The Secret Diaries
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Stocks & Shares - Bulls and Bears - What the hell are they? Why it sounds so ridiculous for the man (or woman) on the street to entertain such thoughts - or not! British Web Shop - I shop here because I'm always sure of picking up a bargain. And let's face it - living on £4000 for a full year means I NEED BARGAINS Shona Prophett - My website, this one, has been set up by NYK Media as part of their Scottish web project. If you would like to set up your own website, have a quick look at DOMAIN NAMES The average house -hold could save up to £325 off their energy bills if they changed supplier. Click here to find out how much you could save. Uswitch - Click here to compare prices on UK telephone suppliers and save up to £140 on your phone bill. Tesco is currently ranking #1 in my book for groceries, general household bargains & points! |
POST-BUDGET ANNOUNCEMENT (22/03/07) If anything should deter you from smoking, it should be the Chancellor's Budget! For a packet of 20 cigarettes costing £5.34 after the current increase in price, the cigarettes actually cost you £1.20 per pack and the other £4.14 apparently goes in tax. That's 77.5% tax! If you want to avoid paying taxes - DON'T SMOKE! Or - take a cheap holiday and stock up for your own use. That should cut the price of your cigs by around 40% I will stop smoking on the 28th February 2007 I have a very active imagination. Never content with my lot, I am compelled to think about things from every possible angle, weighing up the odds and then, just when you think you have a firm control over your own financial actions, it all goes to pot and you blow it on something completely unneccesary. Take smoking, for instance. It is 100% unneccesary to inhale smoke, exhale the residue and absorb the associated chemicals during the process. But we still do! It's like a mental process - one action triggers another and the resulting consequence of those combined actions is the lighting of a cigarette. Addictive? I don't believe so. I believe that it is a simple habit-forming reaction triggered by the first move in your chosen set of actions. Take me. I don't really think about cigarettes unless I am smoking or chatting with friends. I don't 'need' a cigarette until coffee is suggested (or if I suspect a stressful situation - like watching the stock market when I have a transaction pending). The coffee drinking action triggers my automatic response to light a cigarette. It's almost a Pavlovian response. My mind has been conditioned over time to carry out the process of lighting that cigarette each time I sit down with a cup of coffee. Another trigger point is the telephone ringing. Something in my psyche stops me in my flow of activity, no matter what that may be, and I head for the cigarettes if the voice on the other end of the telephone is familiar. Perhaps it's an innate need for familiarity that's at the root of the problem. Life is unpredictable, sometimes chaotic. It is uncertain and offers us few guarantees, yet the simple action of chatting to a friend or relative simulates security through familiarity. I thought familiarity was supposed to breed contempt? Keep this thought in mind. Moving swiftly on - I smoke an average of 40 cigarettes a week and that costs me £8.58 at the moment. However, cigarettes WILL go up in price, of that we can be sure. Allowing £4.50 per pack and 10 months remaining of 2007, during which I WILL NOT BUY CIGARETTES, I have calculated that kicking the habit could result in my doing one of the following: A) Save almost £400 towards Christmas shopping B) Buy another 4 shares in First Rhapsody (Rosie the Racehorse) C) Renew my passport, book some cheap flights, find cheap digs and have a holiday. (RyanAir have flights leaving Stanstead from 1p (Yes, a single penny) and from Prestwick at 19p!!) D) Follow my last challenge set out by NYK, but alter it to suit my current financial situation. So, what have I decided to do? Anyone who contemplates stopping smoking does it for a reason. My reason is that it's my money and I'm only getting a very small percentage of use from it, as about three quarters of it goes to the Government in taxes. (See here for what Cyberdosh has to say about taxes). I want the benefit of ALL my money, not just a paultry £1 out of ever £4, or whatever, but we all need incentive. These were the options I had from the last challenge:-
Help me out here because I can't even decide what to do... I already have the shares, so I'll omit that. What if I... aaarg! How can deciding what to do with £400 be so difficult? I'm away for a cuppa and a cig to think this one through. I have 10 days left to decide. Updated 01/03/07 - I have now stopped smoking. Follow my progress and let me know what you would do differently. Diary links at top of this page. Copyright 2007 Shona Prophett. Shona Prophett writes for pleasure, entertainment value and payment only. Nothing within her writing should be taken as financial advice and she removes herself from any responsibility whatsoever for anything. This is NOT financial advice, it is simple reading material. |
Cyberdosh, to whom I am grateful, is sponsoring this year long financial experiment to the tune of £4000.00 Click here for info. Don't be a wimp - Because if I can do it, then anyone can! Follow my progress HERE MY FAVE LINKS
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