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Getting out of the rut that has become life!!!

Well here goes. I feel like that i have been stuck in a rut for the last ten years we have been renting the same house for the last ten years and are no longer forward than we were then. Me and Oh have two girls 12 an 7. Will do a soa later, but OH is not on board with the moneysaving. Anyway i know im rambling long term goal is to have somewhere of our own im 40 this year and feel that the time is right now to climb out of the rut that i am in.
If you dream it can you do it????????
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Comments

  • donkids22
    donkids22 Posts: 281
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Forumite
    edited 11 February 2017 at 5:38PM
    What we owe currenty

    Credit card 1 = 7413.10 Not sure of the rates on this but this is where the bulk of the repayments are going.

    Credit card 2 = 475.00. (This is 0% and i am paying monthly amounts to clear before the 0% runs out)

    Credit card 3 = 1590.60. (This is 0% and i am paying monthly amounts to clear before the 0% runs out)w6QgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=
    If you dream it can you do it????????
  • have you considered a DMP...step charity..depending on circumstances. Am considering same. We have more debt..about 50k...it can very quickly get out if control. You're doing the right thing getting it sorted now. Good luck
  • Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

    Monthly Income Details
    Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,738.85
    Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Monthly Expense Details

    In Your Home

    Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
    TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
    Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
    Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127.00
    Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00
    Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
    Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460.00
    Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Motoring & Public Transport

    Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
    Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
    Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Debt Repayments

    Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.00
    Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Savings & Investments

    Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
    Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
    Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

    Family

    Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Entertainment

    Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Clothes, Health & Beauty

    Complementary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.99
    Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Education & Courses

    University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Big One-Offs

    Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Odds & Sods

    Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


    Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,738.85


    Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,372.78



    OH pays for food shopping, gas and electric, tv subscription, home phone internet, diesel. Do not include child benefit or tax credit money as i use this to pay for the childminder and after school club for the kids.
    If you dream it can you do it????????
  • angelpye
    angelpye Posts: 995
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hi, well done for facing it, not easy but so worth it, especially as your OH isn't on board yet. Do you pay for clothes, presents, entertainment like days out or cinema, haircuts, holidays etc out of your budget? If so work out monthly amounts to put aside so you know exactly what you have to put towards debt. This really helps to ensure no more using the cards and living without feeling like you are completely going without or not prepared for what is to come. An emergency fund is also a good idea for those one off unpredictable things like a new washing machine. Nothing in the car maintenance either so would say its worth working out how much a MOT has cost in last few years and how much for a couple of extras like tyres and putting monthly amounts away.

    Hope that helps :)
    Happiness is wanting what you have...
    Debt Jan 2017: £2589.22 DFD: [STRIKE]Sept 2022[/STRIKE] April 2022 but this Marching Minimalist can beat that!
    Use it or Loose it gym target: Feb'17 5/6 Mar 4/6 :j
    EF £0/£4200
  • angelpye wrote: »
    Hi, well done for facing it, not easy but so worth it, especially as your OH isn't on board yet. Do you pay for clothes, presents, entertainment like days out or cinema, haircuts, holidays etc out of your budget? If so work out monthly amounts to put aside so you know exactly what you have to put towards debt. This really helps to ensure no more using the cards and living without feeling like you are completely going without or not prepared for what is to come. An emergency fund is also a good idea for those one off unpredictable things like a new washing machine. Nothing in the car maintenance either so would say its worth working out how much a MOT has cost in last few years and how much for a couple of extras like tyres and putting monthly amounts away.

    Hope that helps :)


    Thanks I will look at working these into my budget at realistic amounts. Had an NSD today which is great and we had dinner at the parents today so that has saved us money today. Got a stinking cold which is not helping me think straight, got to do a meal plan for the week and a shopping list we go shopping on Tuesday to al@! We used to go to a more expensive one, the only problem is I need to stop the top up shops which is costing me anything from 10 to 30 a week on top of what OH pays for on the Tuesday. Had to phone the tax credits Friday as I had a pay rise Jan and OH will earn more than last year so I know they say we have been overpaid which will need to have the budget readjusted.
    If you dream it can you do it????????
  • Karonher
    Karonher Posts: 909
    First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Do you really have over £350 left at the end of the month? If so that could be going towards the card with interest being paid. Also, it is good that you are putting £330 away into savings. Is that to py the cards when the 0% ends.

    There are a few areas I would have expected to see something - days out entertainment, children's clothes, but I see that someone else has mentioned that.

    Good luck
    Aiming to make £7,500 online in 2022
  • Why is your OH not interested in getting rid of the debt? Are these debts in your name or hers? Does she/he have others? I assume the £200 isa is the htb isa if you are looking to buy somewhere? If it is stuck in a normal cash isa you would do better to chuck it at that first credit card which is charging interest as undoubtedly it is costing you more than you are gaining in isa interest.
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Why is your OH not interested in getting rid of the debt? Are these debts in your name or hers? Does she/he have others? I assume the £200 isa is the htb isa if you are looking to buy somewhere? If it is stuck in a normal cash isa you would do better to chuck it at that first credit card which is charging interest as undoubtedly it is costing you more than you are gaining in isa interest.

    All the debt is my name this has been a bone of contention between us like i said to him he 'god forbides died' id be left with the debt and the kids hes alright as the debt would get wrote off it was vice versa. I think OH is not on borad as we dont combine finances and he is protective of what is his after he has paid the bills he has to pay. Yes i have a first time buyer isa this was incase in the future we could buy somewhere or just encourage nme to save more. The two cards that are long term 0% i have divided the total owed by the number of months so they will be both paid off by the time the deal runs out. The card with the most money on has some at 0% and a small amount of interest being paid.

    DD2 needed a costume for world book day so yesterday was not an nsd. Today we have done the weekly shop 50 for 4 people which isnt bad:), just need to lay off buying extra treats. Today was an NSD as OH pays for this. Still need to readdress my SOA.
    If you dream it can you do it????????
  • OK here goes budget mark 2

    Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

    Monthly Income Details
    Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,738.85
    Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Monthly Expense Details

    In Your Home

    Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
    TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
    Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
    Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127.00
    Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00
    Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
    Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460.00
    Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Motoring & Public Transport

    Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
    Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
    Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Debt Repayments

    Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.00
    Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Savings & Investments

    Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
    Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

    Family

    Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
    School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Entertainment

    Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
    Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

    Clothes, Health & Beauty

    Complementary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.17
    Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
    Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.99
    Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
    New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
    New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

    Education & Courses

    University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

    Big One-Offs

    Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
    Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
    Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00

    Odds & Sods

    Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.34
    Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
    Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00


    Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,738.85


    Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,637.95


    If you dream it can you do it????????
  • ani*fan
    ani*fan Posts: 1,554
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Hi there

    I don't think you're at the stage of needing to think about a dmp, as someone suggested earlier. You're managing your debts with cash to spare and still some leeway in your budget so i wouldn't worry about that if I were you.

    First thing, cancel your charity donations and change to a bank account with no fee. This adds up to just over a fiver but needed in your pocket more than anyone else's right now.

    If you stopped shopping for fun, eating out and buying the odd coffee you would have another £80 a month to pay off debt. That could make a huge difference. Try it for a month and see?

    One of the many convenient things about renting is that you won't need to buy a washing machine, or a boiler, or anything like that so don't include it in any emergency fund until you own your own place. Your car needs a back up fund though.

    Your Christmas and birthday funds look realistic, yep, I think you can totally do this! Best of luck!
    If you know you have enough, you're rich. ;)
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