On a Mission

Mummy_bear · 4 June 2017 at 9:02AM

So this is me holding myself accountable, publicly, albeit anonymously, for my spending.

To be fair I'm not so bad, sort of, ish.

DH on the other hand has issues!!

Why am I doing a Diary? Well it all came to a head when DH spent his entire wage (£1500) within a week of being paid. Of course a portion of this went to bills etc. But equally a lot was wasted on games for his playstation.

It's frustrating because between us we bring in over £3k a month and literally have nothing at the end of it. I'm sick of it.

So I've took on this challenge. I will do my utmost to rein DH in and fully intend to get us out of this debt.

My intention is to tackle the different debt one at time.

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I'm going to list our current debt.... GULP

Outstanding on Mortgage - £84451
Credit Card 1 - £2803.37 - interest free for 2 yrs
Credit Card 2 - £1490 - interest free for 2 yrs
Hitachi finance (for new Boiler) £3093 (includes interest)
Littlewoods £518 (includes interest)
Next £444
Newlook (DH has no idea about this eeek) £130
Loan 1 - £10865
Loan 2 - £5964
My overdraft currently stands at £150
Dh's overdraft £700

DH got a loan out last October - not sure what is outstanding on that so I'll have to update on that later.
I do know that it's £155.12 a month payment.

DH also has finance on a bicycle - again I need to get the outstanding on that
Finance for a new TV - he got this against my advice - total amount was £899 - obtained earlier this yr - need the outstanding

AND - he's recently took up a hobby that's resulted in the purchase, finance, for some items - again need to total figure on that one.

See - he likes to buy things

Without knowing DH's total outstanding I've totted up known figures.
So including the mortgage we owe at least £110,608.37

I also have a student loan that's £150 out of my wage every month. I believe I'm due my yearly statement this month so I can see what is outstanding hopefully. With 2 lots of Mat leave in the last 5 years it's taken longer to pay off. I'm hoping that I'm nearing the end though as that would be a huge help once gone.

I do have some good habits!

I overpay on our Mortgage. I think it's a monthly overpayment of around £120. I'll have to double check. Been doing that for years although previously the overpayments were more I the region of £75.

I think initially I will concentrate efforts on overpaying the Hitachi finance and the Littlewoods account. Luckily with the Littlewoods account that is a buy now pay later (expires Jan) and I'm well on course to pay that off in time.

With the Hitachi finance I currently pay just under £72 a month. I was the shittiest deal ever. However, it was Dec 2012. Our ancient boiler died. I was on mat leave. We needed a new boiler and in desperation took up the worst ever deal from British Gas. Ugh - shameful. I then just let it run it's course. I don't have figures at hand but I believe it was an 8 year deal and a disgusting interest rate.
I logged into the account yesterday and found that it ends in Dec 2020. If I make just £18 a month overpayment it could end in Jan 2020!! I'm unbelievable peeved at myself for not concentrating on getting rid of this sooner. So that is my main goal!

I aim to update at least once a week.

By for now

ChasingSunshine · 4 June 2017 at 9:14AM

Just wanted to say good luck.

I know you are starting to look at the interest rates on the different debts now but maybe instead of overpaying the mortgage at the moment you could direct that money to the debts with higher interest and clear them first. Play around with the snowball calculators for ideas.

Hope your DH gets on board with debt busting. Maybe completing a SOA, even if you don't post it here, will help even if just to make small changes which all add up.

Mummy_bear · 4 June 2017 at 9:45AM

Hi,

thanks for your comment.

I have contemplated using the mortgage overpayment elsewhere. However, we're currently on the standard variable rate with our Mortgage provider. It's actually really a really good rate at the moment. I looked into getting a better deal else where and no one could match it.

We pay 478 a month at the moment which includes the over payment.

The way I saw it if bank of England interest rates were to increase I have a buffer in place until we got a better deal else where.

Now I may be wrong on this and totally welcome advice of other more experienced financially than I.

Also of note, we took the Mortgage out in August 2007. It was a 100+% Mortgage :mad: We desperately wanted on the property market at the time. A few months later the Mortgage market crashed and property values decreased. Anyway, it meant we were in negative equity for years. I think we've only just got into positive equity. It has meant that we've been a little stuck for years to even consider getting a better Mortgage deal.

I will, however, re look into this

ChasingSunshine · 5 June 2017 at 8:19AM

Yes can see why paying the extra to your mortgage is a good idea. Obviously being in negative equity changes the whole thing. Would the bank allow you to take a payment holiday if rates rose and you needed that buffer?
Subscribed and will follow along with your updates.
CS

Mummy_bear · 5 June 2017 at 4:47PM

ChasingSunshine wrote: »

Yes can see why paying the extra to your mortgage is a good idea. Obviously being in negative equity changes the whole thing. Would the bank allow you to take a payment holiday if rates rose and you needed that buffer?
Subscribed and will follow along with your updates.
CS

Hi,

Thanks for the subscription

The mortgage is with the Alliance and Leicester. I remember calling them up around 5 years ago whilst on Mat leave to see if they offered payment holidays and they said not.

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Today I've had a mini success and I'm hoping this is the start of a change to my mindset.
On a Monday and Tuesday I have to pay for parking at work - £4.60 a day. Something I always budget for. Today I drove around a bit and managed to find a rare free car park space. This does occasionally happen and I would normally just waste the £4.60 saved on buying food or something else I don't actually need. Today I immediately used that £4.60 saved to pay towards the Hitachi loan.

I feel great for doing that. It's a little victory.

Other than buying a loaf of bread later I won't have spent any other money today.

FoxFace · 6 June 2017 at 6:55AM

Good luck!

System · 6 June 2017 at 7:15AM

Games always drop to £5 eventually, though it may take several years, I only ever spend more than that on a game if I really want it (ie £10). This way he's still picking up games at the same rate, but a few years behind the curve, no different than being born a few years earlier

Mummy_bear · 6 June 2017 at 6:57PM

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Games always drop to £5 eventually, though it may take several years, I only ever spend more than that on a game if I really want it (ie £10). This way he's still picking up games at the same rate, but a few years behind the curve, no different than being born a few years earlier

Hi Matthew, I've said this for years to the DH

. He keeps convincing himself that the latest big spend on a Playstation game will keep him out of trouble for months and he won't have a need to spend anything else. It never ever works like that. He has taken the steps to remove his card details from the playstation account as that made it way too easy for him to accidentally on purpose purchase a game. A step forward at least

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I managed to put £1 towards the Hitachi loan. I had to pay for parking today but due to finishing earlier I didn't need the usual length on the parking ticket. As such I saved £1 :j

No other spending today

What was really good to see was that before these two little payments the outstanding on the loan was £ 3,021.90. Paying off £5.60 over the last two days brings the out standing to £3,014.12 - a difference of £7.78. chipping away like this does make a difference

System · 6 June 2017 at 9:06PM

Mummybear - I think he should standing order some bill money to you on payday so what is left behind is his budget, and I always think in terms of "how many hours would I have to work to earn this" - that sort of thinking might scare him off of it.

When you think about what gaming is, it's pretending to work, just in more exotic jobs

Some genres seem really tired, so enjoy something innovative

I occasionally find an old series that I previously missed and get sucked into - ie I bought Mass Effect 3, a space game for £5 because space was the only genre I hadnt explored (and everything else I was tired of) - i loved it, kept me going for many evenings and now bought the previous mass effect 2, also if you see a new version of a game, consider buying the version before to delay buying it (and get into/explore the franchise)

I was never into online gaming as I find it far to serious and competitive and bullysome to be fun, I always crank the difficulty down to 'very easy' because I don't enjoy losing and just want the story, and quite often it's still challenging

Also Freemium games can keep you occupied for a long long time if you resist the urge to spend

System · 6 June 2017 at 9:07PM

Or perhaps get him into reading newspapers or blogging

clearmydebts · 6 June 2017 at 10:54PM

Good luck!!!

On a Mission

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