Chaos sees the light!

chaossaver

Hi, Like a lot of people I've been on this site for a while, just sort of browsing but never thinking of actually using most of the advice, however fantastic I may have thought it to be at the time, because 'I didn't need too'. Oops. Well... that was until the other day when eventually saw the light. I got a credit card statement in the post and for the first time really looked at it and READ THE SMALL PRINT. I was horrified - you will be too when you look at my SOA and suddenly had that moment of realisation that had to do something about this. I've become a DFW!!!!!

So, today, as day 1 of my new aim in life - I had a NSD and sat down and worked out thoroughly my SOA. I'd done it roughly but had paid some money off a couple of things since then etc, so this is it, how it stands, as of today. Please be kind - honest, but kind. It doesn't make for pretty reading, but as you can see I'm not a big spender on myself, never have been, it's just been a downward spiral of bad circumstances that have lead me to here, and now I want to get the control back. A quick glance and don't think it'll be too bad to sort myself out - what do you think? Anyway, I'm going to keep a diary, as motivation to myself as much as anything, as I know a few others have, to help me along the way. 've joined a couple of challenges, Quidco etc and we'll see how I get on. Fingers crossed. If you pop in now and again hopefully you'll see the total coming down xx

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1354.35
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1354.35

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 350
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 25
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 12
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 3
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 10
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 803

Assets
Cash.................................... 400
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 300
Other assets............................ 1000
Total Assets............................ 1700

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................7990......229.......8.9
Credit Card....................702.91....17.5......19.9
Credit Card....................995.48....39.82.....22.44
Student Loan...................8285.3....63........4.8
Credit Card....................2059.83...61........14.9
Total unsecured debts..........20033.52..410.32....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,354.35
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 803
Available for debt repayments........... 551.35
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 410.32
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 141.03

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,700
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,033.52
Net Assets.............................. -18,333.52

tallyhoh

Hi,
Would it be possible to give family circumstances? you know, how many & stuff. Is there just yourself?

Just wondering why there's no council tax listed. What is other travel for £12 & is your car essential? I am considering getting rid of mine due to the cost.

**Amy**

To be honest your SOA looks "ok".

If you are finding that £141.03 a month that "should" be left over isnt, you could do a spending diary, writing down everything you spend money on. It can be shocking how much a bar of chocolate each day, or a magazine etc. adds up.

Have you checked your insurances/ gas/ electricity to make sure you are getting the best deals?

Its normally a good idea to try and tackle the debt with the highest APR first, try using the snowball calculator to see how much you could save and roughly how long your debt free date is:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

xx

chaossaver

Wow, thank you for your quick replies! There are two of us, myself and my oh, plus 4 dogs. The house is his and we haven't been together that long really so to protect both of us 'just in case', decided that the best thing to do was for me to pay 'rent' for a while which would cover my contributions to other expenses - council tax, insurance etc, as well as helping him towards the mortgage payment. We only moved in together 6 weeks ago so thought this would be a good initial approach. The expenses listed are mine, my oh is covering the rest so that I can get things in a bit of a better state. m very lucky that he can really. e can't forever, but temporarily, and when that's sorted we'll do a joint soa and work from there. His only debt is the mortgage and as soon as I get myself df and we're at that point we'll start making joint mortgage overpayments.
Te 'other travel' is the payments for my bike I've just bought through the work cycle scheme to keep costs down. I am considering getting rid of the car - got a bike and v close to train station, but just want to hang on to it for a couple of months until I see what it's like trying not to use it. I live in a very rural area so I don't want to jump in with both feet on that one just yet. Going to wait til the tax and insurance etc are about to run out (2 months) and then make a decision.
The house insurance etc (in oh's name but still...) is about to run out so am going to make sure we shop around properly for that using the mse guide, and have just changed my breakdown cover according to the mse advice too - was with the aa. Electric is a good deal and just put my clubcard on it so we get points back, water we pay rates but that is the best deal fro us - 4 dogs and a yard to wash down twice a day
I haven't seen the snowball calculator, will have a look later. Some very noisy pets wanting a walk first Going to go for the highest APR card first, try to get rid of that and work my way down. Not sure what the 'surplus' goes on so will try the spending idea, thank you for that suggestion. I have remembered that £25pm goes into a savings account though which is locked for another 5 years. Thank you again for your suggestions, xx

moo2moo

Can you apply for a 0% card and transfer the balance of the card with the highest interest rate to it?

Does it really take £150 a month to feed 2 people and their pets? I'm sure you could reduce this with a little bit of creative thinking and a visit to the old style board.

You have no internet charges but you're clearly on-line was this overlooked or is this included in your rent or free at work / library?

£20 in fuel a month means you barely drive anywhere yet you're paying over £500 a year for car insurance on a car worth £300. Is there an alternative? Can you car share when needed for the longer journeys?

With the £141 "surplus" which you have each month you should be able to clear the 22.44% credit card in 8 months, halving your grocery bill would bring this down to 5 months. Quicker if you could transfer to a 0% card. I'd start with that as an aim. Keep a spending diary. Only take out of the bank what you have allowed yourself in cash each week and leave all plastic at home. Write down absolutely everything you spend in a spending diary, even if its 5p on a vending machine cuppa and see where the money goes.

Good luck!

chaossaver

Ok, long post I'm afraid!
Thank you for your reply Moo Moo. The amount on my higher rate card was a lot more but my lowest rate card sent me an offer to transfer some off another onto that one with no fee and at 0% for 6mnths, so obv jumped at the chance, it straightened things out a little. As for the rest of the higher rate card, which is obv my first choice to pay off, I am working out how much can pay off it this month using my savings - following rule number one! but owe my dad some money too so want to give him that too. Once I've done that I'll transfer the rest. Quick question though, does it matter how many cards you have at any one time? Do you have to declare them all to each other, and will it affect my chances of getting a good deal? Hope someone can help with that.
With regards to the £150 groceries, I know it sounds a lot and I will be able to get it down, it's just we've only just moved into our house so we don't have any 'stock' in cupboards etc to use up and are starting from the beginning having to buy what most others already have - salt, sugar, baked beans... and we don't have a freezer yet so can only buy fresh stuff, I know it sounds silly but it does put prices up a bit. I have no cooker for another 3 weeks, only a microwave - the place is a building site still, so the costs will come down, it's just difficult at the moment. I am trying to get some vouchers etc. I will take a look at the boards you suggested though. Thanks for that.
The dogs cost a lot to feed at the moment. They are all different ages and 2 need special food, one cos she is a pup and the other because of a deficiency. Their food alone, for those two dogs, costs £25 per month, then there is the other two too, although theirs is only around £12 per month for the two of them. Again as the pup gets older her food can be changed but she needs a very high protein feed at the moment and that is a bit more expensive.
As for the internet, I am using my neighbours wireless that has a signal in our house, which have permission to do if anyone is wondering. I have asked her, and she very kindly said I could as we often walk her dog with ours as she is ill and can't get out much, and it helps me too with my money saving.
I think you're right about the car. I have been giving it some serious thought. As I said in a previous post I'm waiting until the insurance etc runs out and making a decision then. My oh has a car that we share a lot when we can - we're experimenting to see if we could manage with one car. We have just got the bike through the cycle scheme too to try to use that more as it's only 3 miles to work for me, and it'll do my health good too We can only try and hope it works ok with one car and a bike and then mine can go rather than renew anything.
Thank you so much for your message about that higher interest card, hadn't sat and worked out the time it'd take for me to clear it. I'm going to look into transfering to another card tomorrow, make a payment onto it using my savings and see what I'm left with. What I'd really like to do is pay it off by xmas, that gives me 4 months, and with the savings payment bringing it and the interest down I hope can manage it. I have taken what you have all said about a spending diary into account and started it yesterday, see if can work out where the surplus goes cos I'm lost at the moment about it, or if I can avoid it going missing in action again as I'm behaving then all the better !! I'm very pleased to report that my second spending diary day was also a NSD as all I've done is paperwork and only left house to walk the dogs or go to my mums - where I also had a really good feed to help with my grocery bill
have also taken your advise with the plastic Moo Moo and have taken the plastic out of my wallet - the only ones left in there are my points cards I'll want them! I'm going to trial £35pw cash initially and see how I go. Hopefully there'll be some left so I can roll over to the next week and if there's too much there, as really hope there will be, then I'll reduce it by £5 until I get to an amount that works, and put surplus onto a card.
Thank you for your good advice everyone and for taking an interest. It's so nice knowing that people out there really do care about what's happening to each other. Who said Community Spirit was dead? - they obv hadn't taken web communities into account
love chaos x

chaossaver

Ok, long post I'm afraid!
Thank you for your reply Moo Moo. The amount on my higher rate card was a lot more but my lowest rate card sent me an offer to transfer some off another onto that one with no fee and at 0% for 6mnths, so obv jumped at the chance, it straightened things out a little. As for the rest of the higher rate card, which is obv my first choice to pay off, I am working out how much can pay off it this month using my savings - following rule number one! but owe my dad some money too so want to give him that too. Once I've done that I'll transfer the rest. Quick question though, does it matter how many cards you have at any one time? Do you have to declare them all to each other, and will it affect my chances of getting a good deal? Hope someone can help with that.
With regards to the £150 groceries, I know it sounds a lot and I will be able to get it down, it's just we've only just moved into our house so we don't have any 'stock' in cupboards etc to use up and are starting from the beginning having to buy what most others already have - salt, sugar, baked beans... and we don't have a freezer yet so can only buy fresh stuff, I know it sounds silly but it does put prices up a bit. I have no cooker for another 3 weeks, only a microwave - the place is a building site still, so the costs will come down, it's just difficult at the moment. I am trying to get some vouchers etc. I will take a look at the boards you suggested though. Thanks for that.
The dogs cost a lot to feed at the moment. They are all different ages and 2 need special food, one cos she is a pup and the other because of a deficiency. Their food alone, for those two dogs, costs £25 per month, then there is the other two too, although theirs is only around £12 per month for the two of them. Again as the pup gets older her food can be changed but she needs a very high protein feed at the moment and that is a bit more expensive.
As for the internet, I am using my neighbours wireless that has a signal in our house, which have permission to do if anyone is wondering. I have asked her, and she very kindly said I could as we often walk her dog with ours as she is ill and can't get out much, and it helps me too with my money saving.
I think you're right about the car. I have been giving it some serious thought. As I said in a previous post I'm waiting until the insurance etc runs out and making a decision then. My oh has a car that we share a lot when we can - we're experimenting to see if we could manage with one car. We have just got the bike through the cycle scheme too to try to use that more as it's only 3 miles to work for me, and it'll do my health good too We can only try and hope it works ok with one car and a bike and then mine can go rather than renew anything.
Thank you so much for your message about that higher interest card, hadn't sat and worked out the time it'd take for me to clear it. I'm going to look into transfering to another card tomorrow, make a payment onto it using my savings and see what I'm left with. What I'd really like to do is pay it off by xmas, that gives me 4 months, and with the savings payment bringing it and the interest down I hope can manage it. I have taken what you have all said about a spending diary into account and started it yesterday, see if can work out where the surplus goes cos I'm lost at the moment about it, or if I can avoid it going missing in action again as I'm behaving then all the better !! I'm very pleased to report that my second spending diary day was also a NSD as all I've done is paperwork and only left house to walk the dogs or go to my mums - where I also had a really good feed to help with my grocery bill
have also taken your advise with the plastic Moo Moo and have taken the plastic out of my wallet - the only ones left in there are my points cards I'll want them! I'm going to trial £35pw cash initially and see how I go. Hopefully there'll be some left so I can roll over to the next week and if there's too much there, as really hope there will be, then I'll reduce it by £5 until I get to an amount that works, and put surplus onto a card.
Thank you for your good advice everyone and for taking an interest. It's so nice knowing that people out there really do care about what's happening to each other. Who said Community Spirit was dead? - they obv hadn't taken web communities into account
love chaos x

chaossaver

Thanks for the advice loaner, I do appreciate it.
According to the snowballer I can be debt free in 58 months, so that's... June 2013? My maths isn't great. I'm going to do my best to smash that figure! I'm sure everyone says that, but I'm stubborn
For those of you wondering, my loan debt is actually £9847.43 - oh read out the wrong figure when doing the soa, never mind. Used the correct figure in the snowball. And credit card payments went out so those figures are a tiny bit lower. I'll have to soa again with correct debt figures, and change my signature, doh! x

chaossaver

Ok, here is my new SOA with the adjusted loan amount and credit card balances - nice to see those come down, even just a little The eagle eyed amongst you will spot my mobile has come down today from £35 to £30 - called and did a little swapping around - never hurts to ask x

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1354.35
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1354.35

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 350
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 25
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 12
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 3
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 10
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 798

Assets
Cash.................................... 400
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 300
Other assets............................ 1000
Total Assets............................ 1700

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................9847.43...229.......8.9
Credit Card....................702.91....17.5......19.9
Credit Card....................951.3.....38.05.....22.44
Loan...........................8285.3....63........4.8
Credit Card....................2019.77...60........14.9
Total unsecured debts..........21806.71..407.55....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,354.35
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 798
Available for debt repayments........... 556.35
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 407.55
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 148.8

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,700
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -21,806.71
Net Assets.............................. -20,106.71

savingholmes

My main suggestion to you would be to look at upping your income through a second job or some of the ideas on the £10 a day challenge. I only joined Mid July but made something like £188 in July and at least £240 poss £260 extra in August. It all helps - it also means I can have a cost neutral birthday and Christmas.

Good luck with getting straight with your finances!;)

chaossaver

Hi Saving Holmes, well I've taken your advice and I'm in on the £10 a day challenge. Every little helps! Also in the 20p savers club. I can only try! Thanks again everyone, I do really appreciate everyones suggestions and help x