my embarrassing return to the dfw's and my new diary

madmoney_2

:hello:Hello again guys
:o:o:o:o:o Im utterly ashamed and distraught at how out of hand my financial situation has gotten since I last posted on this lovely forum, Im in a lot more debt now than what I was, which proves that I need to sort it out now once and for all before it gets worse!!

Where do I start....

When I first joined this forum, I was crying after gambling away my part time weekly wage of 100 quid in 1 hour through online bingo. After my first post and reading all the success stories, I stopped gambling immediately, after a year long spell of gambling (which I estimate to have cost me roughly 5000 pounds:eek:)

I havent gambled a single penny since joining, and am still gamble free to this day which I owe to a few guys on here, they literally saved my life!!

Since my last post, which was roughly december last year, we have been hit hard like most people, my partner and i have always been minimum wagers, and have been together for 8 years and have a 5 yr old son. I worked part time, my partner full time, and we were roughly 2000 in debt, which I had managed to get down to 800 quid in 4 months.

I estimate we are now 3500 in debt, which might not seem alot to some ppl, but on minimum wage and with a family its a daily struggle to keep the bailiffs at bay, we have managed so far but Im so depressed at the moment I cant seem to get myself organised!!
I left my job as the boss hated me and I hated her, but found it hard to find something else quickly, I managed to find a part time job after 4 months of living on just OH wage, and hated that job even more!! I tried to stick it out for the sake of ds, as it was a term time job, but then OH got made redundant, so I went back to my old job, as there was a new manager there and I could work full time, so more money for the family. OH struggled to find work and has just landed a job last week after 6 months of living on just my wage, hence the debt.
Things are going in the right direction now, OH works nights, I work days and weekends, we tag each other at the front door to watch DS!!! Ive been promoted at work and am in training for a Kitchen Manager position, due in January of next year, so I am focusing on that for now.

I will be posting a full SOA shortly, I am going to quit smoking on Sunday, and the money I save will be put towards some much needed driving lessons (required for the promotion)
Phew!! Feels good to get that off my chest!! Im hoping to be smokefree and debt free by this time next year, gonna go do the snowball calculator and an soa, sorry if I have bored you all to tears but this managed to keep me on track last time, so Ill keep this diary and update it as much as working 60+ hours a week will allow!!
Thanks for reading, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

:hello:mm

GlasweJen

Good Luck MM. Wish you all the best in becoming debt & smoke free and congratulations on kicking the gambling

savingholmes

Welcome back - you've been through a tough time. At least you are not gambling any more. We hope to see your SOA soon and watch your journey to success....

GeorgeUK

Sounds like a plan. Well done for coming back instead of just lurking. We;ll throw as many ideas and as much support your way as we can. Not sure when the last time you did a SOA was, but there is now a calculator to make it all nice and pretty (thanks to Clariman)
https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Rummer

Sounds like you are on your way to making things better, once your SOA is up there will be people here to help more. Well done for keeping away from the gambling

madmoney_2

Thanks guys, I was gonna leave posting till tomorrow night but I thought if I dont do it now, I might not do it at all!!

Good to see a gambling thread on here aswell, I shall be posting on it tomorrow night.
Just a quick draft of my SOA and then its off to bed for me!

Here goes.......
MONTHLY INCOME AFTER TAX
me: 750
partner: 800
benefits:280 (this will be reduced once the evil tax credits are aware of OH new job!)
total monthly incoming:1830
MONTHLY OUTGOINGS
rent:276
council tax:120
electric and gas:100
water:38
landline and broadband:40
tv licence:10
groceries:200
childcare:40
presents, occasions etc:30
ciggies:150-200 (this should be reduced by next week if all goes well ;-) )
total monthly outgoings:1004

UNSECURED DEBT:
rent, 900+, should be paying 30 extra pw, but not paying anything atm
OH overdraft:2300, at 22.9%, od limit: 2250, paying interest only, 30 pm
CCJ - 279
council tax:200

total debt:3679

Any help much appreciated

mm

madmoney_2

Just had another quick look at my soa, and think I can get my gas and electric bill down, its a prepayment meter, which i had installed last year as i was in debt with british gas and they put the debt on the meter, however i dont know whether i have to stay on a meter for a certain amount of time?
As mentioned, tax credits will go down once i phone them to say OH has now got a full time job.
Lnadline and broadband - 40, anyone got any cheaper? they were charging me 73.50 a month, i logged into my account today nd reduced it to 40, i have done this before but they just put it back up again the following month, which is confusing as last time i checked, i was in credit by 41 quid?!?!?!
m gonna have a look at moneysaving old stlye to try to reduce my shopping bill. and the obvious - cigarettes grrrrr, im hoping to get this down to 71.40 per month if OH continues to smoke, which i suspect he will!
Any ideas would be appreciated

mm

cornerstone13

Landline/broadband - we've just changed to Talktalk (bit nervous about it as it had such bad press when it first launched). We pay £21.45 a month which includes broadband, 01,02 and 03 calls in UK plus calls to 36 overseas countries at any time, BT line rental and we get 25% off calls to mobiles - so the only extra above the £21.45 should be any 0870 type calls (www.saynoto0870.com) or to mobiles.

The changeover went really smoothly - definitely well worth it.

madmoney_2

hi guys i cant change my signature, it keeps saying its too long and ive reduced it down to 3 lines!! any suggestions??
not a bad day today, till buying the dreaded tobacco so hopefully by this time next week, i wont be buying the stuff!!

madmoney_2

**bump bump!**

GeorgeUK

council tax:120
If paying over 10 months, can you ask to pay over 12 (from January)

electric and gas:100
check the comparison sites to see if you are getting a good deal (uswitch, moneysupermarket)

groceries:200
Have you moved down a brand? Do you use meal plans? Have a look at the old style board.

ciggies:150-200 (this should be reduced by next week if all goes well ;-) )
Have you been to the doctor? You may be able to get free patches or something.

I take it you can't get a 0% card if you have the CCJ - have you tried? It would be handy to get rid of that interest rate.