Miss Optimistic's Diary to stay focused & stay organised!

clearmydebts

Hey Miss Optimistic,

That is a great attitude. It won't be long now before all your small debts are gone and then you can start making dents into the bigger ones.:rolleyes:

MissOptimistic

My Statement Of Affairs

Income

Mine/Partners Combined wages - £1400.00
Child/Working Tax Credit

benbenandme

Just found your diary, and wow you've made good progress already Welcome to the board, I look forward to seeing your debts coming down

MissOptimistic

Oops I'll try again!
I am expecting to get slated after Ive posted this S.O.A but remember what I said about tackling bite sized chunks? anyway here goes, constructive advice would be much appreciated

Income (per month)
Mine/Partners Combined Income - £1400.00
Working/Child Tax Credits - £740.00
Child Maintenance - £210.00
Child Benefit - £170.00
Income received during holiday season - £250.00
I rent out part of the house (a granny annexe during the holiday period, but I have worked it out at roughly £3000 over the season, therefore averages out at £250.00 per month)
Total Income - £2776.00

Outgoings
Mortgage - £774.75
Council Tax - £131.00
Car Lease - £262.43
Water Rates - £37.70
Gas - £45.00
Electric - £22.50
Broadband (BT Total) - £24.99
Vodafone (2 mobiles) - £45.00
Life Insurance - £21.95
House Insurance - £34.04
BD & Xmas Fund - £80
Haircuts - £8.75
Landline - £20.00
Car Tax/Insurance - NIL
Food - £280.00
Fuel - 115.00
Total Outgoings - £1898.12

Total Available for Debt Repayments - £877.88

Debts
Barclaycard - £430 min per mth - Balance: 19110.04
N Rock Loan - £292.63 per mth - Balance: 17711.23 - 5.9%
Virgin - £25 min - Balance: 15416.17 - 0%
Halifax - £89 min - Balance: 8892.93 - 0%
Egg - £175.00 - Balance: 8118.19 - 16.9%
HSBC - £20 min - Balance: 1025.00 - 0%
Total Debt Repayments = £1032.00

Overall - -£154.12

Right here is where I expect a slating, I am not counting 2 smaller debts (both under £700) as I am repaying them from money I am making from the 'Make £10 a day challenge'. The way we have been making ends meet is because I have not been putting the christmas money away, although I am not too worried about this christmas as I have been very savvy and bought a lot of pressies using vouchers/points etc.
There is nothing down for car maintenance (it is a new car) and the tax and insurance were paid in full and run till August, this is also when we have to make a decision on the car, i.e - either hand it back or take out a loan to repay the remainder.
So everyone - do your worst! Thanks

paybacktime2008

Hi. I've been reading your diary and wanted to say well done! I've just saved over £300 changing my house/contents insurance. Apparently most of us over insure on the rebuild costs, putting down the house value, and forgetting we already own the land (hope that makes sense) I went through gocompare and reduced from £41 per month to £105 for the year! I bet that barclaycard has a monster APR. Can you ansfer any to your other cards?

Good luck

hypno06

Well you won't get a slating from me! It looks pretty ok to me.

I would guess that one of the problems is that you are counting your money from the granny annexe on a monthly basis, as though it is coming in each and every month, but the reality is that half the year you have twice as much, so spend twice as much, and the other half of the year you have nothing from the annexe but yet you are committed to needing that £250.....

So really, your usual shortfall is more like £400 than the £150 your SOA shows.

So.........I would say work on the £10 a day challenge big time, and you will soon make up that £250 each and every month. Sign up to the mystery shopping sites, ebay and amazon like there is no tomorrow, and get doing surveys, quidco, and daily scratchcards - all the things that are on the up your income board and £10 a day board will help pull you through.

Then when you start renting out the annexe again, make sure you only "keep" £250 each month, and put the balance away to use later in the year.

WorkingHardDFW

Hey good positive progress made already Miss Optimistic :T

Hypno makes a good point about the rental income.

The other route on the rental income is too seperate it off when it comes in and draw it down monthly into your spending that way you are not overspending it when it comes in.

Alternatively if you can live without it (it make up the shortfall) when it does come in it could go straight off the debts - a debt fund.

Is there any way that the annexe could be rented out more out of season to boost your income. Since debt clearing is about reducing your outgoings and upping your income it would make a big impact on your debt clearing.

Just a few thoughts - keep up the good work:cool:

MissOptimistic

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Hypno
You have hit the nail on the head with the rental income - although the season stretches out a bit (first guest March, last guest left last week) the majority of it comes in June-August. We tend to pay more off the credit cards at this time of year and it goes back on during the winter when we are short. So you were right in saying that its probably more like £400 down

Payback
I have just done my house insurance as it was due next month - The cheapest I could get for buildings and contents was £34.04 per month (£5 dearer than last year - but that is because we had to make a claim) but I got £90 cashback which I will probably get in January, so in all I think it was not a bad deal

WorkingHard
I think it would be a good idea to put the rental income in the bank and draw it like a wage on an equal basis each month, much easier to budget for then.

Well, no progress today on the make £10, but tomorrow I have a mystery shop lined up as well as another 'errand' that will earn me £10, so not too worried

Also, phoned my mortgage company up yesterday as our fixed rate is due to end on 31 December, after last weeks massive drop in interest rates, they have told me our new payment will be £702 per month (£72 cheaper than at present:j )

MissOptimistic

By the way, can anyone help me make sense of what interest I'm paying on my barclaycard? - I reckon that out of my £19350 balance, I am paying
£10,400 of it at 2.075% per month
£6,100 of it at 1.313% per month
£2850 of it at 0.561% per month
I thought it was as easy as multiplying it by 12 for the annual rate, but that doesn't match up with the notes on the statement which say:-
Purchase annual rate: 16.9%
Cash Annual Rate: 27.9%
Can anyone help? - I would transfer a balance, but they will transfer the cheaper amounts won't they, leaving me with the highest rate?

WorkingHardDFW

I've always done it by multipling by 12 if its quoted at a monthly rate. Give them a ring and check - actually I must do the same with mine since I've still got one with different rates - i think!

Ref the BT yes they do take the cheapest credit off first which is a pain until you can move the whole lot. Can move all of it away to other different cards? Just a though....