My hopefully debt free diary

monkeyboots

Just when I thought I was getting somewhere with the offers to the banks they seem to have passed the debts on and I have to start all over again so today is the new start to my debt free journey. I will post my SOA and make notes about what I am doing to help with getting debt free.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 303
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 208
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 511
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 33
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 180
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 41
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 3
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 483

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 800

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
natwest........................1896......10........0
capital one....................394.......2.........0
barclaycard....................565.......2.........0
provident......................200.......1.........0
Total unsecured debts..........3055......15........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 511
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 483
Available for debt repayments........... 28
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 15
Amount left after debt repayments....... 13
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,055
Net Assets.............................. -2,255
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

Food bill may seem high but when I spoke to the CAB they suggested putting down more than I spent just to make sure I didn't leave myself short.
Car insurance: bought a new car to save money on diesel and tax but my insurance went up, I have since found out that it may work out cheaper to cancel my policy and take out a new one, this includes paying the cancellation charge.
The gas, electric and water all include arrears being paid off so these should go down in the next few months
Rent and council tax both fully covered by benefits at the minute
I am left with £13 left over every month and this will be put aside in a savings account as I want to go to uni in september and want to hopefully have most of the debt paid off by then so I can start afresh
I am clearing out the house at the minute and any money I have made has gone to repaying the debt
I am signed up to the survey sites and cashback and as I also owe my mum money which she is yet to work out how much I am getting this money put straight into her account so it means she is getting something towards what I owe her.
Sorry for the really long post, wanted to make sure I had everything written down so I have a clear starting point. Any help and advice is more than welcome

monkeyboots

Todays first step towards being debt free I cleared the remainding balance on both my catalogues, paid off my daughters birthday party and put £30 aside for her birthday present, this is all money from selling things on ebay and amazon and the money I have saved from nearly cutting my smoking in half, doing all this is giving me the motivation I need so hopefully by this time next year I will be debt, nicotine and clutter free, keeping my fingers crossed lol

tinypawz

On the groceries.....you can really cut this down with careful meal planing and batch cooking. You'll get loads of ideas over on the Old Style thread.

That should free up about £80 which can go to debt or savings.

monkeyboots

to be honest I don't think I spend anywhere near that amount on food and groceries but that money includes stuff for the cat ( food, cat litter) all of which is the cheapest possible, my cigarettes and any treats throughout the month, any left over will be going in the savings account, I have cut down from 20 cigarettes a day to hardly any so going to keep going and hopefully quit completely, have been putting the money I would have spent on fags into a sealed pot and its getting quite full now so once its full I am going to put that straight onto the debt

mum2one

Have you thought of doing the daily clicks, surveys, and cash back sites to help out with the income.
It may look like a lot, but ur debts can be manageable.
This may seem like a daft question but are you recieving all the correct benefits,
try looking at "entitled to" website.

monkeyboots

hiya, I'm signed up with quidco, countless numbers of survey sites and a site where you do reviews, I am getting all the benefits I am entitled to but at the minute I get a reduced rate of income support as i am paying back a social fund loan and they take their payment straight out before i get any money however this will be paid off completely in a few months and the £12 a week they have been taking out will be put straight into the savings account as i have managed without it for the last year

ragstoricheswannabe

Hi, didnt want to read and run so thought i would post and say good luck!!!! How old is your daughter??

Good luck on giving up smoking but well done for the drastic cutting down you have done.

Keep up the good work!!!
love rags
xxxxxxxx

monkeyboots

my dd will be 4 at the end of the month and shes very good helping me saving, we have her money box and if shes been good all week and helped me out she gets 50p and is delighted with it lol shes saving up for a nintendo wii but think at this rate she could be waiting til her 18th lol shes also helping to clear the clutter by putting all her old toys in a box to go on ebay lol
shes helping me cut down on the cigarettes by hiding them, its easier to do it this time of year cos I smoke on the doorstep so its better staying indoors than standing outside freezing lol

monkeyboots

today dd was at her dads so used the time to get all the things sorted to go on ebay and take pictures and will list them during the week. No spend day today as I found 5 cigarettes in the back of the car so they did me.
Have photocopied the original letters for offers of payments on my debt and will be sending them off to the new companies in the morning to start the ball rolling with that again.
So to do list for tomorrow
Send off offer letters
Sort some more things for ebay and amazon
ring car insurance and try to haggle down the price or cancel the policy and get a cheaper one
sort out a bank account in dds name so her dad can pay money in seeing how he refuses to give me anything
pay the last bit of the water bill so them payments go down in april
Hopefully can manage the bulk of that while dds in nursery as things seem to get done so much faster without her "help" lol

RedDino308

Hi MonkeyBoots,

It looks like your making good progress here. Looking at your SOA a couple of things do jump out...

1 Water Rates - it may be worth looking at switching to a meter. The water company should be able to give you a spreadsheet (of sorts) to help you work out the numbers. We did it and ours dropped from £48/m to £31/m

2 Mobile Phone - are you still in contract? If so then maybe look at shifting to a lower tariff. If you are out of contract then you should be able to negotiate a better deal with them. There is a great article on this site about how to do it.

3 You're right - the car insurance is expensive and it is definitely worth finding out about alternatives. Don't forget to use a cashback site when buying to get that extra boost.

4 Smoking - it is expensive (I know cos i fell off the wagon recently). Get yourself down to a stop smoking clinic and they can sort out the therapy on prescription!

Good look

RedDino308

monkeyboots

RedDino308 wrote: »

Hi MonkeyBoots,

It looks like your making good progress here. Looking at your SOA a couple of things do jump out...

1 Water Rates - it may be worth looking at switching to a meter. The water company should be able to give you a spreadsheet (of sorts) to help you work out the numbers. We did it and ours dropped from £48/m to £31/m

2 Mobile Phone - are you still in contract? If so then maybe look at shifting to a lower tariff. If you are out of contract then you should be able to negotiate a better deal with them. There is a great article on this site about how to do it.

3 You're right - the car insurance is expensive and it is definitely worth finding out about alternatives. Don't forget to use a cashback site when buying to get that extra boost.

4 Smoking - it is expensive (I know cos i fell off the wagon recently). Get yourself down to a stop smoking clinic and they can sort out the therapy on prescription!

Good look

RedDino308

hi reddino, the water rates will go down to £22ish a month once it starts back in April, its only this high because I am paying off arrears on top
The mobile phone gets used quite a lot as it is cheaper than ringing my friends from the landline who only have mobiles, to be honest it works out cheaper to pay the extra line rental as then I dont go over my free minutes and since I put it up I have never paid more than £30 a month whereas before it was nearer £100.
Going to ring the insurance tomorrow as they were the second cheapest quote I got on confused.com and that was nearly £150 cheaper a year than what I am paying at the minute :eek: , if they won't put it down then the post office was £5 cheaper.