DC's journey to become debt free and saving for wedding

debt_cruncher

Hi everyone

I am new to this and have just registered.

A little about me

I am 27 years old and live with my OH and my dog. We are planning to get married in 2010 but I first need to get rid of my debt :mad: and start saving for the wedding.

I know I do not have as much debt as some of the people on here but I just want rid of it so that I can start saving. I also own a house which needs a lot of comestic work doing to it (probably in the region of £5,000).

I have a very good paid job which covers all the bills and my OH is a student and his student loan covers his expenses.

My problem is that when all the bills are paid I only have about £50 - £60 to go towards the wedding fund or doing up the house. So a this rate of going is will probably be the next century before we get married lol.:rotfl:

Anyway enough of my ramblings and I will post a SOA tomorrow.

debt_cruncher

Well here it is my SOA

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1513.99
Partners monthly income after tax....... 60 (OH contribution to food Shopping)
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1573.99
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 425.48
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 200 (22mths left)
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 63.1 (rates in NI)
Electricity............................. 0 (OH pays for this)
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 22.49
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 27.5 (includes broadband)
Internet Services....................... 14.68 (mobile broadband)
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 (includes £30 dog food)
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 43
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 15 (includes contents ins)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 15.49
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 35
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1340.69

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 170000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 176000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 94204.5..(425.48)...2.75
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4335.....(200)......3.91
Total secured & HP debts...... 98539.5...-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax CC.....................530.......5.3.......17.95
Black Horse....................534.95....26.75.....0
Creation.......................663.......55.25.....0
Total unsecured debts..........1727.95...87.3......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,573.99
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,340.69
Available for debt repayments........... 233.3
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 87.3
Amount left after debt repayments....... 146
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 176,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -98,539.5
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,727.95
Net Assets.............................. 80,067.55
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

It says I have £146 left each month but I usually pay about £100 of the Halifax CC per month which leaves me about £50 for emergencies.
Any ideas on how I could cut back some of my expenses?
Thanks in advance

debt_cruncher

Afternoon

Just an update of what has been happening today.

I joined up with the PAD crew and made my first payment of £30 to my halifax card.:D

Then went grocery shopping and managed to stay within the £30 weekly budget. I also got dog food from pet store and again stayed within budget even if was only by 61p. This should do the dog for the month.
I then did some paint stripping in one of the bedrooms. This has to be the most boring job in the world but I managed to stick with if for about 2 hrs and got about 2/3rds of the wall stripped.:T Only another wall to go after this one.
I am of now to find out how much my old mobile fone is worth and to move all my pictures to my new fone.

Catch up will up all later.

debt_cruncher

Hi loaner

Thanks for the advice but I forgot to say that the Halifax card is on 0% until June 09. The other apr's are 0% for 12 mths on Creation and 0% for 20ths on Black Horse. Should I still use the wedding fund to clear the halifax card?

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening

I can get £17 for my old fone and £1.50 cashback through Quidco. I wish my fone wasn't faulty otherwise if would have been worth £53 :mad: . At least that is another £18.50 I can throw at the credit card. Every little helps and all that.

I have just calculated my gas consumption for the month and it came to £50 £10 less than I had budgeted for . So that can go towards my PAD for tomorrow.

I also have £10 coming into my account next week from the daily scratchcards.

This debt crunching is becoming addictive.

debt_cruncher

Thanks loaner for the advice. That has given me something to think about.

The wedding fund money is in an ISA and I think the interest rate is about 2% but I will have to check. So the interest for 5 months would be less than £5.

The OH and I did a rough costing for the wedding and it came to around £7,000. I showed it to my dad and he said that would never cover it and would probably cost £10,000.

It is going to be a small wedding with only about 50 guests. I am determined to get this wedding to cost a lot less than £7,000.

So do you have any advice on the best way to finance this?

Thanks
DC

debt_cruncher

Morning everyone

I have just made my PAD of £10 to my halifax card. I am really starting to see this balance reduce quick quickly. I am not sure if I will be able to keep paying £10 a day though. I am just going to keep chipping away at it and it will eventually disappear.

Have to finish transferring my photos to my new fone today and then apply to Mazama to buy the old fone off me.

I ill be back later with an update.

DC

Lemon_Tree

hi and welcome to the boards
congratulations on the wedding, we were married last september and had such a wonderful time that i'd love to do it again. Head over to the special occasions board there's loads of help and advice there on how to achieve a wedding on a budget.
Well done on the changes you've made already, keep a spending diary it's amazing what you spend money on that you don't realise.

debt_cruncher

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

hi and welcome to the boards
congratulations on the wedding, we were married last september and had such a wonderful time that i'd love to do it again. Head over to the special occasions board there's loads of help and advice there on how to achieve a wedding on a budget.
Well done on the changes you've made already, keep a spending diary it's amazing what you spend money on that you don't realise.

We are getting married in Decemeber 2010 and it is stressing me out already. The MIL 2b wants to invite everyone she knows but I want to keep it small because I do not have many relatives on my side.

We have been pricing venues for the reception and some of them is book already nearly 2 years in advance :eek: .

My biggest problem is how I am going to finance the wedding. I want to keep my debts as low as possible.

Anyway I am going to head over to the special occasions board and hopefully pick up some pointers.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening all

Just a quick update at what has been happening today.

I sent my order to Mazama to buy my old phone so hopefully get the post bag soon and then the £17.

I finally transferred all the stuff of my old phone that I wanted to keep.

Not much else has been happening. Havn't been out so a NSD for me.

Just after a roast chicken dinner which the OH made. Very nice indeed.

DC

debt_cruncher

I have just spent the last hour listing old textbooks from my uni days on Amazon. I have not had much luck with Amazon before but I thought I would try again. I listed 19 books and I am hoping some will sell.

I am going to look around the house next week and see if I have anything else that I could ebay. I did this before xmas and did quite well.

I can't believe the weekend is nearly over and back to work again tomorrow.

Catch up with you all tomorrow.

DC