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

debt_cruncher

Afternoon all

It has been a very busy morning at work. Just made my PAD of £10 to the halifax card. It now brings the balance down to £480. That is £50 of the balance in 3 days.:T I am well proud of this.

Broadband for the house is supposed to be activated today so I will have to set that up tonight.

I hope to work from home tomorrow but I am scared to ask the boss incase he says no. I don't think he will but there is always a first time.

Off to have my lunch and hopefully catch up with you later on my new broadband.

DC

moneysavingmonkey85

hi and welcome to MSE
I hope you find everyone helpful
congrats on the wedding plans.:beer: I'm not sure of prices in NI, but having recently tied the knot in wales, with 50 guests ours came to £3,000. There will be loads of tips in the wedding guide on here, and there are threads devoted to it - it def helped me!
Best tip I could give would be have it on a friday - each part will then cost less and hopefully be less booked up (ours was a last minute job really - 6 wks:eek: )
so, deep breath, have a good stab at the credit cards and try not to stress about the wedding - 2 years is a long time!
Good luck:T

Lemon_Tree

we were lucky with our wedding, my mum knew's better than to push her luck by trying to get people invited and my MIL showed absolutely no interest in the whole thing. Although the latter was very trying for most the time, and even afterwards. I guess we just drew up the guest list the first day and then pretty much stuck to it.

debt_cruncher

moneysavingmonkey85 wrote: »

hi and welcome to MSE
I hope you find everyone helpful
congrats on the wedding plans.:beer: I'm not sure of prices in NI, but having recently tied the knot in wales, with 50 guests ours came to £3,000. There will be loads of tips in the wedding guide on here, and there are threads devoted to it - it def helped me!
Best tip I could give would be have it on a friday - each part will then cost less and hopefully be less booked up (ours was a last minute job really - 6 wks:eek: )
so, deep breath, have a good stab at the credit cards and try not to stress about the wedding - 2 years is a long time!
Good luck:T

Hi MSM

Well done on keeping your wedding costs to £3,000. We were going to have the wedding on a Saturday so that everybody could come but I may now reconsider that day and if people can't come then the costs will be less.:rotfl:
I am very impressed that you were able to organise your wedding in 6 weeks. I don't think I will be that organised.

I am going to get rid of the credit card debt first and then save as much as we can. Hopefully OH can get a good job after uni. He is in this last year.

DC

debt_cruncher

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

we were lucky with our wedding, my mum knew's better than to push her luck by trying to get people invited and my MIL showed absolutely no interest in the whole thing. Although the latter was very trying for most the time, and even afterwards. I guess we just drew up the guest list the first day and then pretty much stuck to it.

Hi LT

Well I will have no probem with my mum getting involved in the wedding plans cause we don't speak. My dad is very relaxed and doesn't really want to know. I think MIL 2B is trying to do the job of 2 mothers.

We draw up a rough guest list and I don't think it is going to change to much. I am going to have a look around some venues and get some prices for different days in the week. I will keep you updated on how we get on.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening all

Well as I am posting I have got the new broadband up and running :T .

I am working from home tomorrow so will save on petrol costs for the week. I very rarely get to work from home so this is a bonus.

I just logged in to quidco and the £1.50 from Mazuma has tracked so that is good news.

Have had another NSD today so that is 2 in a row. I am really getting in to this debt busting.

DC

debt_cruncher

Morning all

I was looking foward to waking up to snow this morning but all we got was rain bit disappointed.

Anyway made my PAD of £5.00 to the halifax card. I just checked by online bank account and £10 from scratchcards is sitting there but has not cleared yet so should clear tomorrow and that can go towards my PAD tomorrw.

Working from home today but I havn't started yet. So I am off to get some breakfast and start work.

Catch up with you all later.

DC

debt_cruncher

Morning all

Been in work since 7.00 this morning. Just got 2 more jobs landed on my desk today.:mad: It's like I don't have enough to do.

Anyway the £10 from the scratchcards cleared today so I put this straight off the Halifax card. The balance now stands at £465. I am going to set myself a mini challenge to get this balance down to £320 by the end of the month. It is going to be a tall order but this will keep me motivated.

I am sure you guys will encourage me and keep me on the straight and narrow.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

Well I had a bad day at work everything that could go wrong went wrong. I am absolutely knackered been up since 5.30am :eek: . This is rare because I like my bed too much.

Got my Mazuma envelope through the post today so will get that posted tomorrow and then £17 will be on its way to me.

Also had my first sale today on Amazon :T got £17.95 on its way to me. I have to pay postage for the item I think it will be about £6.85 but will find out tomorrow when I post the item.

I have also had 4 NSD's in a row. So things are looking good for me to be on track to hit my £320 mark on the Halifax card by the end of the month.

DC

mooomin

debt_cruncher wrote: »

Number of adults in household........... 2
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)
Total monthly income.................... 1573.99

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 425.48
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 200 (22mths left)
Council tax............................. 63.1 (rates in NI)
Gas..................................... 60
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 22.49 Are you still on a contract? If not, can this be haggled down any?
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 27.5 (includes broadband)
Internet Services...................... 14.68 (mobile broadband) If you have broadband at home as part of your cable package, do you need mobile broadband?
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 (includes £30 dog food) Have you looked at the Oldstyle board for ideas on how to cut this down?
Clothing................................ 20 Is this for both of you? Can it be cut down?
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 43 Is this the cheapest?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50 Yikes! Why so high?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 15 (includes contents ins)
Life assurance ......................... 15.49
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 35 This seems like quite a lot. Tips on how to save on this below!
Haircuts................................ 20 £20 a month?? Can this be reduced by getting your hair cut less often?
Entertainment........................... 0 Increase! It's nice to have a night out every so often, even if you're just going to the movies. If you don't spend what you budget then put it towards a debt, but don't let yourself feel guilty if you spend a tenner on a night out you didn't budget for!
Total monthly expenses.................. 1340.69

Assets
House value (Gross)..................... 170000
Car(s).................................. 6000
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.

Hello

Someone should have warned you that if you wander into my thread I tend to wander into yours :rotfl:

A couple of things below for you to maybe think about:

• Birthdays/Christmas - you can save a lot on this at this time of year as many shops are doing their final clearances. Just stockpile for later in the year. I have bought about half if not more of what I will use throughout the year for Christmas presents etc.
• Haircuts - you seem to be spending quite a bit on this. Do you feel that you could reduce this at all?
• Have you joined Quidco for your cashback?
• If you want to sell more things, also look at Ebay, Greenmetropolis (Books) and musicmagpie (CDs, DVDs, Games) You might not make a fortune, but £30 a month even makes it worthwhile.
• If you are only spending £120 on groceries for you and t'other half then you are doing pretty well, but are you sure this is all you're spending? Keep a note for a month of everything you spend including trips to the corner shop, and this will confirm/deny your budget

Hopefully some of these things will help or give you something to think about. Well done for joining the board, and good luck with the debt busting and the wedding planning