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

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

I have got £6.96 tracked in quidco from Norton purchase and another £1.50 scheduled for payment this month. These tiny bits of money keeps building up.

I hope the car exhaust lasts until Saturday cause I am going to take it home and get the garage that put the last exhaust on to look at it. If it does need completely replaced I am going to complain cause it should last longer than 8 months. I am not have a good few weeks with the laptop broken and the car problems. Things usually happen in three's for me, so I am waiting for the thrid thing to break. :rotfl:.

I think I am going to go and have a nice relaxing bath soon cause I am feeling stressed out with work and unexpected expenses.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

Well I got the car exhaust look at and they cannot find any holes in it. Infact they can't find nothing wrong with it apart from it being noisey. So this must be the start of something going wrong with it. So I have started putting some money away into a car repair fund cause I will have to put a new exhaust on the car at some point.

I have managed to buy my brother a birthday present in the HMV sale. The box set was reduced from £69.99 to £17.99 so I saved £52.:T
I hope to get paid at the end of the week or if not next Monday. I hate it when out pay days are not a fixed date. So when I get paid I will do a joint SOA with the other half cause he has still not found a job and he has received his final student loan payment today.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the sunny weather we have been having recently.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

The OH and I decided to use £1200 of his student loan to put towards the wedding costs as it is a cheap source of finance. So the wedding fund is starting to look healthy. I hope when I get my payrise at the end of the month to have £2000 in the wedding fund. So then the proper planning can being. The first thing we want to get sorted it the church. As I live so far away from the church I grow up in we are going to join a church closer to where we live now. So once we get this sorted then we can start looking at reception venues. At least we have got enough money to put a deposit down now. The wedding seems so far away but I am sure December 2010 will soon come round.

I am still keeping PADing and the begone fund is building up nicely. The minimum payments come out this week and this will bring the total to below £1000 for the finance agreements. I can't wait to get rid of these and start building up savings.

I really feel that I am making progress at the minute.

DC

MellyB_2

Glad to hear your car is still running!

Well done on the bargain dvd boxset from HMV too. I managed to get the Alien boxset (not to everyone's taste I bet but they are classic films!) reduced from £70 to £25 a while ago.

It's really good when things like that happen!

Carry on the good work, hope everything goes okay with the reception venues!

x

debt_cruncher

Hey Guys

I have been away for a while. I needed a break from the debt busting but I am back now rearing to go.

I will post a new SOA in a little while as I have got a payrise and there are other little changes.

I am now the main source of income coming into the house. OH has finished uni and has had no luck in finding a job yet but he will keep trying.

We have finally decided on a date for the wedding 11 December 2010 and we are going to see a venue next weekend. So the most important thing is to save every penny.

Ok be back soon with the SOA.

DC

debt_cruncher

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1648.55
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0 OH is to find out if entitled to JSA
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1648.55
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 380
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 200 17 mths left
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65.16 rates in NI
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 44.5 for 2 mobile fones in contract
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 27.5 includes internet
Internet Services....................... 0
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)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1334.6

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 156000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 92885....(380)......1.25
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3350.....(200)......3.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 96235.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Black Horse....................427.99....26.74.....0 16 mths left at 0%
Creation.......................442.......55.25.....0 8 mths left at 0%
Total unsecured debts..........869.99....81.99.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,648.55
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,334.6
Available for debt repayments........... 313.95
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 81.99
Amount left after debt repayments....... 231.96
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 156,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -96,235
Total Unsecured debt.................... -869.99
Net Assets.............................. 62,245.01
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Of the spare £230 £150 is going to the wedding fund, £50 to the DIY fund and £30 is for unexpected expenses. I think I have these expenses cut as much as I can. The only things to look at are insurance when they come up for renewal.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

DC

yukkibear

Hi, I've just read your diary from start to finish. We're in almost the same position which made yours an interesting read and I wish you the best of luck getting it all to come together.

I have a car loan and also want to save to get married. Have just over 1k saved but like you wont pay that off the debt as I want to give the wedding a kick start when I start saving seriously and using that as deposits etc.

We think we can do it for around 3k for 50 guests, shop around and like a previous poster mentioned look on the special occasions board for ideas. I'm planning on doing as much as I can myself like invitations etc.

debt_cruncher

Hi yukkibear

Congratulations on your wedding have you set a date yet?

I am waiting hoping to see a venue for the reception at the weekend. For 50 guests it is coming in around £2,200. I think our overall budget is going to be £8k but like you I am going to make our invitations and anything else I can do to keep the costs down.

I am hoping to save most of the money for the wedding as neither families have said they are going to contribute.

Lets us know if you find any good bargains.

DC

debt_cruncher

Morning everyone

I am giving myself £12.50 spends money each week and if there is any left at the end of the week I am transferring it into my savings account for the wedding. I have various budgets for food, petrol, entertainment etc so this £12.50 per week is surplus money that is in my account.

I am working out of the office all week so I will have no car parking to pay so that is £15 saved. I will split this between the DIY fund and wedding fund.

DC

yukkibear

We did have 20th march 2010. But then the car loan cropped up so it's all on hold. I would still like 2010 but I think relistically it'll be the year after.
I've seen a package for £2600 for 50 guests to include dinner, drinks rooms etc so am going to look into that and pray I keep it under 3.5k