Hope you don't mind an Aussie creeping in!

Electric_Mayhem

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for a few weeks, after my own lightbulb moment :idea: and I thought I might be a bit more motivated if I had people to share the debt free mission with, and also to SEE my debt reducing. I'm an Aussie, so some of the things you guys have been saying seems a bit foreign to me, but I'm sure I can work it out :rotfl:

I'm 26 and actually had my mini lightbulb moment a year ago, when my marriage broke down. Long story, but essentially we just weren't compatible in everyday life [and that included essential things like finance, future, children etc] so we decided to call it a day. It was the end of an eight year relationship and it's taken me a while to get back on track with things. My ex liked to have the latest and greatest of everything, and silly me pandered to that rather than putting my foot down and telling him we just couldn't afford it. I've since discovered that alone I can control my spending quite well, I probably just need to fine tune it!

The good news is that in the last year I haven't dug myself any further into this hole of debt, so one positive! :rolleyes: Also, I now have a gorgeous partner, and he and I are much more compatible on everyday and life issues. We're working together to pay off our debts so we can eventually buy a place of our own. Another thing working in our favour is that we have a fair amount of disposable income to put towards paying off debts.

I'll post an SOA thingy, but at the moment we're approx $AU16,800 in debt! :eek: That converts to 7683 pound at the moment [I'm such an outsider, my keyboard doesn't even have a pound sign!:D ]

Please be gentle with me, I offer Vegemite as a peace offering! :rotfl:

duchy

Make it TimTams and we can definitely talk !!
Welcome to the world of DFW-dom

view

Hi there (from fellow Aussie) I'm living in the UK (been here for quite a while) if you get stuck on any of the terms let me know and I'll translate back into Oz speak! Where are you from? (I'm a sandgroper!)

Great to see things are positive for you and you'll get a huge amount of great advice and support from this site (just ignore the trolls - they are unfortunately inevitable!).

Good luck
GJ x

PS they hate vegimite over here (more a marmite thing)!
(and weetbix is weetabix!)

Electric_Mayhem

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................ 2800 1280
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1600 731
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4400 2011

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 1000 457
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 66 30.18
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 40 18.29
Mobile phone............................ 117 53.51
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 70 32
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 182
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 12 5.48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 16 7.31
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1721 787.12


Assets
Cash.................................... 1000 457.36
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000 914.72
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000 1372.09

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin CC......................2700......55........10.99 1234.88
Commonwealth CC................3200......70........12.99 1463.56
Personal Loan..................10900.....280.......10.99 4985.26
Total unsecured debts..........16800.....405.......- 7683.70


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,400 2012.40
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,721 787.12
Available for debt repayments........... 2,679 1225.28
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 405 185.23
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,274 1040.04

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,800 7683.70
Net Assets.............................. -13,800

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

This is all in Australian dollars, but I got sick of converting each figure, so I just left it the way it is!

I did forget to factor petrol in, but it's about $20 a month... I don't drive very far, just to work and back.

Our mobiles are pretty high, mine comes off contract in a few months and I will be switching to prepaid [you guys call it PAYG I think?]

Call us lame, but I can't actually remember the last time we bought clothes, so I haven't factored it in. Fashion is obviously not high on my list of priorities, and my work uniform is provided :T

Ditto for haircuts, I cut my own fringe but let my hair grow.

I'm actually waiting for our next electricity bill to come in so I can compare other companies and see if I can get a better deal.

Electric_Mayhem

GoldenJill wrote: »

PS they hate vegimite over here (more a marmite thing)!
(and weetbix is weetabix!)

Oh my goodness I hate Vegemite, but thought I better offer it seeing as it's a national icon :rotfl: I'm currently living in rainy old NSW, but I lived in QLD for the last five years. How are you liking the UK?

duchy, TimTams can DEFINITELY be on menu! I them too much!

view

For those going to help with the figures above, so you can work out where the savings can be made (remember it's aussie dollars not pounds) the current rate is

1.00 AUD

=

0.457363 GBP

Australia Dollars United Kingdom Pounds 1 AUD = 0.457363 GBP 1 GBP = 2.18645 AUD

RAS

Hi

Irrespective of the currency, you will find the snowball on https://www.whatsthecost.com useful. basically you need to pay off the most expensive (commonwealth) card first. Do you have such a thing as a balance transfer on cards in AUS?

Electric_Mayhem

Hmm... maybe I should go through and convert each figure. I'll do that tomorrow before work, but at the moment I need to sleep [extra shift at work tomorrow]

redpete

Electric_Mayhem wrote: »

This is all in Australian dollars, but I got sick of converting each figure, so I just left it the way it is!

The trouble is that means we have to do the calculation to work out if what you're spending is reasonable. Anyhow, based on approx 2 $Aus being £1...

£35 a month for internet charges sounds very expensive, I'd say between £10 and £18 is typical over here.

I can't help thinking that there might be quite a lot of spending missing. With over $2200 apparently available to pay off the debt on top of your monthly payments they could be completely gone in 8 months, seems a relatively healthy situation to me.

Electric_Mayhem

Hi RAS,

Am I correct in assuming that balance transfers means taking the existing balance and putting it onto a new credit card with a low or zero percent intro rate? If so, yes we have them, I have no idea who is offering them at the moment though! Also, the interest rate of the Commonwelath card was just reduced [because we went in and ASKED] from 18%!!

I just did the snowball calculator, and if we throw all of our available income at it, our debt free date is only nine months away! :eek: :T here's hoping we can stick to that!

Although, for the next few weeks I can't do much more, grandad is sick on the other side of the country so we've just bought plane tickets to go see him [$1000 but worth every penny]

Electric_Mayhem

redpete wrote: »

The trouble is that means we have to do the calculation to work out if what you're spending is reasonable. Anyhow, based on approx 2 $Aus being £1...

£35 a month for internet charges sounds very expensive, I'd say between £10 and £18 is typical over here.

I can't help thinking that there might be quite a lot of spending missing. With over $2200 apparently available to pay off the debt on top of your monthly payments they could be completely gone in 8 months, seems a relatively healthy situation to me.

Yep, I'll go through tomorrow and make it all into pounds.

In regards to the spending... the only things missing that I can see is the petrol I forgot to factor in, and also our equivelant to your MOT or road tax, not sure which - which would be about $41 per month. Sorry, I tend to not think of yearly things on a monthly breakdown, terrible I know, but once I've paid it for the year I forget.

We don't have gas, we rent so we don't pay water, we don't pay TV licence over here, because we rent there's no council tax/rates, and our building doesn't pay strata or body corporate fees, we don't have kids or pets [well, I have a fish called Rafferty] and as we're committed to getting rid of this debt, our entertainment costs are non existant because we're just not going out. Lots of nights at home in front of the telly :rolleyes:

Our internet.... is a point of contention We're quite big users of the internet, and we're both gamers geeks to a degree, so the internet kind of IS our form of entertainment. We do pay a little extra because we're on an 8G plan, but the provider we're with is the cheapest one we're able to access with reasonable download limits and reasonable charges if we go over the limits. We could probably go back down to a 1.5G plan, but while I probably wouldn't notice the speed difference, I'm sure OH would :rolleyes: