One Year into my DFW Journey

~Beanie~

It's been a year now since my lightbulb moment and although I haven't done too badly, I haven't done as well as I could have done and have started to slip back into bad habits and so I am going to post a new SOA and some new targets to try and get me back on the straight and narrow.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1162
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1162

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 254.03
Council tax............................. 54
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 18
Telephone (land line)................... 10.28
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 19.5
Internet Services....................... 14.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 90
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 28.01
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 25.9
Contents insurance...................... 0 Included with buildings insurance
Life assurance ......................... 34.83
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 691.54

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 70000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 71500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 35000....(254.03)...0
Total secured & HP debts...... 35000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Egg Loan.......................1902.35...197.......7.66
Egg Card.......................2787.91...85........26.9
Capital One Card............2342.16...90........27.26 going up to 34.9 shortly :eek:
Next Directory.................324.04....30........0
DLC............................ 321.......20........0
NatWest CC................... 681.76....25........0
Total unsecured debts.....8359.22...447.......

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,162
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 691.54
Available for debt repayments........... 470.46
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 447
Amount left after debt repayments....... 23.46

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 71,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -35,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,359.22
Net Assets.............................. 28,140.78

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

I also have a part-time job which I haven't included in the above. I get paid roughly £50 per week in cash and with this I pay my petrol, lottery/newspaper bill, any top-up shopping and entertainment. Hence there being no petrol or entertainment in the above SOA.

Since this time last year I have:

• Started mystery shopping
• Sold loads of stuff on EBay
• Completed surveys etc and earned lots of vouchers which went towards christmas
• Entered loads of comps (although not won anything yet)

However, more recently I have also:

• started buying more stuff on EBay than I actually sell
• signed up for Sky TV
• started wasting money on goodness know what!
• spent the money earned by m/shopping instead of using it to reduce debt

So, to try and get myself back on track, I will restart the spending diary this month so that I don't continue frittering money away on magazines, chocolate etc. I will STOP buying stuff on EBAY whilst trying to convince myself that it is a bargain! The Sky TV I feel I can justify - I cancelled my mobile phone contract of almost £40 per month and now only spend £10, I have the lowest Sky package and so with no mobile contract and Sky I am still £10 better off. I couldn't get a package for phone/TV/broadband as I am tied into a BT contract until December, but as soon as I can I will do that.

At the moment there is a major question mark hanging over my job so this plan may go belly up in the next couple of weeks!

beanielou

Hope everything is ok with your job.
Your life insurance is quite high.
Can you have a real blitz on the cap 1 card as the new APR is sky high.
Keep going!

~Beanie~

I wasn't sure about my life insurance, I took it out at the same time I got my mortgage and it includes life cover, critical illness, accident and sickness, and redundancy cover (i think). I did consider cancelling it but with the job situation at the moment, I too scared to cancel it!!

I will definately be blitzing the Capital One card now the robbing gits have increased the interest rate so much. I currently pay more than the minimum on my other debts so will be paying the minimum only and chucking everything else at Capital One.

On a positive note, I have had 2 no spend days in a row so far this week!

I've also noticed that the debt in my sig differs from my SOA.... this is becasue my SOA doesn't include my £700 OD or £300 to my catalogue. Ooops, missed those off!

jeferey

Buildings and contents insurance seems v. high.. Have you got loads of accidental damage cover you don't need? I pay about £12 / month for a 4 bedder with £3k of accidental damage on high risk items only - I also got cashback from Quidco.

~Beanie~

To be honest the buildings and contents insurance was also taken out at the same time I got my mortgage and all the insurances and mortgage were provided by Halifax, so I probably am paying over the odds.

I will add that to my to do list - shop around for insurance when renewal comes around and don't just continue with Halifax 'cos it's easier

anh1904

Mine is frighteningly high at over £72 per month. 4bed, several specified items. Must put it on the list to sort out, been with same company for 3 years so maybe they are taking liberties.
On the plus side, have been accepted for two new 0% deals (both 12 months) which will ease some of the pain.

~Beanie~

I've had a set-back today, I've lost my job

Just when I had got everything under control and had no missed/late payments for over 12 months, come April I won't have enough money to pay the mortgage, never mind the bills / debts.

Oh well, not much I can do about it.

AlwaysWorking

Beanie, I'm so sorry to hear about your job, I hope you're ok. I'm in the same boat - just after I had my LBM I was made redundant...it's very frustrating when you're so determined to get out of debt. I hope you find a job soon..can you find me one too please?!