D.f.w Adventure

Brokeattheminute

Hello everybody,Have finaly built up the courage to start my own diary.Bit of background stuff 1st.I am 34yrs old,maried with 2 children aged 5 and 2. I have 3 credit cards in my name and 1 in my wifes name. My total debts are 3723.08 and they are as follows Virgin cc 1199.69 Ulster bank 1015.00 Northern bank 663.00 and Ulster bank(Wifes name 845.39).The reason why ive debt to pay off in my wifes name is because i didnt have a cc when we started going out and she put things for our new house on the card on the cond i would pay her back.I need to pay off my debt cos we are planning an ext to our house and we need to start saving money up for it.

Brokeattheminute

Hello there again fellow webbers,recieved my council tax/rates bill this morning.Wasnt too bad;has only gone up 7 pounds from last yrs bill.I have monthly inst set up so it works out about £52 p.m.Done my Budget planner yesterday,turned out i am about 16 a mnth in the green so at least im earning more tha whats coming out.1 of my objectives is that i want to be left with less than 2 grand debt by 31/12/09.I think that this target can be achieved if i put my mind to it.

GeorgeUK

Hi Batm ,welcome to the board.

If you post up a SOA we may be able to offer some advice of where you can make some savings. Have you already looked into reclaiming bank charges, PPI or checking that your council tax band is correct?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Hopefully we'll soon see you saving for that extension. Good luck

Brokeattheminute

Hello George,here is my s.o.a as requested Here is my monthly bill that comes out of my wages.
No of Adults in house 2
No of Children 2
No of cars owned 2
My Monthly payments Monthly income after tax £912.00
Mortgage 289.20 Nationwide Var 2.50%
Mortgage prot:26.41
Life Ins on wife £14.70
Council tax 52.00
Road tax £13.50
Car ins £23.50
Petrol £20.00
Car Main £20.00
C.T.F 40.00
Pension 70.00
Car Loan £120.00
Buildings/Contents ins £21.00
Shopping £120.00
C/C Virgin £25.00 0%till 06/09
Ulster 0%till 12/09 £30.00
Ulster 16.9% £25.00(wifes name)
Northern £19.89 15.9% TOTAL 910.20 Monthly Wage 912.00 Total left each mth £1.80
My wife deals with the other payments with her income.Think she pays 35.00 for broadband /telephone with B.T think we are locked in with our Broadband till end of year but she is cons changing her telephone calls from B.T.

Brokeattheminute

Hello everyone,am in a bit of a crisis today.Forgot about my roadtax for the motor which is £79.75.I also need to do some grocery shopping as we are running low on stuff and i also need to pay about £100 for 2 credit cards.My wife was made redundant at the end of last yr and although she started a new job 2wks ago we were really streched to the limit for the last 3mnths.The bad news to is that she gets paid monthly from this new place and wont get her 1st pay packet till 30th april.Will find it really tight this wk.Am thinking of putting a few items on e-bay this wk.

GeorgeUK

You should also be looking at budgeting for any increase in the balance remaining on the Virgin card. Even if you can transfer to another 0% card, the minimum will be about 2.5%-3%. Make sure this doesn't catch you out.

Does your wife deal with her own stuff seperately, and is she aware of using the 0% cards to reduce interest?

From your SOA, all i can suggest is looking at the comparison sites such as uswitch and moneysupermarket to possibly get a better deal on utilities and insurance. Possibly also worth having a look at the old style board for meal plan ideas and how to reduce the monthly shopping bill.

Have you or the missus had any bank charges that you could possibly claim back?

Brokeattheminute

Hello George,yes my wife does deal with some of the utility bills,i pay the mortgage and the food bills and the credit card in her name.We both pay £120 per mth towards the car loan as well.She has a couple of cc and has used 0% on her own cards but she has found very limited benifit in this because she can only afford the min bal or just above it.We usually have been able to pay our bills on time so bank charges have been very rare.Am unsure whether to balance transfer the virgin cc.The 0% on it runs out on June 10th.It would only be about £800 id be looking to transfer.Plan to get it down under £1000 next month. Am putting something on e-bay at the weekend so that'll go towards it.By the way congratulations on getting your debt under 20k!

GeorgeUK

Thank you

Although the 0% runs out in June, the interest rate may be raised when the promotion ends. It seems to have happened to quite a few people so it would be better to have the option if it's required. Do you have any cards with a nil balance? You can sometimes get a balance transfer offer as an existing customer which also means there is usually no credit check.

Have a look at the snowball calculator to see how much interest you are paying and how much any overpayments will save you.
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

beanielou

Just wanted a say a belated hi & welcome!
Keep posting

Brokeattheminute

Thanks for that link george,have just been on it thete now and found it very interesting.Unf have no accounts with nil balance on them.Have set myself the target of having my debt cleared by April 2011.

Brokeattheminute

Hello people,nothing much happening today.Managed to get a paid holiday out of work for Easter Monday.Have 3 CC to pay on tuesday when the banks open again.Spent £70 on groceries the other day,so that wasnt too bad.Hope everybody has a Great Easter.