My Journey

bevan840

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household.............. 2
Number of children in household......... 2 *On most weekends*
Number of cars owned.............................. 1 *Sold DH's*

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax.......................... 520 *Part time hours now*
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Total monthly income............... 1520

Monthly Expense Details
Rent..................................................................... 420
Council tax....................................................... 135
Electricity.......................................................... 50
Gas........................................................................ 30
Water rates........................................................ 0 *No idea what's going on with this one, spoke to neighbour who rang the Water company and apparantly it's still registered with the Housing Association*
Telephone (land line)..................................... 55 *Will be coming back down soon at next bill which is due in November*
Mobile phone..................................................... 62.99
Groceries etc. .................................................. 200
Petrol/diesel..................................................... 120 *Only 1 car now*
Car Insurance................................................... 76.3 *Left DH's insurance there as I'm sure they will charge us for cancelling the policy after selling the car*
Other child related expenses.................... 192.73 *Need to speak to them as they want to increase the payments to £300 a month!!!! :eek::eek::eek: Sent us the letter after re-evaluating with DH's new job and pay*
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc)........ 10.4 *PPC*
Pet insurance/vet bills.................................. 20.06
Contents insurance......................................... 9.55
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)........... 25
Entertainment................................................... 3.99
Honeymoon........................................................ 10
Deposit Fund.................................................... 0.01
Birthdays x 1................................................... 15 *SS2*
Total monthly expenses............ 1436.03

Assets
Car(s).................................. 1500
Total Assets......... 1500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description............................Debt................Monthly................APR
CC1........................................1958.34...............58.34..................20.9
CC2........................................982.21..................32.21..................17.8
Sofa......................................662.45..................31.55....................0
Dad..........................................2705.........................0........................0
Mum.........................................2200.........................0........................0
Littlewoods.............................145........................30........................0
Car.........................................1925.49.................91.69.....................0

Won't put the end bit on but says there is a shortfall of around £150, which isn't too bad and spreadsheet doesn't go over the overdraft

bevan840

A few piccies of what I've created so far










My earrings

bevan840

Hey everyone

I'm still here But been really busy. Have now completed all of my 'Santa Baggies' and all we have left is to withdraw £15 from Xmas Fund £5 for my cousin and £10 for DH's step son. Also need to get the boys Xmas pressies, but hoping the nectar points will be enough to cover them.

Was umming and ahing over a decision which might bring in a bit more money and decided in the end to go ahead and do it. So, I am now self employed (as well as employed for the time being) and in my own time I am making jewellery to sell. Have set up a business bank account, just waiting for all the paperwork to come through so that I can pay for my domains and hosting (provided by CityCM ) and then start a standing order for my new site to be designed Very excited. Have picked out my business card, going to get the 250 free from Vistaprint, just need the new bank card as I need to pay P&P to get the cards for free. Have made loads of new pieces so that I am ready for when everything is set up. Going to try and remember to sell some on ebay, just to see how they do. (Keep your eyes peeled for the opening of SMB Jewellery )

Money situation is still tight but with only 1 car the costs have gone down a bit. We're ok for the rest of this month but december's first payment to bill account will draw us close to OD limit, but should get better when first wages go in

Can't think of anything else, hope everyone is having a nice weekend xxxx

bevan840

New Years Resolution? Update my diary more often! lol

Since when has the box changed though??? Very confusing. Will update soon how things are

bevan840

Phew, thank god 2010 is over!

Seem to be at the same level of debt as I was last January though :rotfl:

This year will be focusing on CC1, lets see if I can shift that one and finally get rid of it!

We were very lucky a few weeks ago, after the MSE email about the tax rebates I checked out both mine and DH's. Mine were about £1.50, whereas DH was over £500! :eek: I asked him to ring and they said that he had paid the right amount of tax as they had taken into account his tips as well as wages. Then a few weeks ago he received a letter saying he was due a rebate of £516.80!!! :eek::T So that is us finally clear of the overdraft! :T:T:j:j

CSA are still being money grabbing eejits! But their arrears came down a massive chunk in November as they took a payment they weren't supposed to, which meant we were really stuck! So they had just over £800 in one month so the arrears have definitely come down! We sent in some more of DH's wage slips as his wages have come down now that he has stopped doing as much overtime, so hopefully their payments will be coming down soon.

No idea what's going on with the advanced reply box, it doesn't change the text anymore, it just puts the codes in front and at the end, anyone know how to change it back???

bevan840

Well, so much for that resolution! :rotfl:

Website is almost ready to launch, just need the info to log in, completed the logo now so will need to add that to the site. Put all the information in (item's, prices etc etc) can't wait, but having too! lol

Considering doing a car boot sale, will sell my jewellery as well as other bits that I've got, clothes etc as got 2/3 bags that I was going to let Mum or Sister look through, but no idea when I'll see either of them and it was Mum who suggested it. If Mum or Sister don't want anything will give them to a charity shop if don't sell any at the car boot. Have ordered £30 worth of vouchers from S&S for Argos which will be going on a folding table, folding chair & maybe a clothes rail, so that I can present the clothes I do have in a nice way Hopefully get rid of them.

We now have a ladder to get into the loft with but we definitely need more than bendy cardboard to put stuff on! :rotfl: Dad said he'll have a look when they are next up and see what we can do. We've put all the cardboard boxes up there, some with stuff in, some with stuff resting on top, so we have a little more space, but not much more as the boxes we had at the top of the stairs to go up into loft some wouldn't balance on the beams, so they are now in the bedroom taking up space! Cant win lol

Will update again hopefully at the end of the month, with SOA and debt levels. Hope everyone is ok xxx

bevan840

Um, whoops? That resolution really did go out of the window didn't it

So, whats happened since January?

I've had some counselling but unfortunately they don't get enough funding for more than 4 sessions, after that I would need to go private and pay for the sessions, money which we don't have. So at last OT appointment we decided to refer me to the Mental Health team, will be seeing the Dr in charge of the ME Clinic up here first as he is a Psychiatrist and OT is asking him to put his psych hat on with me and I have to be honest about everything, the only problem I have is that I've had these walls up so long not even I can look over the top The only issues affecting me at the moment is the loss of AV and living up here with my ME getting worse. Will be seeing him on 5th May.

Still making jewellery and finding the things I can actually make quite suprising, done some patterns I didn't think I would be able to and actually managed it no problem, will post a pic if I remember when I get home. Website is set up, but not getting any sales through there yet, had 3 orders over Facebook for commissioned pieces. It's just been friends ordering and they all seem to think I'm undercharging =o I like to do things for friends at cost price, but none of them have accepted it and paid more, I love my friends
Car boot sale was a fail, only stuff I sold was everything but jewellery. Tried a craft fair and didn't do too well there either but got some advice off another jewellery stall who were lovely, on ways I can make my stall look better, so working on that for the next one, not sure when it will be yet though looking around for others in the meantime.

DH has left the buses to go back to his old job, but with the understanding that he will only do 4/5 tours a year, not away every week. Old job had been promising a pay rise since July and it still hadn't come into effect so I wasn't sure if they'd of applied it to his wages or not so got a massive shock when they did!! Safely out of the overdraft now, but we decided that using the overdraft is cheaper than CC1, so we're paying as much as possible to CC1 using the overdraft as the most I've been charged for the overdraft is £5/6, where with CC1 the interest is over £30, sorted spreadsheet and if we can stick within limits we should get rid of CC1 this year!! :T:j lets hope it works. He's also said any tips he gets he will give to me to go into the honeymoon fund. He did work his a*se off on the buses so I gave him a bonus of my own, suprised him with £50 to spend as he wishes, I think he liked that

Debt wise at the start of April we were just over £10k, but with the CC payments we are now under that!! =D And will hopefully remain under it, the CC interest will go on soon, but there is also the payments for the loans as well to consider so hopefully will stay under £10k now :j
Have closed the ISA and savings account, going to lump them together in the same ISA I'll be opening in next few days hopefully. The money has been transferred back to my bank account and then I transferred it to one of my empty savings accounts I hold for that purpose, just in case I should accidentally spend it if left in normal account. Received £4.50 interest on the ISA so honeymoon balance is now £230.40 Received 3p interest on the house deposit account, which disappeared by 1p tax and 2p as a charity donation. Hence the reason I thought I'd put them both in same account this time lol, I have my spreadsheet so that I know what is for what.

Still working in the same place, still looking for another job! Am now doing 4 days a week instead of 3 though, struggled at the start but managing ok now, was doing fine before DH went back to this job, but I now have to be up at 6am as he needs to be at work for 8am, I have to get up earlier some days too depending on what jobs he's on, he has an early one on friday so I have to be up at 5am!!!! :eek: Already warned work staff that they probably won't get anything sensible out of me on Friday I'll have the car though so can go home for a nap before coming back in to get him.

I don't think there's anything else lol If you've managed to get to the end before falling asleep, well done :T if not I hope you slept well hehe

Take care and hopefully write again soon!!

bevan840

The last piece I have donated to a charity auction on Facebook, it's for the Teenage Cancer Trust and it's on Daisydoo's Designs Facebook page

bevan840

Not as long as last time

Ok, so, update on everything:

Debt @ Worst £12,600.55
Debt @ 01/05/2011 £9,877.23
Paid £2,723.32
21.6%

Almost back to quarter gone Going to be making a large payment to CC1 this month, hopefully just under £500, which should bring it down a little and the total too, I like to make the CC's round to £5/£10 each month

DH gave me tips off his tour, so £35 went into the Honeymoon fund, plus last months payment brings us up to £275, only another £6k ish to go, but we are closer than we were this time last year

Went to have a look in Ikea and fell in love with a living room arrangement, need to measure the wall where it would go and then have something to focus on once all debts are paid

bevan840

Ummmm, whoops? :rotfl:

Well, 2011 is over and we are into 2012. Debts are looking better, 29% paid off. Both the Car and Sofa loans shall be finished this year, slowly dwindling down on the CC's.

Had to stop working in January, my position there was supposed to be full time, after the loss of my Aunt my ME hasn't recovered from, so I left work to try and make a success of the jewellery, and also started up a little sideline business of selling beads and findings. Haven't quite taken off as I was hoping though so I applied for ESA and got my award letter this morning saying I will be receiving payments thank god!

Health is very up and down again, but I'm very slowly getting a handle on it, on some new medication for something that has been going on for years, I was apparently diagnosed in 2000 but no-one informed my Mum or me (in 2000 I was still in school) so now on medication to see if it helps it, I'm noticing a slight difference already after 2 nights, but nurse said I won't notice a difference for 1/2 weeks, but hubby said he couldn't hear me breathing last night, which is good considering how loud I've been for months yay

I honestly can't think of anything else, taking painkillers today as been pushing myself this week. Hope everyone is ok xxx