Kicking the habit

DietCokeMad

Seem to spend most evenings on here reading everyone's diaries and feeling so inspired by them I think it's time to get me one of those to hopefully keep me on track!

Posted my SOA on board a couple of weeks ago- I'm gonna track it down and copy it into here if I can work out how in a minute.

Debt is at quite a scary amount when you consider the bulk of it has been run up since finishing uni 2 years ago. Mainly from living beyond my means and the feeling that as a professional I should be able to have it now rather than saving up for it. Been chipping away at shaving a few pounds off my outgoings here and there since last summer with the help of this site, but still managing to run through my wages and onto the CC's a couple of weeks after payday.

Anyway after discovering the forums and actually having a proper LBM I've done a budget, SOA and several snowballs all of which are rather depressing.

Good news for the first post though - Payday tomorrow and officially the first month in about 4 years where I havent spent a single penny on credit cards! And that's with one of my CC's taking the minimum payment DD twice (due to current account switching) and paying my professional subs for the year And I still have £13 in my wallet to buy petrol tomorrow, and £49 set aside in my savings account for a big vet bill next month.

Lets hope I can continue!

DietCokeMad

Copied from thread in DFW forum

DietCokeMad wrote: »

Ok so here goes! Been lurking on forums for a couple of months now, and finally plucked up the courage to properly do an SOA and snowball.

Initial LBM July 08 when after getting an extra £300 overtime I still didn't have enough to get me through to the end of the month! Gradually using the main site I have then brought down my outgoings like insurances and phones etc- these still need to go further though. Anyway after exhausting the main site I came to investigate the forums and have found even further inspiration. Procrastination has prevailed though so far, and a little head-in-sand still also.

The debts are mainly from Uni (5 year course!) and in the two years since then I've bought car, furniture, and eventually house project. Anyway been telling myself about the £14000 mark for my total debt, and not really counting car debt (loan from dad), overdraft, sofa, and my 'little' credit card (well its only £500...). I even went on a trip of a lifetime to NZ to visit friends this feb using the overtime and holiday payments i'd 'saved' (by spending more money on my CC's). Dont even get me started on the mortgage (luckily a tracker so payments down nearly £200 from when I first got this)

Anyways after today's snowball popped up with a figure closer to £19000 and a DFD feb 2013 I'm gonna offcially call today my second LBM!


So any help/suggestions are definately welcomed. SOA says i can break even and I almost achieved that this month, but then I got my quarterly gas bill and of course I never got round to puttting anything aside for this - ringing them tomorrow to change to monthly DD!


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................ 1530
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1530

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 279.7
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 57
Electricity............................. 18
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 24 (including broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings and contents insurance..................... 33
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 15
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 15
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 979.7


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 80000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 83000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 74000....(279.7)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 74000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC1............................5250......120.......19
CC2............................4600......130.......18.9
CC3............................3300......75........0
overdraft......................2000......0.........8.9
Sofa...........................785.......45........0
Car............................2325......151.......5.55
CC4............................445.......11........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........18705.....532.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,530
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 979.7
Available for debt repayments........... 550.3
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 532
Amount left after debt repayments....... 18.3

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 83,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -74,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,705
Net Assets.............................. -9,705

Created using the SOA calculator at makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

mooomin

Woo, I love a SOA!

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1530

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 279.7
Council tax............................. 57
Electricity............................. 18
Gas..................................... 30
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 24 (including broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 11
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 This could possibly be smaller - look at the OS board for more info
Clothing................................ 30 Could this be reduced? Try the Crazy Clothes Challenge on the DFW Board
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 50 Yikes! What do you drive? Could you shop around for this?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings and contents insurance..................... 33
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 15 What is this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 Can you cut this and try to shop in advance using Clearance sections and earning vouchers online?
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 15
Emergency fund.......................... 0 Everyone should have emergency pennies!
Total monthly expenses.................. 979.7


Assets
House value (Gross)..................... 80000
Car(s).................................. 3000
Total Assets............................ 83000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 74000....(279.7)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 74000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
CC1............................5250......120...... .19
CC2............................4600......130...... .18.9
CC3............................3300......75....... .0 Have you got any option to Balance Tranfer more on to this at 0%?
overdraft......................2000......0........ .8.9
Sofa...........................785.......45....... .0 When does interest free end? Have you got to pay it all of by a certain date?
Car............................2325......151...... .5.55
CC4............................445.......11....... .18.9
Total unsecured debts..........18705.....532.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,530
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 979.7
Available for debt repayments........... 550.3
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 532
Amount left after debt repayments....... 18.3

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 83,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -74,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,705
Net Assets.............................. -9,705

Created using the SOA calculator at makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Right, comments added above. You only have about £20 to play with at the end of the month which isn't a lot if the unforseen happens. What would happen if your mortgage tracker went up?

You need to look at trying to get all the cards on low rates. How is your credit rating?

Do you use Quidco for insurances etc?

Earning money on top of your wages:

• Ebay
• GreenMetropolis (Books)
• Music Magpie - CDs and DVDs and games, easier than Ebay although check to make sure you're not selling things at too low a price
• Carboot
• Surveys - you can earn vouchers and use these for Christmas

Hope this helps! Good luck on your debt-free journey.

f_f

boredofbeingathome

FF beat me to it..lol.

Welcome to diary land and i agree with the suggestions made so far, especially the food budget as i use about that a month for four greedy peeps.

I am very interested as to how you get on as my DD1 has just finished Uni and is already struggling due to giving up her job so she could concentrate on finals. So will be following with interest.

Good luck BOB X

DietCokeMad

Hi and thanks for the replies

Groceries is definitely something I need to look at! I had two days off sick this month and with no sick pay from employer my wages will be about £200 short this month. A couple of things in the SOA are amounts I put away each month in preparation for annual bills like car insurance so they can be cut, and with a 10pw budget for groceries I think I can make ends meet. If I can live on £10 pw for food then that would effectively cut my groceries budget to £90-100 per month (£65 every 6 weeks for dog and cat food) so no reason not to carry on with that

Car insurance is lots but age and no claims bonus are not on my side Hopefully now I've hit the big 2-5 it will go down. I'm saving the amount over 10 months that I paid last year, assuming renewal will be cheaper and with cashback I should have some left over so extra towards CCs in October

My credit rating is only fair-good due to amount of debt and a couple of late payments. I was declined for a new CC last month and I've only had the barclaycard a few months so reluctant to start applying for more CC's as I suspect I will be declined. 0% on barclaycard ends in Jan 10 so hoping to shuffle then and get £3500 on their life of balance low rate, providing they dont decrease my credit limit like they seem to be doing to everyone at the moment.

Have started ebaying too to earn some extracash - £154 raised so far in past month,which has bought a friends wedding present and the rest put aside for vet bill. Thats all my big stuff sold though - old camera, mp3 player, and DVDs. Combing through to junk to see what else I can sell, then at the end of the month will take whatever is left to a car boot. It all helps

boredofbeingathome

It certainly does all help. Barclaycard's LOB offer is fairly good too. Try the snowball calculator on here and see what playing around with interest rates etc will do to your DFD.
I would certainly use comparison sites to get the best quote for your insurance. My daughter went on a joint one and it went down with a thump, was through Tesco i think. She is 22 so is paying about £38ish a month on it which is really good.I will check proper figure tomorrow as i may have misheard.

Although your wages may be short this month you will have less tax and NI to pay so may not be as bad.

DietCokeMad

Not the best day today, pay cheque in the bank but £220 less than normal so some serious ebaying needed to make up the shortfall! Also I need a new tyre I discovered today - guess thats what I should have emergency pennies for...

Petrol bought - £10 will hopefully last me well into next week providing I dont get called out too many times this weekend. However spent £2.50 on chocolate at the petrol station :eek: went down well with with final ER (sob) and plenty left for the weekend but not the best start to my diets- money and food! Now have 50p left in my wallet until wages clear on Tuesday.

Paid £5 in coppers into bank though, If only cash machines gave out £5 notes still!

Better day tomorrow fingers crossed - NSD as have lunch ready to take to resist temptation of ordering from sandwich shop with everyone else at work, then lovely boyfriend taking me out for dinner tomorrow night

DietCokeMad

Managed my no-spend yesterday Had a lovely tea out and a reasonably early night. Lovely boyfriend bought me more diet coke supplies to last over the weekend too, in case I need the caffeine fix! Been trying to cut down recently, for several reasons the main being money. But if I have a busy weekend on call and little sleep i'm not sure I can function without it!!

Had a discussion with him about money last night too. One of the reasons I'm trying harder to sort my situation out is because of him. We've been together nearly 7 months now and its pretty serious. However he is the opposite of me with money,and has loads stashed in the bank. He has offered several times to help me out, especially this month when i'm short, but I don't know if I want it. He thinks i'm just being stubborn, but its not that at all. I hate lugging all this debt around but it's my problem and I dont want it to make it our problem, and him to feel like he should support me. Maybe i'm just crazy, its only £200 not like he's offering to pay everything off etc, but it just feels wrong. He also wants us to go away later in the year together, fully intending to pay for everything as he knows i cant afford it, but i'm digging my heels in. I can see he doesnt want to put his life on hold for the next 2 years because I'm busy paying off my debts but it just feels wrong to be spending his money because I have none of my own!

Ah well, must trot off- duty calls again. If only it was after 7pm and there would be a bonus in it for me!

DietCokeMad

Loving the sun today

I've joined a couple of challenges today to help motivate me! Fingers crossed it works.
My DFD is currently August 2012, but if I can find an extra £150 a month that reduces to Dec 2011 :j A quick way to do that is to get OH to move in, thus saving on mortgage and bills, but again that's not very fair on him! Also not convinced I'm ready to share my house yet...

And I've had one call this evening so far- another £35 in my wages in a couple of months time!

Lemon_Tree

well done for making it through your first month without touching the CC's, it feels fab to live within your means doesn't it? i still remember posting on here the first month i had 10 quid more of my overdraft left at the end of the month than at the end of the previous one and having not used a CC.

DietCokeMad

It certainly does Now my next challenge is to not only live within my means but to live within less than my means! And get rid of some of this debt

Lemon tree you're doing so well with your debts! My main problem is motivation long term. I'm taking it just a little bit at a time but it seems an awful long way to go at the moment