Josephine's 'I will buy a house by the time I'm 30' diary

josephine82

As a frequent lurker to these boards I have really got into the whole DFW idea, and my ultimate target is to be debt free and to be able to save for a deposit on my own house/flat etc. I earn a pretty good wage and so getting a mortgage in theory shouldn't be a problem, but its getting the deposit together which is going to take a while!

Anyway, my current target is to pay off my car, my beautiful Citroen C2. I have about £2500 remaining to pay, and current savings of £1648.57. I'm saving £275 a month which is great, so it should be paid off in a couple of months. Then I'm focusing on saving for a deposit for a house. My target is £15,000. :eek:

As I said, my savings are £275 (& £75 after the car is paid for) but I'd love it to be a bit more. I fully admit I spend a lot of money on crap here and there, coffee, drinks, food etc so I'm hoping this diary will focus me. I also spend £160 a month on counselling which is outrageous :mad: but unfortunately necessary and I'm just dealing with it. I have put off the counselling for years so I'm finally dealing with my problems which are more important than having a house.

So, today I have spent (eeek, this is quite a lot, dammit)

3.28 - drink and some painkillers at the station- so didn't need this, if i had been organised enough i could have taken painkillers for my mega headache before i left the house....

1.91 - fruit for the week to leave on my desk so I don't eat biscuits

2.56- drinks and some yoghurt as I didn't bring enough lunch in.

how have I managed to spend £7.75 today????? must be more organised!

Hoping for No spend days Tues/Weds & Fri this week. Fingers crossed!:rolleyes:

Any tips for how to be a better DFW all welcome!

40somethingmum

Good Luck Josephine!!

Hope the headache has now cleared !

40SM;)

MORPH3US

Don't worry Josephine, as long as you realise your mistakes and learn from them then its been a good day.

Might be useful (if not done so already) to post your SOA and people can help see if you can cut costs even more.

Well done for making a start though, keep it up!!!

josephine82

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1378.15
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1378.15
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 77.98
Rent.................................... 360
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 29.73
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 20
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 9.75
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Counselling............................. 160
Total monthly expenses.................. 1102.46

Assets
Cash.................................... 1648.57
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3995
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5643.57

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2500.....(77.98)....14
Total secured & HP debts...... 2500......-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,378.15
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,102.46
Available for debt repayments........... 275.69
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 275.69
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,643.57
Total HP & Secured debt................. -2,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 5,643.57



Feel I should point out I live in a shared house, all bills inclusive! Any comments welcome!:cool:

MORPH3US

Actually looks quite good to me although only had quick scan.

Counselling is a bit of a big one but if you need it then not much you can do. £150 per month for entertainment is also quite a lot but then "all work and no play" so it is important to have some fun.

josephine82

Feel I should also say that while I do spend £150 on entertainment, I use this pretty wisely, this includes meals out, drinks out (non-alcoholic), days out when I stay with friends and family and the odd coffee and magazine here and there. I feel this is enough now for me to enjoy myself but I don't think I'm spending any money unnecessarily, its my social life and I need it to keep happy!

Before I started the counselling, I used to spend that £160 on entertainment, clothes, shoes, haircut every month and wonder where it went. now I budget for it and while its expensive, its worth it, necessary and hopefully won't be for too much longer. :rolleyes:


Well today, I have managed to get all the way to work without buying anything, no coffee or muffin, juice or anything else that I didn't need.

Have just realised I left my lunch on the side at home :mad: but i have an 'emergency' tin of soup in my drawer and some bread in the freezer i think so fingers crossed I won't need to spend anything for the rest of the day, woo hoo!

josephine82

Today was a great day! In the end i just didn't fancy my emergency lunch but went to Tesco's to get lunch and got a diet and budget friendly sandwich and snack a jacks. Bargain at £1.34!

No other money spent today.

Have already made my lunch for tomorrow, so as long as I don't forget it I'm good.
Only spend for tomorrow will be posting an eBay parcel, have a couple of quid in change put by for that. Need to transfer the £5 quid I made from the trousers I sold into my savings.

And I have worked towards losing some £ by working out on my cross trainer for 20 mins tonight. I'm hoping for a really good sleep now!:p

josephine82

Yay! Today I only spent the £2.22 for posting my ebay parcel. I'm doing well.
Payday is tomorrow. Just done a tesco food shop online withe the £10 off voucher. Hoping for a no spend day tomorrow, nothing planned apart from work, lunch all made.

I am thinking organisation is the key to being debt free!

LeeSouthEast

Good luck Josephine! We seem to have similar goals but you've got a better head start

Fire_Fox

josephine82 wrote: »

Feel I should also say that while I do spend £150 on entertainment, I use this pretty wisely, this includes meals out, drinks out (non-alcoholic), days out when I stay with friends and family and the odd coffee and magazine here and there. I feel this is enough now for me to enjoy myself but I don't think I'm spending any money unnecessarily, its my social life and I need it to keep happy!

It's £1800 a year which could easily be cut back on without stopping having fun! You've done great to cut it down already, but there is still plenty that can be done. For meals out there are permanent two-for-one offers on the main board, or buy the ingredients/ posh ready meals and cook for yourselves, magazines get the three-for-£1 offers, three month free DVD rental from Lovefilm or Orange Wednesday cinema tickets, get drinks and nibbles from the supermarket and sit in the nearest park/ go round one of your mates houses. I have a great social life on well under £100 a month and that includes too much alcohol!!

josephine82

God, £1800 a year. That is a lot of money!

The thing is, I do all of those things anyway! So I don't really know why it is so much. I don't drink alcohol so I can't even blame it on that!

I must still do a lot of unnecessary spending. :mad:

Ok- I'm going to keep an August spending diary to track it. perhaps if I get shocked by what I actually spend it on, i might be better placed to reduce it!

Today for example my train was cancelled so I had to get a different train, and get the tube to work- had no money on my oyster card and so had to top up £5.00. Dammit. I can claim back for the £1.60 that it costed but its just so annoying- i put my spare change in my money giraffe as well this morning!

BUT: i got expenses back from work today for £3.25 so kind of makes it equal out!

anyway, its payday tomorrow and i still have about £7 in my account, so that's a good thing at least!