Cakeys debt free diary. Day 1, OH's wardrobe :)

cakey

so here i go day one!

my motivation - i have been in debt since i left uni, i have gained a Fiance and all of his debt too. so time to stop burying our heads in the sand and sort this out. we are getting married in May and i would love to have paid off half the debt by then.

i have combined both mine and my OH wages and combined our debts.

i have approx 27K on credit cards and a further, 10K on loans... hmm actually there is also 5K on overdrafts...

well, i have to start somewhere.

Steps taken today:

1/ ebayed the entire contents of OH wardrobe, including old D & G and Ted Baker shirts (currently on ebay for 99p ) - ok maybe not entire wardrobe, but everything he hasn't worn in over a year.
2/ signed up to all of the survey sites, any extra monies go straight on CC
3/ Increased all minumum payments on credit cards.
4/ signed my OH to do private swim lessons for a colleague of mine at work £20PH - which reminds me, i must tell OH!
5/ considered selling his cat - decided against it, i dont think ebay let you sell pets.
6/ have rooted through my old uni books and am putting them on amazon.
7/ Have created a full monthly budget sheet including fixed amount to pay off the overdraft, to get the extra money i have cancelled his sky and i will cut his hair for the next 9 months.
8/ am claiming back PPI from HSBC approx 900 - fingers crossed
9/ little sister moving in while at uni, paying 4 months rent up fron £900 - straight on cc
10/ court case against Bn Q - OH sustained bad head injury from hammock.- hopefully get comp, if not, refund for hammock £90
11/ court case with old landlord, didnt register our tenancy deposit twice, 3K fingers crossed again! hearing on the 15th OCT


any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated.... it all starts today!

CaroleM_3

Hi Cakey,

No suggestions, just wanted to say good luck

A good place to start would be filling in your SOA (the link is in a sticky on the top of the DFW board) and posting it up, you will get lots of advice/suggestions then,

Carole

cakey

have been avoiding the soa....:) but will have a go

cakey

*sigh..............

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1460
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 228
Total monthly income.................... 3188
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 349
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 144
Electricity............................. 134
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 27
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 27
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 23
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 134
Road tax................................ 14
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 28
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 32
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
wedding fund............................ 535
Total monthly expenses.................. 2301

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 11000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 11000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 11000....(229)......0<
overdraft1.....................3000.....(120)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 14000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
rbs............................6000......110.......0
halifax........................3000......50........0
Virgin.........................1200......30........16
hsbc loan .....................108.......0.........0
halifax loan...................7000......159.......0
capital 1......................9000......280.......5.9
arsenal........................400.......30........27
barclaycard 2..................3000......66........16
barclaycard 1..................3500......80........0
egg............................2000......50........16
Total unsecured debts..........35208.....855.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,188
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,301
Available for debt repayments........... 921
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 855
Amount left after debt repayments....... 32
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 11,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -14,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -35,208
Net Assets.............................. -38,208
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

cakey

made £60 today selling OH clothes, this is going straight on arsenal card plus 4.25 on the surverys

cakey

feeling like i want to pull my OH's head off and poo down his neck

he just messaged me to inform me how he is overdrawn at present and needs money to pay it off out of our joint account.. grrrrrrr. he has had an extra 100 a month for the last 6 months!! *sigh

savingholmes

cakey wrote: »

*sigh..............

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1460
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 228
Total monthly income.................... 3188
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 349
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 144
Electricity............................. 134 any scope to switch and reduce this via cashback site?
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 27
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 27 It is only £12 or less per building per month so why so high for you?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 23
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 This is reasonable but if you visited the old style board they can advise you on how to improve this. Try using the downshift challenge on mysupermarket.com and trade down on some of what you eat and drink. Quidco offer a sign up cashback for Asda and 1% cashback thereafter
Clothing................................ 0 Great for now not realistic long term
Petrol/diesel........................... 134
Road tax................................ 14
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5 Seems very unrealistic - £60 a year? Amazing!
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 28 See if you can get this down
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 Try the £10 a day challenge to get money together for this
Haircuts................................ 32 Any way you can get this down? Student days etc?
Entertainment........................... 0 unrealistic?
Holiday................................. 0 Unrealistic?
Emergency fund.......................... 0
wedding fund............................ 535
Total monthly expenses.................. 2301

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 11000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 11000 Do you really need an £11K car? Can you sell it buy a cheaper one? I have a 5 year old car that I bought for about £4K this year - does the job... If you did similar you could knock about £7K off the debt

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 11000....(229)......0<
overdraft1.....................3000.....(120)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 14000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
rbs............................6000......110.......0
halifax........................3000......50........0
Virgin.........................1200......30........16
hsbc loan .....................108.......0.........0
halifax loan...................7000......159.......0
capital 1......................9000......280.......5.9
arsenal........................400.......30........27 priority 1
barclaycard 2..................3000......66........16
barclaycard 1..................3500......80........0
egg............................2000......50........16
Total unsecured debts..........35208.....855.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,188
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,301
Available for debt repayments........... 921
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 855
Amount left after debt repayments....... 32
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 11,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -14,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -35,208
Net Assets.............................. -38,208
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

A few things

1) Your debt is high - you therefore really do need to account for every penny. Perhaps use myspendingdiary.com as a method
2) If you sold your car and paid off your 16% debt that would make a huge difference
3) Put your figures into a snowball calculator at whatsthecost.com - that will give you an idea of how to maximise your payments and minimise the interest - it also allows you to save your data privately and track your progress
4) is there any scope to move any more of your high interest debt to 0% or life of balance rates
5) you need to up your income - try the Make £10 a day challenge for simple things you can do from home that do make a difference

And finally congratulations for making a start! :TAnd being brave enough to post an SOA - I know it can be scary but it is a huge and important step in facing up to your debts and taking action....

cakey

Hi Saving Holmes, thanks for your advice.

on a couple of your points:

Electricity is high as we are back paying 34 for them not reading the meter right on the old house, the new house we have moved into has storage heaters, we had a hip pack and it estimated £119 a month in electricity. we are putting 100 in as even when i looked at switching it didnt bring the cost down
TV licence: its 27 for 6 months then down to 12 a month
Clothing: if i want clothes or anything i wait for birthday money or sell something on ebay. plus i have a lots, so really dont need anymore
Car maintenance is 5 as the MOT cost £54 this year, i dont need tyres, the car is nearly new and covered under warranty
Pet insurance, we pay 9 ish per animal (3 animals) the reason we have this is in january one of my cats got ill, non of them were insured, he was on a drip for 4 days before being put down. total cost £600. we then insured the remaining 3 and within a month another got sick, vet bill £400 luckily we were insured for this. i know it may seem like an un nessasary costs especially with our finance at the mo, but i cant afford another large vet bill.
Haircuts: would you believe this is my fellas!! he has already agreed to reduce.
Holidays: this is zero as we are planning the wedding, so not realistic to have a hol aswell
Entertainment: my OH works till late a night so i spend my evenings in with the TV/ books etc. we dont go out for meals
and the big one- the car the car is actually paid for by my work, they pay £200 a month (included in my income) for this car, no car, no car allowance. if i reduce my car down, my car allowance will be reduced also, basically my boss offered (as i do lots of travelling for work) to pay for my car payments and label it car allowance. As its new ish, its really costs effective not to transfer to an older car.

i do get commision at work, which i haven't included in my budget as it varies, but my next commison is £600, which i am using to pay off Arsenal

one down... a million to go

savingholmes

Fair enough! At least you have thought things thro and that is a great beginning. Have you checked out the Make £10 a day challenge yet?

cakey

i will be checking it out now thank you.

i do get infuruated when i look at the car and the cost. when i actually bought it my OH was on over £2500 a month, so we had ample to pay for it with, then he got his wages cut/ overtime too and then redundent (luckily found another job) and luckily my boss offered to pay for the car

savingholmes

Yep I know that feeling. I have been out of work most of the last 6 months! But all being well start a new job on the 19th! At last!