DebtDesperado's 12 Month Countdown Diary

debtdesperado

Hello all... Finally, the end might be in sight (am saying that quietly - I thought the same thing last year and then got made redundant which scuppered all my plans for debtfree-dom).

By the end of 2010, as long as I can stay employed I should hopefully be largely debt free, but I think that a diary might be in order to help me tackle the last and most resistant-to-change money wasting habit...what I spend on food.:o

My SOA is roughly as follows (have honed it over the last year to bring the costs down as much as possible):

Number of adults in household: 1

Monthly take-home: £3500 (at the moment... contract expires in March so then may drop to zero)

Mortgage: £1400 (gulp... am on the SVR at the moment and don't have enough equity for a re-mortgage right now)
Water: £16
Gas and elec: £24
Council tax: £61
Insurance: lump sum already paid for the year
Service charge: £50
Travelcard: £100
TV licence: £12 (think that's right)
Loan payments: £825 a month (no chance of re-financing these as am only on temporary contract at work...eek)
Life insurance: £11 (I don't get this through work as I'm a temp, and don't want to leave a financial mess for my family if anything happens to me)
Audible membership: £8 (my treat - I love it!)

General living expenses: £400 a month

Savings: £500 (I know Martin's wisdom is that you pay off your debt with your savings, but after being made redundant I had to use my savings to pay my mortgage, and as I'm still only on a temporary contract (until March) there is a good chance that I'll be out of work again after that, so I need to scrape together some savings while I can)

Debts:
Loan 1: £8105 (£675 a month, 11 months to go)
Loan 2: approx £12000 (£150 a month, 8 years :eek: to go)
Student loan: £2000 (deferred until April, then approx £175 a month)
Overdraft: £2100 (interest free at the moment)

Total: £24,000.

Thankfully I don't have any credit cards - that was this year's goal, to learn to live without them (and am really pleased that even when I was out of work I didn't run them up again :money:)...loan 1 consolidated the outstanding balance (about £14k at the time).

The problem I have is that I'm finding it really hard to live on £400 a month to cover all my general spending (food, clothes, entertainment, alcohol, train fares and everything else. Which is ridiculous as that should be ample money, surely? I'm hoping a diary will help keep me on track with my spending... whilst I was out of work I didn't go out which certainly kept my spending low, but also sent me plunging into a horrible depression from the isolation So I'm trying to learn a bit of balance.

A bit about me: 34, single, active social life but this means that I'm finding it really hard to plan meals and therefore spend a lot of money eating out and seeing friends at the same time.

Oh yes, and I'm trying to renovate my house at the same time... as if climbing out of debt isn't enough of a challenge.

My goals for 2010 are:

1. Pay off all my debt apart from loan 2.

2. Save enough so that I could pay off loan 2 if I wanted (will need to see how the employment situation pans out over the coming year...)

3. Finish renovating house, apart from kitchen (again, depends on the employment situation).

First challenge this week is to plan and shop for breakfasts and lunches...

boredofbeingathome

Well good luck with it all-perhaps it may be worth doing a SOA and we can help you with that. The link is at the top of the board.

A fresh pair of eyes and all that

debtdesperado

So, taking stock of what I spent this weekend:

Friday night £40 (eeek).
Launderette £7
Food shopping £21
Saturday night £35 (hmmm... I think already I can see where my cash is going)
Weekend papers £3.50

So £106.5 in total. Hmm. On the bright side, out of the £21 I made a load of soup which should mean I don't need to buy any lunches until Thursday. The only spending I should have today is to post off a book I sold through Amazon, oh, and I need to get a secret santa present. Does that count as a NSD?

jacey98

hi

well done on getting this far. i am heading for a similar date to you to be clear but it is taking its toll a bit especially on the social side of things. i try to make sure i list loads of things on ebay to cover me extra for a bit of spends but to be honest i am so fed up with debt now that everytime i think about spending money now i think twice!!!!

good luck will pop back

jc

debtdesperado

Just got an email for a friend's wedding in march... the cheapest hotel has come out at nearly £100 for the night. Hmmm. Have put the whole thing away - I have just been to three weddings in the last couple of months and have had enough of spending celebrating other people's lives (I know this might make me sound crotchety :-)

Anyway, so hungry (so much for the filling up powers of home made soup) so bought some nuts and oat cakes this afternoon which should hopefully last a few days, but that was another fiver.

jacey - I totally agree! Have a load of stuff to list on ebay and was hoping to get it done before christmas but I think I'm going to run out of time. Ah well, something for the new year I guess.

Have been gradually decluttering and can feel another session coming on, so I might do that this evening for some more stuff to sell.

jacey98

i know what you mean about the weddings my oh has a close friend who is getting married in june in cyprus!!!!! im really struggling with the thought of having to pay 400 for a week away and it wont even be like a proper holiday.

i think i have made about 300 from ebay in the last few months so def worth getting listing although i am gonna to wait till the new year now cause of christmas.

jc

debtdesperado

Soup again today, and so far have spent zero... but have work dinner tonight and not sure if my boss is going to pay or whether everyone will pay for themselves. Booo!

i have to psych myself up for ebay... I find people on it are so rude and demanding. Everything has to packaged up just so, and posted literally 30 seconds after they pay for it (even if it's taken them a week to pay you a pound) and there is always someone who moans and starts leaving bad feedback (whatever...). And some people have crazy high expectations of what stuff is like, even when they have just paid a pound...

Or is it just me who attracts all the nutters? :-)

jacey98

yeah it takes me ages to get onto ebay but usually good........not had any nutters as yet but def know they are out there, have had so many questions about things that are a pound......its a pound buy it or not!!!!!!!!

mind you its car boots that annoy me when they try to haggle you down from 50p......aahhh just buy it.

anyway off to try and declutter some more.

jc

debtdesperado

Hi Jacey! I know exactly what you mean. And looking on the bright side, there are also the people out there who email you to pay way more than you were asking to get you to end the auction early (fine by me :beer:)

So, my boss did end up paying for me at drinks the other night, which was great.
Then yesterday took some DIY bits back, but then spent the cash on some craft stuff - I saw an amazing tapestry cushion, which I loved and would look great in my new living room, but it was £60 :rotfl:. I don't think so! So instead I bought the tapestry backing and some wool, and spent about £12, which should be enough to make it myself. I also think it's good to have project over Christmas to keep my fingers busy and out of the quality street .

In terms of spends today, I have the office christmas party (hmmm.) and bought a couple of t-shirts for £12, which I might wear or take back. Not sure yet - I never feel inspired to dig out my party frocks when it's as cold as it is - I just want to wear jeans and a jumper. So I'm delaying the decision until the last possible minute in the hope that necessity will force my choice. It's hard to resist just huffing and going out and spending on a new frock... am determined to stay strong and not buy unnecessary clothes though at the moment :A

I'm getting my dining room plastered today (£300) and I hope it turns out ok. It's a lot of money but I am so fed up of living on a building site... I want a nice warm flat. At the moment I only have two working radiators, so it's freezing. But I guess that is quite money saving?! £200 of the £300 has been covered by a recent refund I got from my landlord for overpayment of my service charge, which helps... all I need now is a big premium bond win, or failing that, a permanent job...

claire0788

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I seen your take home pay, jealous to say the least but moving on :P

See how you said you are saving money incase you dont get a job straight after the contract you are on, is there any chance you could mortgage protection insurance ? Could help take the pressure off ?

Nottoobadyet

Wow, are you sure you aren't me? I don't have anything wonderful like a mortgage, but my money also disappears to socializing, the bar and everyone around me getting married!

Do you live in London or another big city? I've found that my outgoings have dropped significantly once I started tracking down free cultural events / things to do, many of which my friends also find more exciting than yet another evening in the pub!