I'm tackling my debts in 2010

emmie26

I've been reading lots of threads from debt-free wannabe's and feel really inspired, I have already drawn up a budget for myself and am feeling quite optimistic about 2010 although reading these has made me think one step further and I am going to try and sit my husband down so that we can add up all of our joint debt and try to tackle it together. Since university we have always had our own personal finances and as long as we both pay the required amount into the joint account each month we don't know care what the other does with their money, however we have been married for 4 years have a mortgage and 2 children so now may be the time to work together. He has agreed to sit down with me and discuss the dreaded debt so thats a start, hopefully I will soon have the gory details of our debt:eek:, I'll post soon with more info wish me luck .

Snowmoredebt

Good luck I hope your husband is ready to tackle the debt with you!

I was advised to put my amounts in my signature so I could see the progress this is the best thing I've done, their are also loads of challenges.

Keep posting.

emmie26

Had a short conversation with hubby, he was a bit sheepish about debt at first and only told me ball park figures but then when he didn't get told off for the amount of debt he had built up he went and got actual bills so that I could see the actual amount.

So this is our joint debt:

Barclaycard 1: £2000 @ 21.9%
Barclaycard 2: £3500 @ 0%
Halifax CC: £3700 @ 0%
Car Loan: £1300 @ 0%
Overdraft 1: £500
Overdraft 2: £750
Joint loan: £5000 @ 8.8%

Total Debt = £16,750

I am absolutely disgusted by such a huge figure because I can't even remember what we have spent it on, and we don't have much to show for it, we have never taken our children on a holiday abroad, our house is getting there, but still has loads to be spent on it. Despite this I do feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders cause I know that now we have both acknowledged it we can start to pay it off.

Over the next few days I will start to draw up a sensible budget which hopefully we can stick to I'll post on my SOA so you can all give some support, this is where the difficult bit starts! :eek::eek::eek:

Nottoobadyet

Hey emmie - great job on getting everything together and getting your hubby on board! I'm not brave enough for that yet, still have only ballpark figures on my partners debt... I sort of don't even want to know what the two of us would add up to!

Best of luck, Im also a brand new diarist so I'll be watching yours with interest!

emmie26

It has been a bit of a struggle really to get hubby on board cause I think he likes to be in control of his own money but it will be so much easier to do it together although the initial amount is huge. Thanks for posting I'll keep an eye out for your diary to see if you manage to get your partner on board. Good luck :beer: !!

emmie26

Joint Income £2500
Benefits £160

Total £2660

Mortgage £675
Council tax £100
Loan £100
Water £32.40
Gas & Elec £69.00
Household maintenance £100
Garden £25
TV, Phone Internet £45.14
Tv Licence £10
Mobile x2 £35
Food £200
Eating out £20
Drinks at home £20
Car Insurance £25
Car Tax £12
Petrol £80
Car Payments £255
credit cards £200
Childcare £100
School meals £40
Dentistry £5
Haircuts £20
Optical bills £10
Clothes £75
Big One offs £150

Total : £2403.54

Income - Outgoings £256.46

Not too impressed by this amount, but I am trying to be really sensible about what we need to put away each month so that we don't have any unexpected suprises. Every year xmas seems to creep up on us and we have never put any money away, meaning we start the new year with a deficit. One good thing is that this figure does not take into account what I earn from doing overtime which I try and do most months, and also things like clothes, garden and household maintenence could go on hold for a couple of months to get us off to a good start. Realistically in the long run these are the sort of expenses that we need to save for.

Its just made me realise why we have got into this mess we have never ever had a realistic budget and have swung from being extremely frugal and not spending a penny, which we just could not keep up long term to being really frivolous when we saw our friends going out and spending. Half of this mess is caused by trying to keep up with the Jones', some of whom earn a lot more than us and others who are probably in a lot more debt than us. I think from now on we need to look much more inward at what we can actually afford to buy or do. We are lucky in so many ways we both get to spend an awful lot of time with the children as neither of us has to commute to work and we brought our house when we were really young so there is no rush to do renovations as we have got a lifetime.

This process is really confusing, I go through stages of being really ecstatic to be taking control of things and then being really depressed that we have got such a huge mountain to climb and it will take us so long to repay what we owe. I suppose I should just be grateful that we have started it now instead of waiting until we were really in financial difficulty.

Lemon_Tree

hello and welcome to the boards, first comments are do you need haircuts every month? do you have big one offs every month? why not try and start to save for things like christmas from now, it's so much easier to break the annual bills down monthly and save that way, that way it won't throw out your budgetting.

The biggest question is do you really see the 256 spare each month? if not then i would suggest that you need to start a spending diary because it's amazing what it will show you, and it helps to stop you spending on bits and bobs at the very least as you don't want to write it down.

Have you had a play with the snowball calculator to find out what your debt free date is? it's sad but true that many of us DFW's enjoy finding out the date so that we can plan and scheme to try and reduce it. (there's a link in the sticky threads at the top of the DFW boards)

keza

hi Emmie! just had a read and catch up of your diary. i will be watching to see how u get on and pick up any tips! good luck! xx

emmie26

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

first comments are do you need haircuts every month? do you have big one offs every month? why not try and start to save for things like christmas from now, it's so much easier to break the annual bills down monthly and save that way, that way it won't throw out your budgetting.

To be honest I am embarassed to say that I have my hair done once every 8 weeks and it is usually about £75 I'm nervous to try and colour my hair myself but that may be the answer, also to let my hair go 3 or more months without a cut (eek!). The big one offs is my way of budgeting for xmas it includes money for christmas, winter and summer breaks and birthdays. To be honest I was going to ask for some advice about this, do you think that I should just throw all my money at the debts and then put these big one off expenses onto the credit card I have paid off, thereby saving money on interest or is this the road to financial disaster?

I will definately take the advice about the spending diary, because you are right we never have this money spare at the end of the month and we usually don't budget for things like the car tax & insurance or big one offs so we should have a good £400 spare but we are spending way over this every month hence the massive debts.

I'm nervous to sit down with my husband tonight and talk about the budget that I have drawn up because its going to mean that he puts almost all of his earnings into the joint account and there is not much money spare for any sort of treats, but the thing is we never had money for treats in the first place we just spent the bank's money without thinking.

On a good note, I have not spent a penny today, I have walked miles rather than getting in the car, I felt very self righteous, looking after the environment, my figure and my bank balance.:A

Intergalactic_Floozie

Hiya - at least you have a credit figure after your outgoings, which is a good start! Try keeping a spending diary for a month and see where your money is going (I'm keeping one if you click on my name and look at my past posts, and I find it invaluable!). All of those Saturday newspapers x 2, odd magazines here and there, along with "Mum, can I have???'s" that you will have forgotten about, really makes me think twice before spending.

I'll be subscribing to your diary (if you keep up to it) as we have very similar debts, budgets and families!

emmie26

Thanks I'll have a look at yours I need as much help as I can get, if you have been doing it for a while I bet you will have loads of pearls of wisdom. I will have to persuade the OH to keep a spending diary as well, a huge parcel has just been delivered this evening and when he got home I said what is this? oh a he-man castle for one of the children for xmas, that is despite the fact that I have already brought presents for the children so that they have a similar number and now he says we will have to get another present for our daughter to match things up. :mad: