Minniepoos versus The Black Hole

minniepoos_2

After reading some other peoples diaries, and being massively motivated by them, I thought I'd start my own, to try to keep myself on the straight and narrow. OH and I have built up debts of £36,788 over the last 11 years. On what....I really don't know

No massive house with fancy appliances, no designer clothes, no expensive cars and no luxury holidays (have a had a couple of Euro hols, but always paid for with clubcard deals). We've just lived beyond our means and made many judgement errors and bad decisions.

BUT.....we've finally realised what we're doing, and are slowly climbing out of what I like to call The Black Hole of Despair. It's going to be hard work, and according to the last snowball I done it'll be around 8 years (will update when I do it next). But we will do it.

I out my SOA on the dfw thread a few days ago, but here it is again (I want it to be where I can find it for when it comes to updating it)

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly Joint income after tax.......... 2350
Benefits................................ 122.05
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2472.05
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 450
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 78
Electricity............................. 105
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 17.04
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38 This includes phone, broadband & sky basic package
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 215 I know it's high, but we have a big oldish car and no way can stretch to changing it atm
Road tax................................ 16.5
Car Insurance........................... 22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 23.8 Buildings and contents - will shop around in April when it expires
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 96.13 This includes mortgage illness cover, OH's job cover and seperate life cover that I would cancel, but the worry of 'what if' is just too much
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 37.5
Haircuts................................ 3
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1544.09

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 99500
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 99900

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 59000....(450)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 59000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
MBNA...........................13306.....233...... .24.95
LTSB...........................14499.....290...... .24.95
Tesco..........................4929......147...... .24.94
Egg............................4054......97....... .22.94
Total unsecured debts..........36788.....767.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,472.05
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,544.09
Available for debt repayments........... 927.96
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 767
Amount left after debt repayments....... 160.96
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 99,900
Total HP & Secured debt................. -59,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -36,788
Net Assets.............................. 4,112
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

I'm gonna leave this for now, but will be back in a couple of days to formulate my battle plan. I just wanted to start while I was thinking about it -I have let myself put things off for too long!

See you soon!

minniepoos_2

minniepoos wrote: »

BUT.....we've finally realised what we're doing,

Wait, that wasn't quite honest enough.
We realised we had to do something when we didn't have any room left on our CCs and one of them had stopped our cards. We had been paying off debt with debt and suddenly we couldn't do it anymore.

So here we are.

minniepoos_2

I forgot, we also owe my M&D £1500 (for a desperate home-improvement), which is interest free but needs to be paid back 1st as they need it, and they were good enough to lend it to us so I don't want to make them regret helping us.

My plans for the immediate future are to set up DDs for the other 3 CC payments (Egg already is) - I haven't missed any for over 6 months, but want it to be more organised. The MBNA one I will round up to the nearest £50 to help it go down a bit quicker. This is the one our overpayments go off.

I've already changed the way we bank - we both get paid into 1 account, then 2 transfers are set up for just after each payday to put enough in our 2nd account to cover the DDs. We were getting around £125 each month in OD charges (which reminds me, we have an OD of £500 too). This is helping us to see exactly what we have in our account so we don't accidently slip over the overdraft.

Other plans for 2010


-Pay off Mum & Dad

-Bring overdraft down to £250 (then there'll be no interest at all)

-Once above two are achieved try to get £200 in savings account for emergencies (eg. car trouble)

[strike]-Wean myself off Pepsi Max[/strike][strike]. It's the only branded item I buy, and I have been a little addicted to it. I only buy it on offer, but it's still more than Tesco Diet Cola, so it's gonna have to go.[/strike]

[strike]-Work out how to put a link in my sig!![/strike]

[strike]-Get a new job - closer to home and more hours[/strike]

[strike]-Use 100% of income from Quidco, Mazuma (etc), my copper jar and little silver jar (5p &10p) as overpayments to worst CC[/strike]

-Use at least 50% of income from Mystery Shopping, scrap metal money and selling as overpayments to worst CC

-Set up DDs for the three of my CCs that aren't done. Make sure the payment amount on the worst CC is rounded up to the nearest £50 AT LEAST [strike]Tesco[/strike] LTSB MBNA

I know there's more, so will probably have to edit later. Good start for now though.

minniepoos_2

So, with the parents loan and the overdraft our debts really total £38,788 :mad: I will update my sig in a minute.

I've just joined the £2 Saver Club and my goal is to save up the £250 I need to pay off the half of our overdraft which charges us interest.

It feels so good to get going with things. Really want to kick debts butt this year, so it knows it's on the way out.

beanielou

Best of luck!
Keep posting!

minniepoos_2

beanielou wrote: »

Best of luck!
Keep posting!

Thankyou, and will do!

I acted on some advice received when I first posted my SOA today. The consensus was that I spend too much on presents, so I should start shopping very early and grab the bargains. Got a set of 4 great books for DD for only £3, which I thought was a great price.

I bought some clothes for DD yesterday in the Tesco sale, but I can justify them as I had a voucher - 250 points if you spend £10. I only ever use the points for deals, so that is £10 back in deals. I kinda think of things like this as a savings scheme for deals where you get free stuff too! (and I made sure I spent exactly £10!!)

Forgot to add...I've started buying Tesco diet cola, and you know it isn't that bad! Have crossed it off my to-do list. Am trying to cut down on fizzy a bit too, so should be a bit healthier in 2010. Have also sussed out how to put a link to this diary in my sig (and how to cross things out!), so have crossed that out too.

If only all my goals were that easy to achieve

minniepoos_2

I got paid today, so have made sure we have enough in our direct debit account to cover all the DDs, and next time I go to Tesco I'll put probably £300 on the Clubcard Plus to cover the majority of our groceries and petrol.

I'm thinking about joining the Make us Money in 2010 with Ebay Challenge, although I'll probably include everything we sell on there, including selling scrap metal to the scrappy, and mobile phones to Mazuma (or wherever). We sold a lot of things in November, but still have quite a lot that needs to go. I'll be nice to have a record on my sig of how much money we have managed to make in 2010 just by getting rid of clutter (and hopefully will motivate me to keep going with it).

minniepoos_2

Evening all!

Not much to report today, did a fantastic turkey stew in my slow cooker, and am now making stock with the bones etc (never done that before, so quite excited by it!). Will probably use it for a risotto later in the week.

Have decided to be ruthless with my books. I've got quite a massive paperback collection, which I love, bit OH has been good selling some of his treasured things so I think it's only fair I I do too. I think I might register as a seller on Amazon - seems fairly straight forward. Although Green Metropolis looks quite good too. I've got quite a few textbooks in the loft too, which I really want to keep, but they've been in the loft for the best part of 3 years so I can't really say I've been using them.

Anything we can sell will get my parents paid back quicker, which is my main goal at the moment.

fishcakes

Be strong and just keep on going even when u feel u cant. Before you know it you will be there. It took Dh and me 6 yrs got as bad as a repossession order on our house. Now we are mortgage free since june 2008.

minniepoos_2

fishcakes wrote: »

Be strong and just keep on going even when u feel u cant. Before you know it you will be there. It took Dh and me 6 yrs got as bad as a repossession order on our house. Now we are mortgage free since june 2008.

Good for you :beer: ...and thanks!

I've just listed my first 9 items on Amazon. It feels so good to know I 'm doing more to help us get to our goal. I've still got loads of books to go on there, and will be checking out Green Metropolis too.

2010 definitely feels like a 'get things done' kind of year

minniepoos_2

Had to just come on and update....I've just posted the parcel for my first sale on Amazon!! It sold after being listed for about an hour and 20 minutes. It was such a relief to know that maybe some of my stuff is worth something to others. Plus DH has managed to sell a couple of things, so in the last 24 hours we have made £29.30

I've been thinking ahead to how to make christmas a bit cheaper this year, and am thinking about making some people some bath bombs instead of buying them pressies. I'll have to find somewhere to buy the ingredients cheaply, but it must be cheaper to give people some nicely packaged bath bombs than to buy a gift for a fiver or so. Plus I'll be able to make them with DD, which she'll love. And we'll get to test some out first which I know she'll be up for!

I might also make some chocolate-dipped peppermint creams. Just have to find some nice cheap boxes.

Must be some more ideas out there.....