Moody's 2010 Diary

MoodyBlues

sillyrabbit wrote: »

Erk - I hate Halifax, but mostly because they charge £1 a day for the OD now! Going to be tackling that one first myself. How did you get the 2 reward accounts? Did you just apply? And if you just pay the money in then pay it out again, do you still get the reward?

I already had 2 accounts, one being a joint account. I upgraded them both to reward accounts. Having one joint, one personal is allowed under the T&C's but I know of people that have 3 (they upgraded them before the T&C change).
I only upgraded them both fairly recently though even though I knew about the reward accounts for a while, as there was a high risk of me using my overdraft facility (we only moved a few months back). At the time my overdraft facility was interest free, so it would have paid if I had used it. However ultimately I just missed out on £60-£120!

MoodyBlues

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................ 1450
Partners monthly income after tax....... 450
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1900

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 194
Rent.................................... 800
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 28.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 30
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 80
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1646.5


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 0........(194)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 0.........-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
L..............................8700......180.......20
H..............................5300......53........5.5
B..............................1900......45........6.9
Total unsecured debts..........15900.....278.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,900
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,646.5
Available for debt repayments........... 253.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 278
Amount short for making debt repayments. -24.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,900
Net Assets.............................. -15,900

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

I think this is everything, although I may be missing some things.
The gas and electric is higher than it would be usually because we've had the heat on a bit during the winter. This will definitely drop in the summer - and hopefully next winter too once we get the insulation sorted out.

The TV licence will just be paid for til April - however things then will still be tight. My wifes income will not be increasing for the foreseeable future.

Additionally the mobile phones are good deals for £50 total a month. Currently the broadband/phone/cable is costing less than £70 and is on a plan. I don't plan to change either of these. Travel is a set amount for an interest free loan I have taken out for my train travel card. Thus I can only see money increasing by tackling the groceries/other shopping (which is down as low as it can be), or increasing my income somehow.

I'm also benefitting from an extra £10 a month so technically a shortfall of £15 each month, which should be an extra £13 after April.

sillyrabbit

I know you don't plan on changing the phone/BB etc but I didn't think I wanted to either but on further investigation things I wanted on Virgin (catchup and the sky channels, on top of the normal 1234 etc) were all available on the M+ (2nd to smallest) package instead of the largest XL package that we were paying for. That way, I cut our Virgin bill from £50 down to £33! That covers landline, TV and BB. Phone is evenings and weekends free so we only use it then, and all other times (and for mobiles) we use our mobiles as we have something like 900 free minutes between us a month.

Like you say, your gas/elec is quite high so hopefully that will drop down too. Are you in credit in your account each month? We are always in credit, even over winter, so I've asked them to drop our monthly DD - might be worth asking?

Where do you do the majority of your grocery shopping? Have you looked at replacing the basic stuff like pasta, rice, beans - storecupboard stuff - with stuff from Lidl or Aldi? Do you do lots of home cooked food/use a slow cooker etc? It all makes a difference! We've really cut out lots of luxuries (not that we had that many lol) and now try to live on £15 a week for groceries for 4 of us, which seems to be doable.

MoodyBlues

I'll have to look into the different packages. I can't eat a lot of foods like pasta etc. We use the slow cooker a lot and have all our meals home cooked. I take prepacked or previously cooked meat and cheese into work. The groceries includes cat food, litter, cleaning products and bathroom stuff.

MoodyBlues

Letter sent to credit card company re PPI charges from years ago (finally found some old statements).
Have to check up on some old Lloyds TSB loans I had taken out and try to find some pre 2001 statements. I have a horrible feeling that I have destroyed them all.
To do : check on possible NIC shortfall, pension, and check on Tax rebate.

MoodyBlues

Checked with my media company - supposedly we've paid the bill, wont be happy til I can see the bank account.
Still nothing from Santander - not gonna chase them up, not worth me wasting money on a phone call.

MoodyBlues

Santander has got back to me finally. I wont bother pursuing this particular card. Once I get another copy of my credit report I'll apply elsewhere.

MoodyBlues

Letter resent to credit card company about PPI. Letter sent off to post office complaining about lost post. Spoke with National Insurance about possible shortfalls...should be sending me something.
Hopefully hear something from taxman and experian soon!
Need to update mobile contracts.

MoodyBlues

Sorted out our new phone contracts yesterday (new phones arrived today!). Tariff is £10 cheaper than before. Trouble is received the council tax and its £10 higher! Phoned the Council and they said there was nothing they could do about it, although they gave me an address to write to which I have done..hopefully I will hear something back about this. Either way it looks like there will be no change for the monthly outgoings next month.

missmental

Hi,

Just wanted to wish you well with your endeavours. I owe about the same amount as you and have only just recently had my LBM. Like you I am obsessed with paying everything off as soon as i can . I'm using a spending diary to record all my purchases. It really does stop me spending. I have gone from shopping at M&S & sainsburys to getting food from Aldi, saving me loads!
I have also done PPI letter for sainsbury's bank. With a bit of luck, we'll have something to celebrate shortly.
Best of Luck, MM