The start of my debt free challenge.

devonmaid77

Hello All,

I have decided to start my own debt free diary as I have recently been reading so many inspiring stories on here, so thank you to those that have helped me get started!

I want this diary to help me keep track on my goal of getting rid of my debt. Hubby and I are in the process of buying our first house and with that comes our first mortgage! Eeek! Our aim is to get our debt paid off so that we can then think about becoming mortgage free too! We'll be trying to do them both together to be honest, but while we're still waiting for the mortgage to come through we thought we'd start with the debts!

I can't go into too much detail this morning as I really need to be getting off to work, so will update later with all my debt details and SOA.

Have made a start by doing my signature though - so at least I know how much I owe!

So, I'll be back with all the gory details later, hope you all have a good day!

Devonmaid

jacey98

hi devonmaid

well done on starting a diary its the first step to debt freedom!!!!!! i am planning on clearing all of mine by december as well so will pop in to see how your doing its always good to have abit of support to keep us all on track.

jc x

devonmaid77

So here's my SAO for now. Hubby and I are in the process of buying our first house so this will be changing soon. We will also be having a go at switching utilities, phone contracts etc etc to try and get costs down a little too. But it doens't look too bad for paying off the debts at the moment.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1255
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1354
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2609

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 560
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 115
Electricity............................. 75
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44
Telephone (land line)................... 47.5
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 41
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 65
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1750.5


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................9627......217.......11
CC1............................717.......20........0
CC2............................752.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........11096.....257.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,609
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,750.5
Available for debt repayments........... 858.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 257
Amount left after debt repayments....... 601.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,096
Net Assets.............................. -11,096

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

devonmaid77

Thanks for the reply jc. I'll pop in and have a look at how you;re getting on too.

I made my first payment today. £50.00 off one of the credit cards! :T

Every little helps!

My list of jobs for tomorrow (have the day off!):
1. Ring the water company and claim back the money that we have overpaid - nearly £100, and renegotiate monthly payment figure.
2. Ring npower and do the same with gas/electricity.
3. Onepoll surveys for the day.
4. Update income and expenditure spreadsheet.
5. Compare some ISAs.

All through cashback site of course!

Will update with savings (if any) tomorrow.

Good evening all.

devonmaid77

So, my jobs for today were:

1. Ring the water company and claim back the money that we have overpaid - nearly £100, and renegotiate monthly payment figure.
2. Ring npower and do the same with gas/electricity.
3. Onepoll surveys for the day.
4. Update income and expenditure spreadsheet.
5. Compare some ISAs.

1. Done - new figure negotiated am now £30.00 per month better off - straight onto the credit cards I think with that!
2. Will do this this afternoon.
3. Done a couple today and will check for more this evening.
4. Done.
5. Done. Will be applying this afternoon.

I love how the little things all add up!

Off to sit in the sun with a cuppa for half an hour then back onto reducing my debt! Yipee!

devonmaid77

Have had a very productive day today. Have sorted through our many spare change saving pots and have paid £40 into our savings account. Have another £40.00 in £2 coins and nearly another £40 in incomplete "money bags". Will keep the change going into them until their full then will pay them in. Keeping the £2 coins until we have £100 then will change up and put to our holiday money.

Good progress being made. Am about to set up a standing order into our savings accounts and credit cards so that every month there is something going in. Can then add to what we pay as and when we have it.

Time for another cuppa!

Choc-addict

Hello,

Just wanted to pop on and wish you lots of luck with clearing your debts and buying your first home.

I'm busy clearing debt too and OH and I are in process of buying our first home too, it's very exciting, if not a tad stressful!! I'm busy debt busting (debts before OH) and can't wait to be debt free in a couple of years!

Have subscribed so will pop on and see how you are doing, you seem super organised.

devonmaid77

Hi choc adict, thanks for reading.

Yes it is exciting buying a home isn't it? But very stressful! We seem to be getting over one obstacle to find another one waiting for us! Hey ho, we'll get there eventually!

I may appear to be organised, but really I just have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about getting started on reducing our debt! Now I've started I want to do something every day! It's ever-so slightly addictive I think! Have made some good in-roads today, now I have to hope I don't loose momentum!

Good luck with your adventures in house buying and debt busting!

mum2one

devonmaid77 wrote: »

So here's my SAO for now. Hubby and I are in the process of buying our first house so this will be changing soon. We will also be having a go at switching utilities, phone contracts etc etc to try and get costs down a little too. But it doens't look too bad for paying off the debts at the moment.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1255
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1354
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2609

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 560
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 115 - if its as high on the house your buying may be worth asking if it can be paid over12 months not 10
Electricity............................. 75 - Are you heating up the street!! Def check comparison sites, we've got 3 bed house over Winter the bill was £150 for 3 months
Get into the habit of turning off things on standyby, turn off lights, don't leave items on charge overnight,
Gas..................................... 55 - in your own place make sure the boiler efficicent, check cooking etc, try and turn the theromost down 1 degree, you won't notice the differernce
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44
Telephone (land line)................... 47.5 - is that with your internet - def need to reduce the bill.
I get my calls free within my phone package, previuosly I was signed on with a company 1899 www.1899.com basically you pay them for your calls, it was a 5p connection charge and the call was free, think mobiles were 10p per minute, def worth looking into, knocked a wack of our bills.
Mobile phone............................ 70 :eek: - if you can reduce your contracts, consider sim only deals, or pay and go if push comes to shove, consider using cash back site, I would recommend Quidco for that
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 41 - that may be a luxury in the new house
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300 -thats way high guess the cars get used for work, this is going to go even highter with the petrol prices going up
Road tax................................ 40 - guess ur stuck with thisone
Car Insurance........................... 65 - def shop around at renewal, cash back sites
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15 - shop around at renewal / house - ditto for buildings, cash back sites again
Life assurance ......................... 0 - guess ur going to need this for the mortgage
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 - got nothing allocated
Haircuts................................ 0 - again nothing allocated,
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1750.5


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................9627......217.......11
CC1............................717.......20........0
CC2............................752.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........11096.....257.......-
how many months have you got left on the loan, and are both credit cards 0%, is it a fixed )%, could be a balst when the interest gets added on


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,609
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,750.5
Available for debt repayments........Hi... 858.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 257
Amount left after debt repayments....... 601.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,096
Net Assets.............................. -11,096

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

Hi

Congratulations on the new house to be, I've put afew suggestions on, both for now and for when you move, the good thing is your left with a positive balance, but I did pick up on a couple of areas money not allocated, birthday xmas etc.

It may be worth keeping a spending diary for a month to see where any extra goes,

Insurances, what I do is a general search making up a name and details as thou it the same area and don't put in actual reg just say its a 04 Focus, when I compare on market comparison sites, consider a couple of cash back sites, I find Quidco good, another popular one seems to be Topcashback,

The credit cards, I know there on 0%, but is that a fixed deal, could you say pay the minimum and then put the rest in a spare account, so when the 0% ends,you've got the money to pay it off.

Good luck with the lists, you seen to of come along way in a short time with diary.

x

devonmaid77

Wow mum2one! Thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts! There is a lot to think about there, so to clarify (for my own sake more than anything!)... Think this may be long so here goes...

Council tax: Is this high? Around here that is a band B! Band A is around £100 per month. It will be the same when we move, but we are quite happy paying over 10 months as we are in the habit of putting the Feb/March payments into our savings, it's a nice little treat to pay that bit extra so will prob stick to that.

Gas and Electricity: These will be compared the hell out of when we move. I have been extremely unhappy with them for a while now but unfortunately we're tied in until we move. We do have a credit balance with them (not surprisingly!), and were paying much less before October, however in their wisdom they decided to have a guess at what we may be using supply-wise over the winter months and have hugely over-estimated. Am already eyeing up the cashback deals!

Phones: Landline - we are paying a monthly sum again, this though covers costs of having a phoneline fitted when we moved in, so this will be reduced soon. Again we are tied in until we move. It also includes broadband. Our calls are free with our package. I'm really loathed to change companies as I don't want to have to change my email address etc.
Mobile: This is two contracts, both needed for work.However these are set to fall a little in June.

Petrol - don't remind me about the increases! Yep no avoiding this sadly. This covers two cars, both needed for work again.

Car insurance - also for two cars. One is up for renewal soon - more cashback!

Contents insurance - And more cashback... will be looking to change policy and include buildings ins when we move.

Life assurance - yep! Again when we move.

Presents/Christmas etc: We do actually have a little pot for this, not sure why I haven't put it down really. Prob add about £10 - 15 per month into it.

Haircuts - we have the luxury of having a very good hairdresser friend so the most we have to pay is the odd bottle of red now and again!

Now, cards. Both have interest added, but I'm not sure how much. This is going to be a job for today. We both have e-statements so will need to long on and dig the info out. To be honest these are what we will be aiming our money to for now. My loan is stuck with monthly repayments as i can't overpay and to pay it off will have to be one lump sum. The idea is to get rid of the card asap, which I don't think will take very long to be honest. We will be making a payment just over the minimum amount by standing order and then any other extra cash I have will be put to them too. Once they are gone we will be putting any savings into the loan repayment fund and when we have enough to pay them off outright it shall be done.

As I said I will be compiling a new SOA once we move. I'll have more of an idea about utilities etc once we have a date for moving. We are also going to be adding in payments to our savings acc, and overpayments to our mortgage. So for now it's bye bye credit cards as much as we can!

So jobs for today:

1. Find out CC interest rates.
2. Clean the house.
3. Probably relax and have a cuppa in the garden as the weather is, yet again, glorious! (At last!)
4. Do some Onepoll surveys.
5. Sort through all the old bills and other paperwork. Get anything now not needed shredded and anything else filed. Am usually very good at this but a mountain of paper seems to have built around me lately!
6. Did I add to have a relax in the sunshine?

Will update later!

devonmaid77

Oh and I've just remembered that CC2 was used to pay for some flights for work so will have £200 extra to pay off that next week! Will add a little bit extra too to get the balance below £500. Exciting!