Kavics' bumpy journey to become once again DF!

kavics17

Hello, hello, hello:wave:,

Here I am again, in Diaryland:o with my shiny new diary:D. Pls do keep me encouraged, after a relaxing and taking it easy 7 months I am facing a bumpy rollercoster ride (mainly because I will miss the last 7 months) for the next two years.

My lovely partner and I have £30.000 debts on two personal loans, we needed to take out the loans to cover stamp duty, lawyer's fee, new kitchen/lights/curtains/etc for our new house which we are going to buy within a week or so. The money is not yet on our bank account but the journey to pay it back is well under way:T. We do not need to worry about mortgage repayments as the property will be rented out (tenants are ready to move in), rent should cover the mortgage, insurance and any tax we need to pay.

About us: me (30) and my OH (33) both work in London and live in a one bedroom rented flat. We've been together for 6.5 years and although we are engaged we don't have any plans for getting married. I work with children, always wanted to, even though I gained a (BA) Economics degree nearly 8 years ago. I'm doing the EYFS degree with OU at the moment and hoping to be in my dream role by the end of next year (with a huge paycut :mad:). Changing job might come early though as I am only secure in this position till March 2011. There are 3 options what can happen:
1) stay in the same role with same salary
2) stay in the same role with more salary but with more responsibilites (which I am not really happy to take on atm)
3) find a new job.

To be honest neither of them is ideal as I have been wanting to change my job for ages but with the debts we have I know that I should stay in this/similar position for about 18 months. It's not like I don't like my job, it's just not challenging enough anymore, I'm actually quite bored:(.

So the plan is to pay back as much of the loans as possible by the end of next year, probably getting it down to sub £10k. The first repayment for the loans are due on the 2nd of November,enabling us to get some emergency fund together by the time (appr. £4k) than make overpayments every month. The overpayments -according to snowball- should save us appr. £6k interest and will let us pay back the loan within 2 years (even earlier but my job is only secure till March 2011).

I will post my SOA though we already switched electricity/gas providers (using Quidco) etc. I know we can save a lot more on food and holidays but OH is really not willing to compromise on those two, I tried my best .

kavics17

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.................... 0

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 2072
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1456
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3528

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 0 (put 0 as at the moment the rent will cover the repayment)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 91
Electricity............................. 8
Gas..................................... 24 (based on 12 months' bills-this is an average)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19.41 (flat rate)
Telephone (land line)................... 11.54
Mobile phone............................ 30 (2 sets of mobile phone contracts)
TV Licence.............................. 12.54
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 5 (with Orange, included unlimitied calls to eu countries)
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 (can be less but OH is not willing to compromise on certain brands)
Clothing................................ 10 (only buy on sales at Xmas and at Easter times)
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 20 (both commute by bikes but use public transport at the weekend)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15 (contact lenses+acne cream:o)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 11.93
Life assurance ......................... 5.9
Other insurance......................... 12 (private medical insurance through OH's company)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50 (mostly train tickets to brighton, twice a month)
Holiday................................. 165 (this is an awfully lot but this includes flight tickets to see our families appr. 4 times a year+usually 2 one week holidays)
Emergency fund.......................... 50 (for bike repair mainly)
Gym membership.......................... 42.93 (I go to the gym up to 5 times a week)

Total monthly expenses.................. 1504.25

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 180000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 180000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 50000....(0)........0 (not writing the monthly as rent will cover it)
Total secured & HP debts...... 50000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds loan....................15000.....328.4.....10.7
Barclays loan..................15000.....319.......9.7
Open University................650.......91........8
Total unsecured debts..........30650.....738.4.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,528
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,504.25
Available for debt repayments........... 2,023.75
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 738.4
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,285.35

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 180,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -50,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,650
Net Assets.............................. 99,350
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.[/font]

kavics17

We have decent salaries and I try to do babysittings once a week to get some extra cash but so far the summer has been very quiet, I guess families are all away on holiday.

My main problem is OH and that's why the ride will be bumpy. I have my MSE hat on but he doesn't, not always. He is really good at not spending money on unnecessary things but can be quite bossy about the usual staff . He works 4 days a week and is usually at home on Wednesdays-he tends to do our top-up shop then but never manages to buy only what is on the list (which is milk and bread and maybe yoghurt), he always leaves £20 in the shop. We have plenty of tuna salads and chopped tomatoes in the cupboard but if he sees them on sale, he buys them. I just counted at the weekend, we have 13 tuna salads/cans and appr. 20 coke cans (he is an addict:p). The main problem is that I am not able to do the top-up shop and though at the weekend we stick to our shopping list, he always causes troubles on Wednesdays.

My OH is horrible about returning items-he does it all the time. Buys things than returns them, than buys them again, meanwhile I am very straightforward meaning I never return anything:D. For this reason I am going to do a massive ebay clearout-I promise, I promise that I will not buy anything until I sell something! I have plenty of tops, skirts, shoes, no need anymore but if I really want to have one than I will sell one.

So the challenges for the next couple of weeks (before I start OU again) are:

x sell at least 20 items on ebay
x sort out the books/cds/dvds
x try to book as many family visits as possible for next year while it's cheap (usually around £40 each for flights)
x never spend more than £1 on shampoos/conditioners/ antiprespirants/etc.

What I need to do this week:
x do kitchen design and ask for quotes from different companies
x contact lawyer
x contact tenants to be
x sort out the will-ment to do it ages ago but keep putting it off
x do magazine subscription (if I buy it every month than it's cheaper if I just subscribe)

missymoo81

Yaaay I found you, going to read then post again, just had to say hello on your lovely shiney diary!!!:j:T

xx

kavics17

Hi Missy,

welcome!!!
xx

missymoo81

Congratulations on your house purchase hun, so pleased for you! And it looks as though you have it all worked out money wise. You are terribly organised too, well done you.:T I will be reading with interest, so excited for you!!:j

x

kavics17

Thanks Missy,

I am not so excited though as we won't be living in it for a while-it's in a small town quite far from London. But hey, all for a good cause. We want to settle down there once we have our little one(s) , until than it's all debt busting!

yukkibear

Good luck on your journey.

kavics17

Thanks Yukkibear.

Yaaawwwn... Morning again. Spent an hour yesterday on the phone with dell, my recently purchased laptop (after the previous one blew up) is already playing up, let's hope that the problem will be fixed today. Tried to sort out the new kitchen as well yesterday, we are not even closer to the solution- the prices we got are way too expensive. So phone calls are in order once again.

kavics17

Ok, a quick to do (must do I say) list for today:

x magazine subscription
x call MNT about passing exam or not
x upload photos on photobox/facebook
x send photos to family
x email furniture company
x do 5 competitions
x buy oatibix
x call embassy
x email estate agent with details
x book spinning class
x check bank account

Different_Corner

Morning Kavics
I love the story of your returning items and how you and OH are at complete opposite ends. I personally loathe taking things back, probably why I have so much stuffed at the bottom of the wardrobe.
Good luck with it all today.