This diary is THE diary...get wed and debt free in 2 years???

vasseur

You're doing really - if I could throw £600 pm at my debts I would be ecstatic.

Well done on sorting the band for the engagement party, what a result that is!

PennyCounter

Congratulations on your engagement!! It's great you have something so positive to look forward to. Sounds like you've got the right attitude to hitting your targets. Best of luck. And enjoy that engagement party!

goingontoolong

Thanks very much for the votes of confidence!

I am going to join a couple of the challenges I think, the grocery challenge will certainly be a good start! plus make £10 a day (perhaps I can aim for £20!!)
Ebay is also going to get a good workout lol

Xmas.....that's something I need to think about! I try to buy things throughout the months that are good deals that I can keep for when the time comes, got some good deals off the grabbitt board last year and did xmas for about £250 for DS, 6 siblings and parents. Really great I think and I intend to hit the same kind of target again.

I have some giant change tubs in my bedroom, and my local RBS has a change machine that pays the money into your bank account for you, so I think I might do that and then start a sealed pot challenge. DS has £23 in his from chores and errands, birthday money etc so he is a bit of an ispiration lol

RoxieW

Hello! I'm currently doing the £10 a day challenge and have hit target this month therefore earning enough to pay the balance on our holiday! It's great for keeping me motivated.
Were doing similar to you. We have a £3k overdraft that we ar trying to clear by cutting back and upping our income. Have a read through my diary if you want
So excited for you for the wedding. We got married in2007 and I loved the preparations. But 20k is a huge budget! How many people are you catering for? I understand you don't want any regrets about the day but also you don't want to get carried away and regret spending all that money. We did ours on 8 k although we only had 50 day guests and then another 50 evening guests. It's all about deciding what is important to you. We only wanted to invite people that we actually knew and cared about (our rule of thumb is whether we bother sending them a Xmas card or ever visiting them lol) but we wanted to spoil those people with a delicious meal, champagne, drinks etc. I wanted beautiful flowers but I wast fussed for a fancy car to take me the 2 min drive from the hotel to the town hall. There are lots of ways to save money - homemade favours, shopping around for decorations etc. I wouldn't recommend doing your own flowers as it is something that has to be done pretty last minute and that's not what you want on the day - more stress. We used the same flowers for different venues/ times of day to keep costs down. I also supplied my own ikea vases. Another thing we did was cut out favours altogether after going to a wedding where there were wrappers littering up the lovely tables. Just bear in mind that could happen with lottery tickets when people have done with them. Just a few thought
good luck in this exciting time anyway! Hope everything goes well for you!

goingontoolong

Thanks for the suggestions Roxie, much appreciated.

To be honest £20k is not what we are going to spend...its how much we can save in 24 months if we meet our targets, pay the other debts and keep what would have been the payments for them aside, I am hoping for half that at the most including a kick !!! honeymoon!

I would love for ours to be quite a small affair, but OH has a large family, 5 siblings, each with other halfs and children, so that's 20 people. My family isn't that much smaller either lol plus with our parents being separated and having partners themselves, we are talking 50 people before close friends come too!!

One thing I have decided is that partners (other than siblings/parents) are not invited to the daytime/meal. I refuse to spend £40 on someone's tea, who I have only met once or twice! That will hopefully, in turn, reduce the number of children that are there too, cos there will be a babysitter!

I am having 6 bridesmaids, and he is having 6 ushers, but that it the only other people at the wedding who are not related to us! Having a close family is great, but it sucks when it means that EVERYONE has to go lol

we think there will be about 70 in total during the day, including children etc. Increasing to about 200 at night, however we are keeping that at the same place, not paying a bar bill, and get the buffet half price because we have had the main meal there, so not too bad!

about £3500 for the meals, drinks, buffet and venue for 75 daytime and 200 evening, probably the best we are going to get lol

I was worrying about the flowers and I may well change my mind, but there would really only be the bouquets and the corsages to do. we don't want tons of flowers about the place, the room that the ceremony will be held in is lavish enough and I dont want to detract from it!

That's a good point about the favours, I do like the idea of giving something though so I am dithering a little about it! hmmmm I do like an idea that I saw on one website, making little colouring books for the kids and giving them with a pack of crayons as favours. Keep them occupied for the speeches and stuff!

Still no mystery shops, which really sucks! its really frustrating lol there's always tons when I can't be bothered!!

bouncydog1

Congratulations! One of the nicest weddings I went to was where nearly everybody had helped the bride and groom put the day together because they didn't have a lot of money to spend.

One friend made the dress (fabulous silk affair), another the cake, others hand made the invites and orders of service. Another found two fantastic cars through family members. Somebody else did the photos. About 80 close friends and family to the church and afternoon and only immediate family children. If people were offended too bad! More friends came along in the evening and I doubt that the total cost was over £5k.

£20k is a huge amount to even consider spending for one day and I know that you say you won't but it is easy to get carried away - you don't want to have a fab day and still be in debt for it the day after!

RoxieW

goingontoolong wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions Roxie, much appreciated.

To be honest £20k is not what we are going to spend...its how much we can save in 24 months if we meet our targets, pay the other debts and keep what would have been the payments for them aside, I am hoping for half that at the most including a kick !!! honeymoon!

I would love for ours to be quite a small affair, but OH has a large family, 5 siblings, each with other halfs and children, so that's 20 people. My family isn't that much smaller either lol plus with our parents being separated and having partners themselves, we are talking 50 people before close friends come too!!

One thing I have decided is that partners (other than siblings/parents) are not invited to the daytime/meal. I refuse to spend £40 on someone's tea, who I have only met once or twice! That will hopefully, in turn, reduce the number of children that are there too, cos there will be a babysitter!

I am having 6 bridesmaids, and he is having 6 ushers, but that it the only other people at the wedding who are not related to us! Having a close family is great, but it sucks when it means that EVERYONE has to go lol

we think there will be about 70 in total during the day, including children etc. Increasing to about 200 at night, however we are keeping that at the same place, not paying a bar bill, and get the buffet half price because we have had the main meal there, so not too bad!

about £3500 for the meals, drinks, buffet and venue for 75 daytime and 200 evening, probably the best we are going to get lol

I was worrying about the flowers and I may well change my mind, but there would really only be the bouquets and the corsages to do. we don't want tons of flowers about the place, the room that the ceremony will be held in is lavish enough and I dont want to detract from it!

That's a good point about the favours, I do like the idea of giving something though so I am dithering a little about it! hmmmm I do like an idea that I saw on one website, making little colouring books for the kids and giving them with a pack of crayons as favours. Keep them occupied for the speeches and stuff!

Still no mystery shops, which really sucks! its really frustrating lol there's always tons when I can't be bothered!!

Hiya

One wedding we went to had a kids table which worked great as it kept all the mess to one corner lol!
I on the other hand had a no kids rule which proved to be contentious but it worked for us. No partners is also contentious but I think its reasonable if you havent met the person. We avoided that problem as we had just close family friends so it stands to reason that we already knew their partners reasonably well. Be prepared for people to not like the idea of coming on their own though!
I differed about flowers but tbh I was so glad that I had them as they were simply beautiful. We kept it reined in though with vases on tables and just a couple of statement vases - long vases i bought myself (ikea again lol) with just one long stem. Simple but effective. Its individual preference though. I couldnt do without flowers but i did without a band for example. Some good advice I got was to list your priorities in order. (Ps - another thought - as we had bought the vases we let people close to us each take a vase of flowers away with them as a gift - double whammy lol).

I think 10K is a reasonable budget including honeymoon. Im sure you can have a wonderful day on that

goingontoolong

a table for the kids sounds great! We dont think we can vetoe them given that we have one ourself lol, but definately having them all together would be ace!

The partner thing sounds simple enough, but a few of our friends change partners more than I change my knickers lol

We are calling in favours for a few bits of the wedding, but have budgeted as though none of them will happen, just in case. I dont want to assume that people will say yes when we ask, so that will definately cut down on the expenses. My auntie has agreed to make the cake, and one of my bridesmaids has a cousin who is a beautician. She has told me that as a wedding gift, she will get all my beauty stuff done, tan, eyebrow, waxing, nails, the works.

OH's sister is a hairdresser and I am really hoping that she will do my hair, both colour and cut beforehand, and the style on the day but she is the type who will offer if she wants to iykwim, if we ask her it will be a downright no lol

I have managed to get 3 mystery shops tomorrow, so that will be £30 when it comes through, yay!

Been looking online and have decided to make my own centrepieces, have seen some really nice ideas, and Ikea sounds like a plan for the vases!

goingontoolong

oooh, also, now that Te5co Clubcard have added my leftover points, we have enough money for our rings from goldsmiths, we should also be able to save enough for using the max (£1400) on our honeymoon with virgin holidays. yippeeee! x

goingontoolong

I thought that I would put my SOA up here as well, given that I am trying to bust the debts as well as pay the wedding.

So my 20k target is for paying these debts aswell (except for the mortgage. leaving 10k for the wedding and honeymoon)

I have left some fields blank, because Im really not sure what the totals are, will need to keep a spending diary to be really sure. Things like haircuts and the likes do not happen monthly, and my income tends to be higher than the amount declared with overtime and stuff.

The main thing that we need to cut down on is the mobile phones. I am going to go PAYG as soon as I am out of contract with mine, which will save about £20 a month and I am hoping that OH will do the same with his, saving another £30.

Here it is!

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.................... 0
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 880 (child tax and DLA for my son)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3080
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 635
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 239
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 16
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 90
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 80
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 68
Childcare/nursery....................... 440
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5
Buildings insurance..................... 45
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 5
Other insurance......................... 13.9
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Total monthly expenses.................. 2041.9

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 100000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 100000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 100000...(635)......5.2
Secured Debt.................. 9000.....(239)......7.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 109000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Credit Card..............600.......30........12.9
Total unsecured debts..........600.......30........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,080
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,041.9
Available for debt repayments........... 1,038.1
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 30
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,008.1
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 100,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -109,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -600
Net Assets.............................. -9,600
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

It is telling me that I have money to play with, and that is usually true, although not as much as it is saying above (I wish! :rotfl:)
If I am frugal enough and bring in enough surplus money, we should be able to smash the target of putting £1k a month into debts and savings.

Ooooooh, seeing it on 'paper' makes it seem much more possible. Now to sew up the hole in my pocket that all this dosh seems to be falling through! :A