Earthmother's Diary

earthmother

Hope no-one minds - it's just to keep myself going and give me a visible progress record, you understand (was using my sig - but apparently it was disturbing the flow of the boards )

I pretty much know what to do - I've just got to keep myself from wandering, lol.

Started paying extra off the debts in September - we don't need to go the CCCS route, but at the same time don't want to still have this level of debt in years to come.

I worked out that throwing £10 a month extra at one debt, then carrying that payment over to the next debt when the first is cleared, will slash years off of our repayment periods - so that's what's happening.

We've also cut up one of our credit cards this month - there was only ever a small monthly amount available on it - if we can't manage without that we have problems - so we've forced the issue (and anyway - their CS is annoying - always has been).

Hoping to be in the position to do the same to the other two cards soon - but they're worth £100 a month between them in emergency spending power, so keeping hold of the safety net for the time being.

I've also recycled two new season catalogues without even opening them - so there's less temptation to spend.

anniestar

Fantastic. Well done and keep up the good work(sure you will)

babes21

That's great, hope everything goes well for you.

elantan

good luck with it all diaries are a great thing and handy to go back to look over when your feeling like your getting nowhere then you see what you have already achieved ..all the best

cattie1

well done and good luck

earthmother

Well - I'm updating - didn't realise it was so long since I started this

Within the next couple of weeks we'll have paid off the first (albeit small) debt.

A couple of the others have grown a bit over the last month as the kids went on a growth spurt, and we also needed a new single bed (and bedding for two) as hubby is finally getting his all singing all dancing bed from the OT.

With Christmas there was no spare cash around - but it's not out of control as I had some good codes, and this payoff covers the difference.

I've yet to recalculate my sig figures, but the general gist will be that whilst the overall debt is probably a bit more than before, there is one less creditor to pay, and we're not actually spending any more money than before.

Not great - but could be worse.

Will post a new SOA soon





Just noticed this is my 500th post - crikey - didn't realise I was that addicted :rotfl:

earthmother

Just realised the original SOA wasn't on this thread - so as @ 26.08.06 -

Income

Incapacity Benefit £633.19
D L A - Higher Rate - Care £266.18
Child Allowance £177.02
Invalid Care Allowance £203.45
Child Tax Credit £519.00
Housing Benefit £433.94

D L A - Higher Rate - Mobility - direct to Motability for car
Council Tax Benefit - direct to Council

Total Income (cash in hand) £2,232.77



Expenditure

Rent £600.00
Council Tax (after CTB, paid over 12 months) £29.00
Water £11.23 (expected to increase to approx £20 at next bill/meter reading)
Electric & Gas £125.00

Life Insurance £10.04
Contents Insurance £20.12

Talk Talk B/band Package (BB go live Sept) plus non-geo call allowance £25.00
Tiscali Broadband (will stop in Sept) £14.99
Postage, Stationery, etc £10.00
TV Licence (Cash Entry Scheme) £13.00
Sky (4 packs and 'plus') £28.00

Travel & Transport
Petrol £150.00
Car Maintenance £10.00
Towards Next Motability Vehicle £50.00

Food & Housekeeping:
Nappies for two £79.60
Food & Groceries £400.00
Tobacco £25.00

Ironing Service £10.00
Gardener £71.50 (part of rental agreement)

Footwear £40.00
Other clothing etc £10.00 (School uniform - everything else comes from credit accounts listed below)

Total Expenditure £1,732.48


Balance Available After Essential Expenditure £500.29

Payments on Debts (in order of interest rate)
Cap One MC £105.00
Next £15.00
Brantano/Duet £5.00
Aqua £30.00
cap One Visa £60.00
Kaleidoscope £25.00
Kays £100.00
Empire £75.00
La Redoute £25.00
Classic Combination £15.00 (My mums account, but my debt)

Grolier Thomas £3.99
Grolier Willows £4.75
Grolier Ladybird £2.99
Grolier Seuss £3.49

Total £470.22


Balance after all spending £30.07


With all the details/breakdown on this thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=251810

earthmother

New SOA as @ 31.12.06

Income

Incapacity Benefit £633.19
D L A - Higher Rate - Care £269.75
Child Allowance £177.02
Invalid Care Allowance £203.45
Child Tax Credit £519.00
Housing Benefit £482.52

D L A - Higher Rate - Mobility - direct to Motability for car
Council Tax Benefit - direct to Council

Total Income (cash in hand) £2,284.92



Expenditure

Rent £600.00 (increasing to £625 as @ 01.03.07)
Council Tax £0.00 (Paid for 2006/07 – 2007/08 expected to be approx £35-£40pcm)
Water £11.23 (expected to increase to approx £20 at next bill/meter reading)
Electric & Gas £125.00

Life Insurance £10.04
Contents Insurance £11.74 (would you believe with the same company as before, but online)
Additional insurances (mobility scooter, breakdown etc) £14.20

TalkTalk B/band Package plus non-geo call allowance £30.00
Mobile Top Ups £5.00
Postage, Stationery, etc £5.00
TV Licence (Cash Entry Scheme) £13.00
Sky (4 packs and 'plus') £28.00

Travel & Transport
Petrol £130.00
Car Maintenance £10.00
Towards Next Motability Vehicle £50.00

Food & Housekeeping:
Nappies for two £71.25
Food & Groceries £345.00
Tobacco £0.00 (hubby quit in October and so far so good)

Ironing Service £10.00
Gardener £71.50 (part of rental agreement)

Footwear £40.00
Other clothing etc £10.00 (School uniform - everything else comes from credit accounts listed below)
(Without credit options, clothes and footwear would be approx £185pcm)

Total Expenditure £1,590.96


Balance Available After Essential Expenditure £693.96

Payments on Debts (in order of interest rate) – some already increased past minimum to speed payment

Cap One MC £105.00
Next £35.00
Brantano/Duet £20.00 (one payment remaining)
Aqua £35.00
cap One Visa £60.00
Kaleidoscope £40.00
Kays £100.00
Empire £120.00
La Redoute £20.00
Classic Combination £15.00 (My mums account, but my debt)

Grolier Thomas £3.99
Grolier Willows £4.75
Grolier Ladybird £2.99
Grolier Seuss £3.49

Total £565.22


Balance after all spending £128.74
(less rent increase from March & CT from April)

gallygirl

Just a thought - I see you buy 'specialised toiletries', think I can guess what these are - did you know you can get these net of VAT?

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000184&propertyType=document

Section 10 gives the declaration you need to complete, but you might find the whole link useful. (sorry, am probably teaching granny to suck eggs)

I see this is your old SOA - huury up and tweak!!! - BB should be in place by now, plus did you have any success with contents etc?

If you want to keep credit cards for emergency use only why not put them in a bag and freeze them in water in the freezer - by the time they have thawed tempataion will have passed, but can still be used if needed.

re new bed etc - have you tried freecycle? Too late for bed, but useful for lots of stuff. Link here:

http://www.freecycle.org/display.php?region=United%20Kingdom#Leicestershire

There is a branch in Market Harborough, also Kettering would be worth joining.

Well done on 1 less debt!

earthmother

Thanks Ali

Most toiletries are specialised in so far as they are chemical free (sensitive skins etc) - but very few qualify for the VAT Exemption as they are not all for hubby. Thanks for the link though - keep meaning to look it up for reference use and forgetting.


Good idea with the credit cards - I'll see if I can sneak hubby's out of his wallet, lol

Already a freecycle member (of about 4 local groups). No joy on getting a new bed, or on rehoming some other items lately - must have been the wrong time of year.

Selling the old bedstead come the spring (let everyone recover from Christmas first, lol) - it was an expensive one from when money was better, and still immaculate - hope to get a few hundred for it, which'll clear another debt.

DawnW

If you do decide you want rid of credit cards (such as the one with the annoying CS) remember to cancel the account when you cut up the card. I believe that doing this can improve your credit file, as you (appear) to have not so much credit available to you when/if you make a new application, perhaps for a 0% card