Clippy's £11.5K challenge

clippy_girl

Now I am back from my lovely holiday to South America and have moved into my house, I feel a new diary is in order!

This one will be all about debt busting mainly as I have nothing to distract me now! If you are lacking anything better to do, my previous diary can be found here- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/35068927#Comment_35068927

Firstly, the figures-here is my SOA-

Income-
Wages- £1167
Rent from lodger- £340
Total- £1507

Outgoings-
hair cut

20

food

80

petrol

80

presents- bday & xmas

24

dad s/o

188

water meter

35

tv (initial payments until april then £12)

24

gas & elec

60

contact lenses

15

mppi

29

gym (contract till april)

47

mortgage

590

council tax (will go to £100 in april)

116

mobile (contract until may)

45

sky

31.5

weekly spends

160

Total

1544.5

Means I am minus £37 each month!
Unfortunately this shows a negative figure as my council tax and tv licence are currently higher each month now. These will go down in April. I will be drastically cutting my mobile contact in may as I get free evening and weekend calls on my sky package. I am considering giving up my gym membership in april when it runs out but I do really love swimming. Cant really use the public pool as it has swimming lessons after work and only one lane. Plus it is dirty and too small. If I pay for any swimming it will be at the gym!

I give myself £40 per week to spend on everything. This includes any clothes, toiletries, re-heeling shoes, general stuff, socialising etc… If I make this too low I know I won’t be able to stick to it. If I have any left over, coins will be going in my pots and notes will be paid back into my account to be used for debt busting at the end of the month.

Tbh I am more of make more money kinda gal rather than cutting back but I am trying to be both! Since my previous diary I have managed to cut my grocery spending to under £80 per month and still eat well.

My SOA is a bit misleading as it does not include my earnings from mystery shopping. I have not included these as it is not guaranteed and fluctuates. Perfect example- mays earnings £400, Novembers earnings £55!! I have not done much apart from regular audits in the last two months due to moving house and my holiday. I am now back and need to get cracking! I should be able to easily get £200 per month as I never went below this prior to then. However I would like to aim for £300 each month.

More about my debts

Dad took out a loan for me when I finished uni as it was a better rate than my career development loan. I pay £188 per month to him and it is due to be cleared April 2013. I WILL have it cleared before then. This is interest free as dad paid it off in full when he was made redundant. currently owe £5452

I borrowed £1600 for my South America trip which I need to pay back ASAP. This is also interest free.

I owe £500 of my graduate overdraft. Interest free until June 2011 so will be repaid then.

I also borrowed £4015 off mum to buy stuff I needed for the house and to clear a credit card I had. This is also 0% and mum wants it when I have repaid dad.

Obviously I am very lucky it is all 0% and will not result in me losing house etc..

Order is-

continue to pay dad £188 for large debt and the others as follows-

£1600 loan
£500 0verdraft
rest of dad loan
mum loan

Plan to follow....

clippy_girl

master plan

So plan was do as much MS as possible to pay the debts of in the above order. As things such as my tax bill (for MS) come up, I would pay them off using the extra money I earn. Getting a pay rise in about april at work which is backdated to Sept. :jSo will get about £130 extra per month take home and about £700 hopefully in lump sum. So all good.
Bad news is my dept has had its budget cut so we are now at risk of redundancy. Won’t find out till next year. Also tax bill due about £200 in jan and only 1 MS booked for dec to pay for it! Boohoo me so will need to get some more pronto. :eek:
Have ebayed everything already so cant do that. Am going to start entering comps for cash and other stiff to sell to see how much I can raise. :cool:
If I still have my job I should get another payrise of £130 per month either Oct 2011 or April 2012. So fingers crossed. :beer:
Would love to pay off dad by December 2011 and mum April 2012. :DBit optimistic but there you go. As soon as that is repaid I am off on another long hol to either New Zealand or South America again. Difference is this time I will be debt free and will not not get in debt to go! So heres hoping! :A

clippy_girl

Non money plans

i have a few other things i would like to achieve-

learn to salsa and do argentine tango. lessons to commence jan 2011
stop earing so much junk, tone up!
finish doing up house (and not destroying walls as per today, oops )
not spend hours on here everynight! (sorry everyone but it is addictive!)
do a job each day, eg clean a room, sort paperwork etc.. so that weekends can be free (or spent doing more MS)
drool over holiday and spend two years planning! :rotfl:

gallygirl

Hello shiny new diary

I wondered what you would do instead of tidying up Are you really planning on paying me off 4 months after dad

SaZoom

Happy New Diary.

Doing a job each day so that weekends can be free is a great idea, might try that myself.

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary
Keep posting!

clippy_girl

so clippy has been a bad girl this week

spending been bad as had lots on. on tue i had my work xmas lunch (that i pay for), leaving drinks and then bingo! :eek:

did not win at bingo

been ill all week with a cold which shows no sign of improving

eaten lots of junk food :eek:

not done any household chores

so all in all a bad week

positive is that i have booked some MS to do, currently decembers total at £152 hopefully get that up a bit!

so plan for next few days-

fri- nothing as got friends jamie at home party afterwork. have already told her unlikely to buy anything as no money. have a big bottle of blue wkd i bought on a MS to take

sat- xmas shopping with friend. she has to leave early afternoon so i have 4 MS squuezed in. got a list of what i need to buy and try and stick to it. need to get shoes reheeled and buy a fused extension lead (i have one single power point in my room :eek:). then i am home to get ready and round hers for food and drink and then we are going out (belated bday drinks for her). not planning on spending too much

sun- one MS to do. need to seal shower as it is leaking (resulting in me having to pull a massive patch of plaster of wall and skirting board :eek:). also need to tidy room and clean ensuite. will try and build new bookcase in living room. also will put xmas tree up i think

two weeks tomorrow till payday. have full tank of petrol and £20 in food budget which should last. will try and keep spending down by not going out again to bingo until payday. got work night out on payday. tbh might not go bingo until after xmas now as getting boring as none of us have had even a small win for ages. even if i dont win i at least want my friends to!

beanielou

Dont nbeat yourself up too much.

gallygirl

clippy_girl wrote: »

so clippy has been a bad girl this week

spending been bad as had lots on. on tue i had my work xmas lunch (that i pay for), leaving drinks and then bingo! :eek:

did not win at bingo

been ill all week with a cold which shows no sign of improving

eaten lots of junk food :eek:

not done any household chores

so all in all a bad week

Bad Clippy

beanielou wrote: »

Dont nbeat yourself up too much.

Don't encourage her

Clippy - ask yourself - is xxxx really worth another week's delay on your next big holiday

clippy_girl

so had a productive two days. after work last night i ripped the shelfing unit down from the ensuite (literally ripped on shelf out the wall as could not get to the screw)!! then cleaned the ensuite. jamie at home party next and i only spent £2 on the draw, unfortunately i did not win it. did not buy anything else.

then crimbo shopping today. started off with my friend and did the bulk of it then put shopping in her car when she went and i did two MS. did not have time for the other 2 so doing them tomorrow. have come under budget on a few but over on mums!

on way bk went to pound shop for maskimg tape and they had anti mould sealant that does not need a gun for £1. have bought a tube and will be returning the £8 tube to b&Q!!!

off out tonight but we have agreed a limit of £30- once its gone we go home! i am going to have a cheap jan as we have agreed to stay in jan and cook and watch films to save cash and keep warm. i will prob carry that through feb as well!

need to add up spends tomoz (receipts in bags at hers). also putting tree up :xmastree:

gallygirl

clippy_girl wrote: »

have come under budget on a few but over on mums!

:kisses3::snow_laug:kisses3:But you know I'm worth it :rotfl: