Walby1993's determined diary to become debt-free!

walby1993

Hi all,

I am fairly new to the MSE forums but am very addicted! The reason - I had my LB moment just before Christmas and am absolutely determined to actively try and become debt-free instead of drifting along thinking I will get there one day!

So a little but about me - I am 24, engaged, own a one bed flat with my fiance. I have a hectic 2011 ahead - trying to make good progress towards being DF, as well as planning a wedding (May 2011 - can't wait!) and trying to get through my first year as a teacher! :eek:

So you can see there is plenty to keep me busy! In terms of debt, we started the year with the following:
Main Loan: £8,793.61
Wedding Loan: £5,000.00
CC1: £938.21
CC2: 550.65
OH Overdraft: £3,177.31
Grand Total: £18,459.78 :eek:

My motivation to be DF? To be in a good financial position to start a family!

walby1993

Afternoon all,

Yesterday I gave an overview of where we started the year at. Now for an update of what we have done since!

H2b and I applied for a loan to cover our main loan, cc debts and overdraft. I know it seems silly to get a loan when the aim is to be debt free but the reason was that the new loan's interest rate is lower than all the other things we have used it for. Our repayments are £50 a month less and we are actually paying the overdraft off rather than just paying the interest charges.

Also, aiming to reduce food bill to £150 a month on average (was previously spending about £210 per month). Although we have so far reached a spend of £192 this does include two months worth of chicken and mince which we buy from Makro as it is cheaper than Tescos, and £30 alcohol which H2b got told off for buying but it will probably last him all year. I think we could have a much lower total next month - about £120 if we be careful.

H2b has made £106.58 on Ebay this month (thats pure profit after paying ebay charges and postage) and recieved £81.08 from an old phone! :rotfl:

I am anticipating at least a £150 left over this month but that will have to go into the honeymoon fund I am afraid! But the sooner that is saved up for the sooner we can start paying off the debt!

Will post SOA before the end of this week.

walby1993

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,630.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709.20
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.06
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127.71
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.60
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,630.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,327.69

walby1993

Hi all,

So SOA is now posted. Any ideas for areas for improvement would be much appreciated!

H2b car broke down at the weekend so had to get it fixed today (was a problem with the cars computer system so couldn't really DIY this time!) which cost £213... So at the moment it looks like absolute maximum underspend this month will be £100

Deeperblue

Hi Walby1993 :wave:

I'm fairly new to starting debt busting and diary writing too so thought I would come say hi

Congratulations on the wedding, how amazing and exciting :T I love weddings. Have you decided where your going to honeymoon yet?

I've never thought of going to Makros for meat... I was going to try costco but I think I'll try there too as meats so expensive if you can just get that a bit cheaper I find it really brings down your monthly food budget.

Really sucks about the car Is it just me or do cars never break in a cheap way?

Re: your SOA
I'm no expert but the things that stood out to me were -

Do you know the %APRs for your debts? It makes a big difference if you pay off the higher rates first.

I don't have gas in my house, but it seems a little high compared to what I see in some SOA's, have you done the price comparison things with it?

I know people would say £280 for fuel seems high, but then... I spend loads on it too :rotfl: not really much getting out of it if it's just commuting.

Your car insurance seems massive, even for two cars... even for 3 cars! Have you compared this?

Hope some of this helps. fI you want your SOA thoroughly looked at by the experienced guys it may be worth posting in on the main board.

Good luck with getting debt free!

~ D.B. ~

walby1993

Hi DB,

Thanks for your reply. Yes it is all very exciting at the minute although we seem to have lost all spare time at the weekends! We have both always dreamed of going to Italy and seeing all the sites. Having had a look round we think we can have a two-week honeymoon (1 week sightseeing and 1 week beach) for about £3,500 inc spending money.

I kind of would rather pay off the debts quicker but I know if we don't go on the honeymoon asap we will never do it and I don't think it would be the same two years + after the wedding.

Cars always seem to break down when you can least afford it as well (or when you have started to try and save money or pay off debts!) :mad:

We now have two loans - one for £13,000 at 12.9% and one for £5,000 at 11.9% so only a smallish difference but nevertheless we will be aiming to clear the bigger loan first. Not only that but it will free up up £290 a month in repayments compared to only freeing up £110 a month with the smaller loan.

No, I haven't compared prices so will have a look around to see if we can get it any cheaper elsewhere. That amount is my DD amount based on previous usuage. I am hoping to bring it down anyway as we have Gas central heating and last winter I was naughty and kept the heating up at 25c but this year I have been good and limited myself to 22c as well as putting the heating on a timer each night instead of leaving it on all night! :T

Most of our fuel usuage is communting too! I only drive a little Corsa so its fairly fuel efficient but I work 28miles away from home. That means during term-time I use about £155 fuel a month :eek: (although when I am off I use about £5 per week, if that). OH is an electrician so has to drive about for his job. He does get a bit of fuel allowance from work but not enough really, which is an ongoing argument with the boss....

I pay £42 a month and had to shop about for that. I was paying £40 a month, and despite not making any claims, Directline wanted me to pay £48 a month!!! :mad: OH did do a bit of shopping about but not as much as me so I will make sure he does! I don't know why his is so expensive - he has never had an accident in 6 years of driving and drives a sensible car not a boy racer one!

Oooo, also just remembered, we have an appointment with the bank tomorrow to see if we can reduce our mortgage repayments - I personally think a rate of 6.99% is a rip - off and I don't want to be paying £710 a month for a one bed flat! So fingers crossed!:o

Thanks for your help DB!!!

debtfreewannabe321

HI Walby, I also thought the car insurance was high but nothing else really stood out to me. I know what you mean about cars breaking down just when you don't need them too! My hubby works away and as soon as he went on a 3 months stint the car died, Argh! such a pain and the only credit card we had managed to pay off had to be used on the car!

I don't blame you for saving for a honeymoon but perhaps you can get the costs down for that by shopping around a bit? I'm still waiting for my honey moon 3 years on nearly....lol

Good luck with the budget i still need to do mine, preferably before monday which is pay day!

walby1993

Hi DFW321,

Any sign of a honeymoon on the horizon then? H2b's workmate's girlfriend works for a holiday company and is going to see if she can get us a cheaper deal so fingers crossed for that!

Will definately shop around for car insurance again when they come up for renewal. Only problem is I am quite picky about who I go with - I had a car accident 6 years ago and the company I was with were useless so only go with companies with a good reputation now.

Cars are probably our 2nd biggest outgoing after the mortgage - a total of about £475 a month :eek: but public transport to my work would cost more than petrol and it would be impractical for h2b to carry tools, ladder etc around on public transport.

Had an appointment with the bank this morning regarding remortgaging - we have been approved in principle and so long as it all goes through (fingers crossed) we will be saving about £105 a month on that :j which we can then plough into becoming debt-free!

debtfreewannabe321

Oh wow! Great news...have my fingers crossed that it goes through for you - that's a big amount to save on what you were paying!
And we are going to take a holiday later this year- but we will have 3 kids in tow- not exactly the honeymoon i had dreamed of lol !!

walby1993

Ah, well hopefully you will have some alone time - the children will probably be so knackered from the fresh air that they will go to sleep early. Then again so might you be!

debtfreewannabe321

LOL yes i can just well imagine the holiday already, i'll be falling asleep well before them just like at home! We have a new plan now, a 7 day holiday somewhere with the kids and perhaps a 3/4 day romantic get away for just us (hoping for somewhere hot and abroad) will prob end up in a caravan in skegness knowing my luck though ha