Winnie wants out of the Pooh!

Winnie_in_Pooh

Hi Everyone!

My name is Winnie, I'm 29, live with wonderful DH, DS who is 10 and we've just found out I have a 4 week old bean in my belly and whilst we are over the moon we have also gone into meltdown with worry!

The first hurdle for us is completely out of our control - 4 weeks is very early - so we're praying for a sticky bean and the next 8 weeks cannot pass fast enough for me!

So, we're going to concentrate on what we can fix. Our financial situation, our house, our lovely (but untrained) doggles to mention but a few!

The reason I've decided to keep a diary is because I so often have a head full of ideas, schemes, plans etc and I think I need to share these and get feedback in order to try and actually put a plan into action rather than just jump to the next thing without making any progress!

As of today, I'm not certain what our financial situation is . I know we have two incomes together with tax credits and child benefit. I know we have a small amount of mortgage arrears with an arrangement to pay and about £18k of debt that we are managing and about £5k that we're not. We've looked into setting up a DMP but think we've decided against it because we have no arrears on the £18k and we can afford to make sensible offers to the other debts to make a start clearing them.

We also need to save. I know its never a great idea to try to save when you have debts, but we need to prepare for bean's arrival in October. And not just necessary baby kit. We need to change our house from a 2 to a 3 bedroom. We also need to invest in a baby friendly car, instead of the coupe with limited boot space we currently have! I would guess we need a minumum of £5k.....:eek:

I also turn 30 a few days before bean is due and I've always dreamt of being debt free by 30......

We've both got Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work so we're going to sit and trawl through all the paperwork then, and then I'll post a SOA for you wonderful peeps to rip to shreads !

Thanks for reading xxx

dollybeads

Good luck to you and congratulations (if its not too early) on the new bean.

Look forward to seeing your SOA.

Dolly x

Double_Trouble

Congratulations can't think of a better reason to get your life in order

DTxx

Winnie_in_Pooh

Thanks Dolly and DT!! Couldn't agree more on the reason to sort my life out - its certainly about time I took the bull by the horns and grew up.

It's DH's payday today so I'm going to clear the council tax arrears so we can start the new tax year with a clean slate got to say I'm loving the whole "clean slate" idea, definitely a fab aim all round!

Had a bit of unexpected good news yesterday, DH's work is hoping to give a 2.5% payrise as of 15th April now my maths is appalling (probably the reason we're in this mess ) so I can't work out how much that is in real terms but I figure its better than the 0% we were expecting!

Off to spend the morning wading through the mountains of information on maternity pay - not sure if its just me but it just seems totally unnecessarily complicated. I'm sure I'm entitled to it because I've worked at my current job for over a year but my boss is a bit, erm, pedantic (not to mention tight) so I need to look at it from his point of view too. I know its a bit early but mid term planning REALLY needs to become part of my life declutter!

Really looking forward to tomorrow too, can't remember the last time me and DH had a proper pow wow. Probably yet another reason we're in this mess :rotfl: got to giggle at it, otherwise I'd cry !

mummychicken

Hi Winnie and welcome,
I am new to the forum too but already find it a great incentive to tackling the awful debts looming over me. I think it will take me until Dec 2013 to be debt free, sounds a lifetime away but gotta have something to aim for !!

Winnie_in_Pooh

Hi Mummychicken!

You'll have an amazing Christmas in 2013 for sure! It really is great to have something to aim for! I've no idea whether its even vaguely realistic to be debt free before bean arrives, but if we can clear the £5kish that we've fallen off the wagon with I'll be really pleased! The £18k is a car loan and a personal loan both of which end in 2013 I think so Xmas 2013 will hopefully be a brilliant one in the Pooh household too!

xxx

Winnie_in_Pooh

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,666.25
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). . . . . . . . . . . 411.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
CSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.25
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.39
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.75
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.50
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.99
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,187.92

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,882.92

Winnie_in_Pooh

Ok, there it is, one SOA! Happily a surplus of £305 which is great and much better than I thought (must keep a spending diary!) but we have a couple of old debts which we're currently not paying anything towards which needs to be sorted out from this amount. They are relatively small, one for approx £450 to HSBC the other £1,000 to Crabby (both old overdrafts with no interest being applied) so I think if we throw £100 a month at these two and try to save £200 a month for the next 7 or 8 months then we should have plenty of pennies for baby kit and house alterations and HSBC and Crabby should be all but gone.

Any input on the SOA will be very much appreciated !