The dog will get the bone one day.........

Itsadogslife_2

Right then **rolls sleeves up** this time it is serious! I have been a member here since 2006 and have lurked and loitered on lots of threads but never had one of my own. I have hinted at the amount but have never posted my SOA or openly stated my debt amount for fear of being recognised (one of those useless people that use the same username for everything), and if my family or friends found out the amounts owed they would be furious, worried sick, disappointed any of the above. So in an effort to tackle this problem, I have taken the bull by the horns, have created myself a new account and will be shortly compiling a SOA and admitting to the world the horrendous debts that our household has. As a guesstimate I would pluck the figure out of thin air of £40,000 :eek: which includes overdrafts and a family loan too.

I think I feel slightly better just for saying that out loud! I want to use this diary as somewhere to keep a spending diary, keep a note of the progress and how the debts come down, to vent, to generally air ideas and opinions. I have taken inspiration from the diaries that I have subscribed to on here, but am embarrassed that lots of those people are now debt free and are working towards being mortgage free and savings.

The royal "we" consists of me and hubby and our 6 year old daughter, we live in the Midlands and my best friend in the whole world would be my dog.

I love to read books, spend hours on this site and other forums and seem to have more "friends" in the virtual world than real life, which I sometimes think makes me a bit of a saddo.

Husband works full time and long hours, I work part time and run the house. Daughter is at school, dog is 9 years old and is an angel sent from heaven :A

Well that's a fair old chunk about me. I am going to go off now and see about doing a SOA although I am pretty sure that I have most things covered from that angle as I have been a member for so long

Anybody is welcome, the more the merrier. I only ask that you tell it to me straight if you think I am being a muppet - all opinions and experiences are greatly appreciated. :j

I feel better already :T

Itsadogslife_2

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2050
Benefits................................ 120
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2670

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 914
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 126
Electricity............................. 100
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 14
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 30
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1857.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 10000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 210000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 135000...(914)......6.49
Total secured & HP debts...... 135000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco credit card..............4000......90........19
M&S credit card................2900......80........3.9
mint...........................2950......80........0
Family loan....................3400......196.......0
overdraft (oh).................2450......40........0
virgin.........................5800......90........19
egg............................6000......100.......19.5
Halifax credit card............8000......150.......4.9
Mbna...........................2800......60........19
Total unsecured debts..........38300.....886.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,670
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,857.5
Available for debt repayments........... 812.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 886
Amount short for making debt repayments. -73.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 210,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -135,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -38,300
Net Assets.............................. 36,700
[/i]

Itsadogslife_2

Right I think I have put my SOA up. Some of the APRs on the credit cards are rough ideas but I am trying to shift them round at the moment so they are on lower APRs. We have in the past managed ok by moving them round once the balance transfer rate had expired but due to the clamp down, we are not being offered any special rates which has stuffed us up somewhat

I do the usual, ebaying where I can. We have downgraded on the shopping, I use quidco.

Having just recapped the SOA I have not made an allowance for another monthly outgoing that we have which is the caravan storage and insurance which is a total of £45.00. All of our holidays are in the caravan and is one of the biggest sources of pleasure in our life. We hardly go out, don't have take aways and I don't drink and neither of us smoke so our caravan is our only little financial vice.

ZTD

You don't seem to have anything in your SOA for either haircuts or buildings insurance. Is this counted elsewhere?

Is OH on-board with this?

Itsadogslife_2

My buildings insurance is a combined contents policy so I put the grand total under that, it is with More Than.

I have a friends sister cut my hair and it is just long and straight so I don't have to pay for fancy hairdos :cool:

Deeperblue

Hey dogslife

We seem to be in pretty similar situations... except I don't have a dog would love one though)... we're even in the midlands too Totally hear you about having more virtual friends than real ones lol I don't have any time (or money) for a social life any more.

Look forward to hearing more about you and well done for posting!

D.B.

KPR11

Hi Itsadogslife,

Well done on taking steps to tackle your debts.

Not much to add except:

1. At the moment you seem to have a shortfall so it can only mean more debt. Any chances you can up your income to cover the shortfall? Don't think cutting expenses is an option, unless you can reduce your housing costs, electricity maybe?

2. Have you snowballed your debts to ensure that all repayments and overpayments are optimized?

3. Any chance you can reduce the family loan repayment slightly so that you can up pay some of the debts at 19%?

Good luck on your debt free journey, you will get the bone(s) in no time :A

KPR

Itsadogslife_2

Yeah he is definitely on board albeit he doesn't worry about it as much as I do. He believes that most young families struggle when they have children as two full time wages become one and a half, and as we haven't defaulted and it is going down (again not by much) he would not lose sleep over it but thinks that it will all get paid eventually" He has an annoying way of discussing it, agreeing there is a problem, setting a plan in motion and then not wanting to go over it again and again. I am the opposite and find that keeping talking about it keeps me motivated whereby he finds it depressing to keep talking about it. He leaves most of the finances to me and generally just moves things around when I tell him to trusting that I have investigated where is the best place to move things to.

Itsadogslife_2

Thanks for the replies guys. My wages fluctuate as I work flexible hours so I have put the minimum amount in but this can sometimes be more. The loan to the family is set up on a standing order and there is about 16 months left. We have paid this without fail every month and they have therefore said that if we pay it until Christmas and then we can call it quits so we are extremely grateful for this and won't be doing anything to pee them off. It's another difficult one as again, asking them to reduce the payments would be giving an indication that we are struggling and I just don't want my family to know.

ZTD

Itsadogslife wrote: »

He has an annoying way of discussing it, agreeing there is a problem, setting a plan in motion and then not wanting to go over it again and again.

Yes, that is "the way of the man". Why blab endlessly over something that is no different from the last time it was blabbed endlessly over? If it changes, then he'll talk about it, otherwise...

Itsadogslife_2

ZTD wrote: »

Yes, that is "the way of the man". Why blab endlessly over something that is no different from the last time it was blabbed endlessly over? If it changes, then he'll talk about it, otherwise...

I think it must be written in their DNA..... :rotfl: