Chasing the debt free daydream...

Winnie_in_Pooh

Hi Guys :hello:

I've been a member of this site in various guises for quite a few years now and I usually just lurk and take inspiration and absorb information and try to apply it to my life on my own. I don't think that's working anymore and I have more reason than ever to need it to work so here I am!

Little bit about me - I'm 29, married to fabtastic DH, we have DS1 who is 10 and DS2 is incoming (T minus 14 weeks )! We share our house with a slightly mad doggles and a cat who think he's Dr Evil.

DH works full time, I usually work part time in the local shop and we get some tax credits and a bit of maintenance from DS1's dad. Unfortunately at the moment due to pregnancy complications I'm signed off and only getting SSP so our income has taken a bit of a bashing and its only going to get harder when SSP ends and maternity pay starts. I'll post up an SOA in a mo - please feel free to rip it to shreads!

We have around £25,000 worth of debt. About half of that is a car loan and the other half is with various debt collectors. The car loan ends in July 2014 and the daydream is to clear the whole lot by this date. Snowball unfortunately doesn't agree and wants to add over 2 years to that target :eek: so we need a plan.

We've been saving very hard to buy all the bits of baby equipment we need, with the help of the inspirational Payment a Day thread. It's been this thread that has given me what I can only call my "renewed lbm"! It occured to me that we could buy our children all the nice, shiny and ultimately useless "stuff" in the world but how much better would it be for them to learn from parents who have financial freedom?

So this diary is going to be about chasing the daydream, to make it a reality, to create a better future for my family

DebtFree2012

Hi and welcome.

Good luck with your DF journey. We have similar amounts of debt and similar situations so I will be watching with interest.

Take Care.

Winnie_in_Pooh

Voila! One SOA for your perusal! Don't be gentle, please

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................ 320
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1260
Benefits................................ 380
Other income............................ 100
Total monthly income.................... 2060
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 270
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 308
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 85
Electricity............................. 46.5
Gas..................................... 46.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 60
Telephone (land line)................... 12.5
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 33.5
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 175
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 96
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 29
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 19
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 15
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1533.12

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 105000...(270)......2.85
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8000.....(308)......9
Total secured & HP debts...... 113000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HFC............................200.......22.18.....23
Tesco Loan.....................7500......146.......7.9
Clarity (HSBC).................400.......25........0
Orange.........................500.......5.........0
Black Horse ...................5000......25........0
Westcot (Abbey)................2000......25........0
Capquest (CapOne)..............1100......15........0
1st Credit (Abbey).............600.......10........0
BCW (Provident)................650.......5.........0
Total unsecured debts..........17950.....278.18....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,060
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,533.12
Available for debt repayments........... 526.88
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 278.18
Amount left after debt repayments....... 248.7
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -113,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,950
Net Assets.............................. 7,050
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Winnie_in_Pooh

Thanks DebtFree2012! Best of luck to you too!

My first thought on my own SOA is that I need to keep a spending diary and see where that surplus goes!

Hovel_lady

Hello Winnie in Pooh (like the name!)

Just dropping in to say hello and wish you luck.
Do keep a spending diary - it's really useful.
Looking at your SoA you have some spare cash after paying for everything - can you use this towards the debt? Or do you need to get things for the baby?
Car insurance seems high.
Keep us updated

Winnie_in_Pooh

Hovel_lady wrote: »

Hello Winnie in Pooh (like the name!)

Just dropping in to say hello and wish you luck.
Do keep a spending diary - it's really useful.
Looking at your SoA you have some spare cash after paying for everything - can you use this towards the debt? Or do you need to get things for the baby?
Car insurance seems high.
Keep us updated

Hi Hovel Lady!

Thank you for the good luck! We definitely need to keep a spending diary as we generally don't actually have the spare cash that the SOA shows. I think we have just about everything for the baby now, we have fantastic family who have helped us out a lot. If we can identify where the spare is falling, there is no reason it can't go directly to the debt.

Car insurance is the bane of my life, we have two cars and two policies - I'd love to get rid of one of them completely. May have to revisit this idea with DH....

DebtFree2012

Hiya hun

Are you on a water metre? Those rates seem high?
Also mobile phone charges are quite high compared to others I have seen? I have PAYG so I can't compare to my own, assuming yours is contract?

Ooh how exciting that baby is due soon - my son turned one recently and my daughter is 4. Best thing ever! It's amazing what we did without this time round without feeling like I had done without. You're lucky to have a family around you too.

i am starting to use my diary as a spending diary too - need to see it in black and white what i spent it on. - can shame myself into not spending again!

Keep posting - it's a great place to keep you focused.

x x x

Winnie_in_Pooh

DebtFree2012 wrote: »

Hiya hun

Are you on a water metre? Those rates seem high?
Also mobile phone charges are quite high compared to others I have seen? I have PAYG so I can't compare to my own, assuming yours is contract?

Ooh how exciting that baby is due soon - my son turned one recently and my daughter is 4. Best thing ever! It's amazing what we did without this time round without feeling like I had done without. You're lucky to have a family around you too.

i am starting to use my diary as a spending diary too - need to see it in black and white what i spent it on. - can shame myself into not spending again!

Keep posting - it's a great place to keep you focused.

x x x

Hi again DF

Thanks for your feedback!

I'm in Cornwall, we have the highest water rates in the country and the water metre calculator thing doesn't think we'd be any better off with one so I'm kinda stuck with that one

The mobile bill is for 3 phones, DH has his fancy pants expensive contract (which he does use TBF to him), my contract which is £15 a month and then PAYG for DS. I am hoping to reduce this a bit when DH's comes up for renewal because he now has a work phone that reduces his personal useage a bit. Must check the dates on that!

I'm so excited about the baby coming! Never thought I'd have another one so he's a bit of a surprise but very much wanted ! We really are lucky with regards to our family, they're a fab and talented bunch!

We already keep all our receipts, and I do try to collate them once a month just before payday so I can see where we've wasted money. It seems to be groceries and fuel that are just bleeding us dry. We use our cars so sparingly already (just for DH to get to work and to take DS to school and back) and near enough everything we eat is Tesco value - where on earth do you go when value is unaffordable?!? Also DS1 is coeliac so feeding him is tricky enough at the best of times poor mite!

Oh well, need to send DH to Tesco on his way home for breakfast cereal and something for tea but after that this weekend should be one with no spends :j

never_too_old

Good morning,
ive met you on the pad forum and got notification this morning you had started a diary, so ive now subscribed,
I wont be one for given too much financial advice as i will leave that to people that know what they are talking about.
Have you looked at the coupon forum, this is saving me a fortune,im saving mostly on cleaning products and toiletries but this means you can reduce your grocery bills and that money can be focused eleswhere.I look out for the glitches, superdrug deals etc. ssm credit crunch coupons.Imdesperate to be debt free and mortgage free .

So good luck and i will be here spurring you on.:T

Winnie_in_Pooh

Morning all and welcome aboard l.m.hart! I just love the PAD thread, I find it really keeps me focused!

Well we didn't manage a no-spend weekend, not even sure it counts as a low spend one! DS1's football training started again so we had to pay £15 for his insurance and kit hire for the year (his father is supposed to pay all football related costs but never does ) then we needed milk, dog food and various other stuff so ended up doing a trolley dash with our last £20! I really hate the weekend before payday! On the up side, we used the time to have a Harry Potter marathon with a cheap bag of popcorn! I'm being very careful to spend lots of time with DS1 before bubs arrives - he's had me to himself for most of his life and I really don't want him to feel pushed out.

Lots of things to do today - DH got a speeding fine so I need to find the cheque book and send off £60 for that :mad: and then I want to tidy up the bank accounts and get rid of all the old direct debits etc. Want to dig out the energy monitor thingy Eon sent me and keep an eye on our useage as our bills have increased since I've been at home all day. Also need a trip to B&Q for paint for the nursery and I need to sort through DS1's old toys ready to do a car boot sale at the weekend or bung on ebay. Need to book DH's car in for its MOT and service and then need to work out how to pay for it (£280 :eek:)!

Of course all of that is dependent on Octopus Baby letting me get out of bed, which he's not been very keen on for most of this weekend! Ah well, only 13 weeks to go !!

DebtFree2012

Hiya hun

There's a thread called something like "where do we go from value" which is really interesting - haven't got time to look for it now but will try later for you.

I had an awful spending w/e - ashamed! Wasted money on takeaway amongst other things.

x x x