Debt Free By 30-ish Diary

bobbie78

After an insane few weeks trying to setup my LTD starting a new contract 2 hour drive away, staying in b&b's and getting an understanding of cash flowing the wrong way I am back to being slightly more organised. But only slightly. Once I get the money start to come in from this contract a lot of the huge outflow of money will start building up in my account again but business insurance etc is expensive and all needed up front which has been fun.

Anyway. I don't have a full breakdown this month - even though the update is late, but basically it stands at :-

Debt total on 01/01/07 29311.23
Debt total on 01/03/07 27324.11
Total debt today :- 26647.05

So amount paid off this month 677.06

Not amazing but in 30-40 days I plan to have enough to pay off one of the loans in total and get things on a more even keel over this month, if I can ever sort my accountant out enough to get the bank account etc sorted.

kiwigirl

Hi Bobbie,

You're a few months younger than me so I wish you luck with your challenge.

Just a word of advice for you though, I had the Barclays pay monthly account a few years ago and I thought the only thing I was getting from it was the recovery and thought it wasn't worth it paying about £150 for that through it, took out what I was led to believe was the same cover via Green Flag (GF) direct and downgraded my account to basic again. That was about 18 months ago.

Live in Wales and have travelled since that time mainly on my own to following places, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford, Peterborough, Warwick, Wiltshire * 2, Thames Valley all thinking if my car brakes down it's covered. Well this weekend it broke down 3 of us, about 200 miles from home, luckily we'd booked a hotel and called GF, imagine my horror when they informed me that they'd come and see what was wrong with my car and take it to a garage 10 miles away if needed repairing (which it does - I'll have a large bill on it by looks of it). I've only got the basic cover :eek: . Tried my parents RAC cover - which is the same tow to garage 10 miles away (policy brought via my brother who thought he was fully covered)

Mum who has the cover through her bank account - they won't take that on my vehicle has to be hers (which she's just sold). Mechanic came out, told us shouldn't drive car and prob cost £500 to take it home, could risk it and try and get closer to home cost less then - but could damage car more).

Luckily the next morning, I managed to upgrade my bank account (as I've been with them 29.5 years, mostly in credit) to get the recovery with the account and phoned GF and they picked up the car within 2 hours and drove it on low loader home for me free! Garage did phone and ask "didn't we come out to you last night?"

So moral of story is, please if you do travel a bit, make sure you are covered on recovery, we thought we'd be safe, and I did have a shock when I called to be told only basic with us, we won't take you home.

Don't start me off on agencies - I was working for 1 for 3 months before they offered me a job with them direct, could only pay x amount per hour though, which I said ok, then after signing contract showed them my agency wage slip - they were paying £12 per hour and I was getting around £7 that didn't include holiday, sick etc. Think I had 3 phone calls from the agency in all whilst I was there and had more when I asked for my P45!

Good luck with your debts,

KG

bobbie78

Well haven't been keeping up with this very well but that is due to cash flowing all the wrong way for the past few months setting up business. Now I have had some invoices paid there will be a big flow back the other way hopefully. I need to do a new SOA and re-calculate the exact total outstanding. I am also just about to buy a house but have worked out my debt free date will be in 2018 including the house if I keep things going as planed. So 6 months in and I've paid off approx 3k doesn't sound that impressive compared to some, but once I get all my expenses claimed back that should probably double, as long as the house doesn't cost me any more than budgeted for in fees etc.

The main good thing is apart from the house I haven't bought anything new that has increased the debt, and have managed to pay for things like getting the car taxed and serviced out of the budget which I wouldn't have done a year ago, so things are on the right track. Just need to quit smoking again so I can add that money into overpaying the debts instead.

Debt total on 01/01/07 29311.23
Total debt today :- 26260.18

bobbie78

Well it will be time to change the debt diary name as I exchanged on a house on the 18th of July, and should be getting the keys on the 27th :j so there is no way I will be debt free by my 30th.

I'm thinking of trying to pay everything off (including the mortgage) by my 40th instead as I've been inspired by dithering dad's 3 year mortgage challenge. I work in a similar field to DD, but not sap unfortunately, but due to craziness while trying to buy this house I have ended up on a contract as a Project Manager, which I probably wouldn't have applied for normally but was desperate. It has actually turned out though to be quite interesting seeing how the mangers live and realising I was right they do do nothing apart from meetings, but I guess it could open up some doors I hadn't considered.

Anyway, planning to do a new SOA in the next week or so to include insurances and mortgage etc instead of rent and things as it stands now just to see how skint I am. Pondering about how best to get some extra cash, can't decide between getting a temp evening job or trying to do extra work to get business going in the evenings, I think a mind numbing job might be better initially then once I finally get all my stuff moved and paid for all the new white goods etc then I can play about with websites instead of worrying about solicitors and estate agents which has been driving me nuts the past 10 weeks or so.

I should have been packing this weekend, but I did go to asda last night as I couldn't sleep, queued up for an hour paid my 5 quid then stayed up all night reading the stupid book. I won't say anything to spoil it, it is just mad as I'm not really a fan of the books just my crazy insomnia riddled brain a the moment.

Must remember to update my change jar challenge too.

bobbie78

New SOA to Include HOUSE stuff.

Income
salary + dividends - 2300 (ish need to chat to accountant to get this sorted out)
lodger (paid from November probably) 330 on rent a room scheme
Total income will be 2630

Outgoings
mortgage - 1060.23 (53.27 of that is the deposit loan part which is same apr as mortgage)
Halifax buildings and contents - 25.59 (includes having lodger and home office hence a bit higher)
hsa 17.99 (for dentist must actually get around to using this then cancel it)
ugc cinema unlimited pass - 10.99 (have to see if I go to the house enough to justify keeping this)
tmobile - 40 ish (expensive I know has about 6 months left till I can cancel)
xmas / birthdays 20
car maintenance 20
car tax 10 ( £115 / 12 ish)
car insurance 66 - due for renewal in September so will shop around then need one with business mileage included with 1 year no claims
food 100 (roughly need to confirm if I can do subsistence out of petty cash or not if I can this will reduce a lot more)
petrol 100
clothes 15
hair cuts 10
emergency fund 50 (this is me just wanting to build up a grand or 2 in savings as I'm a bit worried about the boiler and I've emptied all my reserves paying for the buying costs on the house)

subtotal 1545.80

fixed repayments

graduate loan - 172.69 (awaiting early settlement figure)
student loan - 100.18
student loan - 36.65
lloyds loan for car - 256.59
virgin cc min payment 5

total outgoings 2116.91

total income - total outgoings = 513.09 which will be used to pay off CC and loans early.

debts
Virgin card 0% till jan 08 - £8463.55 (as of June 27th)
Graduate Loan 7.9% - £1137.89 (need updated figures this is aprox)
Car Loan 9% - £11329.38 (need updated figures this is aprox)
Student loan 1999 - 3% - £1100.30 (need updated figures this is aprox)
Student Loans 00-02 - 3% £4919.10 (need updated figures this is aprox)
Northern Rock 6.35 % 8000 - secured loan running along side mortgage once it starts.

I need to sort out life insurance / critical illness and income protection today which will probably be about another 50 quid to add to outgoings but if I can get the graduate loan paid off in the next month or so that will give me the money from that to play with. Also I know it looks like I've forgotten utilities, tv licence, council tax and internet, but the way the house is going to work is the lodger is going to be paying the full amount of all of those bills for the next 12 months at least while I let them live there for hardly any rent so it evens out.

Are there any other house related costs or anything else obvious missing from my SOA that you can see please let me know.

bobbie78

I'm going to have to put a link in to the moozie weekly challenge here this week as this is a once in a lifetime weekly spend challenge I think.

bobbie78 wrote: »

ok this week I plan to spend 163250 (sorry couldn't resist) which is 160000 for the house, 1600 stamp duty, 800 ish solicitor fees (need to check exactly how much I owe them) 250ish on washing machine, dish washer and maybe tumble dryer and microwave too if I can get lucky on comet auctions. 600 on trip to euro disney for parents birthdays + wedding anniversary

the good part though is only 160000 of that is on credit the rest I have the cash saved for already I'll let you know if I over or underspend that next week :A

bobbie78

Well today has been a nsd and I haven't had a ciggy or starbucks for One day, 31 minutes and 18 seconds which is very good.

I forgot to ring lloyds in work hours to get my settlement figure on my graduate loan though which is a pain. I'm going to go have a read of the matched betting thread now to try and get my head around how that works as I've been meaning to for a while.

bobbie78

I can't believe it has been nearly 6 months since I last posted. Everything has been such a blur with house things and new job and commuting and things. I'm probably no further ahead than 6 months back as far as debt repayment goes but had to get a new boiler for the house probably a week after I predicted it's demise on here, and just haven't been as organised as I should be.

As my birthday is looming ominously on the horizon I still have a lot of this debt hanging over me which is stupid really as I have the ability to pay it off. I always swore that my outgoings wouldn't stretch to fit my new income, and I don't believe they have really I just have no idea what I'm spending again, which is just as bad, and I am still smoking and going to starbucks every day so I know I'm not doing as well as I should be.

So I am planning to set myself a new target, I want to be debt free including the mortgage by the time I'm 35. I had said 40 to my self the past few months but I'm not doing anything to work towards it, so I think 35 is a much more urgent date and still viable if I get myself back on track with things. So first step as always is the soa which I'll try and get done over the next day or so along with sorting out apr's etc then I can see how much actual cash I have, get a spending diary started and scare myself a bit with that. Having seen how well dithering dad has done on his challenge there is no reason why I can't do that too (even if my daily rate isn't quite as good as his yet

So rather being scared of my 30's and denying it is coming and burying my head in the sand, I'm going to grasp hold and make my 30's what my 20's should have been.

bobbie78

New SOA to Include HOUSE stuff.

Income
salary + dividends - 5000 (ish need to sort this out properly)

Total income will be 5000

Outgoings
mortgage - 1060.23 (53.27 of that is the deposit loan part which is same apr as mortgage)
Halifax buildings and contents - 25.59 (includes having lodger and home office hence a bit higher)
hsa 17.99 (for dentist must actually get around to using this then cancel it)
ugc cinema unlimited pass - 10.99 (must cancel as don't live near one i can go to now)
tmobile - 40 ish (expensive I know needs to be reviewed maybe o2 payg)
xmas / birthdays 20
car maintenance 20
car tax 10 ( £115 / 12 ish)
car insurance 50 - due for renewal in September so will shop around then need one with business mileage included with 2 year no claims
food 100 (roughly need to confirm with spending diary)
petrol 100 (probably a lot less as have travel card to get to work which is paid for through work)
clothes 35
hair cuts 10
emergency fund 50 (this is me just wanting to build up a grand or 2 in savings as I've emptied all my reserves paying for the buying costs on the house)
tv licence (oap in house I'm in so exempt)

subtotal 1549.80

fixed repayments

graduate loan - 172.69 (this is last payment I think woo hoo)
student loan - 100.18
student loan - 36.65
lloyds loan for car - 256.59
virgin cc min payment 50

total outgoings 2165.91 (From next month 1993.22 if that is last graduate loan payment woo hoo)

total income - total outgoings = 2834.09 which will be used to pay off CC and loans early.

debts
Virgin card 0% till jan 08 - £8463.55 (need to update as approx and pay off before end of month or switch cards)
Graduate Loan 7.9% - £1137.89 (I think there is only 1 payment left)
Car Loan 9% - £ 9509.54 (need updated figures this is approx)
Student loan 1999 - 3% - £1100.30 (need updated figures this is approx)
Student Loans 00-02 - 3% £4919.10 (need updated figures this is approx)
Northern Rock 6.35 % 8000 - secured loan running along side mortgage once it starts.


So I will have 2.5k to 3k a month (or maybe a bit more) if my current contract gets renewed in march for the next 6 months more so. Having a skimmed through my statements all that money since July has been going on white goods and furniture for the house, a new boiler, decorating, ps3 these kinds of things. Now I need to get things back under control, I'm not living beyond my means by any stretch yet but I'm still paying interest on things I don't need too if I knuckle down. So just need to sort out spending diary to see what I've missed of the soa I think

bobbie78

I'm thinking of doing the live on 4k challenge after reading through some of the ones that are running right now. So as a start for that and part spending diary here are today's amounts

coffee 3.50
ciggys 4.80

I'm going to try and be good tomorrow as I'm going out for lunch on Thursday and for drinks after work. Also as it is my birthday next week I have to buy my team lunch at work which is a tradition thing, everyone does it so that will be nearly 200 quid now I think which I don't think i can put on expenses. I'm also looking to go away for a few days for my birthday but haven't decided where or which deals to use yet, probably something from lastminute.com so i can use quidco but I'm still making my mind up about that.