Debtfree by Sept 2009

weegie-dfw

Hello there,

I've been around this forum for a number of months and been using many of the useful tips to try and get myself debt free. I've done my SOA, I came up with a plan, made great headway and then work was quiet at the end of the year so started using the credit cards again and have ended up almost back at square one (still £1000 less in debt than 6 months ago).

I've also been trying to help my other half with his finances, as he has a couple of credit cards that have been hammered this last year to. As we are planning to get married we thought it would be best to look at our finances together and see how we could help each other out - this was in October and time seems to have flown by. However there was a new development today, in that I calculated our combined debt, outgoings, expected income (we are both self-employed so variable).

I have put all the debt through the snowball calculator which has given us a debt free date of September 2009.

Our SOA is
Mortgage £305
Council Tax £134
Gas/ Electricity £60
Phone & Internet £27.99
House Insurance £50 (hopefully coming down in February)
Mobiles £115 (for both - high I know but should come down at the end of January as I can change my contract)
Food £150
Essentials £30 (toiletries, household stuff)
Health Insurance £26.99 - this is a bargin because I got the 6 months gym membership free
Car Insurance £31
NI £20
Student Loan £24
Travel £140
Socialising £172
Total £1283.98

Debt
Loan £295
BoS CC £47
Beneficial CC £35
A and L £60
MBNA £45
Littlewoods £15
Next £20
Lloyds TSB CC £229
Egg CC £70
Total Debt repayments £817
Total Expenditure = £2100.98

Income
Me - part-time job = £765
Me - Company = £700 (estimated)
OH - Freelance = £950
Total Income £2415

Balance = £314.02

This surplus £314.02, is going towards the snowball calculator (£200) and the other £100 gives us a little leyway incase we don't manage our income target or something else comes up (car expenses or other repairs)

I've joined quidco already, mystery shopper site to. I'm going to put some stuff on ebay and have some books that can go to amazon. Which will hopefully help towards our target.:beer:

I'm also working flat out this month so should mean abit more in the kitty!

Wish us luck!

MushyPeas

Good luck!!

gallygirl

Hello & welcome!!!!

Few points on SOA - nothing for TV licence, birthdays, Xmas, car and house repairs,clothes, haircuts etc. These WILL happen whether you budget for them or not!!!!:D Look through bills and ccards etc for last year, estimate an amount for this and put this away every month. Although in many ways it doesn't make sense to have savings while you're in debt this is a way to budget in advance which should help the peaks and troughs of your income.

You haven't posted the interest rats on your debts - I assume you know these & put them in the snowball?

Socialising is very high. The quicker you get out of debt the sooner you can get on with your life. Bung an extra £100 a month through the snowball calculator. How much interest does that save you? How many months off debt free date? Now decide what you think socialising budget should be.

Well done for taking bull by the horns!!!! Good luck!

justruth

I agree, you could try looking at cheaper ways to socalise, eg all meeting at someones home once a month, bring a bottle? Also your food bill looksquite high for two people, I'm sure with a bit of Old Style forum influence you could get that down some. Your gas and electric look high to me too, Uswitch for the best deal then become eco warriors, switching everything off at the plug at night, ES Light bulbs, turning the heating down etc.

What's the deal with the travel? That seems a lot, is that the cheapest public transport or are you running cars?

If you could pull back a couple of hundred pounds a month I'm sure yourdebt free date will be so much sooner!

weegie-dfw

Thank you for all your support. Socialising has cut back considerably - due to the nature of mine and my partner's work we are required to be out and about in order to generate more work, it's actually only £20 each per week which probably brings in at least another £150 each through chance opportunities.

I forgot about the TV licence because we just paid it last month - I was thinking that the extra £100 from the £314 surplus could cover b.days etc - I try to make presents when I can so this saves abit.

I wasn't sure about the food bill, I'm going to keep a diary this next month so that I've got a more accurate idea of what we really need to spend (we've wasted a lot the last couple of months). I'm looking into cheaper gas & electricity.

Unfortunately the travel is unavoidable due to the nature of our work as well and we do a lot of it. It is a combination of public transport when possible and the car. Need the car because a lot of the work is also rural or at unsociable times. I should explain we are both musicians, and I also run my own arts company, hence high mobile, travel & socialising.

However the upside is that my other half tours around 5 months of the year during which time he is getting the majority of his meals paid etc. So the food bill will come down, also just got heating fixed so those bills should come down along with the milder weather.

The other good news is that I've just filled in my travel expense form for work and it will cover the lloyds tsb card this month which means we can put that money towards one of the higher rate cards!

Thank you again.

taxi73

I just wanted to say hi and welcome...you are in the right place and are doing the right things ..the 0s boards are fantastic and it's surprising how much you can save...I too used to spend loads on shopping and was forever throwing stuff out...I've got that much stuff in I've been doing storecupboard challenge since october:rotfl: :rotfl: so have only spent a little each week on essentials thus being able to pay some more debt:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

justruth

Quality you seem to have thing sorted some then, are there any other opportunities to work that you're missing out on? Eg teaching (yes I know it's frustratng when you go over the same stuff) but that could add some? Or does that not work with being away 5 months of the year?

moozie_2

Hello there

Well done on getting all the finances together and working as a team. I find that helps tremendously

weegie-dfw wrote:

Our SOA is
Mortgage £305
Council Tax £134
Gas/ Electricity £60 Can you get this any cheaper? https://www.uswitch.com for comparison
Phone & Internet £27.99 I know you can get this marginally cheaper but not by much
House Insurance £50 (hopefully coming down in February) Is this content and building? You could half this when you can change!Mobiles £115 (for both - high I know but should come down at the end of January as I can change my contract) You said it...
Food £150 How many is this for? We spend this on two of us, with lots of [STRIKE]freeloaders[/STRIKE] relatives coming for meals
Essentials £30 (toiletries, household stuff)
Health Insurance £26.99 - this is a bargin because I got the 6 months gym membership free
Car Insurance £31 £372 a year is high. Are you very young or had claims?
NI £20
Student Loan £24
Travel £140 Can this be reduced at all?
Socialising £172 Ditto
Total £1283.98
What about petrol, car tax, other car costs, water, presents, haircuts, clothes etc etc? You must include everything to get the full and accurate picture of your finances. Otherwise you will always be spending on things you have not accounted for.

Debt
Loan £295
BoS CC £47
Beneficial CC £35
A and L £60
MBNA £45
Littlewoods £15
Next £20
Lloyds TSB CC £229
Egg CC £70
Total Debt repayments £817
Total Expenditure = £2100.98

Income
Me - part-time job = £765
Me - Company = £700 (estimated)
OH - Freelance = £950
Total Income £2415

Balance = £314.02 Do you actually have this every month? If not, time to look deeper into where your money goes. I find a spending diary helps no end in identifying spending patterns and setting your mind straight about where your money goes. It all adds up!

This surplus £314.02, is going towards the snowball calculator (£200) and the other £100 gives us a little leyway incase we don't manage our income target or something else comes up (car expenses or other repairs)

I've joined quidco already, mystery shopper site to. I'm going to put some stuff on ebay and have some books that can go to amazon. Which will hopefully help towards our target.:beer: Great!:beer:

I'm also working flat out this month so should mean abit more in the kitty!

Wish us luck!

The very best of luck!

weegie-dfw

Good morning.

We both teach (in fact OH heading off this evening for a weekend of teaching), so we are going look out for more students and opportunities. Also as project management is my thing - I'm looking into setting up some weekend workshops which should bring in an extra couple of hundred every few months.

I'm going to keep a spending diary to get the full picture of what we do spend, I know there will be unexpected expenditure but if we can aim for this then it will be a huge step forward.

It's very difficult for us to estimate travel, food and income because no two months are the same, in fact no two weeks are the same! So these are all educated estimates. I'll post a new soa in a months time once we have been through the diary.

Cheers

weegie-dfw

Good Morning! Made another little bit of progress over the weekend by putting all OH's bank and credit card statements in order and calculating how much he can claim back on bank charges. So the first letter will go away this week. He will also do his tax return and hopefully will be due a rebate as his income is down a little bit last year.

He was also working all weekend and managed to sell 12 CD's so another couple and we can paid the record company and then the rest of the profit is his!

I'm setting some targets for the 8th February.
£100 -ebay target
£1000 cleared from the debt.

So far today I've paid £295 to BoS Loan.

weegie-dfw

Step forward with the ebay challenge - I have listed four items that should get me started.

This evening my plan is to get the letter ready to reclaim OH's bank charges, and email some companies with my CV for some extra work.

Edit: Now calculated the charges, letter written, envelope address just waiting on OH to come home and sign it!