No Debt, No Beer

InsertWittyName

I spent a lot of money :eek:
I drank a lot of beer :beer:

It's time to stop doing both.

I've pretty much on top of the finance side of things (the beer comes and goes but every day I try!).

I've cleared around £6k off my debts over the last few years without too much hardship, but want to be debt free ASAP.

Finished paying a £10k loan with Northern Rock in March, paid off Capital One this month and last HP payment next month!

Am snowballing after HP and all available funds will be thrown at the CC debts, starting with the Lloyds TSB CC.

Reading some of the other threads on here I know my debts are manageable compared to a lot of others, my heart truly goes out to those people.

Hoping the diary will help keep me motivated!

SOA below, with comments.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2 (7, 3)
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2560
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 176.87
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2736.87

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 271 (had to move in last few months for work, still have old house and it's legally 'complicated')
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 233
Rent.................................... 650 (reasonable for area)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 2.08 (£25 PA for old house)
Council tax............................. 187 (£101 + £86, both correct bands)
Electricity............................. 40 (Switch in progress, should take it down to £30)
Gas..................................... 38 (Switch in progress, should take it down to £30)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 23.35 (metered)
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 15 (OH sim only deal)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 (Sky Line Rental, Internet & lowest TV package)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 (Working on cutting this down!)
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 20 (Only required journeys)
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 51 (Just renewed, cheapest I could get, just hit 4 years NCD)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50 (Dinner money for DS, Healthy snack money for DD)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 (Get dental cover from work for free)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 37 (B&C for both properties)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0 (Get life assurance & critical illness cover for me & OH from work for free)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2067.43


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 70000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 73000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 39852....(271)......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 233......(233)......17 (1 payment away from actually owning the car!)
Total secured & HP debts...... 40085.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds TSB CC..................2901......84........29.9 (3k limit)
Barclaycard CC.................2234......60........15.3 (4.3k limit)
Cahoot CC......................1836......60........15.9 (2k limit)
Santander Loan.................3740......94........21.08 (can't overpay!)
Halifax CC.....................5565......125.......29.9 (5.75k limit)
Halifax Overdraft..............1500......31........0 (1.5k limit)
Dad............................700.......0.........0 (was rent deposit for new house, Dad not in any rush for it back)
Capital One Card...............0.........0.........29.9 (paid this off this month!)
Total unsecured debts..........18476.....454.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,736.87
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,067.43
Available for debt repayments........... 669.44
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 454
Amount left after debt repayments....... 215.44 (we have this if I don't drink!)

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 73,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -40,085
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,349
Net Assets.............................. 14,566

Enjoy the journey!

Total debt on 31/08/2011: £17,930.56

InsertWittyName

My aims are to be completely debt free by my 35th birthday (March 2014).

The legal complications around the old house are that the mortgage and deeds are in both mine & my ex-OH's name (whom I haven't seen for a number of years). After I free a little money up after paying off the HP I'll be contacting a solicitor to sort that mess out - the property has also been empty for a number of years. It takes up nearly £400 of my monthly budget and it has to go!.

We've not missed a payment on any of the debt ever (which was very very hard some months ), so we're in pretty good standing with the CRA's, just a high amount of borrowing and a high percentage of borrowing vs. limits which stops us from getting new 0% BT cards to transfer the debt to. Aim to make a dent in these too so can hopefully throw some of the debt on 0% cards within the next year.

On holiday from work for the rest of the week and have just packaged up some items we sold on Ebay, will be posting them tomorrow - £52 for the pot!

InsertWittyName

Well today was a NSD as was yesterday and no beer either! :j

Made an awesome HM cottage pie for dinner that everyone enjoyed.

Gonna be a SD tomorrow as I have to pay for the Ebay items to be posted and pick up a few essentials (bread, milk, butter etc.), although I'll try and keep the 'essentials' to real 'essentials' and not be tempted by the beer that's likely on offer

crazyguy

Dont drink beer then drink wine instead

InsertWittyName

Thanks for the suggestion crazyguy, but it's anything with alcohol that's my vice - it's all got to stop!

crazyguy

You could take up a new hobbie then to fill in the gap from alcohol,

You could hoover the lawn, count people walking past your window, stand on your head, write a book about your previous life, stack crumbs, flash the postman, clean and polish your belly button, wash a tree, boil ice cream and teach your pet rock to play dead

InsertWittyName

As awesome as they all sound I'm gonna try and make DFW my new hobby.

InsertWittyName

Dropped Ebay items off for posting, cost £15.31 so made a very slight amount on top of the postage I charged.

Transferred the cash from Paypal to my bank account so that should be there in a few days.

Picked up the essentials (bread, milk, butter, oven chips, salad stuff etc.) and that came to £10.10 after a few BOGOF offers on bread and lettuce

Paid new car insurance deposit of £92.40, which I've factored into this month's budget.

All-in-all day is going ok, but a bit tired!

InsertWittyName

Weaning myself off the beer so last night ended up spending £11 on beer for me, wine for the OH and a chocolate bar each for the kids, whoops!

NSD today and rang Capital One to cancel the card. Cut it up and cancelled the DD for it.

Not gonna drink today and hopefully tomorrow but will be due another (hopefully reduced!) 'dose' on Friday...

InsertWittyName

Paypal money from Ebay came through, so that's £70.28 extra.

Also got a payment from iTunes of £22.44.

£92.72 extra added in total today which offsets the deposit paid for the car insurance!

Feeling the itch for a drink but hopeful I can make it to tomorrow.

NSD so far.

clippy_girl

hello,
one thing on your soa that looked high to me was sky. i also have line rental, internet, cheapest tv and also i think pay £5 for a call package and mine is about £38.50 per month. thats just the price it was, didnt haggle etc... so i would check that you are not being overcharged (unless you have hd)