Bit of a setback :(

lizbristol

Just had a frustrating realisation - I've miscalculated my debts and repayments slightly, so it means that my DFD is actually Jan 2013, rather than Sept 2012 in time for my wedding. Boooo!

I'd got so excited about getting debt free for that date, that it's a real disappointment to realise it's going to take a bit longer than I thought.

On the plus side, now that I'm nearly 4 weeks in to my new 'spending regime', I'm getting used to it - I've been really strict with keeping a record of everything I spend in a spreadsheet.

Anyway, just wanted to vent that little frustration. Onwards and upwards!

backinbusiness

Make a game of bringing your debt free back to where you thought it was! Car boot. Ebay. Overtime. Whatever you like (legal!).

Shouldn't be impossible!

Best of luck OP.

BiB

lizbristol

Thanks BiB - what a great idea! I'll have a think about how I might be able to do it! Thanks for the encouragement

PS I also forgot to mention, I bought some hair dye yesterday (shop own brand, of course!) and dyed my hair back to its natural colour, to save money on getting highlights which cost a fortune. I was very pleased with myself for that cunning money-saving plan! I figured I can go back to blonde in time for the wedding

mmummy21

I agree with the making it a game bringing it back to your original date.

We need to either increase your income - eBay, carboots, online reviews/surveys, an extra part-time job etc. or decrease your outgoings. Maybe join in some of the challenges - no spend days, grocery budget? Will your car insurance or something be cheaper next year? Downgrade mobile phone package? I will have a look to see if you have posted your SOA and see if I can suggest anything! xx

lizbristol

Thanks for the input - there may well be things I haven't thought of that will help me save more money. Will do an updated SOA based on my new budget and post it up here - comments welcome!

cattyboo

Don't be disheartened you'll get there! As long as you're chipping away at it you're heading in the right direction Keep up the good work! :j

C xx

Debt_free_by_2012

lizbristol wrote: »

I also forgot to mention, I bought some hair dye yesterday (shop own brand, of course!) and dyed my hair back to its natural colour, to save money on getting highlights which cost a fortune. I was very pleased with myself for that cunning money-saving plan! I figured I can go back to blonde in time for the wedding

I've done that too, i'm looking forward to a decent hairdo once debt free! Best of luck on clearing yours, fingers crossed for windfalls/bonuses to help you meet your original target!:j

lizbristol

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I've done another SOA, based on the budget that I've worked out for myself. It was the overdraft repayments that I was miscalculating - my plan was that in the first month I'd pay off my whopping £1000 tax bill (not listed here as I've done that, hooray!), in the second month pay off my £250 credit card, and from then on reduce the OD by £250 a month to clear it in 6 months (can you spot the fundamental maths flaw there?! Look, I was tired ok?!), then increase the parental repayments to £500 for the remaining 5 months before the wedding to get that cleared.

So because of the miscalculation on how long it would take to clear the OD, it will take another 6 months to clear the debt.

A couple of other things to mention about this SOA - the £400 I pay for rent goes into a separate 'house account', that covers all bills except council tax, which is why no bills are listed. My car is new (bought on HP) so no maintenance costs for a while yet - just car tax (only £35 a year!) and petrol at the moment. And of course the monthly repayment of £200.
I wasn't sure whether to list the car as an asset as I'm still paying it off - so I've listed the estimated resale price.

The £200 I've listed for entertainment is based on £50 cash per week, which I use for everything that's not on the list - so that's toiletries, any lunches etc I buy at work if I can't bring my own for some reason, as well as drinks with friends, the odd cinema trip etc. It sounds like a lot but I'm really trying to be good! Before I had my LBM a month ago, I was spending £100-200 a week on crap, including drinking too much. So I've cut down a lot - this is one or two nights of entertainment a week compared to pretty much every night before. However, I will take suggestions on board and if it will help significantly to cut this down, I'll do it.

Finally, it's worth noting that this is an ideal budget - there are going to be things that come up that I haven't anticipated, and as I'm on a fixed term contract at work I need to keep a bit of leeway in case I'm out of work for 2 weeks! So that's why I'm setting my OD repayments at a realistic level.

Any comments would be much appreciated!

*EDIT* - I forgot to say as well - my recalculated pay-offs are:
Oct 2011: Pay off Credit card
Nov 2011: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Dec 2011: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Jan 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Feb 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Mar 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Apr 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
May 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Jun 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Jul 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt
Aug 2012: Pay off £350 of OD and £200 of parental debt

This is suposed to be my DFD - but I'll stil have £2000 of parental debt to clear. So my total shortfall is £2000.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 200
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 60
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 30
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1148


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 6000.....(200)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 6000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................250.......10........0
Parental loan..................4000......200.......0
Overdraft......................3000......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........7250......210.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,148
Available for debt repayments........... 852
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 210
Amount left after debt repayments....... 642

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 6,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -6,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,250
Net Assets.............................. -7,250

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

cattyboo

I might be getting this wrong here (wouldn't be the first time believe me!) but it looks like your monthly debt repayments are £350 OD + £200 parental + £10 credit card = £560 and the amount available for debt repayments is £642, why not put the extra £82 towards paying off debts too? If you've got everything else covered- groceries, entertainment, bills etc- you may as well put any extra into chinking away at debt. Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick, maths isn't my strong point! :rotfl:

You could probably bring the general/entertainment budget down a bit but I'm not going to give you a hard time about it, I'm just the same as you, if you push yourself too far on a money diet you'll only end up on a binge again, just like if you try and give up chocolate completely and then scoff a whole 'share size' bar in one go! Your mobile phone contract might be able to be reduced, worth asking? Also you've not listed anything for gas and electricity, I'm assuming you have an expense there?

C xx

Marco_Panettone

How strict is the parental debt repayment? If you could suspend those repayments you could clear the credit card completely in month 1, then attack the overdraft with all of the £560 every month. That'll be cleared in 6 months leaving you with NO outside debts.

The parental loan could then be paid off at the £560 a month.

lizbristol

cattyboo wrote: »

You could probably bring the general/entertainment budget down a bit but I'm not going to give you a hard time about it, I'm just the same as you, if you push yourself too far on a money diet you'll only end up on a binge again, just like if you try and give up chocolate completely and then scoff a whole 'share size' bar in one go!

Haha so true!! :rotfl:

I've looked at the numbers again and you're both right, I think I can afford to pay off more than I've got budgeted here. I'd like to keep paying the parental debt back each month - I've got a SO set up for the £200 and I'd be happier if I could keep that going (my parents have been very generous while I've been bad with money, bailing me out all the time - it's quite important to me that they can see that I'm making a dent in the money I owe them).

As I mentioned in the edit above, I need to keep a little bit of leeway in my OD in case I find myself temorarily out of work. But if I'm strict with this budget, and I pay my CC off next month in full, in November I can start paying the OD off at £500pm and still have a spare £150 in the account each month in case of emergencies.

That will clear the OD by April, and will leave me with about £2800 left of the parental debt. That gives me 4 months to pay that back - which I could do if I increase the £200 monthly payment to £700 for those last 4 months.

All this just means that I'll have to be super-strict with sticking to my budget in order to pay everything off! Eek!

Thank you for the other suggestions too - I need to check how long I have left on my phone contract, but hopefully I can reduce that. My car insurance renewal date is Jan 2012, so I might be able to get that down soon too.

Feeling much more positive about this now - it's amazing how just facing up to debts can make you feel better. I'm now re-motivated to have as many NSDs as possible this month!