LooseCannon's DF Diary

savingholmes

LooseCannon wrote: »

At long last here is my SOA (been at the folks for the afternoon)

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 300
Benefits................................ 300
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3100
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 755
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 75
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 131
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 77
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 51 would a meter be cheaper
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55 I personally would look to reduce this - perhaps drop down to a lower level or move to payg
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 90 This would go for me - we just use freeview - and buy box sets of fave series for xmas or birthday If you dropped this down to the £20 basic package you would save £70 a month or approx £840 a year which would make a massive difference to your debt free date
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 I'm as bad or worse than this however some people do manage to feed a family our size for £200 pcm or less
Clothing................................ 75 Can you get some clothes secondhand, from friends, ebay, stop buying for a bit?
Petrol/diesel........................... 70
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 20
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 35
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 33 - what is this for - can you use the prescription prepayment for the year - £10 a month approx
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 49.99 we now pay less than half this... when its next due buy via a cashback site like quidco - review what you would claim for in practice and I bet you can halve this. This would save £250-300 per year just there
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 35
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40 Try the Make £10 a day challenge to earn money for this and/or look at the up your income board
Haircuts................................ 30 I think this is reasonable but just check out whether you could get it cheaper thro mobile hairdresser or other means
Entertainment........................... 150 I do think with kids you need some money in for this - however look at whether you can earn extra dosh to fund this and then target the money you were originally spending from your wages towards your debts
Holiday................................. 0 I would however put some money in this at least for days out during the summer. We got 2 free holidays from doing surveys when we first joined MSE
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2187.36

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 175000
Shares and bonds........................ 400
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 178400

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 138831...(755)......0 What is your APR is this the best deal you can get? Are you in a position to move your mortgage if you wanted to?
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 967......(75).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 139798....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................7046.26...158.5.....0
virgin.........................5253.17...52.53.....24.9
santander 1....................3965......0.........0
santander 2....................2029......0.........30
Total unsecured debts..........18293.43..211.03....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,100
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,187.36
Available for debt repayments........... 912.64
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 211.03
Amount left after debt repayments....... 701.61
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 178,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -139,798
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,293.43
Net Assets.............................. 20,308.57

I've tried to make some comments... I would definitely try and move your debt to 0% cards if you can - preferably via a cashback site like quidco - and that way you get paid to save money :rotfl:When I read Martin's book we moved over £24K of debt to 0% successfully. That was life transforming for us

LooseCannon_2

Hi Sydney Bean thanks for your post. And thank you savingholmes. Some awesome comments and I really like how you have agreed with some of the amounts too. I shall spend some time later going through your comments and respond.

But for now, I'm off to the gym........(some free weights in my garage!haha)

wannapayoff

savingholmes wrote: »

I've tried to make some comments... I would definitely try and move your debt to 0% cards if you can - preferably via a cashback site like quidco - and that way you get paid to save money :rotfl:When I read Martin's book we moved over £24K of debt to 0% successfully. That was life transforming for us

Some really awesome suggestions! may take a reality check on my outgoings this week

wannapayoff

LooseCannon wrote: »

Well today im off to work which is a challenge in itself these days! Ive been mulling over leaving my job to form a limtied company of my own. It is much more money but with my debts at the moment im a bit reluctant to be honest.

Anyway thats a whole new diary! today I am concentrating on moving my virgin card as the 0% finishes soon, and moving the santander balance that isnt 0%. I have enough credit on an old halifax card that has a 0% offer on and my DW has enough on her barclaycard at 0% for my the virgin.

I have also started a spending diary, one for me, and one for dw. will see what results they bring!

Thanks for commenting on my diary... I agree with the whole 0% BT's, may take a weight off your mind avoiding interest on your CC's.

Can you start preparing your company idea, or start doing it in you free time? (If you have any spare time)...

As soon as you start paying back with overpayments, no matter how small, you will feel positive, each payment is that step closer to where you want to be! it will push you to keep going.. since I've discovered these forums I've made some big AND some small changes and they're already paying off... wish you every luck :T

LooseCannon_2

Good morning,

I still need to go through savingholmes comments but wanted to say hi. feeling good today.

Also,

just as a little fantasy I played with the mortgage overpayment calculator last night, and did you know.... If I overpay my credit cards by 400 a month (which is the plan once my budget is sorted),then when they are paid off in 3 years time I'll be used to paying 700 a month (400 plus 300min repayments) so If I then overpaid my mortgage.... it'll be clear in 10 years!!! that'll mean i went from 20k plus 138000k mortgage to zero in 13 years!!

oh it is good to dream...........

LooseCannon_2

Got to admit, im completely cheesed off. Bored at work having done nothing all day (should be a good thing!), and got a weekend of diy ahead. I knew I'd get like this, done the easy bit of doing a budget and long term plan, now the hard stuff of living to it and going through all my bills to try and get them cheaper and I keep putting them off.

LondonGirl252

Hey LooseCannon

You've had some great adivce from the others on your SOA. For me, the spending diary was a real awakener, seeing how much I wasted each month filled in the gaps on my SOA. That led me to enforce my £10 a day rule and it has really made me change the way I think about spending money - hopefully it will last!

anyway, I have subscribed and intend to lurk here and give you the kick you need occasionaly if you will do the same for me

Is the wife on board?

turbo.jet

Keep up the focus. I know what you mean, the 'getting it all straight' bit is easy, but it will be hard to keep up the momentum for however long it is until your debt-free-day.

Just on that, you said you aren't happy with your debt-free-date, but keep in mind, this is how it stands now. This is the maximum time you'll be in debt, if you keep paying as much as you do now. What you can do is now focus on how much you can reduce this date by. Little things you do to increase how much you pay, when entered into the calculator, show the effect on your DFD. This can be very motivating, and it becomes like a game. A game you will be happy playing until your DFD arrives.

Good luck! I'm subscribing and will be watching with interest (pardon the pun)