Time to 'grow up' - the slippery slope to 30.

immoral_angeluk

Hello everyone.
I haven't posted in a diary for many years, but oh look, here I am again!


I am a single mother to two beautiful daughters. Well, I say single, in the government's eyes I am of course but I have a partner (Not the girls natural father) of 2 1/5 yrs now who we love dearly but we don't live together.

We live in a social rented house, and I work full time to support our little family. I can't talk about my job directly on here due to what I do (Nothing exciting I promise lol) but I have worked hard to get to where I am career wise and over the next few years me/my employers want to push me further which is part of the reason for me posting a new diary, as recent discussions have made me feel the need to reevaluate where my life is going over the next few years, and I saw a chance to make a plan of action for it.

I'm 26, and so am looking at where I want to be family/housing/career/finance wise in the next few years.

Housing:
Me/the girls want to move. Our current house is getting too small and I don't want to be in social housing forever and I would *like* to get on the property ladder. This however is a fairly mammoth task as a single parent and considering current deposits are at LEAST 10% this may well be impossible in my current circumstances.

There have been brief discussions with my partner about the possibility of moving in together at some point in the future, but no definites at the moment as he currently has a mortgage on his own place and obviously with me having 2 girls it would be a big leap for him especially to live with us (He'd have to be brave/crazy lol). So there's the possibility I suppose that at some point in the future that we could combine forces and buy a place together (Thinking long term here presuming he doesn't get sick of me before then :P).

Part of my housing plan therefore is to A) get a larger (3/4 bedroom, not a mansion :P) place more suitable for our family and start saving for a deposit, should I/we ever decide to buy a place.

Finance:
I have 4 main things financially that I need to sort out. They're not problems, don't get me wrong, and I'm not 'in debt' per se... for which I'm very fortunate to be able to say.
But none the less I want to pay off the following:

- Holiday: Myself, my girls and my best friend are going on a holiday next year. This is 90% paid off with only £360 remaining of the holiday balance (which needs to be paid by Jan 2012), and passports have been sorted already, so I will only need to save spending money and sort travel insurance/transport to and from the UK airport. This holiday has been paid for outright over the past 6 months by saving as I don't believe in taking out large debt for holidays/non essentials anymore.

- Car loan: I have an unsecured car loan which paid for my newest car (to replace a countless stream of bangers which fell apart..)and current balance outstanding roughly equates to the value of the car so I'm fairly happy with this even if it was at a higher % due to being low originally (5k) and being unsecured. I'm around 13 months into a 48 month agreement. Will get up to date balance and APR in a bit. Payments are £161pm which I can currently comfortably manage, but I want to pay it off ASAP and now drag it out to the full 4 years.

- Credit cards: I have 2 barclaycards thanks to Barclaycard buying out egg. I will update accurate balances in a bit but the larger card is mostly a low rate BT @ 6.9%. Having these credit cards bugs me as I keep paying them off but then they creep back up again slowly. Part of this is that I have suffered anxiety/depression in the past year and have a bit of a splurge on 'retail therapy' when I need a pick me up. Never large amounts, but of course £20/£30 here and there quickly adds up. I'm not excusing it, and am annoyed at myself for them going from £0 to having balances, but this is part of my grand plan...

- Savings/House deposit: I am going to need to save up money for moving costs/house deposit, whichever comes first. I realise that if I ever did want to get a mortgage the debt's going to have to go first, so my main priority I think is going to have to be getting that paid off and then saving I suppose...

Career:
I currently have very good career, with plenty of prospects, having progressed very quickly over the past 3 years from an unpaid to well paid position. My bosses are now asking me to progress to legal specialism/supervisor stage, which is going to involve a change in manner and further training (Hence the 'time to grow up' part of my title!) to get me to that. My bossess have said they fully expect to lose me within 3-5 years to a much higher role and as much as I love my job my career is something I've worked very hard towards and I've very lucky to be in a job I love, which gives something back to the community but is also incredibly challenging. Part of my gand plan is to now step myself up a level careerwise and start looking at ways I can earn more doing the job I do and love without A) sacrificing my integrity and ensuring I can still give back to the community. There's plenty of opportunity out there to earn more, but the job I do is more about helping out my fellow man with my knowledge than gaining money and status, and so it's something I'm keen to protect.

So far there, I guess I can summarise what I want to achieve into this:

Pay off holiday and raise spending money etc.
Pay off credit cards
Pay off car loan
Start raising funds for moving/house deposit
Start reevaluate career future and specialism.


I will get further details and post up my financial statement in a bit (don't even ask how many spreadsheets I have :P), but will leave it here for now as it's nearly the girls' bedtime .

Back in a bit, it feels weird to be back in diary land, so please be gentle

ZTD

Welcome back. :hello:

It's good to hear you're doing so well in your life.

Say hello to the straight and narrow...

immoral_angeluk

ZTD wrote: »

Welcome back. :hello:

It's good to hear you're doing so well in your life.

Say hello to the straight and narrow...

Hello stranger

It's been a funny 5 years!

ZTD

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Hello stranger

It's been a funny 5 years!

Has it been that long?! :eek::eek::eek:

immoral_angeluk

ZTD wrote: »

Has it been that long?! :eek::eek::eek:

Yea I joined in 2006! I've been seperated from the exhusband you met for 3 years! :eek:

immoral_angeluk

Righty then, some updates.

Holiday owing £360
CC 1 26.9% purchases :mad: 6.9% BT £1628
CC 2 21.9% £546
Catalogue (0% BNPL due May 2012) £373 No payments or interest at present 39.9% thereafter (but will be cleared before then.)
Car loan £3982 24.1% 3 years remaining

Total 'debt': £6889

immoral_angeluk

Income and expenditure...

Total monthly income inc benefits/maintenance/wages: £2620

Rent - £329
Council tax - £84
Water - £23.98
Gas/elec - £60 - recently switched/fixed rate
Tv/internet/phone - £70 - can't reduce til feb as in 12 month Hd contract
Tv licence - £12.37
Mobile - £30
Car insurance - £46 - recently renewed, could've gotten £3pm cheaper but with large upfront deposit so didn't bother switching.
Breakdown cover - £7.54 (I'm paranoid
Petrol - £130 average
Life insurance - £5 (death/critical illness for myself and daughters)
Charity - £2
Pet insurance - £6.41 (cheapest I could get when taken out a few months ago)
House insurance - £6.61 (didn't switch as wouldn't be able to get much cheaper, maybe 50p cheaper! lol)
0% finance - £51.50 (6 months spread payment on 0%, 5 months left)
Nursery fees - £300-500ish (varies dependant on month as also have to pay for holiday club during holidays.)
Food/housekeeping - £300pm (average £70pw)
Dance classes for me/girls - £86
Social/work lunches/anything else - £50
Savings - £268 (currently going towards holiday but otherwise goes into savings accounts for the girls)

CC1 £37.90 min
CC2 £14.52 min
Car loan £161

Total expenditure: £2275.22

Difference: £344 which goes towards anything else, treats, clothes etc, but most spare money goes towards savings/paying off the cards etc. In all honesty I'm surprised it's this high but since July I have been putting 90% of my spare income into paying off the holiday, which is why I've been able to pay it off so quickly. As this is nearly paid off (and obviously after xmas, the joys of parenthood!) I will have that money 'free' to a certain extent so just need to decide what to do with it.

I have looked into overpaying the car loan but was told by the lender to 'stick it in a savings account' as this would be better... yea ok then.. *rolls eyes*. I've been considering setting up an additional standing order but I think I should get the cards cleared first?

Either way I need to stop frittering money away and get back into it properly if I'm ever going to achieve my aims!

Going to sleep on it and think about the best way to start.. but any suggestions would be much appreciated!

immoral_angeluk

Morning all! Back to work and I've woken up with a right headache, I guess thinking is bad for you! lol.

Today I'm mostly planning on not spending any money instead of having the urge to nip to greggs on my lunchbreak. I've gotten into a horrible habit of late of being lazy and getting lunch instead of taking stuff from home.

Going to have a think about what my plan of attack for the debt is if I get a spare chance too, as think I've decided to get rid of the debt first before saving for a deposit etc, as I believe from reading the boards that debt has an affect on yor ability to get a mortgage, so if this is the case it'll need to go even if it is only 6k...

Does anyone have an experience of this? I've never even contemplated buying before so it's all new to me!

beanielou

Fancy seeing you here!!!
Best to get rid of even some of the debt first. that things are ticking over nicely.
THey take it off the amount you can borrow IYSWIM?
Good to see that things are ticking over nicely.

ZTD

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

I believe from reading the boards that debt has an affect on yor ability to get a mortgage, so if this is the case it'll need to go even if it is only 6k...

Does anyone have an experience of this? I've never even contemplated buying before so it's all new to me!

Yes, it does, but unfortunately I can't remember how it works out (it has been a looooong time since I applied for a mortgage). I can't remember whether it was top-sliced from your max mortgage amount, so if you could borrow £100,000 then it then became £94,000...or...whether the payments were subtracted from your wages before getting the 3.5x (in those days) to find out what you could borrow.

beanielou

AFAIK it comes off the amount that they are willing to lend.
ie If you could borrow £100k and you owed £6k they would only lend you £94k.