Muchin's diary of recover; becoming debt free and being happy

Munchin

Hi everyone

I'm not new to MSE and have had a debt free diary before but it's time to start afresh and hide behind a new user name:rotfl:

My last diary helped me clear my debts which were about £10,000. However as you can see my debts have creeped back up but are manageable.

Firstly, I will tell you a bit about myself. I still live at home with my Mum (I'm 37!!) and have a lovely BF of 4 1/2 years. I split my time between home and his house and if a sparkler doesn't appear next year there will be words:).

I'm in recover from bulimia. You have no idea how wonderful it is to say that I'm finally in recovery after 11 long horrible years of this illness. I never mentioned this on my last diary and I've never told family or friends. However I have been seeing a lovely councillor and it was actually a website that gave me the encouragement to start and stick with recovery. It's early days but I feel that this community is so supportive that it's important to be as honest as I can in this new diary.

Now where did the debts come from. In my last diary I was paying off - double glazing; the world's crappiest car and all it's repairs and a credit card bill that had decided to shoot for the sky at over £5000. i plugged away and cleared them all earlier this year. However, the bottom less pit of a car needed more repairs and it just wasn't worth putting anymore money into it. I got a second hand car and took out a loan at £6000 + interest = £6600 and am paying that off over 2 years at £275 a month (I have £4400 still to pay). The repayments are ok but I want the debt gone quickly.

I've also got £1,093.55 on my tesco credit card and have set up a dd for £100 a month. If I can add to that I will.

Finally my next store card is sitting at £114.75. As part of my recovery I've gone up a dress size and rather than torturing myself squeezing into too small clothes I bought some new ones.

I also have a cash back card which I use monthly for diesel and groceries. I need to reign this card in as I've started adding things onto it that I don't need.

So total in debts I have £5608.30:eek:

I've cleared it before and I'll do it again. I'm going to join a couple of challenges and the next thing I need to do is a an SOA

Munchin

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1874
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Total monthly income.................... 1874[/b]

Monthly Expense Details

Rent.................................... 250
Council tax............................. 81
Oil..................................... 80
Telephone (land line)................... 26 (includes broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 32 (treated myself to iphone 4:o)
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 80 (2 households)
Clothing................................ 50 (not every month)
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 (travel miles)
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 60 (circuits,treating nephews etc)
Holiday................................. 50 (start Jan)
HSBC savings............................ 100
Xmas savings............................ 50 (start again end of Jan)
Credit Union savings.................... 100
Charity................................. 15
National Deposit........................ 20
Lottery................................. 5
Total monthly expenses.................. 1329


Assets
Cash.................................... 800
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6800

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car............................4400......275.......0
Tesco credit card..............1093.75...100.......0
Next...........................114.75....50........0
Total unsecured debts..........5608.5....425.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,874
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,329
Available for debt repayments........... 545
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 425
Amount left after debt repayments....... 120

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 6,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,608.5
Net Assets.............................. 1,191.5



So according to this I have £120 as a surplus at the end of the month. I wonder where it hides when I'm looking for it:D

In my previous debt free journey I had no Sky and the cheapest phone tariff. I also cut back wherver I could. This time I will do my best but I will struggle to be good 100% of the time but will try for 80%.


The money in my HSBC savings is going to be used for Xmas which is why I haven't shown it in my signature but from January it's going in there and it will hopefully pay rates and car:o

I will start recording my spends tomorrow but obviously with Xmas there will be presents etc. I bought OH his first present today a bottle of aftershave which sells in the shops for £40 but by using this site I found it for £24 and I used Top cashback:T

I'm sitting here with a glass of red and preparing to start dinner. Exhausting and tiring day but that's good and it's nice to put everything into this diary.

Tomorrow I will join some challengese:D

Munchin

Morning all

I've joined 2 challenges so far - 'Pay of your debt by Xmas 2012' and the weekly spend challenge. I'm going to look at the 100 day challenge and see when that starts again. Challenges worked brilliantly for me last time and hopefully they will again.

I'm tinkering with my budgets - I love budgets (even if I have 'commitment issues' with them:o). It's payday tomorrow and if this was an ordinary month, the budget should look like this -

Groceries - £80
Clothes - £50
Presents - £20
Entertainment - £60

Total - £210

These budgets are interchangeable if I overspend on entertainment I will dip into groceries etc. I have no children but a few nephews/nieces (10 and counting) and I like to treat 3 of them once a week to swimming however over the next 2 weeks I've promised them bowling and the cinema so this will be a lot more expensive and will use up most of the entertainment budget. I have a voucher for 2 of them for swimming but none for the cinema or bowling.

As this is Dec I'm going to have to add on a Xmas budget which I have saved £300 for. OH wants some sort of B&Q thing which might take up half my budget and I will therefore just have to be economical with the rest.

I have an envelope in my desk drawer and it has £60 in it for my work Xmas parties.

It is great to put what is in your head down on this diary

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hello and welcome. What a lovely Auntie you are xxx

Munchin

Hi BTD, thanks for the welcome. The thing with nieces and nephews is that I get to give them back at the end of the day:D.

So I've had a quick count of the money in my purse and I have £15.05 in it which should last me until the bowling trip on Thurs. It was £17.55 but I spent £2.50 on sunday papers.

Dec/Xmas spends front should look like this-

[*]I'm going to buy a bottle of wine and a box of chocs for each of my brothers & sisters households. Last year it was a present for all the kids which was quite expensive so I'll budget - £50 in total;
[*]OH - £150 (he spoils me so this is only fair);
[*]£50 (I'm a manager in work and this is my contribution to the staff Xmas dinner);
[*]odds and sods that will crop up - £20;
[*]new niece due in Dec - £20 – (can come out of Dec's pay);
[*]sister's birthday in January - £10 – (December pay);
[*]beauticians before Xmas - £20;
[*]I've already bought my Mum's Xmas present and I have a couple of friend's birthdays in December but as they are both pregnant I don't think we will be travelling too far:)


I have £300 in my Xmas fund to cover this.

I am visiting my sister for 3 days in Dec and hope not to spend more than £80 but this money will come out of monthly pay rather than a budget.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi i can tell by your posts that you are a very generous person. I know you say you are a manager so £50 towards christmas dinner but is it your company? Shouldnt the company pay if anyone. Years ago i would have had this mindset also but on a debt free journey some bus stops have to be missed!!! xx (meant in the nicest way).x

Munchin

I forgot to say that I am due some extra money/vochers -

• £100 M&S voucher for subscribing to sky;
• £7.94 Amazon sales;
• £4 from e-bay from sales;
• & maybe £50 cashback from Sky using topcashback but not too sure about that one.

Munchin

Hi BTD - I totally understand what you are saying and was tempted to just buy a box of chocolates but we're the civil service so no bonus or any contribution from the government which is fair enough.

The staff have gone through a lot this year as they were relocated and there were loads of other changes and pressures and I know it's going to get worse in the New year. I wouldn't feel right not contributing but it might work out a bit less than this (especially if the other managers chip in).

Munchin

Dang, dang, dang - I just rang the hotel for our Xmas dinner and ordered 4 bottles of white and 1 red and also some cordial for the table as there are about 6 non drinkers. £79.75:eek: . Ok that takes me £29.75 over budget but I've sold my old mobile for £45 and that will partly cover the cost. I need to stick some things on ebay to make up the difference but I really don't have much more to sell.

This time next year they are going to be a bit thirsty.

I had to do a talk to staff earlier and break some kack news however in the old days this would have generated a very bad episode with me the night before but today I took a couple of deep breaths and everything seems to have gone well. I wasn't lynched which is positive:D

I'm half way through Monday and today is a good day

LAM2011

Hi Munchin (I keep saying munchkin in my head lol) and welcome back. You seem to have everything under control and like you say you have been here before. Well done for tackling your personal issues and coming out so positive and paying off your previous debt.

Your job sounds very stressful to me but you seem a nice manager

Good luck on your debt free journey this time around.

inthegreen

Firstly good luck on paying off the debt. Your oil looks quite high considering you live at home, do you pay the full amount?