MaccaHallam's Debt-Free Diary

MaccaHallam

I've been using this site every now and again but I don't seem to be getting anywhere fast in terms of getting my debt down. I've never really tracked my spending so think this could help me be more organised.

I'm in my late 20's and I'm still not on the housing ladder, this is my ultimate aim. I'm sick of treading water and not getting anywhere!

Christmas and New Year is over with and when I've thought I've done well with my finances I find that it's over 20 days until payday and I'm struggling for money. I need to sort this out so I'm not in the same situation again.

MaccaHallam

Today I've not spent much money but I've been moving money around to different accounts so I can pay my Credit Card bill which is due tomorrow.

I've got a Santander 123 card which I pay off by Direct Debit each month, well I say I do I've had it setup to do so but it has never actually worked yet which has resulted in phonecalls to Santander to have the charges reversed. Who knows it might work tomorrow?

I've had to get cash out of other accounts and go into the Santander branch today to make sure I've enough money to pay the bill but this leaves me with not very much money for the rest of the month.

Today's spend was 40p on Car Parking. I've also claimed £11.65 back from topcashback so that should be in my account in a few days time.

MaccaHallam

I was listening to the Radio today when Martin Lewis was on which pushed me to come on here. He was talking about a budget planner that's on the website but I can't find it. Does anybody know where I can find it?

Had a really bad day because of my financial worries.

Hope missymoo81 doesn't mind but I'm going to 'steal' her goals and resolutions post and put mine on. Think it's a good idea for me and will be good to look at in the future to see how I am doing.

Goals

Become debt-free
Save up a deposit for a house before my 30th birthday
Run a 10k run in less than an hour

Resolutions

Not pay a penny more to banks than they are entitled to. (no late fees, exceeding overdrafts etc)
Enjoy 2012 as much as possible
Eat a healthier diet and become fitter

Will add to these in the next few days.

Hovel_lady

Budget planner info here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning

Good luck!

MaccaHallam

Hovel_lady wrote: »

Budget planner info here...

Good luck!

Thank you!

Just had a look at the planner and it's going to take more time than I've got tonight. I've done a bit so far and I'll finish the rest off when I've more time tomorrow.

MaccaHallam

Finally the Direct Debit for my Santander Credit Card worked, however it was only for the minimum payment £27.64 when I had put I wanted the full amount paying off each month. I've had to phone them again to pay the rest of the amount I owed £441.25 paid off. Hoping next month it will be done as it should be!

I use the Credit Card each month to pay for my petrol and groceries and receive a percentage of what I spend back. I've filled the car up with £54 of petrol today.

I've bought a bottle of Fanta for £1.40 (rip-off airport prices) and also 180,000 Vietnamese Dong (£6.39) as part of a birthday present for a cousin who is living there.

I've also won £4 in a football scores predictor at work, a small amount but every little helps. :j

Haven't got time tonight to complete my budget so I'm going to print off my accounts and go through them at work when I have a spare minute, will make it a quicker job tomorrow evening just putting the figures in!

MaccaHallam

Now I've finally got some time off work I'll get the budget put on today, had a few hectic days. Will update my spending first.

Thursday I had a Burger King for lunch, a mate had a 2 meals for £6 voucher so spent £3. Sadly BK meals never fill you up, waste of money so spent £2.16 on a reduced sandwich and a drink. Also spent 50p on the milk fund at work for hot drinks. £8.67 was spent on a monthly DD for a lottery for Oldham Athletic.

6th January

Friday was the day of the big match. I'm a massive Oldham Athletic supporter and that night we were playing away at Liverpool. At work I paid £2.99 for lunch. I had brought lunch in from home but hadn't cleaned the container properly and the food tasted of washing liquid

I received £46 from friends buying tickets, I'm still owed £23 for the last ticket but I should get that on Tuesday. Parking near the ground cost me £10 and I got £7 from everyone in my car. I also bought a programme for £3. On the way I bought a meal from McDonalds costing £4.86

As for the game it was amazing to be there and even more amazing to take the lead, a fantastic moment and lots of celebrations. Shame that they then went on to score 5 against us. The journey home wasn't fun either. Who decides to close a motorway for roadworks when there's thousands of people trying to get home that way at the same time. 3 hours later I eventually got home!

7th January

It was my aunt's birthday yesterday so I went to get a card from Tesco, spent £1.50 on that. I also got some toiletries, needed some razor blades and I had a clubcard voucher for 300 points for any Gillette blades bought so got 3 for £8.98 and £1.67 on other toiletries. I also bought a magazine for £3.90.

From the local shop I spent 90p on newspapers and £1.09 on a drink.

MaccaHallam

Here's my SOA for you to all see. Already seen a few things that have made me go :eek:


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,260.39
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.31
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.95
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.68
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174.23
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.01
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.70
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.64

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.67

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.95
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,260.39


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,261.97

LookingToTheFuture_2

Just want to say hello and offer my support. Keeping track of your spending each day is very useful, especially when you add it all up at the end of the month and compare it to your budget! I love your new year resolution "Enjoy 2012" and I'm going to make it my resolution too. Lucky for me I can enjoy lots of things that don't cost much money!

MaccaHallam

Just phoned Sky and changed my subscription. I was paying £8.25 a month for a warranty package, I've cancelled that now.

My TV package was costing £51.75 a month which included the sports channels and ESPN. After saying I wanted to cancel all the sports channels they've done me a deal where I pay £34.20 for 6 months and if I don't make any changes it goes back upto the normal price. This doesn't include ESPN but I don't watch it anyways. My next bill will be for £32.73 as well.

Saved £25.80 a month from my Sky subscription, not a bad start!

[Deleted User]

Good going on saving money with sky!

I got mine for half price for 6 months but its due to expire in Feb 2012 - think I will need to wait until August before I can try & get a better deal with them again.

I think this site helps massively as does the diary so goog luck on your journey

Dxxx