LBM in 2003.. What have I been doing since??!

brizzledfw

Hi

Update.. Subscripton to weekly news magazine cancelled...

I have also helped DD2 with some knitting and made a dress for 2 dolls...am pooped now!!

cheers guys

brizzle

determined_new_ms

ha ha how funny I was reading your diary while you were reading mine! :rotfl:

impressive diary ms brizzle makes for an entertaining read :T

Well done on posting your SOA, you really have oodles of commitment and application it really comes through on the small things thread (its great over there isn't it??)

ok gonna give you some straight talking. So, are you sitting down??? Can you consider reducing some things for a while (or even stopping temporarily :eek: there I've said it)?

could you try to reduce your GC bill by say £50? Do you throw anything away? Can you not have wine 3 nights a week? (sorry if you already do this. I used to drink a couple of glasses a night )

appreciate the cleaner really takes the strain away but could you cut it down to every other week?

Same with haircuts could you have your hair done every other month? I actually have a home hairdresser, he's great comes round, loads of banter, bit of flirting and mindless chat and it only costs me a tenner

Bank account fees - can you look and see if you could get the same cover for less than £156 for travel ins & breakdown cover. I pay £39 a year to autoaid and they are great, had to use twice last year and cannot fault them. Also our annual worldwide ins for a family is just under £40.

Those are just my thoughts to consider. You are doing brilliantly x

PinotGrigio41

Hey brizzled,

Just caught up on your last few days ! My youve been busy ! Well done on posting your SOA, takes alot of courage doesnt it, and lots of mind numbing numbers. Ive nothing much more to add to anyone elses comments, as I'm no expert by any means as you know !

I cancelled our Charity Donations as soon as I realised we were in trouble and now only donate if the girls are asked at school, but I used to have Direct debits to various charities. Also, magazines have now gone, but I am really missing them .

I fully understand why you needed the cleaner. I was the same, long hours, stressful jobs, hubby away. I dont have one now and must admit to really struggling . I have been known on many occasions to be scrubbing the loos at 1am as its the only chance I get For now though it will have to do. What you are paying sounds pretty good, I was paying £85 a fortnight many moons ago for 2 people for 2 hours so effectively four hours of cleaning one a fortnight which really wasnt enough so I was still doing the lions share myself. That was a few years ago now, goodness knows what they would charge these days !

Anyway I'm off now to dust down the breadmaker before getting on with the day. Thanks for the top tip re the Vitamin C powder, I will try and get hold of some .

Have a good day x

brizzledfw

Hi all

Grabbing a few minutes before first meeting of the day. Waited until now for coffee and brekkie so a legit claim on expenses!!

Lots to think about. Thanks guys. Suspending things is a good one. My contact lenses for example..even if only for 2 months it brings the annual bill down. Hair is probably less than 50 pm anyway..never have time to go..but DDs do need cuts too. OH does his own! With mixed results!!

Charities..would feel bad about that as we have so much...but one to ponder. Groceries is chronic. I feel I buy food as some sort of misplaced gesture to my family as we work so hard and often away..need to break that really.

Will post later if I can. Thanks again for thoughts! Keep 'em coming!!

Have a great day

Brizzle

jwil

I think suspending things is a good one as well.

You have a lot of 'lifestyle' choices in your SOA, which are fine, but also are things that could potentially be cut or reduced temporarily if you wanted to - the charity donations = £175, entertainment = over £100, holidays = over £200 - if you even halved these for a year you'd have almost an extra £3k to throw at your debts.

Well done on clearing some of the subscriptions though!

DedicatedDFW

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi all

Grabbing a few minutes before first meeting of the day. Waited until now for coffee and brekkie so a legit claim on expenses!!

Lots to think about. Thanks guys. Suspending things is a good one. My contact lenses for example..even if only for 2 months it brings the annual bill down. Hair is probably less than 50 pm anyway..never have time to go..but DDs do need cuts too. OH does his own! With mixed results!!

Charities..would feel bad about that as we have so much...but one to ponder. Groceries is chronic. I feel I buy food as some sort of misplaced gesture to my family as we work so hard and often away..need to break that really.

Will post later if I can. Thanks again for thoughts! Keep 'em coming!!

Have a great day

Brizzle

Hi brizzle,

Just wanted to suggest another way of looking at charity giving if thats ok? i was going to comment on this yesterday but it is obviously something important to you. Anywho's here goes - i am sure you probably give more to charity than £175 - e.g i think yesterday you spent £17 in the charity shop? This is supporting charity, as is donating things to charity shops too - this way of giving to and supporting charity is easily overlooked but they are important charity contributions. As are the sponsorships of friends and family for events, then there's voluntary work - not sure if you do any of this but again a direct help to charity. I also pay to do certain running events now = the fee goes to charity + any money raised.

On the subject of haircuts though when i really struggled - as though i'm not now - i stopped having my hair done at all Then i went to a wedding and the photo's not only showed that i could lose weight but add to that my hair looked awful :eek: - i get it done regularly at home now and wish i'd found a decent affordable hairdresser like this years ago

brizzledfw

Hi everyone..a late post..or an early one;)

I will think about all of this and get back to you with my cunning plan:rotfl:

Cheers all

Brizzle

determined_new_ms

waiting for the daily digest! Hope you've had a good day and are full of enthusiasm x

brizzledfw

Hi there

Had a busy work day and only just back from the Big Smoke..but have been mulling it all over. The charity idea is worth thinking about as I still want to support them. The support does come in different guises that's true and a good way of looking at it.

Will post my plan soon..honest:D

Small things first:

- regular PAD made and banking checked. There is a debit to what I thought was a card I thought we cut up years ago..must check it out with OH and then bank. (update: just sent an email to our bank. Very weird, it's a direct debit but can't see what it's for!! ) Amount is weird, £61.33... Am at a loss to know what that might be.

- made an appointment for a haircut. First one in 2 months which is pushing it for me. Cut rather than colour to keep price down.

- charged phones on train but had to buy a new charger...think that cancels out the leccy saving!:o

- dinner this eve for whole family from 4 courses of LOs..it was brilliant and cleared fridge nicely!!:T

- this evening had no wine. Squash instead!! Then a bath and may even go to bed to sleep before 9!! Quite excited by the thoughts actually of some sleep! What does that say! Am I old??!

House is looking scruffy. It was only cleaned top to bottom on Wednesday. I was only away for an evening! What happened??!! It's a blooming disaster. I reckon some of tomorrow will be spent getting DDs to do some fly lady!!:rotfl:

Think thats it for now

Brizzle

debtfreewannabe321

brizzledfw wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,356.10
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). . . . . . . . . . . 134.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Solar panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.43
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00 I appreciate the cleaner might help you lots, but how bout reducing them to one deep clean every fortnight? And getting the girls to help you around the house more?
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.17
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.80
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 Do you use the 'extras' from having this account? if not can you get rid of it for now? I had a barcLays additions account and was paying £25 pre LBM and realised i never used any extras so wasn't really worth my time. Fair enough if you do though
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 1,484.00is this repayment? Could you ask for a small holiday on repayment and do interest only for say a year you could throw all extra onto debt...?
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.92
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.03
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.18
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475.00 I reckon you could cut this down by at least £100 and get the girls a take out as a treat which would be cheaper.
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 :rotfl:i'm not exactly one to criticise here at least you have actually included it in your budget lol
PHI (long term health cover) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.11 Is this another life insurance? Or private healthcare? can this not be suspended until money matters sorted.
Wood for stove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.03
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving into mortgage OP pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332.00 Once your CC's are past their 0% will their apr not be hugely more than the mortgage's apr, I would look at putting all this onto debt. Then once paid off you can pay back into this plus more to help make up ?
Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.00 ...is this extra curricular stuff?

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.40
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.50
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.23 This seems expensive is it because she is old?
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Get a free lovefilm trial that will last a month. then blockbuster usually do one too, and there are other companies around that do them i worked my way through them all. Didn't pay a penny , got gift vouchers for my trouble and didn't spend in block busters:p
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Children's Extra Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.00 Is this curriculum based extra lessons? Or things like ballet?

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.50
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Get a good hairdresser to come to you saves you money getting to them and they are usually much cheaper
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Climbing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.66

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 Did you check to see if you can claim this back? If not i'd cancel. Don't most newspapers have free online usage (obviously i'm not sure what you need it for so that may not be an option)
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175.50 Sack this one off, you can restart again once debt free. I see myself as the charity case now :rotfl:
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,541.10


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,427.46

Notes:

!! :rotfl:

:T well done on posting your SOA it's scary isn't it. But once you've done it you can see it in black and white where you need to change so can be very helpful sorry if my tuppence worth are not any use thought i'd give my thoughts anyway :rotfl: