Getting back on track for 2013 and beyond

kerri_dfw

I've fallen completely by the wayside with my debt busting, so thought I'd start a shiny new diary for 2013. It might be cheating, but I need focus and a clean slate so here we go...

I'm a right terror for declaring money off and then having to go adding it back again, so I'll declare the upper limits until I've either cleared part of the OD or know I definitely won't put anymore on the CC...

So:

CC - £2500
OD - £450
Total debt: £2950

Last year I had over £5k in debt and owed money to about 4-5 creditors. This year I owe less than £3k although I've paid that off twice already, hence why I need to get back on track and focus!!!!

I moved in with my OH across the country from London to Cardiff in August, he's a student so has a limited income although this is his final year at university. I have a well paid job and get to work from home all the time, so I support him by paying the majority of the rent & bills.

Here's my balance sheet:

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . ......................18.50 I pay £7.50 for a bolt on so my Mum, Dad and sister get cheaper calls. I earn more so I pay for it and I get cute pictures of my nephew for this so I can't bare to change it. Plus I make the majority of my calls on the work phone anyway.
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12.12
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 every month even in the winter I'm happy with this as it's an environmentally friendly company and the other offers were similar anyway
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. N/A Included in the rent
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 This will reduce after 4 months as it started from August was adjusted to take into account OH is a student and they still haven't taken more than 1 payment because of the readjustments
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35.00 This will go up to include a bicycle when OH qualifies, but until then he will just have to be careful
Rent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900.00 For 2 people in Cardiff this is high, but I wanted the really nice apartment, we love it here and with both of us working from home we needed somewhere we wouldn't be on top of each other. No regrets here
Food and Household Shopping . . .200.00 I budget £50 a week, we buy £10 veg from the Farmers market and that lasts us 1-2 weeks. We top up in the SM and I order bulk goods from Amazon. We make our own bread and we have very little waste. £50 is more than enough, so anything else goes towards "treats" for the long hours I work and the long hours he's doing in uni. I.E. August I had 2 days off and spent most of it away. We shop in Mr S but always check prices of things, although I'll choose organic & enviro friendly where possible. This might not be the cheapest way sometimes, but I'd like a planet for my children.
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 This is an overestimate, I get work mileage paid for. This is for trips to the parents & about town.
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 Really need to put this to one side each month as I keep forgetting. Will set up a SO
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 75.00 We moved to a city, the price went up. I'm under 30 and women don't get discounts anymore. This includes the discount for my sister working there.
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Need to setup a SO to put this to one side too.
Debt Repayments
Credit Card payments. . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 This just about covers the interest payments, must increase
OD Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 I try to pay off more than this each month
Family
Entertainment
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 30.00 Just found I can claim this back through work expenses as I work from home.
entertainment and personal spend. . 200.00 I need to reign these in. Currently £4 twice a week for adult gymnastics, £13.50 a week for rock climbing. I decided if I throw myself into exercise I'll stop spending, it's working so far.
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36.98 Gym membership for two people, which we do use and it's not a bad gym. OH needs it otherwise he piles on the lbs and it affects his confidence.
Income
Wages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2000.00 This is normally higher but chose the minimum that it could be.
OH Student loan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370.00 No room in the budget for this to increase until he finishes in May. I don't want him to work as it'll affect his grade and he's aiming for a 1st.
Sister loan repayment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 There's over a years worth of these payments remaining, they come in by SO on the 20th of each month.
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . .2420.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . 2072.60

[Deleted User]

Heyyyyyyyyyy

Lovely nice shiny new 2013 diary - I am off to start mine too

Best of luck in 2013.

Dxxxx

kerri_dfw

Thanks Dolly Rocker, I need to start a spending diary as well.

We now have a spending diary spreadsheet, the OH is very bad at updating it! Anyway, I've started comping!
WINS so far
No-Nonsense Guide to Religion Stoke vs Spurs tickets

Survey prizes:
£5 AGC

SB prizes:
2 x£5 AGC

kerri_dfw

And this one can be for reviewing totals I've spent on an ongoing basis, so I can review how well/badly I'm doing:

Month | Spend | Debt Payment | Savings

kerri_dfw

And I may as well use this post for any challenges I'm trying to complete...oh and personal goals:

1. Save £10,000 before Christmas 2013
2. Make a grocery budget and stick to it
3. Spend a maximum of £30 a week
4. For anything not budgeted for, earn that money from eb4y, craft sales etc
5. No random shops, all items I think I "need" must be written down and reassessed the following month
6. Car bills must be foreseen and put to one side each month. I.E. insurance, tax, etc same for house insurance
7. Anything over £2000 in wages goes straight towards debts, then savings, no "treating" spends
8. One take-away each month comes out of £30 weekly spend or must have earnt it through some other way. Otherwise all home cooked meals
9. Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan
10. Week before payday is always an eat out the cupboards week

December: 10 NSDs 1/10

brizzledfw

Hey she's back!!!! Lovely to 'see' you again on the DDD thread

Love a shiny new diary..will subscribe x

kerri_dfw

Thanks Brizzled, I do still pop onto your thread but life has been very very hectic since I left London. Just pausing to catch my breathe and get back on the DFW bandwagon now

brizzledfw

Lovely to know you lurk and pop in sometimes..are you still crafting??

I also recall your veg boxes and environmental streak. I am the same. Some things are not for compromising on..like supporting local businesses, an organic farm co-op in Devon and G@@d Energy. Everyone needs a balance I say.

There is some unjustified bad blood sometimes between Brizzle and Cardiff..but I love the place. I was planning to be there last week for work but it fell through so will have to reschedule for early next year.

Brizzle

kerri_dfw

We no longer get veg boxes as for what you get it was too expensive. We instead wake up stupidly early every Sunday and go to the Cardiff farmers market at Riverside. We never spend more than £15 and that gets up eggs and two bags of veg

I like Bristol we go clubbing there from time to time. I really like Cardiff as well, however when you've lived in London even the most dire of places is going to seem like heaven. I am still crafting and bringing in a nice regular amount of about £20 a week from that, if I push the advertising a bit more then I can make more but unfortunate circumstances have prevented me wanting to touch the business recently. Getting back into the swing of things now though

Right budgeting, the bane of my life but here goes:

£30 - Weekly personal amount to be withdrawn at the beginning of the week, this covers climbing, adult gymnstastics, chippy tea and chocolate bars
£50 - from joint account for food and beer where necessary
£10 - into terramundi once a week for the present/xmas pot seemed to work quite well in the few months we did it.

[Deleted User]

Sounds as if your right back on it my love.

I am going to start my diary now.

I just cancelled my gym membership today so that is a saving of £37 a month!!

Subscribing to yours now

Dxxx

kerri_dfw

I don't want to think about how much I spent yesterday! The Xmas tree I ordered turned out to be broken, so I am having to send it back. I hope they refund me my postage as I'll be really annoyed otherwise. I can't remember my rights for defective items, is it that they have to return you to the position you were in before you purchased the item?
Then I did the famous Christmas shop, lots of booze to keep us through until the new year, lots of nibbles and plenty of ingredients for making sweet shop sweets for the party next Saturday...even with a Mr S £15 off voucher it was almost £150. I also had to buy a sugar thermometer & marble slab for making the sweets on.
Then I had to go to Agoose for a tree and deccies to replace the tree that's defective! So a VERY spendy day luckily £60 came out the terramundi for the xmas booze and I might be able to claim the rest from the joint account, but I don't want to do that as it's nice to have a cushion in there just in case.

From now on though, it's skint mcflint thinking. I have a couple of hundred £ left and I'm not spending it. No way no way!

I am also full of the cold today and rather grumpy. I'm going to try to force the OH to go to the gym today, he's looking more like Johnny Vegas than Johnny Depp at the moment, he needs to shift the beer gut yessum! I shall try to tell him in a nice way though The only place I am going is to the post office today, and that's all paid for by other people buying my crafty bits, so hoping for a NSD. Here's hoping.