So I'm back again and I want to save for a new life!

herewegoagain2010

Hello again! I've been lurking and hanging around here for years and have paid off debt, run more up and continued to manage it. It's up and down, the usual story but I'm just bored with it now. I want to be debt free and need to clear it to start saving for our new life!

A little about us I'm a sahm of 2, married to an amazing man who's currently serving in the forces. We're making plans for him to leave in March 2015 and I need to kick the debt and start saving towards our new dream house. We own a house that's mf (a lot of overpaying and an inhertiance cleared it last july) The house is currently rented and provides a great income. I just need to focus, budget and plan our money to finally get to DF status.

So it's a quick little hello from me and I'm off to tallying the numbers up, do an SOA and see what the damage is.

herewegoagain2010

Wow....scary when you write it down. There's no figure for water, council tax or rent as these are stopped at source from hubby's pay slip for our mod housing.


Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household...........2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2080
Partners monthly income after tax....... 181
Benefits................................ 440
Other income............................ 749
Total monthly income.................... 3450

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity & Gas ......................... 115
Telephone, internet & TV .................. 51
Mobile phone............................ 72
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing & shoes for kids................. 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 140
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance servicing......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 13.13
Gas insurance..................... 32.73
Contents insurance...................... 34 (high due to extra kit ins required)
Life assurance ......................... 17.11
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Savings for tax retuen.................. 50
My spends (hair,clothes,entertain....... 200
Hubby spends (entertainment, pressies) .. 200
Kids savings (£25 each)................. 50
Work giving (can't canx)................ 17.36
Professional fees....................... 15
Total monthly expenses.................. 1397.33

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 215000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 20000
Other assets............................ 10000
Total Assets............................ 245000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car Loan 0% for life...........11476.....302.......0
Zopa (6.8%)....................5063.52...153.4.....6.8
Virgin (0% till dec13..........2240.25...0.........0
OD His......................... 400.......0.........0
OD Joint (£1 / day)............500.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........19679.77........455.40

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,450
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,397.33
Available for debt repayments........... 2,052.67
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 455.4
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,597.27

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 245,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -19,679.77
Net Assets.............................. 225,320.23

herewegoagain2010

Right, y head is spinning and I've had enough tonight. I need to plan my spending until pay day now and am going to be as tight as possible. I still need to buy a couple of gifts and then get them posted off.

Food wise turkey and meat ordered and paid for at the butchers so just need veggies, bread, milk and odds and sods.

I've got the biccies, choccies, have made a huge pudding and cake and stocked up on mince meat for HM pies.

The children don't finished school until Friday so am going to keep the heating off as much as I can during the day and am determined to get some washing out on the line (weather permitting) I need to clean and gut the house ready for family staying and get rid of the ironing pile so will be having a couple of NSD at least this week.

It's time that our debt was gone and I'm looking forward to getting started in 2013. Will pay off Od's first, then op the zopa loan and clear the 0% card. At the moment we've got no plans to clear the car loan and both want to build some savings first. I've waffled on enough, but am pleased I've made a strong start with my planning. I'll be using this as a diary to keep motivated and a track of our progess. x

[Deleted User]

Good Luck! Sure you will be fine, all seems very doable.

foxgloves

When we were debt-busting, I tried to get into the habit of stopping & thinking about every little extra I bought.....or nearly bought. I'm talking about little things, but they're the ones that add up, aren't they? Things like a glossy mag for a treat....replaced those with buying from the magazine man on the market (the previous issues at £1 instead of £4, so a cheap occasional treat). Also, things like birthday cards.....I used to routinely buy ones costing between £2 & £3 each & wouldn't have dreamed of going in a 'cheapo' card shop.....but when I did, I found they had good cards all at 3 for £1. I also found that getting things like toothbrushes (packs of 5) & toothpaste, etc, from the 99p shop was cheaper than even the ownbrand versions at the supermarket. The point I'm making is that these are all such small purchases in themselves, but the savings on lots & lots of little things add up to more money saved to chuck at debts. I also asked myself when tempted to buy something 'Do I really need this?' 'Do I even REALLY want it?' and importantly, 'have I got something else at home already that will do?' or 'Could I make one?' I started making lots of things for presents, saving nice papers/ribbons, etc, to use for wrapping presents instead of the Old Me, buying separate a sheet of (expensive) paper, tag & ribbon each time I wanted to wrap a gift. Of course we also had to learn to budget & do some serious 'snowballing' to get cards/loans paid off, but I think it was changing my attitude to frittering money on all these little bits & bobs that helped really concentrate my mind on the task in hand. Everytime I found something that was a good substitute (like the time I'd got a seed order to send off to a catalogue then found the same seeds on sale in the 99p shop at 4 packs for 99p....instead of the nearly £8 I was going to pay!), it helped me see myself as a canny money manager instead of the hopeless spendthrift I'd always seen myself as before. It can be done.....& it's a boost to your self-esteem when you suddenly realise 'I can do this!!'

tallyhoh

If you dont mind me saying £400 a month for personal spending is quite a lot. As a couple we have an income of £900 for everything so that would be a substantial chunk of our income (we dont claim any benefits).

19lottie82

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

Number of adults in household........... 4 (who are the other 2 adults apart from u and your OH? )
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2080
Partners monthly income after tax....... 181
Benefits................................ 440
Other income............................ 749
Total monthly income.................... 3450

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity & Gas ......................... 115
Telephone, internet & TV .................. 51 can you cut this? it's a lot
Mobile phone............................ 72 i take it these are on contracts?
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing & shoes for kids................. 50 cut to £30
Petrol/diesel........................... 140
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 0 nothing? why?
Car maintenance servicing......... 20 too low for 2 cars
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 13.13
Gas insurance..................... 32.73
Contents insurance...................... 34 (high due to extra kit ins required)
Life assurance ......................... 17.11
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... nothing? ever? £25 realistic
Haircuts................................ 0 nothing? ever?
Entertainment........................... 0 £50 realistic
Holiday................................. 0 nothing? ever?
Emergency fund.......................... 0 should have something here - £20?
Savings for tax retuen.................. 50
My spends (hair,clothes,entertain....... 200 too high - cut this part out and replace w realistic figures in clothes / entertainment / presents (see above)
Hubby spends (entertainment, pressies) .. 200 too high - cut this part out and replace w realistic figures in clothes / entertainment / presents (see above)
Kids savings (£25 each)................. 50 cut this until debt is cleared
Work giving (can't canx)................ 17.36
Professional fees....................... 15
Total monthly expenses.................. 1397.33

My comments above.....

herewegoagain2010

Thanks for all your replies I appreciate it.

It is only 2 adults in the house (not sure where I gained the extra 2!)

TV - £51 is for tv, line rental, broadband and free calls all day everyday. I've just agreed to another 12months contract and have a £75 credit onto my account. I did shop around, but this is a luxury we agreed we can't be without. My husband spends a lot of time in and the country and the broaband speed is very important as we use skype for him to speak to the children. We could drop some of the tv, but I'd rather cut somewhere else.

Kids clothes - This is too high, but thought I'd overestimate as both need new school shoes and tracksuits as been on a grow spurt. I do buy 2nd hand and my youngest has hand-me downs - Will try and cap this.

Car insurance - missed this completly as paid yearly (Was £360 for last year...due in feb again)

I've not entered anything for haircuts, holidays,enterainment as this comes out of our £400 spending money. It works well as all xmas pressies and everything is covered by this, but I've never split in down into different pots. I save £2's to boost xmas spending too.

My hubby is going on a 6month detachment in a few weeks so will have to realistically increase his money to £300, but his pay will increase during this time and will more than cover this extra £100.

19lottie, I think you're right I need to break it into seperate pots. I had decided to open a xmas saving pot so I can spread the cost over 11 monts rather than 3months like this year.

No holidays planned for next year as hubby away so much, I'll be visiting friends and family so only cost may be fuel, but hubby's car will be off the road so spending should be the same.

herewegoagain2010

Well Christmas is over and I'm patiently sat waiting for pay day. No sale shopping for us this year and it feels strangly satisfying. We all got some christmas money and it's all being saved this year. I've got £200 so are going to fill the car up and bank the rest. We've got loads of food and booze to last us until payday, so the £130 towards the debts.

The only spending that's needed is new shoes for the kids. I'll will be shopping around to see which clarks have the best sale. We've not planned to buy anything else, so will be withdrawing the cash for food and nothing else!

This is a new me and I've told all my friends and family that we're on a strict no-spend-unless-required budget! No more nights out in the curry house, pub, or coffee and cake with the girls.

It's a fresh start and we ready to start!

19lottie82

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

I've not entered anything for haircuts, holidays, entertainment as this comes out of our £400 spending money. It works well as all xmas pressies and everything is covered by this, but I've never split in down into different pots. I save £2's to boost xmas spending too.

if you're serious about clearing your debts, it's still a lot i'm afraid, many people who are currently debt free would see this as a lot!
it's over 5k a year!

it's only my opinion but if you are serious about clearing your debt and saving for a house deposit, you will get there a whole lot quicker if you cut this a LOT!

I really think you could half it easily.

herewegoagain2010

I know you're right Lottie. I'm sat tinkering with numbers at the moment and think that £200 (for hubby is realistic as he's away a lot next year, in hot and sandy places and this money buys more than things....it's an escape from the job he does) I'm going to put £35 a month towards christmas, £15 towards birthdays and then £50 towards clothes etc. The kids both need shoes so £50 will go on these in Jan, but in Feb am hoping to save the £50 towards my cc. That means I've got an extra £100 towards paying off. It's easily done and if I get back selling on ebay I can pay off even more. x