Diary of a Struggling DFW

Eyebright

Good Afternoon MSE,

I'm Tanya, I'm 28 and this is my 2nd attempt at becoming a DFW. Hopefully this will be the successful attempt...
I did used to have a diary on these forums, but I neglected it and it's now languishing somewhere in the bowels of the forums never to be seen again. I was toying with resurrecting that diary, but my circumstances are so different from when I started my first diary that I decided I wanted a fresh one.
I need this diary as life is getting tough, our budget is getting squeezed and the debts have started to sneak up again. I can't let this happen, so we need to suck in, clear the debts (again) and build up our savings. I'm fairly sure we are wasting a lot of money, so hopefully I can target these areas and make changes to free up some money each month.

There are so many thoughts bouncing around in my head right now that there is no way I will be able to commit them all to this diary in one post! But hopefully if you stick around you will start to see a plan take form of how I can transform my finances and by extension my life.

I need to complete a new SOA, though I have a good idea of our current situation as I have a finance book where incoming wages and outgoings are documented. This is for bills, debts and DD's etc. It doesn't account for day to day spends, so a spend diary will be one of my first tasks.

I need a to-do list for everything, and my targets and goals that I want to acheive this year, how I plan on tackling the debts. How to up our income.

I need to get into meal planning and really focus and participate in the Grocery Challenges on the OS boards. I'd really like to get our food bill cut down. This will also help me with my goal to lose 2 stone. I've already lost 1, but there is more work to be done!

So, a bit about me...as I have already stated I am 28 and live in Devon. I live with my OH and our pet cat, Lily. We moved into our own home in Dec 2011 after FIL very kindly helped us with a deposit on our first home. He lent us £15k, which we can pay back over time to him with no interest. Shortly after OH was awarded 16k in PPI compensation, which was used to clear our debts and was used to complete a lot of jobs on the house as well as furnishing it and decorating. We had £2k of it left and agreed to try to keep the joint bank account we use for the house at £2k so that we have money available should we need it. It's currently hovering around £1500, and is about to lose another £550 ish as we have had to have the guttering and downpipes etc replaced. Whilst the man was up there doing the work he noticed we have got nail fatigue which is affecting most of the roof this will need sorting before winter and I daren't think of how much it will cost.

So, lots of challenges facing us, and I have lots more I want to say but I think this will do for now. I hope to have some company for my journey, and would greatly appreciate any advice and/or wisdom folks wants to share with me. It will all be gratefully received I can assure you. Just a bit of company would be nice. Being a DFW can get lonely , but I am determined to try and keep my chin up!

Eyebright

Just joined the one debt vs 100 days challenge to help try and motivate me to clear my credit card. Currently owe £550 on it, though it would have remained clear if I had been a bit more MSE about things earlier in the year. I used the CC to buy a laptop for my OH for Xmas, which thinking about it now was a bit silly and extravagant when we are trying to decorate and make our home our own!
Then I used it to pay for a years gym membership @ £200, as it worked out cheaper then the monthly DD. Next year I hope to have the money saved up so I don't have to chuck these sorts of things on plastic. You live and learn...

Have displayed it on my sig to keep it at the forefront of my mind, and hopefully help motivate me to keep going with it!

Eyebright

So I'm not sure I will clear the CC in the 1 debt vs 100 days challenge now, as me and OH have another credit that has £600 on it (how did I not know about this card before today?! ). Anyways I got a letter through from Virgin who my CC is with offering 0% for a year on new balance transfers before the end of June, so I am going to do a balance transfer so all the CC debt is on one card that I will tackle.

In other MSE news last Friday I opened a Santander 123 current account to pay out all our DD's from as it will earn us cashback over the year. Thought this was brilliant, as the bills have to be paid, so why not get a bit back for doing absolutely nothing differently! Also set up the 123 CC whilst I was at it. This will only be used to pay for shopping and petrol and the man at the bank set up a DD so that the card is paid in full every month. The estimates are that these combined could net us around £157 per year! Thanks have to go to Martin, as I was watching his money program and that's where I learnt about them :money:
I also need to get price comparing as last June I price fixed our gas+electricity bill and that runs out on the 1st of June. It's currently £42 for both per month and I really think I will struggle to find such a good deal again due to the price rises Still at least I can rest easy knowing I searched and did my damndest to get the best possible price/deal available atm.

Still have loads to do and sort out, I.E. SOA, savings goals and debt targets. Will get round to all of it at some point this week. I've been called to submit CPD for work, which is a priority for me atm, as I could be struck off the register and unable to practice if I don't submit the work! That definitely won't do my debt busting plans much good...

Have a good evening everyone, I'm off to get the jacket spuds out of the oven for dinner.

Eyebright

I've not had the most MSE day today, as I splurged on 2 books from the book club that was in the tearoom. I could have lived without them...:( £12 I've wasted.

The 123 CC has arrived today, which I can use tomorrow on my train ticket. I will earn 3% cashback on the price of the ticket, whic is exciting! . Will transfer the money over straight away for the price of the ticket to the account the DD for the card will come from.

I've booked tomorrow off work now to sort a few things out ready for my trip to Cheshire. I'm going to use the quiet alone time to work an my SOA which I will then post up. Will be good to see the financial situation clearly, all laid out in front of me.

Have been considering today whether to apply to a local language school to accomodate their students over the summer. We have 2 spare bedrooms, so we could use one or both to provide accomodation. The school offers £116 a week for a single occupancy room. I realise it sounds like a no-brainer but I don't currently know everything involved and exactly what we would have to provide/do with any students. Also I value my privacy and space. It was bad enough having my parents just stay for 5 days, let alone strange foreign teenagers! We definitely could do with the money if we have to completely retile the roof, plus the extra income would be great to swell our savings...but I just don't know right at this moment in time. Need to discuss the matter with OH I think before we decide whether or not to proceed.

Have decided not to go grocery shopping this week. We have so much in the freezer from the bank holiday splurge, and we are both away over the weekend so I can't see the point. Will use up what we have for now. That's the MSE thing to do, and will save me approx. £65. Am looking into Approved Foods to see if it would be any good to us, would be nice to get the grocery spends down.

Have a good evening everyone, I'm off to make my chicken burger. Serving it with LO potato salad and coleslaw from the BH BBQ!

Eyebright

Right then, can't put it off any longer...here is my SOA. I don't think it's too bad and I certainly have enough to live on each month, but I'm also aware there are definitely places where savings could be made, which is good as we need savings!

Note: this SOA is only for my monthly outgoings. Each month I sit down and do the sums to see what the bills come to each month then me and OH put in half each to the joint account the bills come out of. So I have entered half the cost of each bill where applicable to relect my outgoings. Hope that makes sense!!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1250
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 327
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 21.149999999999977
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 58.5
Electricity............................. 10.5
Gas..................................... 10.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 16.5
Telephone (land line)................... 7.25
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 6.06
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 32.88
Internet Services....................... 3.75
Groceries etc. ......................... 125
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.97
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 5.45
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 799.51

Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross)..................... 132000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 600
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 133100

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117000...(327)......5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2029.92..(21.15)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 119029.9.-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............520.......25........1.3
Total unsecured debts..........520.......25........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 799.51
Available for debt repayments........... 450.49
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 25
Amount left after debt repayments....... 425.49
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 133,100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -119,029.92
Total Unsecured debt.................... -520
Net Assets.............................. 13,550.08
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

This thing looks very confusing! The bottom line is that my half of the bills for the house come to £508.67 each month. I then have set things I pay each month also which I account for as "personal bills", though most of these outgoings are not bills! These are £30 to play the lottery for 1 month, £11 to an e-saver account for my yearly registration fees, £30 into another esaver for a car (should I ever pass my driving test ), £50 into a savings account to pay back FIL for the deposit he lent us to buy the house, £10 bank account fee. I must get rid of this as I don't use any of the products! My mobile phone which normally hovers under the £40 mark (super expensive I know, I'm downgrading my contract is up for renewal), £30 into a savings account for the future/emergencies, £30 to my CC bill, though I'm hoping to increase the payments from this month to get rid of the debt quicker...so my personal bills usually come to around £250.91, then I allocate £125 for food, and £20 a week for spending on any bits I need.

I set my monthly income as £1250 though it is normally more than this from working overtime and working one weekend in six. So if I subtract all of these regular outgoings then the absolute minimum I should ever be left with for a month is £265.42.

Pleased with that as it gives me flexibility in my budget for things such as any planned evenings out, birthdays, unexpected outgoings, and should any of it be left I can then throw it at a debt or squirrel away for the future.

I'm in an awkward place at the moment, as I would love to get rid of the CC, and the HP finance (to DFS for our 3 piece suite we bought when we moved in, but at least it is at 0%!!!), but I also desperately want to bolster our savings, as we are vulnerable at the moment. If anything broke etc we don't have a lot of savings to fall on, so we would end up having to use the CC again or worse....I'm not in any rush to pay off the DFS debt as at least it is at 0%. I would like to clear the CC as that isn't. Then I think I would like to save as much as possible, to feel more secure.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Now I know where I stand financially I am going to go away and have a think of what my aims, targets, goals etc will be and come back and post my Debt Free Declaration!

PollyOnAMission

Wow, your gas and electricty bills are really low! Are they really only £42 per month for your household, based on actual meter readings?

My first suggestions would be to cut the satellite/cable TV (especially if your £33 is only half the totaly monthly cost!), your bank account fee and the lottery. That's over £70 per month for you to save personally and put towards your credit card debt. Is your Virgin CC really only 1.3% APR?

mum2one

Just a thought with the students a friend of mine did it a couple of years ago, she had a student for 2 weeks, from memory - you need to drop them off by 9am, provide a packed lunch and collect at 5pm - Mon to fri

At the weekend and evening its assumed that your make them part of your family. If its your first time I would say just try for 2 weeks, as it can be quite an intent experience.

xx

mum2one

[
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1250
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 327
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 21.149999999999977
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 58.5
Electricity............................. 10.5
Gas..................................... 10.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 16.5
Telephone (land line)................... 7.25
Mobile phone............................ 40 - could you look at reducing your contract, usually with a quick call there reduce a level, consider sim only contract - they can be as cosr effective as pay and go deals
TV Licence.............................. 6.06
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 32.88 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]even at half the cost - that is one strong package - do you need all the chanels[/COLOR]
Internet Services....................... 3.75
Groceries etc. ......................... 125
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]no prescriptions or over the counter medices [/COLOR]
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.97
Contents insurance...................... 0 - i[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]s that joined in with buildings or does OH pay that [/COLOR]
Life assurance ......................... 5.45
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"](I know u go halves, £480 pa, does that cover all bday etc)[/COLOR]
Haircuts................................ 0 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]- No haircuts?[/COLOR]
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 799.51

Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross)..................... 132000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 600
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 133100

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117000...(327)......5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2029.92..(21.15)....0 -
Total secured & HP debts...... 119029.9.-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............520.......25........1.3
Total unsecured debts..........520.......25........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 799.51
Available for debt repayments........... 450.49
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 25
Amount left after debt repayments....... 425.49
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 133,100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -119,029.92
Total Unsecured debt.................... -520
Net Assets.............................. 13,550.08
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.[/font]

This thing looks very confusing! The bottom line is that my half of the bills for the house come to £508.67 each month.


I then have set things I pay each month also which I account for as "personal bills", though most of these outgoings are not bills!
[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]

This is where the money pours through the hands!![/COLOR]

These are £30 to play the lottery for 1 month, - Sorry but £30 for the lottery - £360 a year, I'm not against the lottery we put £10 on a month - even allowing £10 pm - thats £240 per year that could be used for other things



£11 to an e-saver account for my yearly registration fees, - sorry to ask but what is the registration fee for?




£30 into another esaver for a car (should I ever pass my driving test - its a good idea to put some money up for the car, but there are added expenses, - Insurance, tax, petrol, MOT etc that maybe you could add to this fund


£50 into a savings account to pay back FIL for the deposit he lent us to buy the house, - while I think that is a good idea could you maybe take a 6 month break and throw this towards an emergency fund,

£10 bank account fee. I must get rid of this as I don't use any of the products! - if your not getting the money worths as you say, its not worth paying out - £120 a year saved


My mobile phone which normally hovers under the £40 mark (super expensive I know, I'm downgrading my contract is up for renewal) - look at Sim only deal - Tesco do fixed price contracts -Gaff Gaff is another good one, - if the phone still works perfectly - even being generous you don't need to spend more than £20 pm - £240 pa saved




, £30 into a savings account for the future/emergencies, - gd idea saving the £30 but with savings made as above this couls be chucked at the debts



£30 to my CC bill, though I'm hoping to increase the payments from this month to get rid of the debt quicker..by the few painless cuts as suggested above you could easily chuck £20 or £30 a month to the card extra without any painless cuts

.so my personal bills usually come to around £250.91, then I allocate £125 for food, and £20 a week for spending on any bits I need.

good idea to have a small personal spend

I set my monthly income as £1250 though it is normally more than this from working overtime and working one weekend in six. So if I subtract all of these regular outgoings then the absolute minimum I should ever be left with for a month is £265.42.

better to take it on the lowest amount then any overtime or the weekend working is a bonus and gives you the freedom to put it where you want

Pleased with that as it gives me flexibility in my budget for things such as any planned evenings out, birthdays, unexpected outgoings, and should any of it be left I can then throw it at a debt or squirrel away for the future.

maybe if you can make any cuts - then put the money straight up otherwise it get allocated to a few items but can only go to one thing

I'm in an awkward place at the moment, as I would love to get rid of the CC, and the HP finance (to DFS for our 3 piece suite we bought when we moved in, but at least it is at 0%!!!), Thats good that the suite is on 0%, but how much longer have you got left on it


but I also desperately want to bolster our savings, as we are vulnerable at the moment. If anything broke etc we don't have a lot of savings to fall on, so we would end up having to use the CC again or worse....I'm not in any rush to pay off the DFS debt as at least it is at 0%. I would like to clear the CC as that isn't. Then I think I would like to save as much as possible, to feel more secure.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Now I know where I stand financially I am going to go away and have a think of what my aims, targets, goals etc will be and come back and post my Debt Free Declaration![/QUOTE]

Hope you don't mind I broke your SOA and your end bit into chunks, the positive is that you do have some money spare - but if you can make some painless cuts then that free up some money to get to the targets.

I would say keep a spending diary to see where everthing goes, then you can set yourself a challenge like XX to emergency fund by 6 mths etc xx

Eyebright

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Wow, your gas and electricty bills are really low! Are they really only £42 per month for your household, based on actual meter readings?

My first suggestions would be to cut the satellite/cable TV (especially if your £33 is only half the totaly monthly cost!), your bank account fee and the lottery. That's over £70 per month for you to save personally and put towards your credit card debt. Is your Virgin CC really only 1.3% APR?

Yep my gas and electricty are really £42 a month, and that's with providing monthly meter readings to E.ON, though I am anticipating that this will increase from next month slightly as we price fixed for a year last June. I'm a bit obsessed with turning of lights and using the heating as minimally as possible! :rotfl: Think it helps that me and OH are out all day at work.

Yes you are totally right about the Sky bill. We currently pay Sky £87 for phoneline, broadband and TV, with most of it being for the TV....I'm currently locked in a battle with OH about it. I don't see that we need movies or sports, but he is having none of it! If it was just me I would have freeview, but OH likes his telly, so the saga continues. Maybe I should tell him if he wants everything he can pay all of it himself :rotfl:

The lottery definitely needs culling, I don't quite know how it has gotten so high! Same with the bank account fee.

CC is only 1.3% for next few months then it jumps to a princely 18%. Another reason to get rid of it ASAP...thanks so much for your input!!

Eyebright

mum2one wrote: »

Just a thought with the students a friend of mine did it a couple of years ago, she had a student for 2 weeks, from memory - you need to drop them off by 9am, provide a packed lunch and collect at 5pm - Mon to fri

At the weekend and evening its assumed that your make them part of your family. If its your first time I would say just try for 2 weeks, as it can be quite an intent experience.

xx

Thanks for commenting, these are some of the things that are concerning me. Thing is I work FT, same with OH so we can't be available everyday to pick them up and drop them off, though the impression I got from the leaflet was that it was only the first day or so until they learnt the route. Packed lunch wouldn't be a problem, and family life here might be quite boring for the students, as it's just the two of us and we don't always get up to very much!!! :rotfl:

I definitely need to look into this more, as I'm not convinced we can provide the experience required for the students...shame cos the money would really come in handy!

Eyebright

mum2one wrote: »

[
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1250
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 327
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 21.149999999999977
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 58.5
Electricity............................. 10.5
Gas..................................... 10.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 16.5
Telephone (land line)................... 7.25
Mobile phone............................ 40 - could you look at reducing your contract, usually with a quick call there reduce a level, consider sim only contract - they can be as cosr effective as pay and go deals
TV Licence.............................. 6.06
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 32.88 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]even at half the cost - that is one strong package - do you need all the chanels[/COLOR]
Internet Services....................... 3.75
Groceries etc. ......................... 125
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]no prescriptions or over the counter medices [/COLOR]
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.97
Contents insurance...................... 0 - i[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]s that joined in with buildings or does OH pay that [/COLOR]
Life assurance ......................... 5.45
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"](I know u go halves, £480 pa, does that cover all bday etc)[/COLOR]
Haircuts................................ 0 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]- No haircuts?[/COLOR]
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 799.51

Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross)..................... 132000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 600
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 133100

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 117000...(327)......5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2029.92..(21.15)....0 -
Total secured & HP debts...... 119029.9.-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............520.......25........1.3
Total unsecured debts..........520.......25........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 799.51
Available for debt repayments........... 450.49
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 25
Amount left after debt repayments....... 425.49
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 133,100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -119,029.92
Total Unsecured debt.................... -520
Net Assets.............................. 13,550.08
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.[/font]

This thing looks very confusing! The bottom line is that my half of the bills for the house come to £508.67 each month.


I then have set things I pay each month also which I account for as "personal bills", though most of these outgoings are not bills!
[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"][/COLOR]
[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"][/COLOR]
[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]This is where the money pours through the hands!![/COLOR]

These are £30 to play the lottery for 1 month, - Sorry but £30 for the lottery - £360 a year, I'm not against the lottery we put £10 on a month - even allowing £10 pm - thats £240 per year that could be used for other things



£11 to an e-saver account for my yearly registration fees, - sorry to ask but what is the registration fee for?




£30 into another esaver for a car (should I ever pass my driving test - its a good idea to put some money up for the car, but there are added expenses, - Insurance, tax, petrol, MOT etc that maybe you could add to this fund


£50 into a savings account to pay back FIL for the deposit he lent us to buy the house, - while I think that is a good idea could you maybe take a 6 month break and throw this towards an emergency fund,

£10 bank account fee. I must get rid of this as I don't use any of the products! - if your not getting the money worths as you say, its not worth paying out - £120 a year saved


My mobile phone which normally hovers under the £40 mark (super expensive I know, I'm downgrading my contract is up for renewal) - look at Sim only deal - Tesco do fixed price contracts -Gaff Gaff is another good one, - if the phone still works perfectly - even being generous you don't need to spend more than £20 pm - £240 pa saved




, £30 into a savings account for the future/emergencies, - gd idea saving the £30 but with savings made as above this couls be chucked at the debts



£30 to my CC bill, though I'm hoping to increase the payments from this month to get rid of the debt quicker..by the few painless cuts as suggested above you could easily chuck £20 or £30 a month to the card extra without any painless cuts

.so my personal bills usually come to around £250.91, then I allocate £125 for food, and £20 a week for spending on any bits I need.

good idea to have a small personal spend

I set my monthly income as £1250 though it is normally more than this from working overtime and working one weekend in six. So if I subtract all of these regular outgoings then the absolute minimum I should ever be left with for a month is £265.42.

better to take it on the lowest amount then any overtime or the weekend working is a bonus and gives you the freedom to put it where you want

Pleased with that as it gives me flexibility in my budget for things such as any planned evenings out, birthdays, unexpected outgoings, and should any of it be left I can then throw it at a debt or squirrel away for the future.

maybe if you can make any cuts - then put the money straight up otherwise it get allocated to a few items but can only go to one thing

I'm in an awkward place at the moment, as I would love to get rid of the CC, and the HP finance (to DFS for our 3 piece suite we bought when we moved in, but at least it is at 0%!!!), Thats good that the suite is on 0%, but how much longer have you got left on it


but I also desperately want to bolster our savings, as we are vulnerable at the moment. If anything broke etc we don't have a lot of savings to fall on, so we would end up having to use the CC again or worse....I'm not in any rush to pay off the DFS debt as at least it is at 0%. I would like to clear the CC as that isn't. Then I think I would like to save as much as possible, to feel more secure.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Now I know where I stand financially I am going to go away and have a think of what my aims, targets, goals etc will be and come back and post my Debt Free Declaration!

Hope you don't mind I broke your SOA and your end bit into chunks, the positive is that you do have some money spare - but if you can make some painless cuts then that free up some money to get to the targets.

I would say keep a spending diary to see where everthing goes, then you can set yourself a challenge like XX to emergency fund by 6 mths etc xx[/QUOTE]

Thank you for your detailed feedback, definitely a lot to think about! I certainly don't mind that you broke my SOA down. I found the whole thing a bit confusing to look at anyway!

I definitely do want to reduce my mobile bill, though I don't know if I can break my contract? It still has a year left to run on it.

No prescriptions, me and OH are (touchwood) fit and well. I buy the odd packet of paracetamol every couple of months (24p), but that's it, and as I would get that at the SM I would put that in my grocery budget.

TV- as I mentioned previously, I'm currently battling with OH about reducing it, as I agree, it's a ridiculous amount of money to be spending!

Yes, I lumped in the buildings and contents under the contents insurance heading, but we are insured for both!

To be honest I just plucked a number out of thin air for birthdays etc column, as I don't put money aside each month for covering them (though it would probably be a great idea to do that!), any presents would just come out of the money left over after all the bills, DD's and food budget had been worked out...I only buy for my side of the family though, OH takes care of presents for his side of the family.

I get my hair cut probably about twice a year (when it starts to look straggly :eek:), and again I would take it out of the LO money. I'm starting to think my budgeting efforts are a bit half !!!!!d!!!

You are totally right about the lottery, and when you work out how much I'm wasting over the whole year it makes me feel a bit queasy! It seems to have sneaked up over the years, but I'm going to prune it right back, there's no need to waste so much money like that...

I'm a pharmacy technician and I have to pay for the pleasure of being one! Every year I have to pay the general pharmaceutical council £116 to be on their register and if I'm not then I am not allowed to practice as a pharmacy technician! So I put away £11 a month, so that when I get the letter I can pay it without panicking and having to find £116 out of one month's paypacket!

My car fund is being added to a bit half-heartedly. I'm not sure even when I pass that I will buy myself a car, though I know I will have to sort out insurance, tax money etc, if I decide to share OH's car with him. I currently have a bus pass which I get discounted through work £43 per month for unlimited bus travel. Even when I pass my test it will still be cheaper for me to use the bus scheme to commute to work as opposed to driving. I don't know what I will do, as yes it is cheaper, but I lose 2 hours a day nearly in waiting for and traveling on buses to get to and from work, so I would have more spare time to myself.

We could take a break from paying FIL, as I know he wouldn't mind, but I would feel guilty. He was so generous and we would still be throwing money down the drain renting if it hadn't been for him. We normally take a break over Xmas from putting money away for him and I think that is the most my conscious would allow me to get away with.

Got 32 payments (!!!!!) left of the DFS debt. I think once the CC is blitzed I will save up a lump sum to pay it off early with...

I agree a spending diary would be a fantastic idea, see what I am wasting my money on how I can change that. I think I have a little notebook kicking around that I can use. What I have also decided to do is put any money left over from my weekly pocket money into a tin, which I will put towards Christmas.

I agree goals would be a great idea to help focus me and motivate myself to tackle everything. Thank you so much for your detailed feedback, sometimes you need another person's perspective to spot the things that you are missing (I mean you lottery....!) xxxx