Mr and Mrs D will be debt free

mrsd1984

Right, here goes. I've decided to start this diary so that I can keep on top of everything!! If I work full time I can earn a pretty decent wage (I'm a supply teacher). That's not going to be happening for the next 10 months, though.........I'm due to have our first baby in 40 days. My maternity pay is starting on the 1st July. The first 6 weeks I will be making more than my soa will show. I have put together this soa to show how much we'll have coming in after the first 6 weeks when I'm on the basic smp.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 546.48
Partners monthly income after tax....... 953.33
Benefits................................ 87.96
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1587.77
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 601
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 67.64999999999998
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110.82
Electricity............................. 43
Gas..................................... 43gas/electric combined £86
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 24
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 65 me £30 dh £35 - my contract ends Sept, his Dec - going to reduce them
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 haven't put anything here because it's combined with telephone for the £30
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 11.67 don't save this each month but it comes out of savings, which we will then get back up to the £1000 before using the money on debts, but have included it here so I can see how much it is
Car Insurance........................... 22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30 same as road tax
Car parking............................. 2 very rarely pay for parking, once a month at most and we have a car parking pot in the car
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20 I'm guessing here, we have enough nappies and baby wipes to last us until s/he is in Secondary school at the moment I think, but sure there will be other expenses
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 24.32
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 8
Contents insurance...................... 8.09
Life assurance ......................... 75.56
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1508.23

Assets
Cash.................................... 1000
House value (Gross)..................... 117500
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 119500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 104000...(601)......4.89
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 1523.6...(67.65)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 105523.6..-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................3095.16...75........0
Total unsecured debts..........3095.16...75........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,587.77
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,508.23
Available for debt repayments........... 79.54
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 75
Amount left after debt repayments....... 4.54
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 119,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -105,523.6
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,095.16
Net Assets.............................. 10,881.24


Things are going to be tight. But.......that's where the last few months have come in handy. Despite having to buy everything for the baby, we have managed to save £2500. The majority of that will now be put to one side so that if we're not surviving (e.g. I've left something out) we can use say an extra £100 per month. Also, my smp finishes just before the Easter holidays so if I was lucky enough to find a job it would mean 4 weeks without pay, if I was back as a supply teacher it would mean 2 months (work a month in advance!). That money will get us through those last couple of months.

Now, we are lucky. My dh is self employed and only pays himself minimum each month. At the end of every quarter he looks at what is in the business account and if things have been good then he pays himself a bonus. So far we haven't not had a bonus. For example, the beginning of this month we have had a £900 bonus. We've never had less than £500 (it could happen, I know).

What we plan to do with the extra money is to make sure we have enough in savings in case of an emergency (around £1000) and then use the rest to pay off the Barclaycard. It's 0%, and I've set the payments to be £75 a month which is around £5 more than the minimum at the moment, but means that a set amount goes out each month and we know where we are.

We are also paying off furniture and carpets/sofa that we bought when we moved into our new house (been here a few months - found out I was pregnant when everything was going through). It is all 0%, though so we are not too worried about it. The sofa/carpets is over 24 months, whereas the furniture was buy now pay in 12 months 0%. Dh is in the process of selling his motorbike (his pride and joy bless him) and the money from that will pay off the furniture in full and will leave a little left over to go into savings/Barclaycard.

By keeping this diary I am hoping that we 100% keep on top of our finances and within the next 3 years can be debt free (other than the mortgage, of course!).

Here goes............

mrsd1984

Wow - what a long first post.....sorry!!!

Right, my main plans to help things along and to be able to live whilst I'm on maternity leave:

1. Keep to a strict food budget (we've done £150 this month, but knocking it down to £120 next month - we've done it before so know it can be done). I seriously need to stop snacking, though. I eat so much during the day when I'm home!!
2. Keep petrol to £100 a month. Dh has a car that the business pays for so it's only one we are feeding with petrol. I don't go far when I'm off, the nearest town is only a 10 minute drive away and I won't go more than a couple of times during the week - it's just the weekend then that we use the car more when we are off and 'go somewhere'!
3. Find ways to bring more money in (e.g. selling).

littleskintdragon

Good luck to u, i have also just started a diary, and am having a baby at the start of sept!

It's a scary time..

Can remember finding out i was pregnant in january and having plans to save so many thousand before maternity leave started!! Oops!!

mrsd1984

Thank you

It's an exciting and a scary time isn't it? I don't want our baby in years to come to be in a similar financial situation to us. I want to teach our baby how to budget, not to use credit cards etc. I want to lead by example

littleskintdragon

Good for u... I also think how nice it would be to not have money worries and be able to do the things you fancy.

My budget is done for the month so here goes...

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary
Keep posting!

mrsd1984

Thank you

Well I sat down with dh last night, looked at where our money was going each month, looked at how much will be coming in and decided where we could save a little and our plan of attack for the next 12 months.

Basically, the soa isn't accurate because of the fact that my dh get's bonuses every quarter and car tax we pay once a year and that will be the money we don't spend on council tax in Feb, for example. MOT will also be council tax free month plus some from his bonus. I will post another soa from an excel spreadsheet I have in the next message.

We have decided to always have £1000 in a savings account so that if there are any unexpected little surprises we always have a back-up. Every time dh gets his bonus, we will look at how much he has, make sure our savings has £1000 in it, put some into our Christmas pot and then the rest can go straight to pay off the Barclaycard. As soon as that's done we will have an extra £75 a month.

His motorbike is in the paper today (hopefully, haven't seen it yet!) and we're hoping that goes for around £1200-£1400. £900 of that will go straight to pay off our furniture so that will be cleared and the rest will go into the savings account (it has around £800 in it at the moment). If there is more than the £1000 in there then that can be our Christmas pot started.

We then wrote down everyone that we buy a birthday present for. The list is huge. You don't think about it during the year because it's just a gift here, a gift there but it adds up. Out of our wages every month £35 will go into a separate account and that will be our present fund (that's where the Christmas money will go as well). Between birthday's and Christmas we are going to be spending around £500-£700. Ouch!! That doesn't include extra presents, for example we went to a Christening a couple of weeks ago, got a wedding in a few weeks, my mum is 50 next month (that's all within 2 months).

Anyway......................this morning I have entered competitions. Lots and lots of them. Thinking that whilst I'm on maternity leave (if baby gives me the chance when s/he arrives) I will spend one morning a week entering competitions. Or I may just see about entering a few a day.........we'll see how that works.

Right, here we go Tuesday.........

mrsd1984

Oops, that doesn't show up clearly. I'll type it out then!!
amount in amount out total
dh wages 900 900
smp 546.48 1446.48
child benefit 87.96 1534.44
dentist 24.32 1510.12
e-on 86 1424.12
tv licence 12.12 1412
Water 24 1388
dh mobile 35 1353
Life insurance 45.27 1307.73
Life insurance2 30.29 1277.44
Council tax 111 1166.44
House insurance 16.09 1150.35
Barclaycard 75 1075.35
Car insurance 22 1053.35
Mortgage 601.44 451.91
BT 30 421.91
Sofa payment 67.65 354.26
My mobile 30 324.26
Food 120 204.26
Petrol 100 104.26
Other/household 30 74.26
Gift account 35 39.26
Baby savings 10 29.26

mrsd1984

That kind of makes a little more sense.

Feb and March are council tax free months, so those months the money will be taken out as usual and then put into our savings account ready for car tax and part of the mot cost. There's £222 from there and guessing that it will cost around £350 over the year that's another £128 that will come from one bonus.

Savings account 1: Currently £800 (going to get it up to £1000 for savings and then an extra £350 for car so will be £1350 in there)
Savings account 2: Gift money (£35 a month from bills account and then an extra £300 for Christmas and other bits - from bonus).
Current Account 1 (bills account): £1534.44 a month will be going in there. Direct debits/standing orders as above coming out. No extra.
Current Account 2: As dh gets paid weekly his wages go into there and then at the start of every month a standing order pays the bills account £900. I find it easier than his wages going into bills account weekly because I had to make sure there was always enough to cover, e.g. if mortgage went out day before next pay then there might not be enough to cover, but would be next day. We always have enough to cover next month's bills in there. Also extra in there now to cover the last 2 months (possibly) of my maternity leave as it could mean me having to wait a month or 2 for first wages (supply teacher).

We've then got personal accounts and each have £25 for the month for any things we want. This comes from dh as he actually has £950 a month going in but only £900 going out, so he sends £25 to me and keeps £25 to himself.

I think that all makes sense. The minimum dh has ever had as a bonus has been £500, the most £1000. They're every 3 months.

I can't wait to pay off Barclaycard...........that extra £75 a month will be amazing!!!

mrsd1984

Well, during the past couple of days I have entered loads of competitions, had £25 from Quidco, and filled in some surveys. Went shopping yesterday morning and sorted Father's Day presents for dad and fil, which came to around £15 and then spent £5.50 on food top ups for this week. Just fruit, veg and salad (oh and a pack of m and m's - well I am pregnant, so it is allowed!!).

I also sat down last night and sorted out our next huge monthly shop. It won't be done for another 2 weeks or so, but wanted to see how much it would cost if it was all done in tesco and then I'll go to aldi with my list and see what will be cheaper there!! Dropping our food budget from £150 to £120 next month, but it is very do-able!!

mrsd1984

I can't believe it has been 11 days since I was last on here!! Convinced that this baby is going to be here sooner rather than later. Still 26 days until my due date, but having loads of 'signs'!! Ha, saying that I'll probably go 2 weeks overdue now!!

Anyway, I've made an overpayment of £25 on the Barclaycard today, which means when the £75 goes out next month it will bring the balance down to under £3000. Sold some things on ebay and that gave us an extra £10. Need to post them today. Dh's motorbike is on ebay with loads of interest. Hopefully that will sell this week which will pay off our furniture and leave us with a little left over to leave £1000 in savings (around £750 there at the moment). We are waiting for money from the fonebank (£5) which should be in our account tomorrow and over £20 from music magpie (they've received our parcel, just waiting for them to go through it). I've also got 3 quidco and 1 topcashback payment waiting to go through, the date for 2 of them is August, one in October and no date for the topcashback one. That's around £40. Hopefully this can all go towards the Barclaycard. Looking at next month's bills, we should have around £120 left over so leaving a 'float' of around £50 in our account it will mean another £70 off our Barclaycard.

Need to update signature now. I just can't wait until we have no debts (well other than the mortgage!!). Eeeek!! Exciting!!