Debt free and Emigrating..

mattfiona

Only a very quick update as I should be getting ready for work....

Had quite a good DFW weekend. DH and I joined Collins which is a cheap cash-and-carry shop near where we live and were able to get flooring, paint and a few other bits and pieces for doing up our bathroom from there. We should be able to decorate the whole bathroom for about £40 so I'm really impressed! We made a start on it yesterday and with the first coat of white paint on, it's already looking so much better - and I'm proud of us for doing it relatively cheaply and getting on with some house jobs :j

Now that we're members, we'll be able to get other items for the house cheaply / buying in bulk too so it will really help us out.

We're doing well on getting our grocery shopping down now and I'm pleased with how disciplined we are being! We used to spend £30 - 40 a week and now we've managed to get it down quite a bit - last week, we spent £18 and this week, £27 on our weekly shop so that's just £45 on two weeks which is so much better. We've both been taking pack-ups to work and cutting down on unnecessary spends.

Oh yes, and I'm joining the unnecessary challenge today - going to take £10 cash out of the bank and see how long I can make it last. wish me luck!

Anyway will update more later - better get to work!!

atypicalblonde

Too true Tigtag!!!

How are you doing Fiona? I hope you are having another good moneysaving week - did your OH get himself a little pressie out of the cash then? xx

tigzem

Hi,

Just read your diary... you sound very motivated. I too find it helps having a debt diary, very motivating.

Hope you don't mind me popping in now & then for a read.

Tigz xx

mattfiona

tigzem wrote: »

Hi,

Just read your diary... you sound very motivated. I too find it helps having a debt diary, very motivating.

Hope you don't mind me popping in now & then for a read.

Tigz xx

Hello - I LOVE people reading my diary! It's nice to have a trigger to update as well so thank you!

I am fairly motivated - it's been a difficult month this month because we seem to have had a really short month money-wise but we're getting back on track now!

mattfiona

atypicalblonde wrote: »

Too true Tigtag!!!

How are you doing Fiona? I hope you are having another good moneysaving week - did your OH get himself a little pressie out of the cash then? xx

Hello, thanks for your comment!

OH gets paid a week on Friday so we're still holding on til he gets paid at the moment. This month has seemed REALLY long.............!!!!

We're doing okay money-wise - let it slip a little bit on Friday night when we just wanted to relax and bought bits and pieces for a BBQ and some bottles of wine - spent £20 on that evening just for the 2 of us :eek: but that BBQ coals and the lighters will last us for the rest of the summer so I guess that's something :rolleyes:

This week is going to be tricky too - I can do the £10 unnecessary challenge most of the week but Thursday is my leaving do from work so that's going to be a little bit of expense.....

But, as I mentioned in another thread, I've got a job interview on Wednesday morning for a great job that would really help our financial situation so I'm feeling positive about that

Will update again soon

mattfiona

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted on here, back in June this year! It’s been quite an eventful few months – not so great on the debt-free front, but not horrendous either.

I made a bit of a financial mistake back in June. I decided that I was going to be proactive and transfer our big loan to a lower interest rate. We originally took out the loan in October 2006 for £10,000 to consolidate 2 x £4,500 loans plus a credit card balance. I naively believed that because we had now made 12 payments that the balance would be less than £10,000 (really stupid of me really, I don’t know why I didn’t sit back and think – hang on a minute, that’s not realistic!)

When we originally took out the loan, I was talked into taking the lowest rate of PPI but then decided to cancel it because I felt I was forced into taking it. When I cancelled it, however, it was too late. They refunded part of it but it ended up that the balance on the loan over 5 years was actually £16,000 instead of £10,000 – it makes me sick to think of it – how much more debt we unwittingly took on. I really feel quite upset about it all.

S the balance on the loan after 12 months was actually £11,700 so the loan I was taking out to cover it was actually nowhere near. So, I cancelled the new loan, sent the cheque back and thought that would be the end of it!

In the meantime, however, we had got carried away and booked a holiday, thinking we would have a bit of equity left over from the loan and saving money on interest etc. To cut a long story short, we ended up paying for the holiday on the credit card so we’re no better off – actually got a little bit more debt – but we’re off on holiday soon so I’m kind of pleased we did book it.

Anyway…! In the meantime, I had started a new job in June on a weekly contract (temp-to-perm) with a payrise. This was made permanent in September with another payrise. My husband was also given a secondment plus payrise at the beginning of October so we’re actually about £5k better off a year than we were this time last year – that’s all good but this month we’ve struggled a bit, changing over to new contracts has meant delays in pay, changing from budgeting weekly to monthly etc which has all been a bit of a struggle.

But anyway onwards and upwards! I’ve changed my signature – the big loan is fixed repayments for the next 4 years so thinking about tackling that is not realistic at the moment for us – I’m just thinking of that as part of the mortgage at the moment! The goal is to clear the small 2 debts as soon as possible and then start budgeting and saving.

mattfiona

I’m determined to resurrect my diary again!

New Year, New Start and all that…and I’m here to stay this time, determined to tackle this debt once and for all.

Might be a good idea to begin with a review of where we are in comparison to where we were last year in May when I began this diary.

In May 2007, DH and I had just taken out (Oct. 06) a joint consolidation £10,000 loan to consolidate our debts, plus we owed just over £2,000 to the Lewis Group for a former employer over-payment.

Now, in January 2008, we have paid off a total of 15 payments on the consolidation loan which takes the total debt including interest to just under £10,000 now with 45 payments remaining.

We still owe approx £1,800 on the Lewis Group debt and now have an additional £1,800 on a 0% credit card from a holiday that we took in November 2007.

Our total debt including all interest in May 2007 was approx £16,000 and now it’s £13,600 and should be under £13k after we make payments on Jan payday.

When we started out last year, because we had consolidated into one large loan over 5 years, it felt as though we would only ever be debt-free in 5 years and it seemed so far in the future that there was no point really concentrating on reducing it massively – we’d just keep on making the payments and let it happen…

But I feel differently about it all now…

I’ve worked out that with a bit of extra effort this year, we can become debt-free so much sooner that we though – we can pay off the credit card and Lewis Group debt within the next 6 months hopefully and then start saving towards paying off the consolidation loan. The aim is to reduce our debt this year by £6,500 and then move the remaining £6,500 to a 0% card next year and be debt-free by December 2009 – it’s exciting to think that we can actually do it, we don’t have to stick with the original 5-year-plan…!

Emigrating is probably a bit further off than we originally thought but we’re determined to do it eventually – want to start a family first though so that might distract us for a few more years, LOL!

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Congrats on the hardwork, keep it up! Im finding my diary really helps focus me to.

With a 5k payrise between you those debts will be gone in no time!

mattfiona

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, we really should be better at managing our finances because we both earn quite good salaries and I'm due another payrise in April fortunately so we really should step it up and make a real effort to clear these debts!

Thanks for your support and good luck to you!

mattfiona

Home Expenses

Mortgage

-565.00

Council Tax

-110.00

Home insurance (buildings and contents)

-14.95

Pet insurance - 1st cat

-4.00

Pet insurance - 2nd cat

-5.00

Life Insurance

-5.00

Gas and Electric Dual Fuel

-75.00

Water

-25.00

TV Licence

-11.00

Virgin Media

-30.00

Sub-total of mortgage and essential bills

-844.95

Essentials

Food and Groceries @ £40 per week for 4.5 weeks

-180.00

Medical prescriptions

-7.00

Hair, beauty and grooming (average spend)

-10.00

Clothes and Shoes

-20.00

DH O2 mobile phone contract - average monthly spend

-35.00

Fiona orange mobile phone contract - average monthly spend

-3.50

Travel

MOT - paid once per year at £48 per year

-3.00

Car tax - £99 twice a year

-17.00

Car insurance - monthly payment

-23.00

DH work travel

-36.00

Car maintenance (average monthly cost)

-10.00

Driving lessons @ £20 per week for 4 weeks

-80.00

Petrol

-50.00

Luxuries

Gifts

-10.00

Matt magazine subscription

-3.00

EBay fees

-1.00

Paypal payments

-1.00

Total monthly outgoings

-1,334.45

Me net monthly income

1,300.00

DH net monthly income

1,150.00

Total net monthly income

2,450.00

Net difference after outgoings

1,115.55

Debt repayments

Funding corporation loan - £10,000 @ 7.9% - 48 of £279.00 repayments remain

-279.00

Lewis Group repayments - £2,000 @ 0% - 40 repayments of £50 remaining

-50.00

Student Loan - minimum payment of £25.00

-25.00

Credit Card - minimum payment of £25.00

-300.00