Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

EchoDelta

Yes cbt helps you "reprogramme" your default negative reactions to things.

Hope that you feel better soon Alex.

New year and all that - hope that you can see it as another new beginning and a good time to set some new goals.

As an aside, I'm not sure you should really count on inheriting 12 btl properties. Anything could happen. Changed wills, care home fees, changes to inheritance tax etc. I think one btl property that you have achieved yourself would be, in my view, worth more than any number of inherited ones to your sense of self worth.

AlexLK

heartbreak_star wrote: »

So 2014 is the year you give up on giving up

HBS x

Have to admit I smiled at this.

Mrs. K. wants us to use the new year to "start afresh". She's got some good ideas regarding our finances but I'm somewhat apprehensive as it more or less means me only having access to a very little amount of money on a day to day basis.

patanne wrote: »

I'm back on here again with the self fulfilling prophecy. You are far too used to someone telling you that you cannot do something. Repeat after me "I can do this and I will succeed". Let this be your new self fulfilling prophecy and not the oh no I will mess up. WE all know you can do it - the only one who needs convincing is you.

I can't say it without thinking I'm lying to myself and stopping. Not sure how I'm meant to go on from there and quite shocked to realise that I actually couldn't say seven little words.:mad:

AlexLK

7roland8 wrote: »

Never done or had CBT myself but I believe t helps you move from negative thoughts so that you 'act as if' you had the qualities and whatever you want (confidence etc).

Apparently the mind has a sort of negative default setting anyway so we have to work at changing it to positive. Its easy to get into thinking negative thoughts and these have to be exchanged for positive ones.

Paul Mckenna does the same sort of thing I think.

Thank you for the information and rather interesting to read we are naturally quite negative, wonder why this is?

As for me becoming a positive, happy go lucky person; think I might need a brain transplant.

EchoDelta wrote: »

Yes cbt helps you "reprogramme" your default negative reactions to things.

Hope that you feel better soon Alex.

New year and all that - hope that you can see it as another new beginning and a good time to set some new goals.

As an aside, I'm not sure you should really count on inheriting 12 btl properties. Anything could happen. Changed wills, care home fees, changes to inheritance tax etc. I think one btl property that you have achieved yourself would be, in my view, worth more than any number of inherited ones to your sense of self worth.

Thank you for the clarification.

I've got to visit the doctors on Friday so maybe something will come of that.

EchoDelta

Hope so. Sleep well.

AlexLK

Monday 30th December.
Day 124.

Dear Diary,

I cannot say I'm having a great time of it at the moment. However, my wife and I have been productive in preparing a new SOA for January, it is attached below and comments are most welcome. We have based this on me taking my usual salary from the business but if things do not pick up, I will not be taking a salary.

With regards to debt busting, I have wrote a list of things to sell and taken photographs of most things even though I'm probably going to find it difficult to actually sell some of this stuff.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2330
Benefits................................ 80
Total monthly income.................... 3810[/b]

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 703
Council tax............................. 135 (split over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 65
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line) and internet.......... 32.75
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 150
Petrol/diesel........................... 350
Road tax................................ 53.75
Car Insurance........................... 100
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 75
Car parking............................. 7.5
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Buildings insurance..................... 17
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 10
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 28
Entertainment........................... 65 (one meal out per month)
Emergency fund.......................... 50
School fees savings............................. 600
Mrs. K. lunch at work...................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 3055

maman

Great to see you and MrsK taking control of the budget. Being a huge mse myself I often worry at the seemingly daily amounts you spend on food. I think you need a rough meal plan and an economical weekly shop to go with it.

Quick response to SOA: who in the family needs £150 per month on clothes? And why?

P.S. Have similar feelings to MrsK's spending £50 on work lunches but I suppose her money, her choice?

PPS. I'm still not sure how family finances work. Is the purpose to live within means and for MrsK to save/enjoy any surplus? Or is there any plan to save money to pay off debts?

Either way the SOA works but only if you earn the £1400 stated. How realistic is that? How much does music contribute? How much are you relying on furniture business?

mum2one

AlexLK wrote: »

Monday 30th December.
Day 124.

Dear Diary,

I cannot say I'm having a great time of it at the moment. However, my wife and I have been productive in preparing a new SOA for January, it is attached below and comments are most welcome. We have based this on me taking my usual salary from the business but if things do not pick up, I will not be taking a salary.

With regards to debt busting, I have wrote a list of things to sell and taken photographs of most things even though I'm probably going to find it difficult to actually sell some of this stuff.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2330
Benefits................................ 80
Total monthly income.................... 3810[/b]

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 703
Council tax............................. 135 (split over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 65
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line) and internet.......... 32.75
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 [COLOR=[/COLOR]
Clothing................................ 150 that is just 1 shirt on Alex's spending! very good going
Petrol/diesel........................... 350
Road tax................................ 53.75
Car Insurance........................... 100
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 75
Car parking............................. 7.5
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Buildings insurance..................... 17
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 10
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 28
Entertainment........................... 65 (one meal out per month)
Emergency fund.......................... 50
School fees savings............................. 600
Mrs. K. lunch at work...................... 50 is this enough, is Mrs K taking packed lunch some days
Total monthly expenses.................. 3055

So what is happening to the remaining money - is it being split between savings and debt repayments?

The music money, - know some will need to be accounted for tax etc - is the rest going off debts?
xx

Goldiegirl

I noticed a big luxury item on the SOA

£600 per month towards school fees......

I know you have this thing about your son having what you had, but honestly, people do achieve success in their life without a paid for education.

In a situation where you need to live comfortably within the household income, if it was my SOA, the school fees would be the first thing to go..... But I am the product of a successful state education :rotfl:

AlexLK

maman wrote: »

Great to see you and MrsK taking control of the budget. Being a huge mse myself I often worry at the seemingly daily amounts you spend on food. I think you need a rough meal plan and an economical weekly shop to go with it.

Quick response to SOA: who in the family needs £150 per month on clothes? And why?

P.S. Have similar feelings to MrsK's spending £50 on work lunches but I suppose her money, her choice?

PPS. I'm still not sure how family finances work. Is the purpose to live within means and for MrsK to save/enjoy any surplus? Or is there any plan to save money to pay off debts?

Either way the SOA works but only if you earn the £1400 stated. How realistic is that? How much does music contribute? How much are you relying on furniture business?

I tend to buy as and when for food. Mrs. K. wants to start cutting that out and doing a weekly food shop. However, I'm not sure about that still.

Clothes - we hope to not spend this much EVERY month but have set the budget mainly to stop us from feeling guilty if we do decide to buy something for ourselves.

Work lunches - she's cut this down from £140 per month recently.

Finances - I will be paying off my debts by selling my things. Mrs. K. will keep the remainder of the money she makes. Basically whatever I earn will go towards paying our bills as stated on the SOA and part of her wages will. The rest is hers to do with as she wishes.

My earnings - I pay myself a £1000 per month salary from the furniture business. £400 comes from music and this will be hopefully rising as I find more pupils.

mum2one wrote: »

So what is happening to the remaining money - is it being split between savings and debt repayments?

The music money, - know some will need to be accounted for tax etc - is the rest going off debts?
xx

Mrs. K. is indeed taking packed lunches two days, cafe two days and Friday is a half day - she can wait until she gets home.

I think I've answered your questions in the post above?

AlexLK

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I noticed a big luxury item on the SOA

£600 per month towards school fees......

I know you have this thing about your son having what you had, but honestly, people do achieve success in their life without a paid for education.

In a situation where you need to live comfortably within the household income, if it was my SOA, the school fees would be the first thing to go..... But I am the product of a successful state education :rotfl:

My wife is a product of the state education system and hasn't done so badly either, so I'm not saying it's all bad. In fact if we are purely talking about future earnings thus far the state is winning by a long way.

We already have £12,000 put away for our son which will go towards school as realistically we cannot afford to send him to school and give him a head start for his adult life (he may just waste that like I did).

She isn't bothered about where he gains his education but I am.