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

AlexLK

slowcoachme wrote: »

You have a monthly income of £3810 after tax, and you say " we still don't have a fantastic income, though one day we may" On top of that you have sold a watch for £5100. That is offensive to all those who are really struggling.

Whether or not one is "struggling" is surely based upon individual circumstance? A few months ago, we would have spent every penny of our income and possibly more. It has been coming on here that has allowed my wife and I to begin to budget in order to have money to put towards paying the debts off.

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

Slowcoachme. Why don't you go and play on the M25 ?
You are neither helpful nor courteous here. This man is entitled to advice and support as much as any other, if you don't like it, don't read it.

Alex, don't take it personally, he obviously has no manners and enjoys winding you up.

Thank you, Mara.

Unfortunately, I seem to have bitten.

7roland8 wrote: »

I can see were slowcoach is coming from - £600 for presents and Christmas to us would be luxury - yet you class it as Scrooge like. Also no toddler needs £50 of clothes a month.

However changing the subject - I find your parents ' negative comments to you about your playing very mean spirited - either offer constructive criticism or say nothing - they are hardly supportive.

Good luck for tomorrow - I'm sure e panel will be fine.

Roland: This year we will not have £600 for presents / Christmas. We will have £150 as there is October, November and December left this year. Also, our son's birthday falls in November too.

I do understand where you are coming from in relation to my son's clothing budget. However, Mrs. K. and I have discussed we wish him to have nice things. This does not mean that I am going back into my old ways of buying whatever expensive item I fancy the look of on a whim, we are trying to stick to a budget this time.

As I have mentioned before my parents have high expectations, I am in reality a mediocre violinist at best compared to true virtuoso performers. In fact I'd be utterly delighted if Sarah Chang was to say I was mediocre! :rotfl: Whilst the parents comments did put me down for a couple of hours, it is how they are and most likely always will be. Both of them are rather different to me; they are ambitious, charismatic leaders thus, those comments were "supportive" so far as they were concerned.

Thank you and fingers crossed.

LannieDuck

Your SOA's showing a very healthy debt-repayment each month. Good job.

I'm laughing at the statement that you and Mrs K have plenty of clothes and don't need new ones atm - there's no way you would have said that a month ago

Don't resent Little K's nursery fees. Not only will it be great for his social development, but it was important to sort out proper childcare arrangements and to factor those expenses into your plans going forward. It's not realistic to rely on your parents all the time.

And well done Mrs K for making a start on the clearing out

wegle

That's a really good looking SOA Alex. What's your plans for the £1300? I'd suggest sticking it all straight into your savings account so it isn't there to tempt you. Or if you are a bit worried about unexpected expenses put £1000 in there straight away and hang on to the £300. That would be more than enough to deal with life's little unexpected moments but you should always be aimg for it to join its fellow £1000 at the end if the month.

AlexLK

Lannie: Thank you. It is great to see those figures in all honesty.

You are right, I wouldn't have said that at all. However, I have begun to realise things need to move on. We have an awful lot of things in this house that are either worth money or have never been used / wore (in the case of clothes).

In regards to our son, we were jesting somewhat. He will receive 15 hours free come January, so that figure is only temporary.

Mrs. K. is going crazy for clearing out :rotfl:. My wife likes clearing out "junk" but has apparently not wished to do so as she worried about my reaction. In addition to our house over the next few weeks she is going to her parents house to help them clear their house out as they are moving.

AlexLK

wegle wrote: »

That's a really good looking SOA Alex. What's your plans for the £1300? I'd suggest sticking it all straight into your savings account so it isn't there to tempt you. Or if you are a bit worried about unexpected expenses put £1000 in there straight away and hang on to the £300. That would be more than enough to deal with life's little unexpected moments but you should always be aimg for it to join its fellow £1000 at the end if the month.

This month we have managed to put £300 away which was surplus, this is the first time we have EVER done this!

Mrs. K. did joke that £1300 buys a new Aston Martin V8 Vantage on contract hire.... in reality we have a few options. As we know we have more than enough things we don't really need / want to pay our debts off our thoughts were along the lines of:

• £500 per month towards the mortgage in order to clear it early. (Not really sure if £500 would make that much of a difference though).
• £500 per month towards son's future.
• £367 per month left over to go towards Mrs. K.'s car fund, holidays, other more "fun" things.

ETA: Well, that's me told ... I've just been on the mortgage overpayment calculator on this site and if we could pay an extra £500 per month on the mortgage, we would basically clear it in half the time it will currently take and also save over £45,000 :eek: in interest alone.

Readytobefree

:eek: wowser you have almost a third saved to pay of your debts! That is amazing in such a short space of time. :j:T
Pay no heed to negative comments, you have every right to aspire to having an even higher income in the long term. Great news on the mortgage too. Well done guys really happy for you.

AlexLK

Well been for my orchestral audition and feel as if I have completely wasted my time, it will be a miracle if I get in. Most things that could have gone wrong did, leading to my confidence becoming completely shot. How I managed to get so far with the music years back, god only knows.

Readytobefree: Thank you.

Granariesgirl

I think some people just don't / won't understand that it is hard taking a large cut in income if you have been living the high life. Sometimes it it hard to suddenly cut one's coat to suit the cloth, too!
For example: to me & my family, living on £3k a week would be GREAT & we would be more than comfortable; to a Premier League footie player it would be abject poverty & they'd probably be in huge debt very fast... everything is relative!

Alex, now your getting your life well together, when are we going to see the Debts score go down & the Paid score go up?
After all, the interest must be accruing on the debts at a higher rate than you're getting for the money saved up to pay them...
How about a week of attacking the debts now you have a fair sum to go towards them? Get the debts paid on your sig well into 3 figures!

:jRah! Rah, Alex GO!!!:j

And let's just all ignore the chippy, negative people & hope they go away...

:cool:

debtfreewannabe321

Hi Alex, just catching up

Your SOA is looking very healthy now, that's great. Ignore the nasty comments, I would. Seems like a little bit of jealousy to me? Everyone's income/outgoings are different and relative to them & their circumstances so there will be huge differences in what some people think is a lot of money. I think your income is big but that is in comparison to ours and what we've had to manage on. I told my dad a few months ago what we have to spend on things (he'd asked) and he thought we were literally on the brink of starvation when we said we had only £400 a month to spend on food (which was upped from £250-300 only a few months before!!) However it's a comfortable amount for the 5 of us & the dog and compared to some on here is a huge budget. Everyone is different. I've read a few diaries on here that have had a lot more coming in than you, but then their debts were huge in comparison to yours so again all relative.

Sorry to hear about the audition, can you apply again in the future? Perhaps rack this one up as experience and confidence building (rather than shooting it to the ground in flames because of one knock-back). However, you state you haven't yet been knocked back so perhaps they will see the talent and ignore the nerves?

Hope this all makes sense, I have the tv on, the dog is going nuts and the kids are screaming .....:eek:

Daniel54

AlexLK wrote: »

Well been for my orchestral audition and feel as if I have completely wasted my time, it will be a miracle if I get in. Most things that could have gone wrong did, leading to my confidence becoming completely shot. How I managed to get so far with the music years back, god only knows.
)

Alex,you have barely played in recent years and you are bound to be rusty.You haven't been rejected yet and bear in mind violinists are always in demand as an orchestra needs more of them than,say, a percussionist .

I hope you will persevere even if you don't get in.My daughter plays in an amateur orchestra of admittedly high standard (she is LRSM in her main instrument,flute) and derives great enjoyment from the communality of music making.Being able to connect with other people through this medium will,I think,be important for you