Skint Dad's Debt Diary

Memory_Girl

WHAT!!! You mean you haven't read EVERY post and cooed over my pearls of wisdom??? LOL

One baby step at a time is the way to tackle this - so line up that smallest debt and lets chip away at it 1% at a time. Soon it will be HISTORY!!!!

MG

SkintDadUK

Today has been a good day. We spoke to a local cleaning company and there maybe some evening work coming up which would be fantastic! Not sure how much or how long atm but need to speak to them on Monday to get some more details.

Spend wise today come to a total of 62p which was spent on teabags! I also forgot to mention we didn't spend a penny yesterday on anything .

I also started putting some lists together today. If you want the truth, I am not the most organised of people so I am hoping if we make a daily job list, I will more than likely stick to it.

The lists I have started are as follows:

1. Daily to do list
2. Short term goals
3. Long term goals
4. Wish list
5. Bucket list

It might seem a little OTT but as I started think about things earlier I knew we didn't just want to plan for tomorrow. We want to be able to set some hard to reach goals and dreams which gives us that little extra push.

My OH is a bit of a whizz when it comes to spreadsheets so she will be designing one where we can track all the lists in one place. It will also contain the complete list of debts which as we start to pay off we can easily see how much is left.

Another thing I did today was write a blog post about takeaway food and how from now on we are going to make a fake away instead on a Saturday night, thus saving lots of cash and eating hopefully nice food at the same time.

I am going to update my signature shortly and put our debt amount. After speaking to OH we also agreed that we need to start saving a small emergency fund as we have no access to credit and something is bound to happen. Do you have any suggestions on how much we should aim for? I was thinking £500.

In terms of dealing with the outstanding debts we still haven't contacted any of them to arrange payment plans. What we wanted to do is get all the contact details for everyone and hit them all in one go.

So our to-do list for tomorrow is:

1. Create a spreadsheet to list all contact details/amounts for creditors
2. Go to Argos to purchase birthday presents for daughter(£15)
3. Shred confidential paperwork which has built up
4. Draft a two week meal plan

wantabetterlife

Hi SD..just wanted to pop by and show my support. I can remember being so skint a few years back that my husband had to borrow a tenner from his parents because we had absolutely no money...he told them we had lost our bankcard. I swore that I was never going to be in that situation again. Thankfully with a lot of effort all the loans and overdrafts are now gone and we are trying to hammer the mortgage down. You will have good and bad days but stick with it..you can do it!!!

AlexLK

Good Evening SkintDad,

I've just read your diary, very interested to follow your journey as I too mainly look after our almost 3 year old son, whilst my wife works full time. Only difference being I have a couple of business interests.

Looking over your SOA, the first thing that jumps out at me is how much you pay in rent, especially relative to your income. Is there anyway you could move?

I'd be interested in reading your blog.

ETA: Blog found. No idea how to comment on it but rather enjoying reading it.

SkintDadUK

wantabetterlife wrote: »

Hi SD..just wanted to pop by and show my support. I can remember being so skint a few years back that my husband had to borrow a tenner from his parents because we had absolutely no money...he told them we had lost our bankcard. I swore that I was never going to be in that situation again. Thankfully with a lot of effort all the loans and overdrafts are now gone and we are trying to hammer the mortgage down. You will have good and bad days but stick with it..you can do it!!!

Thanks for your support. We are in a pretty dire situation but full of determination to put things right.

I agree about the good and bad days. That's why we are going to achieve a positive out of every single day.

SkintDadUK

AlexLK wrote: »

Good Evening SkintDad,

I've just read your diary, very interested to follow your journey as I too mainly look after our almost 3 year old son, whilst my wife works full time. Only difference being I have a couple of business interests.

Looking over your SOA, the first thing that jumps out at me is how much you pay in rent, especially relative to your income. Is there anyway you could move?

I'd be interested in reading your blog.

Hey Alex, Thanks for reading. I also have been lurking on your diary a bit. Sounds like you are definitely heading in the right direction!

In regards to our rent, it's private rented and where we live it is the going rate for a 3 bed property. We are obviously not in a position to buy a house but what we are looking at is moving to a 2 bed with cheaper rent. It will be a bit cramped but if we can save a couple of hundred a month then we are happy to make the sacrifice. Our tenancy doesn't run out until next July so not much we can do until then.

I would love it if you read my blog! Not sure I can post links yet but just search for SkintDad in Google and I am the top result!

AlexLK

SkintDadUK wrote: »

Hey Alex, Thanks for reading. I also have been lurking on your diary a bit. Sounds like you are definitely heading in the right direction!

We are certainly getting somewhere. To be honest, it's through sheer determination, I'd been burying my head in the sand in regards to the amount of money I owed on credit cards for a long time before I posted on here. I'm probably in a slightly different situation in knowing I can quite easily find the money I owe from various assets. However, if not get yourself eBaying.

SkintDadUK wrote: »

In regards to our rent, it's private rented and where we live it is the going rate for a 3 bed property. We are obviously not in a position to buy a house but what we are looking at is moving to a 2 bed with cheaper rent. It will be a bit cramped but if we can save a couple of hundred a month then we are happy to make the sacrifice. Our tenancy doesn't run out until next July so not much we can do until then.

Wow, you need to get yourself oop north . Round here the going rate for a 3-bed detached (drive for two, small gardens front and rear, a garage if you are lucky) would be around £600PCM.

SkintDadUK wrote: »

I would love it if you read my blog! Not sure I can post links yet but just search for SkintDad in Google and I am the top result!

Already started reading your blog, we've even learnt how to use google up here too.

SkintDadUK

AlexLK wrote: »

We are certainly getting somewhere. To be honest, it's through sheer determination, I'd been burying my head in the sand in regards to the amount of money I owed on credit cards for a long time before I posted on here. I'm probably in a slightly different situation in knowing I can quite easily find the money I owe from various assets. However, if not get yourself eBaying.



Wow, you need to get yourself oop north . Round here the going rate for a 3-bed detached (drive for two, small gardens front and rear, a garage if you are lucky) would be around £600PCM.



Already started reading your blog, we've even learnt how to use google up here too.

It is extortionate down south! We have a 3 bed maisonette, no garden and pay £900 per month. A 2 bed property is still around the £795 mark!

I did use eBay quite a lot although we have sold pretty much anything of real value! I also used to buy and sell retro computer games which I may look at doing again. Very time consuming though.

Our biggest problem is childcare. It was only 8 or so months ago I was working in London full time whilst the youngest was in full time nursery care. We soon realised the cost of childcare was more than what I was earning once we took travel costs into consideration. This will change in a year or so when youngest will get 16 hours a week for free.

We are in a bad situation but I can see we now have the right frame of mind to finally do something about it. You can achieve anything if you are determined enough and we are.

AlexLK

SkintDadUK wrote: »

It is extortionate down south! We have a 3 bed maisonette, no garden and pay £900 per month. A 2 bed property is still around the £795 mark!

Seriously, is anything tying you to the Kent area?

SkintDadUK wrote: »

I did use eBay quite a lot although we have sold pretty much anything of real value! I also used to buy and sell retro computer games which I may look at doing again. Very time consuming though.

That does make things rather difficult.

There's always a bit of money (even pocket money) in buying and selling something you are knowledgeable about (just do not mention liking to collect a Mont Blanc or two to the hardcore MSE'ers ). However, you are right it does take up quite a bit of time.

SkintDadUK wrote: »

Our biggest problem is childcare. It was only 8 or so months ago I was working in London full time whilst the youngest was in full time nursery care. We soon realised the cost of childcare was more than what I was earning once we took travel costs into consideration. This will change in a year or so when youngest will get 16 hours a week for free.

Childcare is most certainly not cheap. Though I am informed it is another thing that is cheaper up here. Is family an option?

16 hours? I am positive it is 15 hours as my son gets this in January.

SkintDadUK wrote: »

We are in a bad situation but I can see we now have the right frame of mind to finally do something about it. You can achieve anything if you are determined enough and we are.

Must say you're much more positive than I would be in your situation! Although I know exactly were you are coming from in needing the right frame of mind to actually do something.

Not sure about the whole "you can achieve anything" ... or perhaps, I've just never been determined enough about anything.

AlexLK

Hope you don't mind me picking your budget apart.

Council tax................................. 145 - are you entitled to any sort of rebate as you have a very low income?
Electricity.................................... 30 - seems low?
Gas............................................ 30 - ditto.
Mobile phones x 2......................... 71 - can you cut to Tesco £10 per month contract? 750mins, 5,000 texts, 500mb.
Satellite/Cable TV......................... 21.5 - get rid. If it's for the kids, there's more exciting things for them to do than watch TV.
Groceries etc. ............................ 250 - is this realistic, if so, excellent.
Clothing....................................... 20 - per month for a family of four??? Again is this realistic?
Other child related expenses............ 16 - what is this?
Contents insurance......................... 0 - this will be a covenant in your AST.
Halifax overdraft monthly fee........... 30 - swap your bank account if possible.