Skint Dad's Debt Diary

SkintDadUK

I have had a productive couple of days. Firstly it was my middle daughter's 9th birthday yesterday. We didn't go over the top like we normally do, only a few presents this year. She was still very happy and had a great day. From other family members she received roughly £50 in cash which she has asked if she could buy some clothes off of eBay, this way she can get more for her money she informed me. Bless her x


During the day we had a look at our gas and electricity bills and tried to see if we could save some money by swapping supplier. We went onto Uswitch and it turned out we save roughly £9 per month by changing which we have done. We also went through quidco and earnt £50 cashback. Additionally there is no early exit fee with the new provider so we may do this again if we can save any more.

Later on that day we placed an Asda food order for our next two weeks of food. The total cost came to £38.10 (this included delivery at £2.50 because we chose an 8 hour slot). With what we already have in the cupboards, this should hopefully see us through to payday.

In the evening we cooked a fakeaway(Takeaway food cooked at home) which we had planned a few days before before on my blog.

We had Vegetable Masala curry with rice, Naan Bread and Onion Bhajis - Total cost for a family of 4 was £2.57!:j:j

Here is the recipe if you are interested?

http://skintdad.co.uk/2013/10/saturday-night-fakeaway-vegetable-masala-curry-with-boiled-rice-naan-bread-onion-bhajis/?fb_source=pubv1

Today our food shopping was delivered and Asda substituted 2 items for different more expensive ones but they still charged us the lower price! Result :rotfl:

Still not had the heating on but it is noticeably getting colder. Nothing a 3rd jumper wont fix

Lots of stuff to do tomorrow including making a starting on contacting creditors.

Feeling really positive and full of hope.

SkintDadUK

I'm going to go into more detail later on but wanted to do a quick update of what happened yesterday.

I said on Sunday that the following day I had lots to do including making a start with contacting creditors, 35 in total!

Well we managed to contact half of them and apart from 2 they have all accepted £1 per month for the next 6 months. I do hold out hope that the 2 who wouldn't accept will have a change of heart once they see our SOA.

I felt nervous at first but after calling one of them, the rest were easy. I am going to try and make the remainder of calls today and I will redo our SOA so we can see what position we are in. I have been playing around with our figures a bit and seeing what we can cut from where.

emmaglet

Oh Skintdad, that's fantastic news! I hope you manage to get all the others contacted.

wantabetterlife

That's great progress SD.... those type of phone calls cant be nice so well done :j:j

vassa

SkintDadUK wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned......................0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax............................0
Partners monthly income after tax........1726.00
Benefits............................................134.80
Other income.......................................35.00
Total monthly income.........................1895.80

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage...................................... 0
Secured/HP loan repayments............ 0
Rent......................................... 900
Council tax................................. 145
Electricity.................................... 30
Gas............................................ 30
Oil............................................... 0
Water rates................................. 35
Telephone (land line)..................... 22
Mobile phones x 2......................... 71
TV Licence.................................. 29.1
Satellite/Cable TV......................... 21.5
Internet Services........................... 7.5
Groceries etc. ............................ 250
Clothing....................................... 20
Petrol/diesel................................... 0
Road tax....................................... 0
Car Insurance................................. 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)....... 0
Car parking.................................... 0
Other travel................................. 61.1
Childcare/nursery............................ 0
Other child related expenses............ 16
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills..................... 0
Buildings insurance......................... 0
Contents insurance......................... 0
Life assurance .............................. 0
Other insurance............................. 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)... 10
Haircuts...................................... 10
Entertainment............................... 0
Holiday......................................... 0
Emergency fund............................. 0
Misc travel................................... 10
Halifax overdraft monthly fee........... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1698.2


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA CC(Arrow group)...2308.69...0.........0
Equita.........................1405.48...0.........0
Home retail group.......... 2243......0.........0
Car loan.......................4440......0.........0
Childcare fees ..............701.56....0.........0
Southern water..............30.44.....0.........0
ccscollect......................54.5......0.........0
Rockwell.......................744.56....0.........0
Scotcall........................90.94.....0.........0
Unique International........36.63.....0.........0
south east water...........112.31....0.........0
EDF Energy....................870.......0.........0
Family loan.................5188.19...100.......0
Tmobile(Lowell).............133.42....0.........0
Wescot(sky)..................82.04.....0.........0
Vanquis(Lowell).............295.32....0.........0
Collectica.......................80.00....0.........0
First response/shoesm....988.57....0.........0
Hastings Direct..............120.22....0.........0
Halifax OD.....................293.00....0.........0
Abbey(1st credit)...........564.77....0.........0
Quickquid......................235.75....0.........0
wonga..........................514.87....0.........0
wonga..........................770.00....70........0
Family loan...................1000.00....0.........0
Family loan....................600.00.....0.........0
Halifax OD....................1500.00....0.........0
Salary overpayment........2214.06...0.........0
Council Tax....................879.00....0.........0
Santander OD...............2427.00....0.........0
Santander loan...............6329.6....0.........0
Santander CC.................647.98....0.........0
Shop direct(Lowell)..........877.39....0.........0
O2(Lowell)......................868.89....0.........0
Total unsecured debts...39648.18....170......0


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,895.80
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,698.20
Available for debt repayments........... 197.60
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 170.00
Amount left after debt repayments....... 27.60

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -39,648.18
Net Assets.............................. -39,648.18

Wow, that's a lot of people owed!

If I can see one area you can cut, it's TV. Bin the cable tv and sort out your mobile phones - go on PAYG or google some of the Ovivo or giffgaff deals, because you're currently being charged £71 a month to communicate with people, which considering you have the internet is ludicrous - no one needs a contract phone really unless you use it for extremely heavy business use or something.

AlexLK

SkintDadUK wrote: »

I'm going to go into more detail later on but wanted to do a quick update of what happened yesterday.

I said on Sunday that the following day I had lots to do including making a start with contacting creditors, 35 in total!

Well we managed to contact half of them and apart from 2 they have all accepted £1 per month for the next 6 months. I do hold out hope that the 2 who wouldn't accept will have a change of heart once they see our SOA.

I felt nervous at first but after calling one of them, the rest were easy. I am going to try and make the remainder of calls today and I will redo our SOA so we can see what position we are in. I have been playing around with our figures a bit and seeing what we can cut from where.

You're making great progress, should be proud of yourself.

SkintDadUK

Skint Dad's Debt Diary 17 Oct 13

Not really had much time to get on here for the last couple of days as l have been making lots of calls and playing with even more figures!

So what have I been up to?

For the last couple of days I have been contacting all of our creditors to arrange a short term payment plan. It has been pretty successful as I have managed to agree £1 per month for 6 months for all creditors apart from two (I'm pretty sure they will agree eventually!)

Whilst speaking to all of them my figures have slightly changed due to a few of the accounts being less than I thought and a few being more than I thought.:(

Making the first call was the hardest but once I had got that out the way, the rest weren't that bad.

I actually just blogged about it in a bit more detail if you want to have a look? Skint Dad’s Debt Diary 17 Oct 13

Some extra good news - we managed to get a couple of cleaning jobs in the evening which will boost the money a little :j:j

I still feel positive and more determined than ever.

WantToBeSE

Well done on the cleaning jobs, SkintDad! That's great news

Puzzcat

Hi SkintDad,

Loving the blog, and well done on getting your LBM... :T

My only concern is your low electricity/gas figures.. I live in a 3 bed semi and my monthly dd for both are £129 and this doesn't seem to cover the whole annual charge..I have swapped before on the belief it would be cheaper only to be landed with a big bill and ever increasing monthly dd's.... We are reasonably energy efficient, with new double glazing and i'm mean with the heating.... only use TD for bedding/towels and turn lights/sockets off etc...

I'd suggest doing at least monthly readings to ensure you don't get caught out with a :eek: bill...

Good Luck with it all.
Puzz. x

AlexLK

Skint Dad: Looks like you're making brilliant progress.