Debt, House, Marriage, Babies

Meerkat2014

Hi Everyone

I've decided to start a diary to track my money from being debt free, through buying our first home, to marriage then babies.

My OH proposed to me on my birthday this year :j and although we have been paying off debts (OH has paid his) and trying to save for a deposit for a house (which I can't save my part of until I have cleared my debt), it's really time to crack down.

Our aim is to save for the next year and hopefully this time next year we will be in a position to buy. We then want to save for another 18 months to get married and then start having babies (if I could have one now I would but we want to do things in order. Plus our flat is very small and we have outgrown it really).

I can't give my total debt amount yet as I need to wait until payday to see the final overdraft figure once money has cleared and wage is in, but I know my CC balance is £1804.26, so I think my overall figure will be about £2300.

In the meantime, here are my outgoings (i'm only including my half):

Rent/council tax/utilities/tv/groceries/house bills - £480 - all bills down as much as poss and aiming to reduce food budget
Mobile - £37 - moving to cheaper sim only Jan/Feb
Petrol - £65 - Will try and walk home from work in the summer - is approx. 3 miles so don't want to do it in the dark
Car Insurance - Fully paid until September
Car Savings (MOT/tax/service) - £40
Contact Lens Scheme (includes all eye tests and half price glasses) - £21.50
30th Birthday Party - £50 (I know it's not essential but you're only 30 once, plus OH is helping as are my parents)
Emergency surplus - £10 - not a lot but just incase I go a few pounds over in the month
Birthdays and Christmas - money taken in the relevant month and spends halved from last year
Credit Card - as much as possible every month once I have re-jigged money if necessary for any extra essential spends i.e. car/birthdays/Christmas
Spending money for myself including going out, haircuts, dentist, prescriptions etc - £50

Wage - £1356.97

I am currently selling things (already sold some cake books and a cake tool for £26) and also starting to look in to anything else I can do to save and earn extra cash. I'm already set up with HMRC for any extra money I make as I have previously done mystery shopping and I sell the odd cake or two.

Thanks for reading!

M2014

Emmala

Good luck!!! How sensible you are to get 'straight' before the wedding and babies stage takes over.......if you can keep on the straight and narrow you will be setting yourselves up for a much easier ride than going into marriage etc with debt. Just be careful not to stretch yourselves too much when you buy a house...the best advice ever is to do it on one wage if you can, to give the other wage as 'back up' if one of you loses a job. Bear in mind too, that if you want to have a baby quite soon then your wage will reduce while on maternity, so try and plan for this too! I wish you every success!
Molly xx

stewby

Congratulations on your engagement!!
:j

I probably won't be able to offer much in the way of advice but I didn't want to just read and run.

Meerkat2014

Hi

Molly - That's the plan. It can be done we just need to work hard! Thanks for the advice re house. Not sure we would be able to do it solely on mine if OH lost his job but I'm sure we could do it on his. We'll see once the time comes.

Stewby - Thanks, very exciting! Eeek! No worries about the advice, it's nice to have the support whether advice is given or not.

Today I am getting Ebay ready. It's free listing up until end of next weekend so I'm getting all I can on Ebay over the next week.

Realised this morning we left the heating on all night so that's a couple of days of gas gone but you live and learn!

Meerkat2014

Hi All and Happy New Year!

Yesterday was pay day and I have sorted my budget for the year. My current debt stands at £2538.10, a little more than expected (isn't that always the way!). This is broken down into overdraft at £539.99, CC1 at £193.85 (I have clothes to take back on this so this will go down straight away) and CC2 at £1804.26.

This does mean that my plan to save £5000 for a house deposit this year has gone down to £4077.62, so I have another £922.38 to find to meet that target.

I have started today with an Ebay listing and I plan on listing lots more this week during the free listing period. Then I will be looking back on here for extra ways to make some cash.

M2014

Meerkat2014

Hi All

More Ebay listings up today and also some cake decorating things that I've put on Facebook. Hopefully I will get some sales from those!

Remembered today I need to sort out my tax return as only a few weeks to get that in. I know I've got some student loans payments to come out when I put the return in as it wasn't taken for a while after I started my job last year. Fingers crossed it's not too much!

M2014

Meerkat2014

Soooo least impressed. One of my CC's has just started charging me interest (knew it was soon but wasn't sure when) but they have charged me £25.44 on about £1800! Seems a little steep!

Off I go to look for a new 0% card!

Meerkat2014

Credit card application has been made, just waiting for a yes or no. If it's a yes I can transfer my balance. I've chosen one that has a 3% fee but they give you back 1.5% later on so effectively it's 1.5% fee (with a bit of sneaky interest I assume?).

I've decided to add my 30th birthday party to my signature. I have a budget of £750 for the party (£500 of my money and £250 of OH's) but I'm hoping to come out under. Found a cheap venue so far which I am paying the deposit for next week.

At the moment I'm having a bit of trouble with my car. When I say trouble, I mean my OH's Dad is trying to fix it and has so far bought 2 or 3 parts and it's still not fixed, so we are off to see someone about it tomorrow. Will stall my debt payments which is annoying but it's cheaper than buying a new car! Hopefully we can get it fixed without having to take it to a garage which will be more expensive.

M2014

Meerkat2014

Hi All

£20 received today for a cake decorating book I sold. Now in the piggy bank as got it in cash and added to my extra pennies total for Jan. I am waiting on whether another lady is going to turn up to buy some cake decorating mags she wants but not sure if I will have to meet her somewhere now or if she will still come here.

I've signed up for a focus group company also today, hopefully something will come of that. Will be Ebaying lots again today too to take advantage of the free listing. I have some sales and watchers on there at the moment so that's all good.

Can anyone give me some advice? I used to have my tax return set up as my name when I was doing mystery shopping a couple of years ago but I stopped and started setting up my own cake business so changed the name with the HMRC. I'm only really going to be doing cakes for friends and family now as the pressure was too much so can I just change my name on my tax return to my own name again and do one return that covers the odd cakes I do, mystery shopping as I will get back in to it, surveys, focus groups etc? I won't be having my own business and therefore business name, just making a bit of extra cash here and there.

M2014

Meerkat2014

Well today and yesterday I sold some stuff on Ebay. Most things have been paid for so I'm hoping I can get them posted tomorrow. Need to work out profit made. I have some more things selling this weekend too, hopefully I'll get some more bids.

My car has finally been fixed and also had a major service, to the tune of £516.15. I've paid for £70 worth and OH is lending me the other £446.15 until I know where I will stand with my overdraft once my tax return and expected student loan payments that should have been taken come out. Will put the money I owe OH to my sig.

Some clothes I ordered in December came today and I'll be taking some of it back so money will be saved there.

Have now joined up to Swagbucks and started building points up.

Meerkat2014

Hi All

£2.77 cash back received and paid off of the CC today. At the moment we are waiting for a courier to pick up some DVDs/Cds/an Xbox that we have sold. They are coming between 8 and 8 and can't guarantee a time. Quite annoying as that's the whole day! If the guy comes on time then I will be popping in to town to take some clothes back and also to pick up my car. If not I will have to do this tomorrow.

Am now signed up with Field Agent so hopefully some jobs will come my way soon. Also signed up with another survey site and I have some Ebay stuff selling this weekend.

Have a great weekend all!

M2014