Clearly losing my mind

Fuschiapink

Could have sworn I'd started a diary thread already but it's disappeared!

Anyway, needing to release. DFW - still thinking about linking SOA, not sure if I prefer just "having it to myself" to mull over for now. Have too much debt, mostly credit cards - that I'm ploughing away at, one card at a time. This month is just horrendous (and only just been paid), trying to balance my budget so I don't dip in the overdraft that I've only just paid off, but not sure it can be done. I worked out that I have/had £155 left after bills this month, but that needs to stretch to food, fuel, daughters dancing and any other eventualities that crop up. Gave my sister £100 when I got paid as she had no food and no money which I was happy to give her (as I can always go into overdraft and can't let her kids starve!) but she told me she'll give it back tomorrow from her tax credits, so that's actually a relief! Spent £50 at Aldi on Sunday, so that would give me £205 remaining. Paid to send an eBay parcel this am £2.80 - and when another sale finishes this week will add my paypal balance (should be around £30) so I might, might be able to make it work. This month is so bad because I made a massive overpayment on one of my cards before getting a horrendous gas bill (changing suppliers to save money but final bill was shocking). If I can just get to April's payday I'll be ok. Feel like I'm wishing life away, checking, double checking bank, spreadsheets, plans, trying to calculate new min payments after overpayments etc, but it needs to happen. It's got to be now, I can't keep robbing peter to pay Paul - or whatever way round it is! Rant over, feeling better for venting I can do this!

Fuschiapink

So, no money back from sister yet and £60 on petrol today. Hopefully will last a little while though. Daughter needs new school shoes, literally falling to bits, will have to buy this weekend (pains me so close to holidays) but it's a definite need! Organised a few bits to take to cash for clothes shop, but we don't have much at the moment, had a big clear out before Xmas, and only a couple of outgrown kids things for eBay. So think key this month is being very, very careful as I won't be able to make much extra. We have a sun £9.50 holiday booked in the school holiday too, already paid for, so just need to work out a budget for the week. Holidaying on a shoestring!

saterkey

well done on starting your diary, see if you can reduce your outgoings a bit more, to free up some cash.

Fuschiapink

As it's the start of the month I'm going to post my o/s amounts so I can see reductions each month:
Card 1: 6903.84
Card 2: 8547.99
Card 3: 1767.91
Card 4: 333.66
Card 5: 1152.33

Cat 1: 168.71
Cat 2: 288.06

Car HP: 2513.40

Total owed 1April: £21675.90
Sobering. Not going near the mortgage until I sort this (can't think about it)...

NHS_worker_bee

Have you snowballed all the debts to see which you should prioritise (whilst still making minimum payments on all the others) Snowballing has really helped me plan. All the best

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk

Fuschiapink

Thanks, no I haven't, card 3 is 0% so wiping that from my mind! cat 1 also interest free so ignoring that (minimum payments by direct debit). Focusing on largest balance first (that was card 1) and also making smaller overpayments to card 5 and cat 2. To be honest I thought reducing/clearing highest balance first would motivate me more to carry on, rather than snowballing, but I might at least check it out to see whether I should do it differently to save more. I've cut back outgoings as much as I possibly can - to the point where I caught myself having a go at the kids for wanting more breakfast (after 2 pieces of toast & peanut butter each) because I hadn't budgeted to buy more bread, but I did catch myself and stop - I mean if they want more food, they want more food! My budgeting issue, not their fault! But I seriously spend nothing on myself and - have cut back further than I would have thought possible last year! Last weekend I baked a massive cookie batch so we didn't have to buy chocolate biscuits for their lunch this week, and I will try to keep up stuff like that, but it's hard while working full time to do outside of weekends. Everything cooked from scratch and no household luxuries left to cut.

Fuschiapink

Sod it, give or take, this is where I am, I think. It's maybe a bit more complicated than I can put onto the planner template, but these are the figures each month, generally.


Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
\
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 1725
Total monthly income.................... 4225
\
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1726
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 197
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 58
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 66
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 107
Other insurance......................... 188
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Kids savings............................ 51
Union................................... 25
Acct fee................................ 13
Ni...................................... 14
Total monthly expenses.................. 3293

Assets
Cash.................................... 35
House value (Gross)..................... 400000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 403035


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 322250...(1726).....
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2513.4...(197)......14.1
Total secured & HP debts...... 324763.4..-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card 1.........................6903.84...304.......21
Card 2.........................8547.99...215.......20
Card 3.........................1767.91...40........0
Cat 2..........................288.06....30........?
Cat 1..........................168.71....8.........0
Card 5.........................1152.33...30........?
Card 4.........................333.66....8.........18
Total unsecured debts..........19162.5...635.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,225
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,293
Available for debt repayments........... 932
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 635
Amount left after debt repayments....... 297

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 403,035
Total HP & Secured debt................. -324,763.4
Total Unsecured debt.................... -19,162.5
Net Assets.............................. 59,109.1