Diary of a wannabe saver

Hector_MacBovril

Ok so I was reading another forum on Thurs night regarding current accounts just out of curiosity, and someone had posted a link back to a thread on here, and the upshot of it all was that I ended up switching my account to FD and got the £100 for switching, and the 0% OD up to £250.

All well and good I hear you all say, so why tell us here?

Well dear reader, I've spent a lot of time reading the forums here, and had my LBM (took me a bit of time to work out what stood for :rotfl:).

Compared to some of the posts on here I'm not too bad debt wise, but I need the mutual support of the collective to get me on and keep me on the straight and narrow.

So a bit about myself, I'm dangerously handsome with a flash car and big house .... Oh wait wrong site

Since separating last year from my wife, I've moved into my own place, having my 2 girls over 2-3 nights a week.

In the past (2007) myself and my wife were declared bankrupt, discharged in 2010.

I've been trying to get a grip on my finances, since moving, as it provided an excellent opportunity.

So now for the not so nice fluffy wuffy stuff, due to pretty much moving into a place with no stuff of my own, I relied on some payday loans (always paying off in full) to help as I believed my credit rating to be very bad (yes I know, payday loans what were you thinking you fool). I did get a capital one cc with a low limit (£200 which I asked for). I'll do a full SOA later on for you all to comment on etc.

I can't let myself get sucked into the cycle of pd loans, guess I just need to believe that I can be a saver rather than a spender, and some advice and help in doing this would be appreciated.

So the journey to actually not being in debt, having savings and an emergency fund begins here gentle reader.

Do I have the ...ahem "cahonies" to do this? I need to find them and make it so.

And here begineth the journey

Divingmad

Hey there Hector,
well to the land of the DFW's
There's loads of advice waiting for you here, as well as encouragement and, if you have a bad day, there'll be someone to give you a helpful kick in the pants to spur you on.
Good luck on your journey and I've subscribed so that I can keep up.

Hector_MacBovril

Thanks for the support diving mad.

Right, done my SOA, here goes:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet\
\
Household Information\
Number of adults in household........... 1\
Number of children in household......... \
Number of cars owned.................... 1\
\
Monthly Income Details\
Monthly income after tax................ 1930.92\
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0\
Benefits................................ 0\
Other income............................ 0\
Total monthly income.................... 1930.92\
\
Monthly Expense Details\
Mortgage................................ 0\
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0\
Rent.................................... 450\
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0\
Council tax............................. 99\
Electricity............................. 37.5\
Gas..................................... 37.5\
Oil..................................... 0\
Water rates............................. 0\
Telephone (land line)................... 35\
Mobile phone............................ 33\
TV Licence.............................. 12.12\
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0\
Internet Services....................... 0\
Groceries etc. ......................... 200\
Clothing................................ 0\
Petrol/diesel........................... 200\
Road tax................................ 0\
Car Insurance........................... 39.26\
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0\
Car parking............................. 0\
Other travel............................ 0\
Childcare/nursery....................... 0\
Other child related expenses............ 400\
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0\
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0\
Buildings insurance..................... 0\
Contents insurance...................... 12.44\
Life assurance ......................... 0\
Other insurance......................... 0\
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0\
Haircuts................................ 5\
Entertainment........................... 0\
Holiday................................. 0\
Emergency fund.......................... 0\
Total monthly expenses.................. 1560.82\
\
\
Assets\
Cash.................................... 0\
House value (Gross)..................... 0\
Shares and bonds........................ 0\
Car(s).................................. 3500\
Other assets............................ 0\
Total Assets............................ 3500\
\
No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts\
\
Unsecured Debts\
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR\
Capital One CC.................196.19....20........34.9\
Unsecured Loan.................1550.73...111.7.....89\
Payday Loan....................516.......516.......0\
Total unsecured debts..........2262.92...647.7.....- \
\
\
Monthly Budget Summary\
Total monthly income.................... 1,930.92\
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,560.82\
Available for debt repayments........... 370.1\
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 647.7\
Amount short for making debt repayments. -277.6\
\
Personal Balance Sheet Summary\
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,500\
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0\
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,262.92\
Net Assets.............................. 1,237.08\

The payday loan will be repaid in full, and I'm determined this will be the last time EVER I take one out.

I know it says I am short for repaying, but I've got a new FD current account, so I can offset this against the £100 cash for switching and utilising the 0% portion of the OD.

Then from next month start overpaying the unsecured loan, then credit card, and hopefully be debt free and have some sort of savings/emergency fund.

I have left food at £50 a week, but I could survive on less if I don't have the girls staying over.

So I throw myself at the mercy of the collective to make of my mess what you can.

Do people find it easier to withdraw cash for things and keep it in an envelope, then put change and receipts back in? Asking, as I find it to easy use debit card then forget about it.

Oh and as my phone, TV and broadband are all with TalkTalk, I'm going to use the trick advised on here to save 15% (not sure exactly how much pennies this equates to, but better in my pocket ).

dimestorediamond

Good luck to you Hector, you seem like you've got your determination hat on!

Buffythedebtslayer

All looking very good. We will hold you to the no more payday loans! evil things!


xx

GunWharf

Hello Hector

I am a great believer that all you need is will power and you certainly seem to have that.

I leave £45 per week for food so we are around the same.

Good luck and let the journey begin!

All the best from the Captain on the South Coast