Doing it the wrong way around

Brightspark87

Wow,you've done so well congrats on staying so strong and getting there!

tallyhoh

Oh wow! I have subscribed to your thread so keep posting!

JasX

Council tax............................. 114
-If you are living on your own are you claiming the 25% single occupier discount?

Mobile phone............................ 170
-This is HUGE! if contracted are you actually making good use of all the data/voice minutes/texts?
if contracted you can usually switch to a lower rate after the first 6 months
If this includes a lot of calling to/from overseas you should investigate getting a cheap unlocked PAYG phone for local PAYG sim card when overseas, any international bundles/bolt-ons your provider has available, that your are on the most appropriate tariff for your useage and/or other methods of making longer international calls (eg get a headset and use skype via a laptop or ipad/tablet, or even on your smartphone via wifi)

Internet Services....................... 70
This is high, if it includes a big TV package do you actually make good use of it with plenty of time to watch TV? I found it cheaper to just ditch it and buy DVD boxed sets of the few shows I actually wanted to watch (I was so behind anyway) -coupled with on demand movie rental via an apple TV (or similar)

If it's for high reliability internet I have a fast high reliability connection with a dedicated/boutique b2b type ISP for £30 per month (as in if I call on a sunday it goes direct to a tech guy's mobile, no call centers involved), shop around

Groceries etc. ......................... 290
This could be cut easily, do you buy fresh ingredients and cook simple things from scratch (eg pasta) on a weeknight rather than takign the M&S ready meal option?

Clothing................................ 145
*ahem* I'll leave this one to you.

Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 38
Car Insurance........................... 67
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 333
Car parking............................. 192.5
Other travel............................ 400
You really need to have a good look at and rationalisation of your travel arrangements, do you need two cars? do you even need one car? (I live in london and find the tube + occasional taxi + car rental if necessay is perfectly functional), are you stuck using expensive 'corporate focused' high price taxi firms when a reliable minicab firm would probably suffice? -> do some homework to find a few good ones.

Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 40
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 39

Life assurance ......................... 76
If you have no dependents is this necessary? are you already covered by anything you get thru work/a pension scheme anyway?

Other insurance......................... 15
Hopefully this isn't one of those unnecessary 'extended warranty' / homeserve / breakdown insurance, it's often cheaper just to pay for one off repairs when they occur unless you do have delapidated cheap appliances that break down all the time

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 125
Consider reducing

Haircuts................................ 45
Consider reducing too

Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0


Emergency fund.......................... 0
You should aim to build one up

Cleaner................................. 90
This is also expensive, given your income it probably is worth having one so you can direct your energies into your day job but do they really need to come around for as long as they do and as frequently as they do?

Gym..................................... 110
Again expensive, are you actually getting good use out of it? could you shop around? would it be cheaper to use something like the 'pay as you gym' website and only pay per visit?

Cash (Entertainment?)................... 450
try to keep a spending diary and work out exactly where this is going, identify potential areas to cut back

Coffees Out............................. 40
These are generally full of sugar and empty calories and a good habit to kick (I stick to black tea from the office coffee point)

Dining Out.............................. 210
Actually this doesn't seem excessive in my book

Total monthly expenses.................. 5648.12


Assets
Cash.................................... 6500
House value (Gross)..................... 340000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 12000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 358500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 345000...(644.5)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 345000....-.........-
After clearing debts taking chunks out of this with spare cash will leave you with more money each month by cutting interest payments, avoiding interest payments is a very tax efficient way to 'save' money

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard 1..................5010......112.7.....27.9
Barclaycard 2..................7649.96...240.......29.19
MBNA...........................3650......115.......31
CapitalOne.....................1344......145.......34.08
Total unsecured debts..........17653.96..612.7.....-
Others will comment here

Dobbibill

Congrats on your progress so far, you have done so well :T


Lots of good advice on other posts with plenty of areas to save money.
Your credit cards all seem to have quite high interest rates. Are you able to shift any of them to 0% (DON'T SPEND ON THEM IF YOU DO)
Snowballing is a good technique to use when looking to pay off unsecured debt, paying off the card with the highest interest first is best.
Here's a link for you to see exactly how long it will take you to be debt free. It can be calculated by interest or balance, have a play around with it, it shows you how much you would/could pay in interest


http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx


All the very best with your challenges ahead #subscribed
Keep up the good work :T


DB

Max_Maxwell

It's been interesting reading. We all assume that everyone in debt earns peanuts and scrapes by. I admire your honesty about both your income and expenditure. We are not here to judge, only help.

The one overrding point here, Thomathy, is that you have the financial maneouvreability to do something about your situation. Usually those in debt are already down to the wire and have no financial flexibility. You have become accustomed to a standard of living that you can't afford in your financial situation. Granted, if you were debt free you could relish every moment and enjoy it as you should. No doubt you work hard and are rewarded accordingly.

Others have already pointed out where you could be cutting costs so I won't go there. But I think if you took a long and honest look at your expenditure you could make some hefty cutbacks and your quality of life wouldn't suffer.

Whilst we're on this Earth the primary factor is always 'the gift of life'. Everything else is secondary. Think on that a while...

Max

katejo

Max_Maxwell wrote: »

It's been interesting reading. We all assume that everyone in debt earns peanuts and scrapes by. I admire your honesty about both your income and expenditure. We are not here to judge, only help.

The one overrding point here, Thomathy, is that you have the financial maneouvreability to do something about your situation. Usually those in debt are already down to the wire and have no financial flexibility. You have become accustomed to a standard of living that you can't afford in your financial situation. Granted, if you were debt free you could relish every moment and enjoy it as you should. No doubt you work hard and are rewarded accordingly.

Others have already pointed out where you could be cutting costs so I won't go there. But I think if you took a long and honest look at your expenditure you could make some hefty cutbacks and your quality of life wouldn't suffer.

Whilst we're on this Earth the primary factor is always 'the gift of life'. Everything else is secondary. Think on that a while...

Max

I agree. Your budget for social life and eating out is more than I have for food, general week to week expenses and socialising for the whole month. The £2000 which you allocate to pay off debt is more than I take home after tax for the month. Yet I am better off than many and have no debt other than the mortgage. Do you ever cook meals at home and do a double portion to go in the freezer?
re. rental income: I note that you deduct the mortgage expenses before paying tax. Are you aware that you only get tax relief on mortgage interest not the whole mortgage?

JasX

katejo wrote: »

re. rental income: I note that you deduct the mortgage expenses before paying tax. Are you aware that you only get tax relief on mortgage interest not the whole mortgage?

I believe they mentioned their mortgage is interest only.... which is part of the dilemma (tho does make it all eligible for tax relief as a small consolation!)

katejo

JasX wrote: »

I believe they mentioned their mortgage is interest only.... which is part of the dilemma (tho does make it all eligible for tax relief as a small consolation!)

I missed that bit! So OP takes home over 7K a month and still only pays mortgage interest! My interest rate on my mortgage is now only 0.77% but I carry on with overpayments at the equivalent of about 5% so that I won't notice too much when the rates go up again.

thomathy

Changes in progress. Watch this space...