Spending my dash more wisely while clearing the debt to do so

Nintud

Thank you Penguins86, we are very proud of her. She passed all her exams' most were grade B plus a couple of As and a solitary C. The C was in maths and as I was 25 before I got my maths GCSE I'm delighted with the grade she got ( although she had been predicted an A). I got a grade 2 CSE, a grade U O'level, grade D GCSE then finally hit a grade B GCSE when I studied maths at evening classes so I could get on a PGCE course. I have immense sympathy (empathy??) with any pupil who struggles with maths!

Perhaps my maths anxiety is responsible for my debt :rotfl:

As for the celebration, she wanted to go out for a family meal. Taking 11 people out to dinner isn't very dfw so I've convinced her to settle for a takeaway of her choice with 9 of her siblings/half-siblings/step-siblings in attendance (she also has another half-sib but he's not mine to invite!). She wants a career in events management so I've set her loose on the arrangements :T

shinner

Read your diary just want to say good luck on your journey. You have a very busy household to keep organised by the sound of it.

Nintud

Thanks for dropping by Shinner . Yes, it's a busy household and more than slightly nutty. I'm kept on my toes.

It's all change at the moment. dS1 is in flux again. He applied to join the army earlier this year but was rejected on medical grounds as he'd had a fracture (hand) within the previous 6 months. He appealed and has just had his medical appeal accepted so is now onto the next stage of his application. He applied 4 years ago but childhood asthma and migraines meant he failed the medical (passed entry exams but was rejected on medical grounds). He's outgrown both those conditions so we now wait and see how far this new application gets.

Dd2 starts college in September so it's new friends, location and course for her. dS4 starts primary school in September too. As the littlies move schools my biggest does too, only she starts school as a trainee teacher next month, not as a pupil!

It's all go in the nintud household!

Nintud

Since coming home I've been keeping a spending diary and I've now got accurate CC balances. Debt was around the level I thought it was, albeit distributed slightly differently on my credit cards. I've made a few payments since I got home and the signature now reflects what I owed and what I've paid since starting this diary. The debt isn't massive, but the problem still remains, if we keep spending as we have been we will run out of disposable income early in the new year and start sliding back into crazy figures - the extra we got from remortgaging will only last so long. So, I need a plan. I need to reduce expenditure whilst still enjoying life. I'm willing to tighten belts but not to the extent that all the fun drains out of life.

Spending this week:

Groceries £191 - cupboards were virtually bare when I got home (and the freezer had been running completely empty for almost 4 weeks :eek: ) so I've made two big trips to Aldi.

Money to 'kids' - dd2 £20 to spend while staying on an NCS trip, dd2 £75 GCSE grade reward, ds2 £8 GCSE grade reward + £20 for getting the highest Eng lit grade (I encouraged friendly rivalry between siblings!), ds2 £5 pocket money, ds1 £38 to cover gym fee (he goes twice per day) and bank charges for going over his student overdraft limit.

Other expenses - school shoes £86 (I should have checked the price of the shoes they chose as this was for just 2 pairs. Lesson learnt), postage £4, cinema tickets x 3 kids club £7.50, playbarn £9.50 plus £4.50 for drinks, SW 12 week pre-pay £49.50 prescription £8.05 (Payback for a fab holiday - ear infection picked up from hotel water park day out on our last day )

Apart from the groceries and pocket money, most of the expenses this week were one offs. Unfortunately every week has different 'one offs'. Next week I need to call in an electrician as ds1 has broken a light fitting in the en suite (with a towel??!!) and I need a skip to remove the debris from ds1's garden make-over shenanigans (3 fills of our green bin and there's still a pile of dead branches plus a lot of broken garden toys, old trikes and rusted furniture to go).

At some point I need to look at the state of the living room door (currently situated behind the conservatory sofa) and assess whether it is can be rehung and whether I have the skills/tools required to rehang it (sigh). This may be an additional expense for next week.

Dfw stuff I have done this week;

* batch cooked chilli (8 portions frozen) and bolognese (4 portions frozen)
* refrained from ordering a new tumble dryer and hung 4 loads of laundry on the airer in the conservatory instead (I'm not sure how long I can keep this up for though as ds4 has started bed wetting and I currently have a backload of two baskets of wet laundry with no where to gang them).
* Dried out branches from garden redo (half do!) and put them I fireplace and log box ready for worsening weather.

angela110660

Just subscribed to follow your story - good luck with your gang!

pelirocco

Nintud wrote: »

SOA to the best of current knowledge:

Houshold info;
Adults 4
Children 4
Cars 1 owned, 1 company

Monthly income;
Me - 1900
DH contribution to joint account - 1500
Benefits - 244.60
Other income - 271.15
Total income - 3915.75

Monthly expense details;
Mortgage - 1551.15
Council tax - 146
Gas & elec - 180
Water - 80.68
Landline - 32.22
Mobile phones - 215
TV licence - 12.18
Groceries - 500 (guesstimated for now)
Clothing - 50
Petrol - 80
Road tax - 23
Car insurance - 23
Car maintenance - 25
Child care -220
Other child related expenses - 117.05
Medical - 10
Buildings insurance -15
Contents insurance -10
Life insurance - 51.51
Other insurance - 11.49
Presents - 150
Haircuts -30
Entertainment - 40
Emergency fund -50
Gym 25.50
Current account fee - 2
Garden, windows, bin clean - 52.40
Union subs -13.95

Total assets -257000
Total unsecured debts - 2780.66 (this includes a joint credit card of about 1300 which we currently clear each month, but we're using savings to do this and this can't continue)

Monthly budget summary;
Total income; 3915.75
Total expenses; 3721.63
Available for debt repayments; 194.12
Monthly unsecured debt repayments ; 1365 (inc the joint credit card full repayment)
Amount short for making debt repayments; 1170.88 (clearly once the savings go we will not be able to pay the joint cc in full and will slip further and further into debt)


Two of the adults are non-contributory, one is a full-time uni student, the other is working at the moment but starts a years teacher training in September so is saving for that.

How have you /addressing the shortfall of £1170 each month, ? I note from another post the you anxious your dh contribute set sum each month to paying the bills , have you both got extra earnings you can add ?

Saving a few £ here and there isn't going to rescue you . Did you take extra out on the mortgage to use as extra income ?

Nintud

Hello pelirocco,

Yes, we took out a tenants in common mortgage in January, added most of my debts to the mortgage and should have covered dh's loan but were short. He now pays the loan (his share of our wedding costs) his personal cc, child maintenance, sky and broadband from his personal account plus he pays £1800k- £2k into joint account each month. I am happy with his contribution. Much as I would like him to cut the sky package he won't and as he pays from his personal money rather than the joint account it's not worth the debate.

The shortfall has been covered by what was left from the remortgage plus my summer examiner fees. We have about 3-4 months breathing space left from the remortgage. I'm not due any further examiner fees for 10 months. I have £750 in various savings pots (Christmas, emergency, car fund) and £270 left over from our holiday spending money. Our joint cc was much lower this month due to my parent's feeding us for 3 weeks and lower fuel expenses so that 'saves' us about £600. I think we may be able to stretch ourselves to 6 - 7 months before we start sliding (rapidly) back into debt.

This diary is my attempt to take control before debt becomes a couple problem. At the moment the debt in my signature is mine alone (dh has his own debt but I don't know the figures for that).

Nintud

I've just checked my SOA and spotted the discrepancy with DH contribution. He pays in £1500 for joint family expenses and an additional £300-500 to cover work expenses (fuel, food, hotel bills) put on to our joint credit card, hence the amount he puts in depends on what expenses he has had to reclaim.

pelirocco

Nintud wrote: »

Hello pelirocco,

Yes, we took out a tenants in common mortgage in January, added most of my debts to the mortgage and should have covered dh's loan but were short. He now pays the loan (his share of our wedding costs) his personal cc, child maintenance, sky and broadband from his personal account plus he pays £1800k- £2k into joint account each month. I am happy with his contribution. Much as I would like him to cut the sky package he won't and as he pays from his personal money rather than the joint account it's not worth the debate.

The shortfall has been covered by what was left from the remortgage plus my summer examiner fees. We have about 3-4 months breathing space left from the remortgage. I'm not due any further examiner fees for 10 months. I have £750 in various savings pots (Christmas, emergency, car fund) and £270 left over from our holiday spending money. Our joint cc was much lower this month due to my parent's feeding us for 3 weeks and lower fuel expenses so that 'saves' us about £600. I think we may be able to stretch ourselves to 6 - 7 months before we start sliding (rapidly) back into debt.

This diary is my attempt to take control before debt becomes a couple problem. At the moment the debt in my signature is mine alone (dh has his own debt but I don't know the figures for that).

You need to find the shortfall now , by spending the left over remortgage you are in reality increasing your debt now

pelirocco

Nintud wrote: »

I've just checked my SOA and spotted the discrepancy with DH contribution. He pays in £1500 for joint family expenses and an additional £300-500 to cover work expenses (fuel, food, hotel bills) put on to our joint credit card, hence the amount he puts in depends on what expenses he has had to reclaim.

In reality he isn't paying anything off the cc he is just repaying the amount he has used for work expenses