New life in the country - now lets get rid of the debt!

Lillypad

Hello!

I'm 25, and my husband and I have just moved to our dream house in the countryside.

The house is only a shell at the moment. It needs lots and lots of work doing to it & we don't even have central heating, but we love it. There is lots we want to start doing to the house, but we want to start throwing every spare penny onto the debt first.

We relocated to move here, so I had to leave my job, but I have just been offered a new job luckily.
It's only part time at the moment, but may have the potential to increase to full time hours, but I am just pleased to have got something so quickly.
It is not enough to live off long term, but I hope to maybe get something to go along side it soon, and have been applying to jobs.

We borrowed money to be able to move to this house from my parents. Also we have a 0% cc which we was using whilst I was out of work last month,
and will probably continue to use as I wont get paid my first wage packet until the end of Sept.

Debts:
Parents - £8,094.92 :eek:
CC - £473

I am not used to being in debt, and it is stressing us out hanging over our heads, so I want it gone asap. With how little we earn it will take a while.. but thats ok, as long as it's going down and not up!

We seem to have nothing left over at all lately, so I want to keep track of what we are spending.

Lets see how it goes

Chrysalis1976

It sounds like a great project and will grow into your home, good luck with the debt payments and remember every penny and every pound paid back is a step forward.

Best wishes C x

Lillypad

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ due to start new job soon
Partners monthly income after tax....... 970
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 970

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 344
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 170
Electricity............................. 38
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 16
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 24
Car Insurance........................... 43
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 5
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 9
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 80
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1084


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 172000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 173000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 79900....(344)......2.29
Total secured & HP debts...... 79900.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC.............................473.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........473.......25........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 970
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,084
Available for debt repayments........... -114
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 25
Amount short for making debt repayments. -139

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 173,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -79,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -473
Net Assets.............................. 92,627


I don't know if there is anything we can cut down on as we have a pretty simple life as it is. We don't meet our bills at the moment, but that should change with my new job hopefully.

Lillypad

Chrysalis1976 wrote: »

It sounds like a great project and will grow into your home, good luck with the debt payments and remember every penny and every pound paid back is a step forward.

Best wishes C x

Hi Chrysalis,

Thank you for the good luck

It is definitely a long term project, but being in the condition it was, meant we could just about afford it. I'm looking at small baby steps

Chrysalis1976

Wow your soa looks pretty good so far, the only thing that sticks out is the Council Tax but looking at your property value it may be a reflection of that. Some people do spread out the cost over 12 months rather than 10, but others like having the two spare months per year.

Don't forget to factor in gas or oil when you get round to your central heating if that's what you are planning.

Good luck with the new job, C x

Lillypad

Chrysalis1976 wrote: »

Wow your soa looks pretty good so far, the only thing that sticks out is the Council Tax but looking at your property value it may be a reflection of that. Some people do spread out the cost over 12 months rather than 10, but others like having the two spare months per year.

Don't forget to factor in gas or oil when you get round to your central heating if that's what you are planning.

Good luck with the new job, C x

Thanks C!

You're right, I've just had a look at the Council Tax website, it is only suppose to be about £135 a month.
I've asked Mr and he says they are charging us more for when we moved in here mid month, so this might/should go down.

Yes, we will need to pay oil soon for heating, but I don't think we will be able to put in central heating until next year at best. This winter will be fun! Will have to look into ways I can stop the house leaking heat with thick curtains etc over the doors!

Have a good day

mfmaybe

Good luck with your journey, both to debt free and to your new home. It all sounds very exciting; and although the debt sounds a lot now, you are very young and will have your dream forever home almost from the start - that's wonderful!

I'm not sure of your set-up, but it might be worth looking into alternate sources of heating, such as a pellet boiler, or a wood burning stove that can run the radiators. Oil or LPG can work out very expensive I'm afraid.

Lillypad

mfmaybe wrote: »

Good luck with your journey, both to debt free and to your new home. It all sounds very exciting; and although the debt sounds a lot now, you are very young and will have your dream forever home almost from the start - that's wonderful!

I'm not sure of your set-up, but it might be worth looking into alternate sources of heating, such as a pellet boiler, or a wood burning stove that can run the radiators. Oil or LPG can work out very expensive I'm afraid.

Hi mfmaybe,

Thanks for that - it is very exciting, it just seems a long way off, but I'm glad we've done it.

I've heard Oil and LPG are really expensive, which is off putting. We have no mains gas here. Next step though is a small wood burning stove. We are on the look out for one, and hopefully will have it fitted before the cold sets in, and I'm sure it will keep the living room toasty if nothing else! Other than that we will use electric plug in heaters this year.

Divingmad

Hi Lilly,
If you decide to go for oil, be aware that oil prices fluctuate all the time, there's cheaper and more expensive times to buy (cheap during the summer, dearer in winter). We have an oil system supplying heating and hot water and find that a tankful will do us for a year, so costing approx. £550 per year (that's for 1000 litres). By comparison, buying in winter would cost around £620 per delivery
There's a few oil comparison websites around would give wholesale/average prices for your area, and then make a few phone calls to the companies asking for their price, you can sometimes haggle one off against another

DM

Lillypad

Divingmad wrote: »

Hi Lilly,
If you decide to go for oil, be aware that oil prices fluctuate all the time, there's cheaper and more expensive times to buy (cheap during the summer, dearer in winter). We have an oil system supplying heating and hot water and find that a tankful will do us for a year, so costing approx. £550 per year (that's for 1000 litres). By comparison, buying in winter would cost around £620 per delivery
There's a few oil comparison websites around would give wholesale/average prices for your area, and then make a few phone calls to the companies asking for their price, you can sometimes haggle one off against another

DM

Hi DM,

Thanks for the advice, there seems to be a huge difference in buying in Summer or Winter, so that's definitely something to think about. Will try to haggle too when it comes to it!

Lillypad

Just an update really..

Starting my new job tomorrow and I am really nervous, but that is to be expected I suppose.

Unfortunately had to buy some clothes for work this week, but I managed to be cheap and only spend £25, although I could still do with some work shoes.

Also, I have an interview on Saturday with another part time job as well! It fits around the other job fine, but is not a lot of hours, but every little helps. Should bring in an extra £200 a month or so if I get it.

Not spent anything else apart from the work clothes this week, so hopefully will try and have a cheap weekend.:)