Banwa's back again (£26k, that's right, £26k)

banwa

Hello everyone (again),

I don't know why I am surprised I am back here. I knew things would be tight when we bought our new house, but blimey, things are really tight. I have been completely burying my head in the sand for the last year (and overspending), but now is time to face facts

To summarise

• Moved house last September - took out a huge mortgage
• Mr B's is on less money than he was 3 years ago, and we are STILL adjusting
• Paid out quite a bit on the new house to make it comfortable. Still loads to do but we really have put it all on hold now
• Gave away our old car to stepsons to give them a chance of getting better work (this has worked, one of them has half-moved in with us and is working where we work)
• Bought a new car (no tax, 60 mpg, cheap insurance but £160 in payments, and a deposit which we mainly used the overdraft for)
• Husband has a motorbike to insure and maintain
• Husband has a promotion which will kick in in next couple of months
• So if I sort out the overdraft, when child maintenance finishes, after the promotion, we will be £400 better off to put towards the debt (not til next June though)

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.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1760
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1600 - due to go up just before Christmas by £150
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 100 part time job to pay for motorbike
Total monthly income.................... 3460
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1166
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 161 - new car, payments for 5 years
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 160
Electricity............................. 65 - (£130 for the two so just averaged)
Gas..................................... 65
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30 (metered)
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 30 (for one, work pays for mine)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29 (full package for half price)
Internet Services....................... 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 150 - this might be a little more
Road tax................................ 13 (one car- other is exempt)
Car Insurance........................... 29 (£350 for both for the year in June)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 (one car is brand new, the other just never breaks so I can't remember last time we spent on anything but tyres and brakes, so might be we're due for something to go wrong)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 200 - none of his children is in education anymore but we have an agreement to pay until the youngest is 18 anyway which is June
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10 -
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25 - insurance and vaccinations, averaged
Buildings insurance..................... 14 - £320 per year for both
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 40 - motorbike
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 - 4 stepchildren and my big family
Haircuts................................ 40
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - probably why we're in so much debt
Charity................................. 19
Netflix................................. 6
Child maintenance....................... 200
Motorbike insurance/maintenance/tax/petr 60
Overdraft fees.......................... 64 - next thing on my to do list
Total monthly expenses.................. 3104.12

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 230000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 14000
Other assets............................ 4000
Total Assets............................ 248000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 197000...(1166).....5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8000.....(161)......1.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 205000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit card....................8000......167.......0
Credit card....................6400......64........0
Overdrafts.....................3800......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........18200.....231.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,460
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,104.12
Available for debt repayments........... 355.88
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 231
Amount left after debt repayments....... 124.88
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 248,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -205,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,200
Net Assets.............................. 24,800
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.


We know what we need to do, and it is do-able even if it takes us a long time. The goal I had last time was we really needed to move house for many reasons, so now we have I feel less panicky but I still want to focus to becoming debt free.

First plan of action

• Account for all spends (I might do this here)
• Budget for groceries (ditto)
• Sort out the overdrafts - so everything is on 0% (apart from car on 1.5%)
• Post on here regularly in the old format (Good Things, Bad Things, MSE rating, spends)
• Find out why I can no longer post smilies

Wish me luck

Mysteek

Hi Banwa, just saw your new shiny diary pop up and wanted to wish you good luck on your debt free journey!

banwa

Thank you Mysteek, that's so kind:), I am always nervous that no one will reply to me and I will just look all sad and lonely ...

girlatplay

Hi Banwa


I was just having a wander on here and saw your new diary.


Just one thing, I notice you have £200 under 'other child related expenses' and also under 'child maintenance' but you explain in the former that it is for child maintenance. Is this an error? You will have saved yourself £200 already if it is!!


Good luck with your journey.


gap

banwa

Girlatplay, if you were here I would kiss you all over your face:A. You are quite right! I thought I had missed it and went back in and added it.


Things are looking up already. Ooh, I feel a list coming on!

Good Things about today:j

• Found an extra £200 in my budget
• Discovered I can use smilies again if I log in on Firefox:T:T:T (extra smilies in celebration)
  
• Am facing my demons at last

Bad Things about today

• Only have £100 in back to last until payday (21st). This is going to be a challenge

Spends £0

MSE rating 10/10 - having (albeit third) LBM - you don't get more MSE than that.

girlatplay

Lol! You really wouldn't, got a massive spot just come up on my chin


Glad to be of service! I have subscribed and will follow your journey

Fudgefund

Welcome back Banwa, I remember you. The main thing to dwell on is not the new debt, but the fact you're back and doing something about it whilst sitting in a nice new house.

£100 will be tough until the 21st but it's doable if you're careful over your NSDs and don't have many plans for the weekends. I go walking at the weekends when I have no money, makes me feel... wholesome.

*subscribes*

banwa

Hello Fudgefund, I was on your thread earlier, I still have yours in my subscribed list. I see you recently lasted on b*gger all for 2 weeks before payday so maybe I can do the same.


Told Mr B this afternoon that I am back on here which means I am going to be unbearable again and he grinned and said 'good!'. So far so good

banwa

Good Things since I last posted:j

• Mr B has had a couple of jobs, so a bit extra money before payday (much needed). I think it might be an extra £150 or so
• Went to look at a mirror (I have been after an arch mirror for the bathroom for ages) from Gumtree, and when it was horrible I was really brave and told the lady it wasn't what I was looking for. Normally I would have been too polite and bought it anyway (I do know that's ridiculous)
• We are pretty much coping with whats in the cupboards for now, so have had a couple of L/NSDs
• (not money related) Went home in a panic from work (took half a day holiday and EVERYTHING) at lunchtime because the tiny cat hadn't appeared since last night, and have not only found her, but I have a cat leaning on each arm now as I am trying to type. Its so cute, I may just dissolve to mush right here on the couch
• Have handed over responsibility of loo roll buying to step-son (he uses a whole one every day) which he took in good-humour but I am hoping will encourage him to be less wasteful.
• Have joined the fly-lady thread to encourage me to clean Monday to Friday and have the weekend off

Bad Things since I last posted

• Still haven't sorted this overdraft. I planned to move the MBNA balance to the Halifax card (which has a 0% for 18 months offer), and then SBT the overdraft to the MBNA, but it needed me to enter card expiry dates and what-not, so I have still to do it. Bad Banwa

Spends £0 although Mr B bought mince, bread, milk and bananas spending about £7

MSE rating 5/10 - improvement needed, should have that overdraft sorted by now

banwa

Good Things since I last posted:j

• Mr B has kept up the good work on the extra jobs front, I think about £400 extra this month
• Food spends are pretty much still in control
• I haven't been posting but I have been following the flylady thread, and doing the stuff, AND cleaned out my airing cupboard which was the last place to be sorted, I had done everything else but just couldn't face that for some reason. It took me about 20 minutes in the end
• Have finally done a balance transfer from MBNA to Halifax so that I can then super balance transfer from MBNA to the overdrafts. Half way there
• Have sort of redone SOA which tells me we should be able to pay £821 for debts, which I feel a LOT better about. With no change to circumstances (and I am hoping for a promotion and next summer we stop paying child maintenance) we could be debt free in 31 months. That feels a little too good to be true
• Haven't bought lunch at work for ages, take my own every day
• Have been paying off a little bit more off the secret overdraft

Bad Things since I last posted

• We have had not one but TWO takeaways, one last Thursday and one last night at a cost of £27 in total. I am going to enter that into the demotivator. We have swapped to Chinese because cheaper than Indian and we don't buy extras but its the health side of things that worries me more than anything.
• My MPG is going down. (I geekily enter them into fuelly when I fill up) Not really sure why, I don't think I am driving any different. So this time I have filled up at BP instead of supermarket, just as an experiment to see if it improves things
• Haven't logged exact spends

Spends £45 groceries and alcohol (me) + £40 groceries and treats (Mr + £27 takeaways. Ok for 10 days or so I think

MSE rating 7/10 have made some progress but could have tried harder

banwa

Good Things since I last posted:j (an hour ago)

• CREDIT CARD organisation
• I have set up standing orders to make extra payments on 4 credit cards, Halifax, MBNA 1, MBNA 2 (even though I have just BTed this one, I plan to use it again as soon as it is clear) and Barclaycard (£50 each).
• This is in addition to the min payments ( £35, £27, £35 and £160 respectively) and the car payment (£160).
• That's £617 in total automatic debt payment
• My aim will be to pay an additional £200 per month.
• If that become easy, I will increase the additional payments to £100 each, and try to make payments on top of that

I just hope DOING it is as fun as PLANNING it