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

banwa

Here goes

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................ 1850
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1900
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 100
Total monthly income.................... 3850
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1165
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 160
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 14
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 40
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 200
Total monthly expenses.................. 2833

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 14000
Other assets............................ 4000
Total Assets............................ 268000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 193000...(1165).....5
Total secured & HP debts...... 193000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA credit card...............3480......35........0
Halifax........................4200......42........19
Barclaycard....................6250......125.......0
Car loan.......................8000......165.......1.5
Lloyds.........................6695......67........0
Total unsecured debts..........28625.....434.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,850
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,833
Available for debt repayments........... 1,017
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 434
Amount left after debt repayments....... 583
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 268,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -193,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,625
Net Assets.............................. 46,375
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

banwa

Long time, no post.


Good Things since I last posted:j

• House finished, lots of repair jobs done, broken windows all replaced etc
• Have had a nice, much needed holiday, first one in 5 years.
• Wages have continued to rise, both our jobs are going really well
• Child maintenance payments have stopped
• Sky is cancelled
• No overdrafts, moreover no overdraft fees
• All cards are on 0%. 1 car loan at low%
• I have lost a stone in weight and am quite healthy again

Bad Things since we last posted:(

• Overall debt has increased. Again
• We need to give some money towards step sons wedding soon and spend all the associated spends of stag dos and accommodation
• We still spend too much
• We still have bad habits and bad attitudes

Not sure what I am hoping this post will do. Anyone can see we are in a really good position to pay the debt back. Any one can see that we just arent trying.

What can I do differently to try to get this cracked?

spendaholic1986

Hi banwa,

Just had a quick read through your diary and hope you get back in to the swing of things!

I'm a newbie here but I'm struggling to change my attitude to money and become a saver not a spender!

Good luck hope you have arrived back with renewed enthusiasm

girlatplay

Hi Banwa

Well done on the weightloss :j Good there are no overdrafts/fees!

My only thoughts on your SOA are; can you cut back a bit on the groceries? Can you have another look at home insurance?

Do you know what your contribution to the wedding will be? Count it as a debt and start paying into an account for it. DON'T leave it to the last minute!

Keep going

banwa

spendaholic1986 wrote: »

Hi banwa,

Just had a quick read through your diary and hope you get back in to the swing of things!

I'm a newbie here but I'm struggling to change my attitude to money and become a saver not a spender!

Good luck hope you have arrived back with renewed enthusiasm

Thanks for dropping by. I now I dont sound too enthusiastic but every time I come on here saying 'this time I will do it', I end up even worse off. So I am going to take small steps this time. Maybe that will be the difference

banwa

girlatplay wrote: »

Hi Banwa

Well done on the weightloss :j Good there are no overdrafts/fees!

Well, hello GAP! So nice to hear from you again.
Thanks and thanks, the overdraft fees are so needless, if this site and the people on it have taught me one things, its not to have an overdraft!

girlatplay wrote: »

My only thoughts on your SOA are; can you cut back a bit on the groceries? Can you have another look at home insurance?

There are loads of places we could cut down. I allowed in my SOA £850 cash spends every month. £850!,£1100 if you include fuel! A lot of families of four live off less than that much spending money. And its not because we need it, oh no, its just that's what I know we'll spend, on food, on entertaining, and nights at the pub. We could cut down but I think I know we won't.

Whats more worrying though is that I have given us this leeway, and it leaves us with over £1000 per month to repay stuff and we are still further in debt. We have done loads to the house etc, but come on!

I could just think of a thousand things I want to spend money on all the time. I rationalise it because its low interest and that is ok. Which is ridiculous because when I REALLY think about it, that we owe a year of my wages, it makes me turn cold.

girlatplay wrote: »

Do you know what your contribution to the wedding will be? Count it as a debt and start paying into an account for it. DON'T leave it to the last minute!

We're only giving him £1000. We've given him £250 so far, and will give him that per month. I know it seems mean when we waste money left right and centre but there it is. Good advice though, to consider it debt until its paid because it is a financial commitment.

Anyway, lovely to hear from you, I will be over to your diary shortly. Thank you for the encouragement :A

girlatplay

I'm going to be serious for a wee bit :cool:

banwa wrote: »

Not sure what I am hoping this post will do. Anyone can see we are in a really good position to pay the debt back. Any one can see that we just arent trying.


What can I do differently to try to get this cracked?

banwa wrote: »

There are loads of places we could cut down. I allowed in my SOA £850 cash spends every month. £850!,£1100 if you include fuel! A lot of families of four live off less than that much spending money. And its not because we need it, oh no, its just that's what I know we'll spend, on food, on entertaining, and nights at the pub. We could cut down but I think I know we won't.

Do you really want to get this cracked? Really? Have you had a true lightbulb moment? You are in a brilliant position. I know most of your debt is on 0% at the moment but it won't be like that forever. When the time comes that the 0%'s are up, if you haven't taken steps to reduce what's there, you will end up in a worse position debt-wise. You have all the fun money now but you will be worse off if you don't get the debt cleared (or down somewhat). Just think, if you really do get it cracked now, in a couple of years time you could have £1,284-£1,534 to play with a month and no debt!!! How amazing would that be? That is nearly my monthly salary and you would have that to play with :eek:

Ok, I don't like being serious. I like being Fun GAP!

Come on banwa, what do you really want to do?

Mara_uk7

Go for it Banwa ... One month at a time, teensy steps, small targets .. set yourself small challenges, and go for it ! You CAN do this ... and think how much fun you can have once its cleared !

banwa

girlatplay wrote: »

Come on banwa, what do you really want to do?

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

Go for it Banwa ... One month at a time, teensy steps, small targets .. set yourself small challenges, and go for it ! You CAN do this ... and think how much fun you can have once its cleared !

I read both of these posts on Friday (I havent had chance to reply properly until now) and your words have been going around and around in my head since. What do I really want to do ?... If I went for it, imagine where we could be in 2 years...teensy steps...

So I am going to do just that,make small changes, break bad habits and pat myself on the back when we make progress

You guys are great, you know that?:A

banwa

First thing I am going to focus in on is the groceries.

We had my sister and boyfriend up for the weekend, including a small party last night so did a 'big shop' on Friday to try and stock up. I did it at Aldi - mainly because I like Aldi for meat and alcohol and it was easier just to do the whole shop there because I was short on time.

So because I got all my shopping in one place, I decided to study my receipt to see what we spend on what.

Alcohol spends were exceptionally high on account of having visitors (and there is loads left)
Alcohol 38.5
Veg 8
Meat 15.26
Ambient 10.66
Fishcakes 6.6
Cereal 3
Fresh 7.56 (Milk eggs cheese bread butter)
Rinse aid 1.99
Alcohol
Total 91.57
So if we kept alcohol to £20 per week, and shop more shrewdly, and implement some fridge management, we could get shopping to £75 per week - or £325 per month. We could probably get it lower than that, but that'll do for a start

We never used to waste food before we moved and we had just one fridge, but now we have an (unpleasant) indoor fridge and a garage fridge and no proper system, stuff goes off all the time. Especially veg, in the dodgy inside fridge veg drawer.I dont trust anything in there.

My new system will be everything goes in the big fridge outside. apart from milk, cheese, spread, condiments and open bags of salad (which goes in the drawer only). Hopefully this way, we will waste less.