MM - If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes....

Midland_Mummy

A brand new diary is needed! I attempted one earlier this year/end of last year but although I wanted to become debt free I didn't really change anything! If nothing changes, nothing changes.

Our debt has crept up and up and it's frightening. Something has to be done about it. We are currently selling our house as we have moved into another property owned by family that we will buy when ours sells. We will have some equity from our house and will clear two large debts off as well as some to put towards the purchase of our new house ..... What concerns me is I applied for a mortgage offer in principle with Virgin about 2/3 weeks ago and it was declined?! Because of this I took up a free 30 day trial to check both mine and DHs credit score and both were in the 900s and 'good' so I don't know what happened there and they weren't very helpful either! Said it was their criteria that we didn't meet.

I had an alert come through on my email last night and logged in today and now my score has reduced to 800 and something and says 'fair'. DHs is still the same. I'm concerned we won't actually get another mortgage now when our house sells or one with a ridiculously high rate! Because of our move I now have two new credit accounts for the gas and electric. This 'fair' score has given me a bit of a kick up the backside if I'm honest. The CC is in my name and this will be repaid in full when house sells which I hope improves my credit score a bit cos that's a few grand!

So a bit about me, I have 2 school aged children, a crazy dog and a fantastic DH. We both work full time. We are in debt, a lot of debt. It's mostly due to bad habits and the worst part is we don't really have anything to show for it...

We need to create much better habits, I don't know really where the money goes and I'm not keeping enough if an eye on the bank accounts either. Our priorities are a bit backwards too but that's another story! - I do know we spend far too much on food. If I had to take a guess at this it would be minimum of £600 per month....there's only flippin 4 of us!! There's a lot of wastage as well if we are tired or forget to defrost something we will grab an alternative meal and the fresh stuff that we bought in the food shop won't get used.

So first off I'm going to make a budget and create a meal plan over the weekend. DH is paid tomorrow I'm paid on Monday and we can start as we mean to go on.

By doing the budget I can see what's leftover to pay against debt also each month and decide where to start first. I will also get debt totals and list them out here and all being well set a debt free date!

MM xx

nannytomany

Hi just popped in to say Hello, no advice as I am in debt myself, one question though, is there a reason your moving, just wondering as you were turned down for the Virgin mortgage, would you not be better off staying where you are until you can get another mortgage? Hope you don't mind me asking. Good luck and I shall keep looking at your diary x

Divingmad

Hi MM,

Just popping in to say hi :wave:

Credit scores from the credit companies provide a guide, but little more than that. Each time you apply for a loan/mortage, the company uses data from the credit score companies to find out what additional borrowing you have/had and how well you were at paying it.
There is also a free credit score website, not sure whether you are using it, Noddle, whereas the other ones offer a free introduction then charge a monthly fee.
Have you tried multiple applications in a short space of time, as this makes lenders nervous that you may be in financial trouble, making them less inclined to lend.
My credit score shows as average, even though I have no defaults, all monthly payments made, etc.
So don't get to hung up on it, it is just a number after all.....
Regards
DM

parsniphead

Hi Midland Mummy

The OldStyle board has some fantastic advice on cutting down on the food bill. Mine used to be quite high but I've managed to bring it down mainly by meal planning. Perhaps you could have a week or two of shopping from the cupboards before you do the next big food shop.

Good luck with the mortgage.

Parsnip (another mummy from the midlands)

Midland_Mummy

Over the weekend I created a budget, which I updated today to reflect the weekend spends and yesterday’s payments, as expected this month it is tight but manageable. I also made a meal planner for the month and I’m determined we follow this. It’s stuck to the fridge!

Since creating a budget the other day I’ve become a bit OTT with the spreadsheets (is this normal???) - there’s a tab for repayments so I can see, for instance, the car total with all the repayments and the current amount left owing, I’ve also listed our monthly budget plus a 2015 budget and a revised budget if the house sells, the childcare timetable and fees etc. I need to get the total for the bank loan and then I can list all the debts out here.

Hi Nannytomany – We have already moved out of our house for work to be done on it and it is now officially on the market, it’s had viewings over the weekend so fingers crossed it sells. Once it sells we will be able to settle a few debts, which should improve our chance on securing the new mortgage. I was hoping for an offer in principle but perhaps I jumped the gun and should wait for these debts to be settled first?

Thank you divingmad I printed off the credit score and went through it, there are loads of settled accounts just sat there but it says they remain on your record for 6 years? Because of moving house I’ve taken out new contents insurance, gas & electric which are all credit checks and then the failed mortgage so it could all be related and effect the scoring. Oh and probably last months increase in the OD!

Thanks Parsnip I will have a look at the old style boards, the food spend really sticks out as the one to tackle first!

Thankfully DH is on board as well for spending less and clearing the debts. I realise this isn’t going to be easy, its going to take a lot of hard work, and it isn’t going to happen overnight.

I just have to make sure I keep coming back here, updating my diary, reading the forums and articles and keeping up the momentum. I haven’t been sleeping particularly well recently and over the weekend I’ve started to get ill; I think its all the stress. It’s got to be. Although the debts really aren’t great by putting them in a spreadsheet it does make them feel that bit more manageable.

Now to get everything else feeling more manageable!

MM xx

Midland_Mummy

The biggest area at the moment where I can save money is on food.
I waste so much money on food and then waste so much food because I don’t shop smart. It’s not a great cycle to be in. Every single week we buy a head of broccoli, we mostly never eat it. Why do we buy it? We do like it but we don’t use it. Week after week I throw the, now yellowed, vegetable into the bin. I need to look into freezing stuff like this….

This morning I stuck to my guns though. Determined to spend less on food! I knew we had a new packet of chicken tikka meat in the fridge from the shopping on Sunday (26th) so I went to make a salad for work to discover the chicken went off yesterday (28th) which wasn’t smart planning and a real waste of money.

So I thought about this…. I could stop at A5DA on the way to work and pick up a salad, which wouldn’t just be a salad it would also be a bottle of pop and a packet of something and spend around £5 or I could just suck it up and find something in the cupboards. I’m proud to say I did the latter. OK so I haven’t had a cheese and tomato sandwich in a long long time but its perfectly fine, I won’t go hungry and most importantly I didn’t spend any money.

This Friday evening we are having a Halloween themed birthday party at our house so in preparation tonight will be spent de cluttering and tidying. To make it a bit more interesting and money saving I plan to list ten unwanted items online to make a bit of extra money. It’s my mission. I will be back to update this…

I need to set a budget for Friday’s party. I really want to try and do it for £20 but I think £30 might be more realistic? I’m thinking a big chilli with store cupboard rice, some twice baked potatoes (where you bake them then halve, scoop out the middle and mash with a bit of cheese, restuff and bake again) although normal baked potatoes would be cheaper and I could always offer baked beans for those who don’t want chilli, grated cheese and some hotdogs on the BBQ.

I guess I’m going to have to make a pudding as well… We have some scary cupcake decorations to make cupcakes and an apple crumble would be cheap as well as feed a few people. If people bring drinks with them I should come in budget!

Off work tomorrow spending the day with the kids, being half term and all, so I will do the shop then. I’m always up for a challenge and sticking to a budget is just that; I’m quite excited; I just hope I can do it! Normally our parties would be around £100 mark!! Wish me luck…

MM x

Midland_Mummy

Reporting back after a weekend of antics.

Thursday I left my purse at home for the day, I was off work with the kids and so we took sandwiches, snacks and drinks from home out with us. We went to the park and to feed some chickens (4 free eggs) I even took a flask of coffee out with me.

Unfortunately we overspent on the party budget. DH did the shopping but he isn’t completely at fault here. He followed the list 100% as instructed but it came in at £60. We had a housewarming in August that cost us over £200 in food and drink…so although I’m disappointed we blew the budget we did however make a massive improvement from last time…. And next time will be an improvement again!

Although we overspent on the budget for the party we had decided that we wouldn’t buy any more alcohol than what was necessary, DH bought two bottles of red, one white and a box of lager from A1D1. We would assess the situation once people arrived. But actually every single person bought drinks and some also bought a bottle for us! We have quite a bit of alcohol left over…

The rest of the weekend was pretty low spend. Last night I went through the bank statement, which tells much more truth than I thought. I checked this against the budget and this month is tight.

I have worked it out as £100 per week until payday for food, petrol and anything misc like school trips, kids parties etc. I am confident we can do this. DH is on board. We don’t really have anything coming up so it should be fine; with the recent move and Christmas coming I think we need to spend some time at home working on the house, not spending money and sorting through everything.

Sometimes I feel like I can’t really talk about this although DH has been really good and I probably could talk to my friends I just always worry about what other people will think. Both DH and I have good jobs and it can really feel like there is an element of keeping up appearances. I know none of our actual real friends would care if we said we couldn’t do something because of finances, they might even feel the same? Maybe if I worried a lot less about what other people thought we wouldn’t be in a mess.


MM x

Pink_Giraffe

Didn't want to read and run! Looks like you have made a lot of changes already, small steps are definitely the way to go!

I understand totally what you mean about not wanting to talk to people about it, I spend an awful lot of time and energy worrying about what other people might think. Unfortunately I think a lot of debt problems come about because of worrying what others might think. I know I have definitely bought things/gone places I couldn't afford because I was embarrassed to say that. Sometimes if friends suggest going for a meal now, I suggest a takeaway or cooking for one another (and if you host then you don't need to worry about taxi fares!)

Midland_Mummy

Thanks Pink Giraffe, that's a really good idea to suggest cooking for each other. We regularly see another family, usually on a Friday night, and tend to order in so cooking, even if one of us did the main and the other a pudding, would be a lot cheaper still.

We are over my friends place on Friday night for bonfire, they are cooking but I will take a bottle or two from our party leftovers although I think I will drive. Should be a NSD... I've always liked the idea of these. We have some fireworks in the garage we will contribute. They are leftover from last year though, unopened, but we will check the dates first!

I went straight from work to do the weekly food shop tonight which was awful but needs must and spent £57 out of this weeks £100 budget. I luckily don't need petrol this week but DH might so we will need to cover this... Kids are back at school tomorrow so I'm sure something will crop up there and we also need a present for our friends daughter's birthday but that won't be much (£6/7).

Another thing that probably didn't help us when we started to get into debt was that neither DH or I would regularly check our joint bank account, except nearer the end of the month for damage control!

After going through all the figures last night I went back through the bank again tonight and crossed off my list the direct debits that left today and updated my balance. Yesterday all the weekends transactions weren't all showing on the online statement but they had all come off the current balance except 1, so tonight my workings were out by £7 because this payment was finally deducted.

It feels so good to know exactly where our money has gone. I can't believe I never did this, properly, before.

Read a great article on a blog tonight by another MSE member, skint dad, about date nights the money saving way! So I have penciled in a date night this Saturday with DH, it's overdue really. I hope by spending less money we spend more quality time together, as a couple and as a family...

MM x

Midland_Mummy

Full of a cold today :-( but still focused on the finances.

Not much has been spent this week, we have stuck to the £100 budget and I've been checking the bank statements and crossing off the direct debits.

Unfortunately we are in the middle of a gas & electric switch and a DD was taken for £60 that I wasn't expecting however one mobile phone was cheaper than I thought (I went off last months DD amount and that incl some text donations for the ice bucket challenge so was higher). Anyway this has effected the cash so the next two weeks budget has been reduced to £85.

We went to a bonfire last night but had to take a bday present for our friends daughter. Popped to the supermarket as we had a £3.55 price match voucher to use before today. It was agreed we would get a onesie. Normally I would just grab any kind but I searched through them all. Found a nice one for £10 but some of the larger sizes in this style were half price but the smaller ones weren't. Went to customer service and confirmed all in this style were half price. With the £3.55 voucher we spent £1.45 on a birthday present and it's gorgeous too.

DH did the groceries today after a freezer/cupboard stock take and spent £49. He will need petrol this week but is working from home 3 days so he will probably put £20 in, I need a small top up so will use £10 and that leaves us with £5 this week for milk or school things that come up.

It's amazing how we are making our money stretch. I would never of thought before we could work with a £100 weekly budget let alone a £85 one. Shows just how much we wasted.

Homemade pizzas for tea. Wish this cold would do one.

Received a refund from the water people due to moving house and suppliers - £6, every bit helps.

MM x

Midland_Mummy

Received a statement overnight by email for the gas & electric DD that I hadn't expected to be taken and we are £95 in credit.
Will call them tomorrow, closed today, and ask for this to be refunded as we are no longer with them!

Still have a cold but the weather is lovely. Will straighten up the house and get us all outside I think...

MM x