Snowscreamer's debt reduction efforts

snowscreamer

Just got a letter from Very.co.uk offering me £15 off if I take out a credit account at 39.9% APR... I don't think so!!

Has someone figured out I've got myself into a bit of a credit card pickle and is now trying to prey on my perceived vulnerability?

snowscreamer

Payday! My salary has arrived and I have paid £200 off our 0% card (no spending) and cleared my own credit card.

Currently our debts total £5549.39 which is up from last month (as we each use our own cashback CCs for spending) but we have budgeted for OH to pay his credit card down from £541.31 to £150: that will bring the debts down to £5158.08

Current net debt is £1138.16 - still creeping up with daily expenses but it should be a spend-free weekend hopefully.

snowscreamer

Final scores on the doors for May:
May spending: -£2692.04 (Back to Feb/March levels after spendy April! And it wasn't even a council tax free month! Very pleased with this.)
In bank end of May: £3972.30 - UP £1048.78
Credit cards end of May: -£4858.08 - UP £522.62 (much more than I was expecting - OH and his business partner released some business funds as a small bonus to the tune of £400 each so £300 of that went straight to the credit cards)
Net debt end of May: -£885.78 - UP £1571.40 (Check it out! Down to three figures!!)

So I'm pretty pleased with May! Even though we had to shell out £300 on OH's tyre disaster we still spent £1000 less than our basic earnings. With a higher spending budget this month due to 4 counselling sessions for me (total £180) I had only allocated £200 for debt repayment. So on Friday imagine my delight when OH said he and his business partner had been able to pay themselves a small bonus due to a bumper start to the tax year at their company. They are really very cautious with their own pay so that they always have a healthy buffer in the company accounts in case they have a hard month so it's just super when they can afford to pay themselves a bit more. The bonus was £400 so we paid £300 off the credit card and £100 went to the clothes budget as we had overspent already but OH still has a few bits he needs like a new pair of shoes and a belt.

In the spirit of celebration, we have had the spendiest weekend of the year so far (all coming from June's budget to preserve the good figures for May )
We booked our November holiday to the Caribbean :j:j:j
That was £646.72 - we were able to pay for the other half of it in air miles which is great as we had actually budgeted £1300 for it. The "saving" will be funding our UK break in two weeks' time which was not in the original plan. Speaking of that, we also booked in some activities for that week (very excited!) but that came to £407 :eek: so now we have spent £646 on that holiday which was originally supposed to come in at £500 total (to be funded from OH's bonus from last tax year expected this month). But given we saved so much by using airmiles we have upped the total budget for that holiday to £750 (£600 from airmiles saving, £150 from bonus). So we must try to spend no more than £104 whilst we are there. Hopefully we will be so busy with activities that there's no time to spend any more money. I hope. I can't wait!! So in need of a bit of R&R.

Holiday pot (all bundled together) was sitting at £1197.08 and now a lowly £143.36! But the best thing is we had that money waiting. We didn't bung it on the credit card, the money was there accumulating until we were ready to spend it. Can't beat that feeling.

Back to the debt busting, this month from basic earnings I have budgeted £300 for the debt. However we are expecting OH's bonus from the last tax year some point this month. Don't know when or how much that will be until the accountant has finalised the company accounts but we are expecting somewhere between £1000 and £1500. Apart from the £150 towards the holiday and we may take another couple of hundred for home improvements, it's all going on the debt. So fingers crossed although June will undoubtedly be an expensive month with the £1000+ holiday spending, we should also be able to make another real dent in the debt.

Feeling great today after May's successes and being able to book our holiday - hope it's a good week for everyone else too!!

Snowscreamer x

snowscreamer

May's overspends as at the end of the month:

• Car repairs - allocated £193.10 in May to add to £93.89 which was already saved but with a total bill of £301.47 to drill out a locking wheel nut and replace the tyre this still came in at an overspend of £14.48
• Pet expenses - allocated £15 in May to an empty pot - spent £122.80 mainly on toys / cat litter in our short-lived attempt to convert our indoor/outdoor cat to indoor only. She hated it. We ended up rehoming her with my parents and once she is allowed outside there we may be able to sell some of the stuff on eBay but will still make a loss. Overspend £107.80
• Work lunch - allocated £99.11 in May to an empty pot - spent £102.24. C'est la vie. Making lunch at home is such a chore!! Overspend £3.13

Total overspend: £125.41. Down from April at £283.15 so progress I feel! Let's aim to get it down even further in June.

snowscreamer

Good news last night, OH and his partner are putting up their basic pay. Rise of £136. Going to put most into debt repayment for now and not increasing the budget! Few months of adjustment since my previous SOA so thought it was time for a new one with more accurate figures ie. this month's budget.

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................ [STRIKE]1917.56[/STRIKE] 1931.64
Partners monthly income after tax....... [STRIKE]1300[/STRIKE] 1447.64
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... [STRIKE]3717.56[/STRIKE] 3879.28

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 647
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. [STRIKE]232[/STRIKE] 236
Electricity............................. [STRIKE]50[/STRIKE] 80
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 63
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ [STRIKE]85[/STRIKE] 59
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 275
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 175
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... [STRIKE]60[/STRIKE] 120
Car parking............................. 25
Other travel............................ 20
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... [STRIKE]10[/STRIKE] 27
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15
Buildings insurance..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 57
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Haircuts................................ [STRIKE]20[/STRIKE] 21
Entertainment........................... [STRIKE]400[/STRIKE] 500
Holiday................................. 300
Emergency fund.......................... [STRIKE]100[/STRIKE] 200
Total monthly expenses.................. [STRIKE]2858.12[/STRIKE] 3154.12


Assets
Cash.................................... [STRIKE]2302.61[/STRIKE] 3972.30
House value (Gross)..................... 500000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7500
Other assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
[STRIKE]Mortgage...................... 195929...(647)......1.85
Total secured & HP debts...... 195929....-.........- [/STRIKE]
Mortgage...................... 195537.93...(647)......1.85
Total secured & HP debts...... 195537.93....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
[STRIKE]BarclayCard CC1................2921.74...50........16.9
Nationwide CC2.................3873.18...40........0
Total unsecured debts..........6794.92...90........- [/STRIKE]
BarclayCard CC1................150...0........16.9
Nationwide CC2.................250...0........15.9
Halifax CC3....................4600...200........0
Total unsecured debts..........5000...200........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... [STRIKE]3,717.56[/STRIKE] 3879.28
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). [STRIKE]2,858.12[/STRIKE] 3154.12
Available for debt repayments........... [STRIKE]859.44[/STRIKE] 725.16
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 200
Amount left after debt repayments....... 525.16

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... [STRIKE]509,802.61[/STRIKE] 511472.30
Total HP & Secured debt................. [STRIKE]-195,929[/STRIKE] -195537.93
Total Unsecured debt.................... [STRIKE]-6,794.92[/STRIKE] -5000
Net Assets.............................. [STRIKE]307,078.69[/STRIKE] 310934.37

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

snowscreamer

Disaster! OH dropped his phone onto a tiled floor at the gym last night and the screen smashed. Checked all local repair shops / mobile repair services and everyone seems to be charging £100 for iPhone 6 screen replacement (genuine Apple parts).

So £100 diverted from debt repayment pot to newly-created gadget repair pot...

New target for debt repayment is £300 - now let's stick to this and no more unexpected expenses in June please!!

We have already spent £2143.90 this month :eek: That'll be the holiday spend plus the usual early expenses mortgage, gym, council tax... my secret personal goal is to try and keep our total June spend still under our regular income of £3879.28 even though we spent £1000+ on holidays. I reckon it's doable.

snowscreamer

Quick update before the last day of June tomorrow where I can finalise our spending for June and get the final figures:

snowscreamer wrote: »

Back to the debt busting, this month from basic earnings I have budgeted £300 for the debt. However we are expecting OH's bonus from the last tax year some point this month. Don't know when or how much that will be until the accountant has finalised the company accounts but we are expecting somewhere between £1000 and £1500. Apart from the £150 towards the holiday and we may take another couple of hundred for home improvements, it's all going on the debt. So fingers crossed although June will undoubtedly be an expensive month with the £1000+ holiday spending, we should also be able to make another real dent in the debt.

So, no bonus yet (blooming slow accountant...) however I anticipate that we will meet my mini-goal for June which was to spend less than budgeted this month even though we had spent £1000+ on holidays (all budgeted from previous months). Spent £3630.43 this month in total up until today which consists of £1166.87 on holidays. Came in under budget for spending during our few days away which was fab (and has never happened before - we were used to spending goes haywire when we're away). Non-holiday spend was £2463.56 which is less than previous months so that's super. Cannot believe we spent four figures on holidays and will still spend less than we earnt this month - best feeling ever!

My bank account balance before pay day was £1579.19 - pre-LBM and excluding house purchase times I don't think it's ever been more than £500 approaching pay day. Because I saw money and I spent it. The best thing is I have absolutely no desire to go and splurge that £1600 because I have a plan for every pound within the budget. It's superb. I really genuinely enjoy this budgeting lark. OH and I have been talking about what we're going to do next year when the credit cards are paid off and we start having £500+ going into savings each month. Build up a buffer and living on last month's income is the first job but after that we are going to start doing some serious home improvements including re-configuring our kitchen! I can't wait

I will update tomorrow with final scores on the doors for June. Net position we will likely only be up a couple of hundred (rather than £1000+ as it has been) due to emptying of holiday fund but still have budgeted this month for £300 off the debt.

Hope everyone else has had a good June too!

snowscreamer :cool:

snowscreamer

Hi all,

Well I have some immense news to report... drumroll please...

Our current net position is in the black!!! :j :j :beer:

It's a very small positive balance and it will all be over on Friday when our mortgage payment is taken, but for now, we're in a position we haven't been for over a year when we first bought this house. So at the end of June the position was as follows:

Cash in bank: £4107.82
Credit card balance: £4079.36
Net position: +£28.46

More details to come but very happy Snowscreamer suffice to say

snowscreamer

So OH got £696 dividends paid this month based on company profits March-May. We are also still awaiting an additional dividend payment (not sure how much) based on last year's accounts. They have switched to making quarterly dividend payments for this year but last year they weren't doing that so are still owed dividends from last year. Fingers crossed it'll be a good amount!!

We were able to pay £1000 off our credit cards this month, and recorded our lowest overspend yet of only £48.17 as our various saving pots accumulate cash and aren't called on before they're ready and just generally managing our spending better. Overspend was on sports (new pair of goggles for me as I lost my previous ones and they didn't turn up in lost property) and on eating out (splashed out a bit for OH birthday meal with friends).

Just stunned that after spending over £1000 on holidays this month we have still managed to make such a dent in the debt. Allocating money to future spends is a revelation and one I'm never going to stop doing. Can't believe I never did it before. Feeling so in control.

Now that our end-of-month net position is positive, I appear to have met my previous signature goal to get to net debt < 0 by October I need to set some new goals. I'm thinking I might now count how many days in a month our net position is positive... I would like to see our net position permanently positive by Ocotber, ie. making it through the month without needing credit. And by December I'd like to see our 0% credit card paid off and closed. Then the next goal is living on last month's income in YNAB; well I'd like to start doing that by February 2016. Fingers crossed. Off to update my signature!

MoneyMission2015

Hi SS


Just spending a bit of time catching up with threads that I am subscribed to.


Great news that your net position is now in the black. However small it is doesn't matter, from this point it can only get bigger :j


Nice to have the dividend payments paid to you. I like the new goals you have set too. Making it through the month without credit is a good idea. Technically I am now doing that because everything I spend is actually budgeted for with our wages, but I use the credit card just to earn rewards and it gets paid off in full every month, so I am using credit really. But I guess the key is I am not relying on credit anymore to buy things, so that's a good position to be in. I remember only a few months ago I would get to the end of the month & have to use my credit card to buy fuel or groceries because I had run out of money. It still surprises me how much YNAB has changed things so dramatically for me


Keep coming back and updating, it's great to hear how everybody is getting on.


x