Debt Free by 2017... (Hopefully)

SMD_1402

Since my earlier post I received £8, £45 and £10 from various survey payments (GTM mentioned in earlier post) So I have paid £68 (rounded it up with an extra £5 from my account)!


I also decided to dip in to the emergency fund and used £100 from that to pay so I now need to change my signature to put that down.


I will update the other totals once the payments have been processed on the card!


I feel like I need to have a rummage tonight for things to sell on eBay/Facebook to make some extra money for payments.


Does anyone have any advice for me? x

stepuptothepl8

Well done on trying to tackle your debt. It'll be a slow process, but hopefully you'll get there. What are your interest rates on the cards? Have you looked at the snowball? (Whatsthecost) Essentially it works out your debt free date, based on snowballing, which is you pay the minimum on your cheapest cards and then throw everything you can at your most expensive debt. This will mean that you pay less interest overall. Honestly, though, you are still overspending. So you need to address that first. I would be cutting up both cards now. Or freezing them. Use half of your savings to reduce your most expensive card, or pay it off, if that's cc2, so that you still have your emergency fund, if that's important to you. I don't do surveys etc so can't advise, but have you got things you can sell, either on eBay or your local FB group? You *have* to address your overspend before you can pay things off. Hope that helps x

Happier_Me

SMD_1402 wrote: »

I do read a lot, whenever I've got 5 minutes I'm on the iPad or I have the Kindle app on my phone too so it's definitely going to save me money - if there are books for me to read. I will try it for a month and see how I get on. There's no contract so at least if I find there is nothing else for me I can cancel.

I used to spend a fair amount on kindle books but then decided to give the free kindle books a go. I occasionally spend a few pounds on a series I find really good. The quality is usually as good as the more popular, well known authors although I've had to abort a few books part way through. I search on 4 stars or more, low to high price and then select the genre I want. There are loads to try so it might be worth downloading a couple to see how you go. Watch out for books with cliffhangers though!

SMD_1402

Thank you both, I have read a lot of the free books but I was struggling to find more. I read A LOT. Definitely hoping the unlimited will help lower what I usually spend. I have changed purses and left my credit cards in the old purse at home so I don't have them readily available.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................£1,385
Benefits (CB/WTC).........................£356.52
Total monthly income..................£1,741.52

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Council tax............................. £109
Gas.........................................£48.93
Mobile phone..........................£38.75
TV Licence..............................£12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................£77.02 (Incl. telephone & broadband)
Groceries etc. .........................See Below
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance.........................0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 (not required as new car)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................£297.50
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
House insurance..................... £17.92
Amazon....................................£7.99
Gym..........................................£89.00 (Joint Membership)
Overdraft Fee...........................£60.00
Total monthly expenses..................£758.23

Assets
Cash.................................... £2,000
House value (Gross)....................£150,000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. £22,000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly... .APR
CC.................................£1,400....£70.......30.34%
CC.................................£6,800....£165......18.9% / 0%
Overdraft.......................£2,900
Total unsecured debts..........£11,100........£235


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income........................................ £1,741.52
Expenses ..........................................................£758.23
Available for debt repayments...........................£983.29
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments.............CC1 £300 CC2 £200
Amount left after debt repayments.......Leaving £483.29 to budget over four weeks for groceries, entertainment etc.



Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... £24,000
Total Unsecured debt........................£11,100
Net Assets........................................£12,900




So...I haven't included my partner's wage as I am doing this on my own as it's my own debt. Any bills I haven't included (like mortgage is because they come out of the joint account which he pays for). I haven't included a budget for clothes as I very rarely buy them for myself and use the emergency fund to buy for my son. My hair is cut and coloured for free.


Bad points....mobile phone - I am contracted in for another 12 months because I can change to a lower tariff or get a sim only deal. I am also contracted with the gym but will probably cancel my membership come September. That will mean moving the direct debit to the joint account for my partner to pay and it will half the amount.


I have recently changed to a lower gas tariff and also got a deal with Sky where I am getting £10 off for the next six months. After that I have persuaded my partner to cancel Sky Sports as it will bring the cost down and all sports events are meant to be moving to BT anyway!


Phew...feel better having got all this down.

SMD_1402

Road tax and car insurance I pay when they are due from my emergency fund so that will go down soon!


Diesel I am usually lucky enough to pinch the family diesel card (for business use) and get a sneaky full tank :rotfl:


I am lucky that way. My partner will also fill it up if he has been using it, which he does occasionally. If I do need to fill it up I use money from my weekly budget leftover after all payments (usually works out about £120 per week but half of the grocery shopping comes off that).


x

MoneyMission2015

Hi SMD


On clothing, I would budget something for this, even if it's £10 per month. Emergency fund should be for exactly that, emergencies, such as car repairs or a boiler break down etc. Clothing is something that is needed, especially with growing children, so isn't really an emergency. That's just my opinion anyway.


As for your leftover money of around £400, I used to think the same way. Pay all the bills and then what's leftover is for groceries etc. But it never worked out that way. I'd go to the supermarket & spend say £100 but think, oh its ok because I've got £400. Then I'd go for a few drinks & think, its ok because I've got £400, then the corner shop for bread, the sandwich shop for a lunchtime sandwich, the supermarket for a top up shop. Suddenly that £400 has dwindled away & I used to end up having to pay for things on the credit card towards the end of the month because even though I knew I had £400 & I knew I'd spent £100 here & £50 there, I would lose track of the £1 here, £3 there, lunchtime sandwich, bottle of water from the petrol station etc.


Instead now I am using You Need a Budget & the whole mantra of YNAB is that every single penny has a purpose. So when I get paid I know I have x amount in my account. I allocate money to all the bills first. Then what is left over gets allocated to groceries, fuel & other necessities. Then what is left over after that gets allocated to the non necessities like entertainment, spending money (small amount for the occasional purchase that doesn't fall in to a regular category), kids pocket money, that sort of thing. By the time I'm finished I have no money left in the budget but I do have a budget for everything. Then when I go grocery shopping I just check what my budget is, take a list & do my shopping, then at the end of it I enter my spend & it tells me how much left I have in that category.


I can't begin to tell you how much it has changed things for us. I have only been using it since February & have already been able to start an emergency fund, started proper savings for birthdays & Christmas through budgeting for them instead of just getting to the month before & spending a whole months wages on said occasion, I'm overpaying on my credit cards, I'm budgeting extra in some categories to build up a buffer for when bills occasionally rise, the list goes on. In February I had no savings to my name & we were just spending all our money every single month. It's now middle of April & I am overpaying on my debts but still have over £1500 in my savings account. This is from actually working everything out properly & being realistic about how much money we need. I now know to the penny how much all my bills are each month & I think more about things before I buy them, because I realise that if I spend £30 on 'x' then I will have to cut down a bit to make sure I don't overspend in that budget.


Sorry if that's a bit of a ramble & there are definitely people who can explain YNAB a lot better than me, but I really just cannot recommend it highly enough.


You can have a free trial to see if it works for you. If you don't want to spend the money at the end of it (£30), at least it might give you an insight in to how it works so you might get some ideas yourself going forward.

SMD_1402

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

Hi SMD


On clothing, I would budget something for this, even if it's £10 per month. Emergency fund should be for exactly that, emergencies, such as car repairs or a boiler break down etc. Clothing is something that is needed, especially with growing children, so isn't really an emergency. That's just my opinion anyway.


As for your leftover money of around £400, I used to think the same way. Pay all the bills and then what's leftover is for groceries etc. But it never worked out that way. I'd go to the supermarket & spend say £100 but think, oh its ok because I've got £400. Then I'd go for a few drinks & think, its ok because I've got £400, then the corner shop for bread, the sandwich shop for a lunchtime sandwich, the supermarket for a top up shop. Suddenly that £400 has dwindled away & I used to end up having to pay for things on the credit card towards the end of the month because even though I knew I had £400 & I knew I'd spent £100 here & £50 there, I would lose track of the £1 here, £3 there, lunchtime sandwich, bottle of water from the petrol station etc.


Instead now I am using You Need a Budget & the whole mantra of YNAB is that every single penny has a purpose. So when I get paid I know I have x amount in my account. I allocate money to all the bills first. Then what is left over gets allocated to groceries, fuel & other necessities. Then what is left over after that gets allocated to the non necessities like entertainment, spending money (small amount for the occasional purchase that doesn't fall in to a regular category), kids pocket money, that sort of thing. By the time I'm finished I have no money left in the budget but I do have a budget for everything. Then when I go grocery shopping I just check what my budget is, take a list & do my shopping, then at the end of it I enter my spend & it tells me how much left I have in that category.


I can't begin to tell you how much it has changed things for us. I have only been using it since February & have already been able to start an emergency fund, started proper savings for birthdays & Christmas through budgeting for them instead of just getting to the month before & spending a whole months wages on said occasion, I'm overpaying on my credit cards, I'm budgeting extra in some categories to build up a buffer for when bills occasionally rise, the list goes on. In February I had no savings to my name & we were just spending all our money every single month. It's now middle of April & I am overpaying on my debts but still have over £1500 in my savings account. This is from actually working everything out properly & being realistic about how much money we need. I now know to the penny how much all my bills are each month & I think more about things before I buy them, because I realise that if I spend £30 on 'x' then I will have to cut down a bit to make sure I don't overspend in that budget.


Sorry if that's a bit of a ramble & there are definitely people who can explain YNAB a lot better than me, but I really just cannot recommend it highly enough.


You can have a free trial to see if it works for you. If you don't want to spend the money at the end of it (£30), at least it might give you an insight in to how it works so you might get some ideas yourself going forward.

Thank you, I will definitely look at YNAB. This month I am going to try withdrawing the £120 (or whatever it works out) at start of week and not spending any more than that - not using my card at all so I don't go over. Will see how I get on.


Yeah, I know what you mean. My savings are separate from partner's/joint though so if any household emergencies came up he would be able to cover them until I have sorted debt and built up savings. I had been putting money aside in to 'emergency savings' with my son in mind for things like clothes, day trips etc so although I've called it emergency savings it probably isn't.


I am seriously considering using £1,000 of the savings to pay off CC1 and that way I would be able to make bigger payments towards CC2 and be out of debt quicker.


I am struggling with deciding whether to put any more money in to the savings each month as I want to pay any spare money towards debt to save on interest. The 0% deal ends on larger balance card in November and I have been rejected when applying for a new one. Hopefully, if I pay CC1 off and then apply again before that deal ends I will be accepted as I will have lowered the debt by then.


x

SMD_1402

Payday in 5 days...cannot wait! Will see the total figure under £11,000! Also decided to use half of my savings to pay CC2 and that way I can concentrate on CC1 before the interest hits higher in November. Hoping by that time, because I will have a lower overall debt, I will be accepted on another 0% deal. I don't have any missed payments or other outstanding debt so I assume it is just the high amount that has given me a poor rating at the moment

Anyway, I have downloaded a budget planner for next month with envelopes etc for everything so I should do better from here on out

I will update again when I make another payment and change my signature ..yippee x

SMD_1402

Made another small payment to card today - roll on payday. I can't wait to pay them and update my signature! This diary is definitely encouraging me


I am excited to pay off CC2 but that will mean my savings go down (does this mean I shouldn't really be excited?...I can't decide). The balance is now £1,330. I will pay £330 from wages and £1,000 from savings. I'll also pay £200 to CC1. As of next month I will be able to pay £500 off CC1 each month, as well as any extra earnings I can make.


Cashed out a couple of small survey payments so think I should have £9 due in to PayPal as well as £6 from an eBay sale. I have £10 worth of Swagbucks to cash out as well but think I will build it up a bit more before withdrawing this time. Been 50p away from an Amazon voucher on Valued Opinions for about a fortnight now - seem to screen out of every survey they send me


GTM is building up quickly again so hopefully get another small payment from there. Wish me luck


x

mumstheword***

Good luck!!! It will be great to get the credit card gone!!! Keep it up!!!