Tired of playing catchup!

denialanderror

Very rough SOA for new place:



Monthly Net In.......1955.07


Home

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Rent.................600.00+
CT....................50.87+
Elec+Gas..............22.00+
Water+Waste...........27.75+
Phone + BB............13.99+
TV Licence.............4.02+
Netflix................5.99
Contact Lenses........22.00
Mobile................59.00

---

.....................805.62

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Car Accruals

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Car - Service + MOT...14.99
Car - Tyres...........17.50
Car - Bulbs............2.08
Car - Repairs.........50.00
Car Insurance.........32.50
Car Tax...............16.25
RAC....................3.60
Car Cleaning..........21.00

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.....................157.92

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Other Bills

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Food.................200.00
Fuel.................120.00
Haircuts..............19.50
Prescriptions..........8.20
Credit Card..........110.00

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.....................457.70

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Lifestyle

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Clothing..............50.00
Gifts.................50.00
Social...............110.00

---

.....................210.00

---

Total Commitments...1631.24
Balance..............323.83

denialanderror

Baldybear wrote: »

Afternoon
At least you recognise the problem and not just spent the money nilly willy. I think you may have had half a light bulb moment, you are in the pre-stage, if that makes sense. You know what you need to do, know where you are going wrong but just havent got the mindset 100% spot on yet.
But still you are on the right track, maybe you need that redundancy, house move or the like to really get you going.
Dont beat yourself up, learn from the episode and keep on moving forward, small steps but will get there eventually
Re your friends etc who all seem to be doing everything, your words "funds that they all seem to magically have" is probably spot on. They probably dont have the funds and it is all a magical reality. I wouldnt be surprised if many of them dont have financial issues too, dont know if its something you discuss??
Anyhow enough of my ramble, keep going, you will get there eventually

Thank you BaldyBear - I think you are right, a real disaster will definitely focus the mind!. Right now I'm so caught up in day to day stresses and firefighting long term planning is out the window!.


I'm being sent all over the place at the minute - the day after I move I'm supposed to be flying out to a project for 2 weeks so looking forward to doing that then coming back to a room full of boxes!

denialanderror

Good news! Sailed through the MOT without even an advisory!

snowscreamer

Great news. Sounds like it will be good to move and for you to have a fresh start. Your current housemates sound like a nightmare. Do not under any circumstances pay the fees for them - they suggested you move out! Doesn't sound like they will be any great loss as friends to be honest. Losing their friendship is literally the worst that can happen - the money owed has nothing to do with you so they can't take you to court for it!

denialanderror

Since My Last Update:

What we Know:

- Didn't have to pay any fees for moving out.

- Running my new place costs around £200 per month more than my previous place at just under £800.00 per month.

- There are 2 accounts still to be setup for contents insurance and waste water, my share of the rest is as follows:

Rent: 600.00,
Internet (inc Line): 15.99
Council Tax: 51.00
Electric and Gas: 34.00 ::
Cheapest deal I could find, with £50 amazon voucher on top.
Water: 9.66 ::
Metered.
(Sum: 710.65 not including the 2 unknowns so rounding up to 800.00)
Leaving around 1150.00 to pay for everything else - easy right?!

- Contents insurance for a share of more than 2 is proving difficult to get. So far only one company that might cover and I can't get a quote from them till I've rounded up everyones mobile, TV and Laptop makes, models, years and value estimates. All the usual insurers don't cover more than 2 people if not a couple.

- Estimate of borrowing was a little low, totalled about 1700.00 new debt created by this move in the end. Had hoped to immediately pay back quite a bit of this with return of the deposit from the previous place but this has not been possible. Agents have retained full deposit citing damage (caused by the mould not me!).

- New place is a much newer property (less than 10 years old I believe) and feels better built so hopefully shouldn't have a repeat of this issue.

- My new property seems to be in a much higher risk area for car insurance. Rough quotes for next years premium suggest around 500.00-600.00 for the year and I got stung for 90.00 increased premium removing ex from the policy when changing address. They said to do it at the same time so I'd only get hit for 1 admin charge of 25.00.

- Found out the accurate balance of my student loan, its just over £4k including 2015 repayments. Interest is 0.9% so least priority to pay off, but I would at some stage like it gone as the repayment is around 100.00 a month off my net pay.

- Revalued car, it's depreciated yet again to just over 4400.00. Not sure what to do about this, given that 3000.00 of my 4700.00 total debt was created by buying it.

- I now own a christmas jumper which I had to buy for some mandatory work fun event this weekend that's going to cost me about 70.00 all in. I am not happy about this development.

- Still using YNAB daily, definitely 30.00 well spent!


What we don't know:

- If we can eventually get quotes for contents insurance, how much this will cost per month, I expect it will be high.

- What my annual christmas bonus will be. Should find out on the 18th of the month. It's usually just over 300.00 but I'm worried as I'm essentially relying on it to pay for christmas gifts.


Summary -

SOA above was roughly accurate - looks like I'll be able to pay about 300.00 per month off my debts, based on my current salary.

At that rate it'll be:

CC1 = 3000.00 / 110 (net repayment) = 27 Months = Actually roughly the term of the origional 48 month finance agreement.

CC2 = 1500.00 / 130 (net repayment) = 12 Months = Should be clear in time for me to use the overdraft again to pay the deposit on my inevitable next house move.

OD1 = Not currently repaying as the account is in credit for all but 1 week of the month where it goes about 250 overdrawn till payday. This costs 10.00 per month.

Income is now stretched to near enough it's breaking point.

Need to up it significantly in 2016 with minimal risk to be able to afford to leave the area I currently live in.

Oh and just to add to the cloud of farts, the entire company has been informed all employees are moving to performance related pay in 2016! Currently not clear how this will be implemented but we have been told it doesn't affect contractual salary. Many people are telling me now is the time to get out!

denialanderror

Hi All,

2 updates in one week!

I've been receiving a lot of emails from my bank advertising very low unsecured loan rates (3%) and encouraging me to apply, I'd ignored these having previously struggled to get anything apart from high credit risk rates, however yesterday, mostly out of curiosity I applied from within my online banking and was instantly accepted for a 6,000.00 loan at 9% APR repaying 150.00pcm over 48 months.


Current Debts:
===================================================
Monthly Payments:
- 300.00pcm split equally to 2x cards both with APR of approximately 18%.
- 59.00PCM contractual liability to Vodafone for 18 further months.

Snowball calculator results:
- Total principal excluding interest 5899.60

- Number of months to 0 = 18
- Annual Interest = 385.72 (21.42pcm)
- Total Interest = 578.58
- Ending around middle of 2017

- Total Repayments = 6478.18
===================================================




New Debts:
===================================================
Monthly Payments:
- 150.00pcm to single loan.
- 50.00 overpayment to same loan

Snowball calculator results:
- Total principal excluding interest = 6000.00

- Number of months to 0 = 34 (2Yrs 10 months)
- Total Interest = 765.14 (22.50pcm)
- Ending around q3 2018

- Total Repayments = 6765.14
===================================================
New plan = approx. 286.96 more expensive and 16 months longer.
This is partially offset by avoiding overdraft costs of 180.00 over the 18 months.



Why, despite the longer term and higher costs, do I think this is a good idea?
The much lower minimum repayments will mean that, sticking to the YNAB method which I've been completely successful with for about 5 months now (excluding the move), I have a significant amount of my salary left after I've met all of my commitments which means I can accrue money for big bills I know will be coming and meet them without new debt.


This is instead of continuing in the current cycle of paying down debt over the year, only having to start the process again when the next big bill comes along.

That sense of being in a never ending cycle has been a big part of my frustration.

Off the top of my head, 3 bills likely to occur in the near future are another house move (if I'm
given notice after the fixed year), a car repair or a job change resulting in a gap in salary
payments.



This leaves me with 2 simple targets -
- Stick to my revised budget, something I really struggle with, however pathetic that sounds.
- Find a better paying job

I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone reading on the above, I suspect there are things I've missed or haven't considered...

I'll detail my accruals and new revised draft budget as soon as, although slightly nervous about posting it as there are some spends that are a little embarrassing on a board like this...

denialanderror

Just an aside Re the salary thing as I think this knowledge has heavily influenced my decisions this week...

I have a review in January in which I intend to ask for and attempt to justify more money.

I think I have a good chance of success as I am currently in quite a strong position due to there being currently nobody in place that could complete the tasks I currently complete (technical qualifications) or provide the same level of flexibility.

If I don't get offered something, the decision to accept a better offer externally will be made for me.

Ideally I'd get offered a company car, this would mean I could sell mine, and settle a £4.5k chunk off the loan. The BIK would be less than my new car accrual + fuel spend.

Many others in similar roles in the organization do have cars, including several in my own department so there is precedent and I travel extensively for the job so the cost could be offset against what they currently spend hiring cars for me.

denialanderror

Just a quick update, thread isn't dead, debt is slowly coming down although I've totally failed on the overpayments front.


Hoped to post a full detailed update but really battling lethargy and low moods at the moment.
Will update soon.

SpekySquarehead

HI there,

Just came across your thread and it's hit a chord with me as you're in a scaryily similair position except I am 2 years younger!

Keep up the good work. I've subscribed and look forward to seeing your updates.

denialanderror

denialanderror wrote: »

Summary of my situation:
- 27, Male, Single, FT in current role for 2 years, earning £34k but have reason to believe my role will probably be made redundant in the next year to 18 months, no concrete plan for dealing with this yet.
- £3500 on a credit card from settling a car HP loan early, £400 cash in a savings account.
- Student loan, repayments taken from wages each month, £5k-ish remaining balance.
- Have to move from current shared house by November this year.
- Will know in next few days if I will have a house share for next year confirmed or have to rent own place.
- Will not be able to make any headway in paying off the credit card balance till at least November as will need to keep every spare penny in cash to pay the deposit and fees on where I end up moving to. This could vary between £1500 and £2500.


My goals are, before 30 (2.5yrs), in a sort of chronological order:
- Find a more secure job with a better salary and better prospects so I can rent my own place and leave the "house sharing" phase behind me.
- Pay off my credit card and student loan.
- Get together at least 3 but preferably 6 months salary in savings.
- Get to a position where I can trade up to a replacement 3 year old car every 3 years.
- Be able to afford holidays.
- Stop impulsive / compulsive / mood related decision making.

The main reason I've started this diary is to identify triggers and patterns to hopefully break the cycle and actually feel like I'm moving forward in life and to keep a focus on what I need to achieve for the long term, during the bad days where it all feels a bit pointless. Any advice welcome!

It's been a long time since I've updated this thread but I've remained a regular reader on the forums and as the dust is beginning to settle after yet another round of life changes, thought it was worth revisiting with an update on where I am now, and I guess hoping to focus my mind on what are reasonable targets for the next few years as I can certainly feel the sense of futility creeping back in after a reasonably lengthy period of feeling like good progress was being made.

Updated summary of my situation:

- 31, Male, Single, After surviving multiple threats of redundancy due to problems in the company, I'll be voluntarily leaving my current role in a few weeks after 6 years, having worked up from a starting salary of £32,000 @ age 26 to £41,200.

- Start a new role 2 weeks after finishing current one with a salary of £48,000 + up to 10% Bonus.

- Have used YNAB to track every penny spent for years now. Emergency fund at £800 will unfortunately be used to bridge the gap between old and new employers pay schedules.

- Debt (and weight) climbed to a peak in March 2017 @ -£12,128.56 split between a loan and a 0 interest credit card. The jump was mostly due to bringing my student loan onto the 0 interest credit card, moving and an expensive visit to ex.

- Managed to stay in the same rental for 3 years which gave me the stability I needed to pay this down to -£3,061.90 by November 2018. Average repayment just over £600 per month or just over 25% of net pay.

- Had an unexpected inheritance of £30,000 summer 2017.

- Used this to cover the deposit and fees for a 1 bedroom flat on a new build development, taking advantage of an equity loan scheme for local workers. £27k deposit + £44k equity loan + £149,999 repayment mortgage, fixed for another 4.5 years or so.

- Single outstanding unsecured loan of -£6,545.28 being repaid at £155.84 per month (42 of 48 months remaining). The approximately £3500 increase was largely down to the cost of flooring, wardrobes, curtains and so on.

- Costs of running own flat coming to around £250 a month on top of renting in the house share so the increase in salary this year should just about cover this depending on the pension arrangement.

Will be back to post some thoughts about next steps but all ideas considered.