Penguin83 - Debt Diary

penguin83

Good Morning everybody.

I have started this thread a few times over the past few months but never got round to actually posting it. Its going to be a long one so bear with me! I will start with my SOA

Income
Me - 2400
OH - 2700
CB - 120
Total - 5220.00

Outgoings
Mortgage - 945.31
C Tax - 107.00
Water - 56.51
Gas - 29.50
Elec - 32.00
Food - 500.00
Nursery - 619.20
Horse - 360.00
Car Settle - 322.50
Radio Settle - 322.50
Fuel - 500.00
Insurance - 78.00
Birthdays etc - 40.00
Life Ins - 28.56
Phone - 42.00
TV Licence - 11.00
Debts - 1000.00 (this is using the snowball calculator and overpaying)
Total - 5112.08

Debts
My BarclayCard - 496.26 27.9%
BarclayLoan - 4281.00 13.1%
Capital One - 682.19 30.3%
My Comet - 444.41 24.9%
My Dotty P - 636.40 29.9%
G E Capital (Loan) - 299.00 26.9%
HSBC (me) - 9851.32 12.1%
MBNA - 2384.85 25%
Monument - 4303.48 0%
BarclayCard1 (oh) - 2998.02 0%
BarclayCard2 (oh) - 2041.84 0%
OH Comet - 382.67 0%
OH Dotty P - 289.96 29.9%
Evans - 486.29 24.8%
HSBC (OH) - 15863.72 0%
MotherCare - 208.42 24.8 %

Total - 46374.43

My OH is a taxi driver hence the high fuel costs. The water bill is high as we are paying last years arrears as well.

The good news is we havent taken on any new credit for over 2 years and all are store and credit cards have been cut up. The debts with a 0% interest rate are all with debt collectors but arrangements have been made with everyone and they are all up to date. The snowball calculator has given us a debt free date of 56 months.

If youve read this far thank you. I am going to keep this diary as a motivator to becoming debt free and reducing the debt free date.

Kevicho

penguin83 wrote: »

Good Morning everybody.

I have started this thread a few times over the past few months but never got round to actually posting it. Its going to be a long one so bear with me! I will start with my SOA

Income
Me - 2400
OH - 2700
CB - 120
Total - 5220.00

Outgoings
Mortgage - 1098.34
C Tax - 115.00
Water - 50.00
Gas - 29.50 see below
Elec - 32.00 Can you get these any cheaper? use uswitch to find out, then quidco to see if you can get any cash back
Food - 400.00 im sure you can get this down. find somewhere cheaper to shop, try creating a meal plan, to map out the weekly shop, also check the old school board for recipes and ideas to make food on the cheap
Nursery - 997.60 Can you find anywhere cheaper?
Horse - 200.00 What is this? i know what a horse is but is this lessons, is this essential at the moment?
Car Settle - 322.50
Radio Settle - 322.50
Fuel - 430.00
Insurance - 78.00 As with the bills, can you switch to something cheaper, or indeed cancel?
Birthdays etc - 40.00 usually a good idea, but id pay towards debt and then get a cashback credit card, that way you can earn some money back, and also save some money on interest in the long run
Life Ins - 28.56 same as other insurance
Phone - 42.00 Can you cut this in any way? are you on contract? again eswitch and quidco may be able to get you on a better contract (if youy are near cancellation time
TV Licence - 13.00
Debts - 936.31
Total - 5135.31

Debts

Ive sorted your cards in rate of interest, this is the order you should pay them back

To do this pay the minimum amounts on every card, then with as much savings as you can muster, overpay the card at the top of the list.
When that card is paid off, put this money towards the next card (this is called snowballing)

Capital One - 682.19 30.3%
My Dotty P - 636.40 29.9%
OH Dotty P - 289.96 29.9%
My BarclayCard - 496.26 27.9%
G E Capital (Loan) - 299.00 26.9%
MBNA - 2384.85 25%
My Comet - 444.41 24.9%
MotherCare - 208.42 24.8 %
Evans - 486.29 24.8%
BarclayLoan - 4281.00 13.1%
HSBC (me) - 9851.32 12.1%


I imagine these cards below are introductory offers, when they expire put them in the above list according to there interest rate.

Monument - 4303.48 0%
BarclayCard1 (oh) - 2998.02 0%
BarclayCard2 (oh) - 2041.84 0%
OH Comet - 382.67 0%
HSBC (OH) - 15863.72 0%



Total - 46374.43

Good luck with the diary.

Other hints include

Selling everything you don't need on ebay/carboots etc, to create a bit of cash to hopefully pay off one or two of the high interest cards off, this will give your snowball a bit of a boost.

As suggested above use whatever website you can find to decrease your bills.

Im sure youll do great

Best wishes

Kev

penguin83

Thanks for you response.

Im sure I can reduce the food bill it is going to be my next challenge!

The horse is my own horse and includes the stable rent, food, bedding etc. My parents bought her for me when I was 11 and I took over the cost when I started work. She is very old and I wouldnt part with her.

The insurance is for my oh car insurance it is high as he is a taxi driver and needs hire and reward insurance. The life insurance is high due to my OHs medical conditions but I wanted the mortgage insured.

I will shop around for better utility and phone providers.

The debts at 0% are with debt collectors and there is now no interest to pay on them. x

hypno06

How long will it be until nursery fees reduce - is there any way you can get extra vouchers etc towards this? Would a nanny/mother's help work out cheaper (especially a mother's help because they do the housework too! - I loved mine, and she worked out cheaper than nursery for 2 children).

Food def can come down - keep a spending diary of what you buy - every last bit, and then you can see what you DON'T need to spend your money on. It can be a great eye opener!

The snowball calculator is a great motivator and you will find ways of bringing that debt free date forward, I'm sure.

penguin83

Sorry should have mentioned in 3 weeks my nursery bill will halve (yeay!!). This is part of the reason I started looking into clearing my debts as I didnt want to fall in to the trap of spending more and being in the same position.

My parents both work full time themselves but my lovely dad knows I am trying to clear my debts so has said he will give me £75.00 per month to go towards my debts.

I am currently doing the clear a debt challenge and have 170.00 so far this month. So that will all come off one of the debts at the end of the month. x x

hypno06

So will you be putting the £400 odd saving from the Nursery off the debts? What sort of a difference does that make to the snowball calculator?

penguin83

That will bring it down to 37 months (which would mean 45k paid off in 3 and a bit years yeay!). I will need to save a bit for school meals, milk and childcare during holidays and after school etc but no where near as much as what nursery fees currently are.

Its looking better already. Thanks everyone x x

hypno06

In three months, you could have your Dorothy and Capital 1 card paid off using nursery savings.....that would give you a pretty good feeling - then snowballing those figures would soon get rid of OH DP card and the barclaycard - well on your way!!

Good luck x

penguin83

I paid off my MotherCare card from the money I saved from my Clear a Debt challenge. I have updated my snowball and have knocked a month off my debt free date. Now only 55 months to go!

Capital One next to go. Will hopefully have 200 by the end of the month for that. I also lost another pound at Slimming World tonight so im reducing my debt and my waistline cant be bad!

We are due heavy rain tomorrow so I have brought my horse in for the night. Had to buy shavings for her stable but only came to ten pound so not too bad.

penguin83

Not been a bad week this week have spent just under £60.00 on shopping instead of the usual £100.00 and I know I can cut this even further.

I still havent got round to changing our utility suppliers which I am definately going to do this week.

Have managed to reduce debts by almost £1800.00 in 2 months and there is still 2 weeks left of August so I am hoping to pay another £400.00 off before the month is over.

Debt free date still at 55 months but I am determined to reduce this.

lunar

our debt free dates are nearly the same, hopefuly we will both be able to reduce them. im finding this site really motivating. good luck for clearing your capital one card.