My Smug Marrieds Shiny New Diary - Get Our Debts Sorted Before 2018

lincs1205

Hi Everyone,

I met my lovely OH in 2010, got married in 2013. Hubby stepped down from his job and we were down £10,000 a month. I then got a new job which gave me the same sort of wages as hubby had previously been bringing in, however he was then put onto days which resulted in a further drop in wages. We managed to get out of the hole we were in before by hubby getting some PPI back which helped considerably. My Default dropped off in October 2013 and i got a car on finance as my previous car was a lease car through the NHS Trust i worked for and as i was leaving that trust i would not be able to have another lease car. Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and although we are getting clear of debts i stupidly took out 2 0% credit cards to try and clear the balance on our cards. However PIL were now in financial difficulties and kept asking for help which we did, we have had this money back. However my credit card debts stand at £12503 i missed one payment and interest rates went back up. This month my wages changed from salaried to hourly i also had my wages paid into our joint account for the first time which was a big mistake as they promptly got eaten up by our overdraft.

Last week i was feeling really down and could'nt see a way out, however i have now changed my personal bank account from Norwich & Peterborough to Nationwide Flexdirect that has a 12 month 0% Overdraft. I have arranged to have my wages paid into this account to try and wrest back some form of control over our finances.

Hubby has rung SKY and we have got out Phone, TV & Broadband down from £100 per month:eek: to £47.65 for the next 12 months :beer:. We're going on holiday in september but after that we're going to seriously start reining ourselves in, we have done already in the fact that we're not having takeaways, hubby does'nt drink but i do but cutting down, neither of us smoke but we both drive. I need my car for work as i live a good 25 minutes away.

I will post my SOA shortly but bear in mind that i will be basing my finances purely on my wages and my outgoings as i put £1000 into our joint account which may well go up as from october.

Many Thanks if you've got this far.

bsclp118

One thing I would ask straight away is are you in a contract with sky? I currently get phone & broadband with sky for £16.40 a month. There's lots of TV online these days too, depends on your priorities :-)

I'm sure if you post a SOA more experienced forum members will have lots of hints and tips for you as to where you can save in other areas though :-)

Jacko_amz

Do you mean your hubby was down 10k a year and not month?? Otherwise your monthly earnings would cover a lot of your debt??

lincs1205

Morning,

bsclp118 - Yes we are in contract with SKY, we did try to get rid of our phone as we don't use our house phone but we were unable to. Going to post another SOA in a bit i put in the debt free diaries as well.

Jacko-amz - Yes hubby was down 10k a year, this is why i'm opening another account so i can get our debts down that way. I fully admit there is no reason why we can't get our debts down.

It is due to our own stupidity and frivolity with our money getting takeaways etc. We will get there though.

lincs1205

Morning,

I've posted an soa over on the debt free wannabes site if anyone would like to have a look. Day off today for DH and I , over the past couple of days I've been looking at ways to cut back and save money. Plans are to get a meter reading of both gas and electricity and ring npower to see if we can get a cheaper package if not I'm prepared to switch to another company which could potentially save us £300 a year. I'm also going to start going to the college to get my haircut as even if I have the same things done there that I do at my regular hair salon it will cost me £38 as opposed to £72 which to me is a no brained plus the college is literally just over the road and they are closely observed, hubby's not to keen but like I've said I can't justify a cost like that when we've got the debt we have at the moment. I'm also going to buy own brand stuff as opposed to branded and I've found an online butcher which delivers top quality meat at a fraction of the price you find in supermarkets. It's difficult for me to meal plan cause we both work unsocial hours I do 7-7pm three to four times a week I also do nights which again are 12 hours dh works permanent nights so we rarely eat together besides which he's a fussy so and so and I do the cooking where as he can't cook but is fab at housework and all things handy so I can't have everything I suppose.

lincs1205

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Right i've posted another updated soa this time with the correct mortgage, the water bill worked out over 4 months and the Sky amount at the new updated amount. If we have that much surplus i have no idea where it's going, well i have it's going to service the overdrafts.

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................ 2500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1313
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3813
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 891.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 294.19999999999993
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114
Electricity............................. 50 - now £42.50
Gas..................................... 50 - now £42.50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 80
TV Licence.............................. 37.63
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 47.65
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 17
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 17
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 16.37
Life assurance ......................... 66.16
Other insurance......................... 27.23
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 35
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
NMC..................................... 10
Clubwise................................ 25 - cancelled
British Gas svcs........................ 12.56
RCN..................................... 16.4
Policy Admin svcs....................... 7.6 - Now 0 as Dh has cancelled it.
Total monthly expenses.................. 2188.4

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 165000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 166000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 114074...(891.6)....5.9
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5094.....(294.2)....6.8
Total secured & HP debts...... 119168....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................7296......160.......6.4 - Increasing repayments to £150
Credit card 4800 100 0
Credit Card....................7898......232.6.....29
British Gas Partner............3058......84.74.....6.8
Loan...........................8500......178.3.....18

lincs1205

Further to this I now have £4750 on my bank of Scotland card at 0% going to pay £150 per month, I also checked our joint account this month to find that after submitting a online meter reading we have been credited £154, I have also got us put on a cheaper tariff at £85 per month as opposed to £101 per month. DH has also at my persuasion cancelled the policy admin svcs at £7.60.

bellevie

Hi Lincs

Good luck on your debt free journey.
Had a quick look at your SOA, your mobile costs are fairly high, are you tied into contracts? TV license also - isn't that £12 something usually - or have you grouped something else in with that?

Good job getting your bill down with Sky. Next year it could be worth getting a freesat box if your bill goes back up. I eventually got rid when I realised I wasn't watching enough of their exclusive channels to make it worth while.

Good idea changing over to the college for your hair. I can't get to ours as I'm at work on the days they open. I have started to ask my salon for wash & cut, going without the blowdry saves £17. I try and stretch out my visits too as my hair is wavy it isn't hugely noticeable.

The credit must have been a nice surprise, I love it when that happens!

Bellevie

lincs1205

Morning, I know haven't been on here for ages, sorry about that. Went on holiday and had a great time did'nt spend much as we were all inclusive.
Bellevie yes the credit was a great surprise what was even better was getting a cheque from block horse to say they would be paying me £721 worth of interest even better considering I didn't do anything to get it back so going to use that to pay my barclaycard off then close that card. Next plan is when I get paid on Friday look at doing a budget. My wages vary month on month so never to sure what to expect I have started to do a lot more overtime as I get paid hourly now as opposed to salaried.

lincs1205

Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow is payday yay, looking forwards to seeing the balances on my cards going down plus the cheque has come from black horse so going to use that to pay my barclaycard off and close that. I'm going to then put the remainder into my savings account and use £120 of that to pay for my registration to remain on the register so I can still work. Need to do some shopping but not much as I've still got loads in the cupboards so going to get some meat out the freezer defrost it and have a batch cooking session over the weekend as I'm at work after Monday until the following Monday morning due to having picked up some overtime and also doing some training. Car insurance is due to be renewed around the end of November beginning of December so already starting to look around for some quotes now cheapest is £200 fully comp with £250 excess and hubby as named driver as he is older than me. Also starting to look for Xmas presents for family & friends.

lincs1205

Hi , have got a few days off at the moment so yesterday I went through our unsecured debts and the grand total between us comes to £28956.78 :eek::eek::eek: I am incredibly ashamed of this and it certainly raised dh eyebrows. Thing is we know where it's come from our wedding , honeymoon , lending money to parents, paying for maintenance for the car, grocery shopping. However we are determined to pay this back this month I will be using half of the amount I got from black horse to pay the barclaycard off and then close it, November I need to renew my nmc registration so will keep some money back for that and I also need to renew my car insurance which I am going to go through quidco or top cash back to get the best deal, I also need to tax my car which is 0.00. I need a car for work as I work unsociable hours and there is no way I can do public transport I start work at 7 am and finish at 7pm I also do nights which are 7pm to 7am, as well as overtime shifts which can be from 5pm to midnight or 2pm to midnight.

I have started looking at Christmas already and have decided that budget will be cut practically in half as I realise that I have been far to extravagant /generous with gifts but sometimes I feel this is expected particularly from my mum.