PeppaCoin's bid for financial freedom

PeppaCoin

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................ 1325
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 83
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2408

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 580
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 142
Electricity............................. 45
Gas..................................... 45
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 65
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 11.37
Car Insurance........................... 18
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 60
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 4
Buildings insurance..................... 7
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 17
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1895.37


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 150000...(580)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 150000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Car Loan from parents..........3625......125.......0
Virgin.........................3232......33........0
Santander......................2636......27........0
Loan from Nan..................380.......40........0
CSL (sofa).....................783.......51........0
MBNA...........................1390......25........0
Tesco..........................2836......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........14882.....326.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,408
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,895.37
Available for debt repayments........... 512.63
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 326
Amount left after debt repayments....... 186.63

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -150,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,882
Net Assets.............................. 49,118

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

PeppaCoin

Well its payday on Wednesday and we're ending the month on around minus £850 again. Am feeling very flat and depressed by the whole thing today. We seem in such a bind financially and I can't see a way out, particularly since I am still unsure of when I will lose my job. Blah blah negative day

PeppaCoin

Well payday has come along again. I was always excited for payday when I was younger, now not so much! The perils of growing old....

I was paid the usual amount (£1325) plus an additional £40 bonus, but my husband has changed jobs this month so his pay is a little up and down (half a month at one company, where he also owed them holiday, and half a month at a his new company), plus he wasn’t able to get childcare vouchers set up in time (sweet jesus! That means childcare will cost us another £75 this month) So he only got £1,000 and we need to send £303 straight to the nursery to top up my childcare vouchers.

Money (or lack of), can be so depressing sometimes.


This month I am determined to get a handle on how much we spend on food. Its been creeping up and up just recently to as high as £600/month. We just cannot afford this and don’t even eat well to say that’s how much we are spending. This month I want it to be a max of £300, so that’s £75 a week on 4 shopping days. I think that should be do-able.


It's also our little boy's 3rd birthday this month. Presents already bought but we planned to go out for the day. We'll see how it goes .... I still need to get him a card and balloon etc.

PeppaCoin

Have been keeping at it but not posting so much recently.

Little job update ... have had 2 more interviews last week and am hoping to hear the news from both early next week. I also have an interview with a third company planned for next Tuesday. Am really hopeful to get at least one of the jobs, so fingers crossed. And if not I guess I'll start from scratch again!

Also trying to get on board with selling some bits and bobs to raise a little extra cash. Sold £30 worth of stamps on ebay gained through the royal mail survey last week, and plan to list some clothes this weekend.

Husband's nan has also flown over to see us this week. We're meeting her for lunch tomorrow and she has told us she wants to give us some money to help us out on Monday. I really have no idea what value she is meaning. Could be £50. Could be more. We'll see!

PeppaCoin

I got a new job!! Woooo. After a successful interview today I was offered a new £25k role. I'm so pleased, relieved, happy *insert more happy expletives here * This is actually the highest salary I've earnt and the best thing is it is flexi-time and no-one works Friday afternoons. Plus its has a real career path with it and the chance to work towards a professional qualification. Would be celebrating but husband is off in Liverpool with work.

Also husband's nan gave us £500 today to pay off some debts so we'll be hopefully paying off our whole overdraft with it and starting next month on zero, which would be amazing.

Doing well on the not spending this month. So far this month we've spent £205.68 on food so need to rein that in a little but hopefully only another £120 or so to spend. Anything under £400 would make me VERY happy

Husband also seems to finally be on board with this too. He is helping to meal plan, to cut costs, to say no when we're looking to spend something we really don't need to, to save money, to plan our weekly food shop a lot better. I'm so so pleased as I really didn't think he'd be interested in this and he's proved me wrong.

So all in all its a good day. Let the good times continue

AspiringButAnxious

Congratulations :j :T :j

Keeping_Motivated

Great news. You sound really focussed and your hard work is paying off.

Well done

PeppaCoin

Thank you

PeppaCoin

Well we had my son's 3rd birthday. Very kindly my mum paid for us to all get in to Eureka for the day (£50ish) and my husband's nan paid for our lunch so the day cost us relatively little. And we had a great day so it was all fun. Husband's family are not so involved with our little boy so my family tend to spoil him rotten!

Tomorrow night we'll be at Hallowscream in York but that was already paid for back in September, so is 'free' apart from petrol. There are 10 of us going so it should be a good night!

My payday at my new job will be changing to the 28th (I'm used to the last working day) but I'm hoping that won't affect us too much. At least its not altering to mid month. There still seems a lot of the month of October left to go!

PeppaCoin

Well, things are still ticking over here

We are nearing zero on our bank balance but it is payday next Friday so a couple of tight weeks and we’ll get there. Realistically we are going to dip into our overdraft this month but we’re still better off then we have been for months.

Sometimes I am totally shocked at how kind and generous and supportive my family are towards us – not only in the bigger things (loaning us money for a car when our hire purchase came to the end and we found we owed £6k outright!!) but also the smaller things (paying for us to go in certain places, days out, helping us out here and there). We’re so very lucky to have them and would be in a much worse situation without their help. But having said that I do want to put an end to it all now and learn to stand on our own two feet. At 30 and 36 years of age its about time!

We’re continuing to pay debts down. I have been rounding the bank accoutn down everey few day, adding that to my ISA then will make an extra payment to one of the credit cards at the end of the month. It’s only going to be a fiver here and there but at leats its going in the right direction.

Thinking of some more ways to drum up cash
- switch OH’s bank account to Yorkshire Bank and get the £150 switchover cash
- sell some clothes on ebay – I’ve still not done this and really need to but must remember to be realistic with postage costs
- get husband to put his expensese claim in (approx £150)