Hi I'm new here :wave:

thriftyandfabulous

Thanks Willow, I've found this forum so inspiring. In fact, I don't think I'd have gotten this far without reading other people's diaries. I hope I can achieve the same!

Thanks Megano, I'll be following your progress to .

It does seem overwhelming Eco, but I'm hoping I can find ways to make savings to pay off my debts.

lambda

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Okay here is is...*hangs head in shame*. I plan to start my new thriftiness and paying more than the minimum in February as I have done my usual getting into lots of debt to pay for Christmas (prior to lbm- in fact I think that contributed to it) and have a payday loan to repay in January. So January will be spent paying that off and preparing for the challenge by stocking the freezer etc. However, from this point on, I will not spend a penny more on credit, so these figures will remain accurate. I want to tackle the vanquis card first because it has had the same balance for over a year despite making minimum payments. Any suggestions welcome


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 5
Number of cars owned.................... 2


Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2331.74
Partners monthly income after tax....... 650
Benefits................................ 0

Can you not claim child benefit?

Other income............................ 300
Total monthly income.................... 3281.74


Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 184
Rent.................................... 430
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50

Sorry to be picky, but can you give exact figures for all of your standing orders to the exact penny?

Electricity............................. 90. (This is dual fuel and includes arrears)
Gas..................................... 90

So am I right that it's £180 in total for the duel fuel?

Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44
Telephone (land line)................... 40. (Includes broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 80. (Mine and my partners - both in contract for another 14 months )

OK, obviously you can get this down. Go to pay as you go or sim only deals, which are much cheaper. £80 a month is ludicrous for a mobile phone. Can you call them and ask them to put you on a lower tariff?

TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 87. (I'm going to call tomorrow and try to negotiate this down a bit. I do see sky as essential having 5 children and 1 with autism who likes to watch particular shows)

I'm sorry, but this really has to go. You can't afford £87 a month for Sky TV. Look at Now TV, which is basically the same as Sky but works over broadband instead, it is something like £9.99 a month (that's almost £80 a month saving!). Other than that, the same advice I give everyone: join a library, which is free, read books more, play card/board games instead of watching TV, etc.


Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 610. (This equates to £140 per week for a family of 7)

Do you shop at Lidl and Aldi? You can drastically cut this down, even for 7 people.

Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 220. (£50 per week)
Road tax................................ 32
Car Insurance........................... 100

£1200 a year for car insurance!? Do you shop around for the best deal every year?

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 40. (Nappies, wipes, etc)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 120. (£100 of this goes to park, we have a large family so I need to budget for this - I didn't this year and have gotten into a mess because of it)
Haircuts................................ 20

Do you really spend this a month?

Entertainment........................... 50

What's this for?

Holiday................................. 50

Can you really afford a holiday if you have these debts?

Emergency fund.......................... 30
Dinner money............................ 96

Is this for school meals?

Student loan............................ 25. (Additional payments due to a grant overpayment)
Kids Activities......................... 60. (Includes 2 sets of football subs and a ballet class)
Total monthly expenses.................. 2698.12


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6000



Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7000.....(184)......29.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 7000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis........................350.......25........0
Capital One....................200.......25........0
Aqua...........................100.......15........0
Studio.........................100.......20........0
Grattan........................460.......35........0
Brilliant Gift Shop............650.......65........0
Avant Loan.....................2200......150.......0
Mobile Money...................3000......238.......0
Total unsecured debts..........7060......573.......

Can you please find the exact APRs for each of these debts? It's important to work out which to tackle first

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3281.74
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2698.12
Available for debt repayments........... 583.62
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 573
Amount left after debt repayments....... 10.62

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 6,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -7,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,060
Net Assets.............................. -8,060

Hi Again!

I notice quite a few things in your SOA that are not quite right to me. You seem to waste a lot of money on things like TV, entertainment etc. I would recommend to you to try and cut back on these things as far as possible and also to draw up a proper budget each month. I think the SOA above could be tweaked inline with my comments, giving you more money to put towards those debts.

How do you currently track your spending? You should record each receipt against a category so you know exactly how you and what you spend each month and then adjust your SOA/budget to reflect that.

Hope this helps!

thriftyandfabulous

Hi,

Thank you for your comments, I'll have a look at the areas you've suggested. I'll get onto the APRs but I know that the lowest is 29.9 and I think capital one is 49.9 and Aqua 69.9 :eek:.
The gas and electricity is 180 altogether due to arrears and the car insurance is for 2 cars. And the dinner money is for school dinners. Child benefit is listed under 'other'.

I have thought about the grocery budget and I do shop at Aldi mostly, but it's the top up shops that are bad - better planning needed here. I have tried to over estimate and the plan is that any surplus goes straight off a debt each month.

Regarding your question about tracking my spending, the short answer is I don't. I impulse buy and spend money without thinking about the consequences and that's how I ended up here I guess. I do plan to start a spending diary to try and overcome this. In fact, I'm going to start it right now and post it here :T.

Thanks again for your comments.

lambda

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Hi,

Thank you for your comments, I'll have a look at the areas you've suggested. I'll get onto the APRs but I know that the lowest is 29.9 and I think capital one is 49.9 and Aqua 69.9 :eek:.
The gas and electricity is 180 altogether due to arrears and the car insurance is for 2 cars. And the dinner money is for school dinners. Child benefit is listed under 'other'.

I have thought about the grocery budget and I do shop at Aldi mostly, but it's the top up shops that are bad - better planning needed here. I have tried to over estimate and the plan is that any surplus goes straight off a debt each month.

Regarding your question about tracking my spending, the short answer is I don't. I impulse buy and spend money without thinking about the consequences and that's how I ended up here I guess. I do plan to start a spending diary to try and overcome this. In fact, I'm going to start it right now and post it here :T.

Thanks again for your comments.

Okedoke. I actually think the first step to tackling a debt situation is to first work out why you are in debt in the first place. Mostly this is because people don't budget and just spend money without really thinking about it.

There is a great little piece of software that I've just discovered called YNAB (http://www.youneedabudget.com).
It's great to help you budget. The idea is you set amounts in each category and every time you spend money or make a transaction you record it against that category. Try it!

You do need to make realistic budgets though in every category and really stick to them. It's the only way I'm afraid. I think you can do it.

thriftyandfabulous

Spending diary for today:

£2.89 on bottles of pop for the kids to take to school for the tombola. Also called sky and can't cancel because I'm still in contract but managed to get my monthly bill down by £20 without losing any services :T

thegreenone

Hi
I agree that your car insurance is high. I am guessing you and hubs are late twenties/maybe thirty? So £600 a year each is very high. My 22 year old son in his 1.6l golf paid £480 last year when he had just turned 21. So please look at exit costs and finding cheaper asap.

triple_choc_chip

Megano wrote: »

That lightbulb moment is terrible isn't it? You've taken the best step in the right direction. Onwards and upwards.
Don't worry about your SOA, take a deep breath and go for it!
When I figure out how to subscribe to diarys I'll subscribe to yours

At the top of the thread click 'thread tools' and click subscribe. In future just above that again click 'quick links' then 'subscribed threads'. You can also edit your signature in 'quick links'.

triple_choc_chip

Good luck on your journey, T&F, you will soon tweak this and get it under control. Ringfence this first £20 saved and pay it off the card with the highest interest, you'll have one gone in months.

You pay to Park while you are paying astronomical interest each month. While I understand the logic of Park, if you used this money to kill the cards you could spend your money on prezzies next Xmas because it won't be going down the interest drain and the debt would be gone - at the moment it's not going down, you're just feeding the card company.

Well done for negotiating the TV package but it's still too high, aim to get rid when the contract is over. I think Sky is one of the greatest cons of our time but don't get me started.... Your children would find other things to do, I bet they have loads of toys that have been tidied away.

Good luck
TCC

poppasmurf_bewdley

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Okay here is is...*hangs head in shame*. I plan to start my new thriftiness and paying more than the minimum in February as I have done my usual getting into lots of debt to pay for Christmas (prior to lbm- in fact I think that contributed to it) and have a payday loan to repay in January. So January will be spent paying that off and preparing for the challenge by stocking the freezer etc. However, from this point on, I will not spend a penny more on credit, so these figures will remain accurate. I want to tackle the vanquis card first because it has had the same balance for over a year despite making minimum payments. Any suggestions welcome


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 5
Number of cars owned.................... 2


Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2331.74
Partners monthly income after tax....... 650
Benefits................................ 0 ????????????????
Other income............................ 300
Total monthly income.................... 3281.74


Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 184
Rent.................................... 430
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50
Electricity............................. 90. (This is dual fuel and includes arrears)
Gas..................................... 90
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44
Telephone (land line)................... 40. (Includes broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 80. (Mine and my partners - both in contract for another 14 months )
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 87. (I'm going to call tomorrow and try to negotiate this down a bit. I do see sky as essential having 5 children and 1 with autism who likes to watch particular shows)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 610. (This equates to £140 per week for a family of 7)
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 220. (£50 per week)
Road tax................................ 32
Car Insurance........................... 100
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 40. (Nappies, wipes, etc)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 120. (£100 of this goes to park, we have a large family so I need to budget for this - I didn't this year and have gotten into a mess because of it)
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Dinner money............................ 96
Student loan............................ 25. (Additional payments due to a grant overpayment)
Kids Activities......................... 60. (Includes 2 sets of football subs and a ballet class)
Total monthly expenses.................. 2698.12


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 6000



Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7000.....(184)......29.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 7000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis........................350.......25........0
Capital One....................200.......25........0
Aqua...........................100.......15........0
Studio.........................100.......20........0
Grattan........................460.......35........0
Brilliant Gift Shop............650.......65........0
Avant Loan.....................2200......150.......0
Mobile Money...................3000......238.......0
Total unsecured debts..........7060......573.......


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3281.74
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2698.12
Available for debt repayments........... 583.62
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 573
Amount left after debt repayments....... 10.62

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 6,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -7,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,060
Net Assets.............................. -8,060

Five kids in the household and not a penny coming in from Child Benefits or any other type of benefits? Or am I missing something?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

from previous post,

thriftyandfabulous wrote: »

Hi,

Child benefit is listed under 'other'.