Time to face up.

tunnelandlight

Hello everyone,
Forgive this rather lengthy outpouring..

I was ill one weekend and didn't make it out of the house, whilst bedridden I discovered this forum and have to say, I think it is amazing how thoughtful, non-judgemental and helpful so many of you are. And I listened to Dave Ramsey on YouTube!

Brief background: In my 20s I was doing OK salary- wise but after a breakup overstretched myself financially to buy my partner out and keep the house. Faced with a sale, and not especially enjoying my job, I moved to Spain to live in my holiday home for a year.. and ended up staying. A friend and I started a property business just before the financial crisis in 2008. Not a good move! I have been lucky enough to keep my own property out there (just- and by renting it) but had to return to the UK and earn money.

So: I came back to the UK with NOTHING (but some debt and my 3 elderly dogs!) in 2009 to start again. I felt a complete failure, but was very lucky in that my family really rallied round. I trained as a teacher and qualified in 2011 with the help of a student loan but my expenses were quite high (rent alone in the area I was in was £675 for a pretty grim property, I had needed a car to get to the schools where I was training and petrol costs were high). Additionally, I had to send money over to pay my mortgage in Spain to keep the house. I did the wrong thing and glossed over my financial position, kidding myself I would sort it out when I was earning. I didn't open envelopes but I was way over £20K in card debt, without the overdraft, student loan.

I got a job. Four and a half years later I am at the same school. My teaching pay has gone up quite a bit, I own a home, am in a relationship (although we are not living together) and I have been paying things off with the extra pay. I started to feel settled and to take control and got my debt onto low rate loans and 0% deals and paid things off but without a real plan of action. Having seen the determination shown in this forum, I am starting to obsess about debt free living and the freedom that would give. It's a long way off, though! Compared to many people I have been very lucky. But I hope you don't mind me tapping into this fantastic network of support.

Here are my debts - (not including student loan -£173/ month comes out of my salary) or mortgage:
Capital 1- £453.04 - this has interest about 19% but will be paid off very soon. It was 0% and then my car required £850 to be spent on it...should have just dumped the car...lesson learned.
Overdraft - £550 (was £900 - I pay off £50/ month, it's 17.9%)
MBNA - £570 4.9% fixed
HSBC card (0%) £3474.55
HSBC loan £6372.36 (about two and a half years left at £205 pcm
Total: £11422.95 :eek:

tunnelandlight

Here's my SOA...


Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,130.00


In Your Home


Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12


Internet and phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.30
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00


Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.92
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00


Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments (minimum). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205.00

Savings & Investments
Pension payments with work directly from salary
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125.00 - just started


Other:
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00


Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 I know...
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 will work on this, too


Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00


Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00


Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00


Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67





Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,130.00[/B]
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,899.00[/B]

Bobarella

Good luck with your journey

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hello and welcome

tunnelandlight

Aw, thank you Bobarella and Beat the Debt for the welcome.

So pleased to see Bobarella's total going down once again.:T
XX

tunnelandlight

Well diary,

Probably not the best time to start you! Tonight I went out with work for a goodbye meal and we did the dreaded bill splitting thing. I really must try harder to say "That covers mine, thanks" and not get lumbered with a share of starters, bottles of wine that I didn't order because I was trying to be good... Oh well, done now!

I'm seeing my BF (not sure what to call him - BF/ OH/ partner?) on Sunday/ Monday. Excited to the heading over and as usual he's planned a fun day with football (not THAT much fun for me!!) and an afternoon/ evening music festival. He writes reviews and so I am very lucky that we frequently get into these things for nothing. This time it'll be £20 so well worth it for 8 hours of live music, I'd say.

Am going to try hard to not spend too much on drinks and snacks as I am not paid until 20/5... and as I am avoiding spendy temptation by having recently cut up by credit cards and paid off chunks of cards, bills and straight to delayed access savings as soon as paid. Seemed a good plan but my bank account is looking seriously minimal.

Not a good money day today:
Meal £25 (for a salad and tiny glass of wine):mad:
Petrol £20.12 - can't be avoided - glad car is small and not thirsty, just wish it didn't need to be repaired quite so often...

Some good news was the debt snowball calculator! It says I can be debt free by October next year if my non-mortgage debt payment is £650/ month: That's an encouraging thought! I suspect life may get in the way but I'm going to try and keep to it.


Goodnight all,


XX

milasavesmoney

Good start in becoming aware of where the money is leaking out. It starts with small steps and as you see progress it become fun to watch those debt totals go down. Good job starting a savings account!

I'm subscribing.

PinkPoppies

Best of luck on your journey T&L!

I absolutely love love LOVE the snowball calculator- such an amazing tool. October 2017 might feel like a long way away but I guarantee it will fly by!!

tunnelandlight

Thank you both MSM and PinkPoppies for your kind words of encouragement. I'm rubbish at tech or else would quote you - so sorry for that.:(. I'll learn!

PinkPoppies: I found your own DF diary and had a read - haven't finished reading yet - but so impressed at how quickly you've taken back control. Go you! :jFeeling more than a little inspired by your success and looking forward to reading more. :T. Must be lovely to be starting to think about your post debt life, too. Utterly agree about the snowball calculator - should come with a warning - seriously addictive stuff!


Mila: Thank you! A subscriber! I'm so proud! Yes, Feels good to have a small savings account and am counting the days until next pay day so I can complete my not so professional spreadsheet with new, lower totals. Whoop whoop! Yes - will have to get better at watching the pennies, especially the going out pennies.. I'm aiming to stick to my snowball plan and pay £650 a month, I'm hoping to achieve more but meeting up with my BF is always a budget buster. I'll have to do more to get him on board.

Goals for May:

1. Total debt down to £10,800
2. Savings to £500
3. Putting a little aside for my holiday.. We're off to the highly recommended by friends Sziget festival in Budapest - with time to explore the city (or cities..?) either end. I paid flights (£260), travel passes (£50) and hotels either side of the festival (£300 - splashed out a little on some post-festival luxury!). BF has paid for our tickets and luxury non-tent accommodation - it looks like a hut with a mattress BUT we get showers and swimming pool access and it has power - hello hair straighteners! :jIt's a cheap city, but pretty sure the £15.89 I currently have in my holiday fund jar isn't going to cut it. It's creeping up fast..
4. Sell things - I have never sold anything! Shocking! This must change. Having a good sort out would be a good idea as a starting point. Anyone got any tips?

Wishing everyone a wonderful bank holiday weekend. Off to bed and then into school tomorrow to sort GCSE coursework admin. Can't wait for that to be done!


XX

tunnelandlight

In other news:


NO money spent today!!!!!!:A

tunnelandlight

Hello diary,


Great start to the day, up early and made a stew to freeze for the week - I used up an Aldi aubergine! Then off to school to get admin stuff done to free up Sunday and Monday. Despite 6 hours work haven't made much impact. School shut at 4 then came home and cleaned. So not the best Saturday.


BF has got us tickets to a gig at the end of May. Apparently they are very expensive. :cool:I agreed because he told me last night thatI need to make more effort to be free to do things with him. Hmmm. I'm no workaholic but sometimes you have to do what you have to do! So, OK, work/ life balance. Must try harder. I'm trying to be conciliatory because I need to speak to him about money issues. We have semi plans to move in together and how that'll work need to be discussed.. He is lots of fun but goes out A LOT and although on a reasonable salary (more than me) he has nothing to show for it but happy memories! His house really looks tired - he's done nothing since he moved in 11 years ago. Nothing! He lives in an area that was quite expensive pre-crash but has not recovered so no equity, let alone savings of any kind. He did manage to scrape together £1000 to invest in shares in his beloved football team, though... In May he's off to Sweeden for the Eurovision song content (he's a real fan of that!) and then June is the Sonar festival in Barcelona, plus 3 UK festivals over the summer and our holiday - last year he did 17 festivals - even he admits that was excessive and crazy. He doesn't pay to get in as he's press (not his day job but a serious hobby) but he'll easily spend in excess of £200 in a weekend on food/ drink/ T-shirts. So when I try to suggest that we don't go to gigs/ pubs/ meals out ALL the time he's somewhat hard to convince. I hope we can work though this because although I am looking forward to our holiday, it's a big treat and will mean all the more by being a once a year event. I'm rambling. Things between us are fine - but I'd rather save until I can use my money to go out and have fun and not the CC. I do hope we can talk this weekend...when we go to the day festival and the pub!!
I'm taking £40. No more. That'll have to cover drinks all day and the £20 entry! A lovely colleague gave me some wine as a thank you.:) I'm taking that over to save paying pub prices. I hope I don't sound like all I do is drink?:beer: I do like a glass of wine (or three;)) but value a clear head, too!


Spent £4 today on diet coke. I must stop drinking it.


Sis's birthday mid-May and apparently she wants "pants"! I'm so proud of her, she's a mum of 2 (aged 1 and 3), is a vice principal at a school and works incredibly long hours, as does her partner, on very little sleep. She has always handled her money well, never had a CC or loan, always lived within her means and is now in an excellent position - she and her partner are aiming to retire at 50.:j They are very fortunate indeed - or perhaps better to say they are great examples of what you can achieve if you work hard, earn good salaries and use your money responsibly! So her Birthday wish is modest as she doesn't want me to spend lots of money on her. But it's quite hard to choose pants, even for your sister!


So diary, I am promising you that:
I will spend £650/ month on debt repayment so I can be debt free by next October.
I will sell something in May. I don't know why I have a block about this. I will do it!
I will keep saving £125/ month


Wishing everyone continued strength in their debt-free journeys (oh, won't it be lovely!!).


XX