Silkglade's DFW debt to debt free Diary.. Please keep me on the straight and narrow!!

silkglade

Hi everyone,

I have at last decided to start my own DFW to debt free diary, hoping it will help me to stay on the straight and narrow, and help me to keep debt free. Now I will post my SOA on here as it is traditional to do so at the begining of a diary. Help and advice is always appreciated. Obviously we are almost there and I am more looking to maintain the healthy Debt free status rather than make further drastic cutbacks. (have already made loads)

Right time to begin....:T There are 5 of Us, Myself, Hubby (who is a house husband) and 3 Kids, 12, 7, and 2.


Monthly Income:

My wages £1378.16
Child tax credit £146.37 (HAS JUST DROPPED FROM AGAIN FROM £270 THEN £215.26)
Child Benefit £169.20
Maintenence £66.00 (for oldest son)

Total income per month £1,759.73


Monthly Outgoings:

Rent £244.37
Council Tax £122.00
TV licence £11.37
Mid Kent Water £11 (on water meter)
Southern Water £0 (£155.45 in credit, should not have to pay for over a year)
Gas and Electric £57 (has recently dropped from £70)
Virgin Media, TV, telephone, broardband £32 ish including calls
Mobiles £40 (for both hubby and I on sim only deal £20 each and get 400 mins and 1000 texts each)
Food and Petrol £450 (this has recently been revised and we have allowed a bit more)
Treats Budget £50 (this is new as of the end of this month, not ever kept any money back)
Savings £150.00 (For House ins, car ins, tax and MOT's for when they come up for renewal)
UGC Cinema Unlimited Card £21.98 (both hubby and i are film fanatics, this saves money and gives us freedom)

Total Outgoings each Month £1189.72 (I think anyway)


Halifax Credit Card Balance Currently at £3004.32 (0% till Nov 08)

Recently had back pay from work that was owed for ages and that is why the Child Tax Credit has dropped down.

Obviously as you can see from my sig that we put every spare penny towards paying off the debt and we have never had a treats budget, and been so totally skint for our whole life together which has just last week reached 10 years (married 9) so we are really wanting to change things for the better from now on rather than just a month or too. before we moved in Nov we also had a much cheeper house with the rent about £100 cheaper a month and £40 cheaper on council tax and therefore more cash in the bank too.

I think the hardest part that up until and including most of this month we have always felt so skint, even though we can meet all the bills and throw huge amounts at the debt every so often. We just wanted EVERYTHING to go off the debt as soon as possible. We have been at the stage that I was ebaying anything and everything and doing boot markets just so we could eat especially when I was off on maternity leave and pay - it was the month that I returned to work I had my "lightbulb moment" I decided that it was NOT acceptable for my family to suffer every month and year so I did stupid amounts of overtime to pay more off (really good timing and very lucky as now it is a fight to get ANY overtime) I think my kids forgot who I was doing around 10 12hr shifts in a row as a regular thing.

We did not do anything or go anywhere, did not even want to use the petrol, got very obsessed about every single penny, the poor kids did not go out or do anything during the holidays unless they took it in turns to go with me to do the boot markets. I shed loads of tears and we grew stronger and closer as a result of it.

We now have debt on a 0% credit card, most of this was needed things for the house as we have managed to not get them till everthing else was gone, but there were a couple of extravagences too, like the fact that my dad had the kids for a couple of days for us and we went to london to see a show. 1st time we have ever had time to ourselves.

Can I say thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and any advice you can offer.

pcwilkins

I may be wrong but I'm sure I remember reading about someone who managed to get out of a mobile phone contract because they couldn't provide coverage in his area. It might be worth looking at the t+c's because they aren't providing the service you're paying them for.

And another thing --- unless your credit card debt is on a 0% or low interest rate, would you not be better off using your £150 "savings" budget to pay that off sooner?

Peter

elantan

hi silkglade a new diary i just love them (can never get time to catch up with them all though) but please keep it coming...cna i just ask why do you pay two water comanies? it's probably normal it's just living in scotland we dont pay to a water company at all and i dont understand how it works ...cheers

silkglade

Hi and thanks,

Unfortunatly if you live in certain areas of KENT then you have to pay Mid Kent to supply your water and Southern Water for your waste Water!! :mad:

silkglade

pcwilkins wrote: »

I may be wrong but I'm sure I remember reading about someone who managed to get out of a mobile phone contract because they couldn't provide coverage in his area. It might be worth looking at the t+c's because they aren't providing the service you're paying them for.

And another thing --- unless your credit card debt is on a 0% or low interest rate, would you not be better off using your £150 "savings" budget to pay that off sooner?

Peter

Thank you for the mobile thing, I will look into that later today :beer:

This is a NEW SOA, that has been revised with Hubby to come into effect from payday this month. Yes the savings will go into an esaving account, and won't start doing that till credit card is gone, but card is 0% till Dec 25th

elantan

that must be annoying ..

silkglade

It is very annoying, but to be honest we moved from an area that only had southern water in Nov last year and there is hardly any difference in the cost :T

silkglade

OK, hubby and I have got a massive DVD collection and we have had a very strict sort through and we have around 260 dvd's to sell. Need to get shot of them and want them out our bedroom asap.

Did start a new thread about it and have had some ideas of how and where to get rid of them.

Have been selling some of them at work for £3 each (think we statred with over 300). So far paid in £195.00 from that and we did spend around £35 cash one week towards food and stuff to keep the other money in the bank rather than use my card.

Will be getting another £21 tomorrow and someone else is due to give me £6 too. not doing badly, but think that people at work now have the ones they want so still left with around 200 - 260 ish.

Need to get them sorted as soon as poss to 1 get the money and 2 have the space back.

Any ideas would be very gratefully appreciated.

Karmacat

Hey, thats great, well done! If it has an isbn number, and is already logged on amazon, you can sell them on there, and you don't pay any costs until you sell them. I sell books and CDs on there, just had one yesterday that gave £3.50 profit.

slowlyfading

I've sold over 100 dvds on ebay and i found that to be quite good or maybe amazon? x

silkglade

Hi and thank you for your input, I really love this place and all the amazing people here. I always tell anyone and everyone about it. I have just edited my 1st post and put alot of personal stuff and such in it so that you can all know a little more about us.