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JWPopps

Hi guys!

I have been away what feels like forever... so I'm back, with an update.

I also think it's been about a year since I started this up so, good timing!

Good News
I've worked it out, and I've paid off nearly £3000 of debt over the last year. I haven't necessarily hit all the goals I set for myself, but that's still a debt payment of about £250 a month! I'm so pleased with myself.

Having disposed of the troublesome lodger, my long-term placement now is amazing. We get on incredibly well, she never forgets to lock the front door or leave the oven on, she always pays her rent on time... honestly, she's a dream.

My mum has a job!!!!!!! It's less hours, less stress, and enough money that she can stay in the little house she moved to. She's so happy, and I'm happy too

I've handed in all those assignments that were stressing me out. I'll have 3 more to do to qualify in my field properly, but I can spread those ones out a bit more. One of them is entirely distance learning as well so less travelling will be involved next year, which makes me happy. I've also had my marks back for two of them, and I'm on track for a merit so far.

I've been covering my senior colleague's maternity leave for a month so far, and the place hasn't fallen down around my ears so I'm obviously not doing too badly :rotfl:

Less Great But Still Not "Bad" News
My ex is still leaning on me for emotional support and I wish I was brave enough to just cut him off but I feel a bit... guilty? I don't know. I don't miss him, that's for damn sure.

I don't think I have any news worse than that...

I might do a new SOA at some point, and a new plan for after Christmas it feels good to be back on an even keel...

JWPopps

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1 (she's not really a child, she's 16)
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1666
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 530
Total monthly income.................... 2196

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 397
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 89
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 25.45
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28.8
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 36.75 (yes it's high but I use it a LOT and won't be as high for much longer).
TV Licence.............................. 13.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 20.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 (Also high at £100 per week, but this includes pet food, food for me, food for short term people staying over and food for my long term placement)
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 84
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 28.97
Buildings insurance..................... 17.05
Contents insurance...................... 0 (in with buildings)
Life assurance ......................... 38
Other insurance......................... 15.25 (boiler cover)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0 (my friend's a trainee hairdresser )
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 1393.89


Assets
Cash.................................... 200
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 500
Total Assets............................ 110700


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86948.5..(397)......3.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 86948.5...-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Sainsbury's Card...............725.36....5.........0
Barclayloan....................6199.95...175.......4
Total unsecured debts..........6925.31...180.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,196
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,393.89
Available for debt repayments........... 802.11
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 180
Amount left after debt repayments....... 622.11

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 110,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,948.5
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,925.31
Net Assets.............................. 16,826.19

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

enthusiasticsaver

Fantastic update. So pleased your new lodger working out and good rate of debt repayment.

Sun_Addict

Welcome back All sounding good apart from the ex situation. If you don't want him back then it's fairer to him to cut the ties really.

Seasidegal58

I’m so pleased to see you posting again JW! And what a great, positive post it was! I’m glad everything is working out so well for you - lodger, mum and your career. I agree with SA about the ex - it can be hard to cut ties if you’ve been heavily emotionally involved with someone, but you’ve moved on now and really don’t need the negativity.

Your SOA is looking excellent as well. Do you think you could get your life assurance cheaper?

All looking good though for 2018!:j

JWPopps

Thank you all, I'm really pleased to be back posting!

enthusiasticsaver I'm hoping to repeat it next year, and maybe even double it while I'm still on promotion money... that would feel very positive!

SA You're absolutely right, of course. I won't go into what he was saying to get me to talk to him but it was all about his loneliness and how he's realised he took it for granted having me to talk to (notice - not 'he took me for granted' but 'took it for granted having me to talk to'). Anyway, I got a bit shirty with him last week and he seems to have laid off now, so that's good.

SSG hello!! I am thinking about getting in touch with my mortgage broker after Christmas, since he helped me get that deal as well. It's expensive in part because of hereditary illnesses in my family and in part because I'm overweight, but is also I think linked to how much it would cost to pay off my mortgage in case I claimed, and I have paid it down a bit since I took it out so maybe something could be better?

JWPopps

So then, I'm a little early for Resolution Time, but I'm in a reflective kind of mood...

In 2018...
...it would be nice to:

- Pay off my loan
- Get my Emergency Fund looking something like
- Develop a properly functioning Fun Fund (for seeing friends etc)
- Decorate a bit more of my house (in particular, my bedroom)

In the short term...
...I will need to:

- Be better about meal planning
- Look at my outgoings and see if I can do any shaving off the cost of certain bills (like my life insurance for example)

Also in the short term...
...I want to:

- Clear out my wardrobe
- Develop a manageable cleaning pattern

The above two items stem from the fact that I am getting a bit stressed about my housework sitch. I work long hours, especially when you take my 3 hour minimum round commute into consideration. I'm thinking of developing one of those plans where you do one thing for 10 minutes on a Monday, another on a Tuesday, etc etc, so it's not quite so onerous every Saturday morning!!

So...

Goals For December:

- Clear out my wardrobe
- Look into the daily cleaning rota thingie
- Edit my novel (it would be nice, really...)
- Start meal planning again
- Buy the rest of the Christmas presents (much cheaper sans-boyfriend let me tell you!)
- Chill out and feel ready for the new year!!! :T

Sun_Addict

Sounds like a good plan. Goals are for life not just for New Year I'm like you with the cleaning. I bought a book that planned out small doses of cleaning to free up weekends. Then I broke my ankle, then we had the house renovations, so still not started it.

JWPopps

Hi SA I love an excuse to buy a new book, so I'd be interested in what it's like!

For reasons I shan't go into (for anonymity of all involved) I have a journalist coming round to my house tonight, and this has really thrown the cleaning thing into sharp relief, in that I haven't been home apart from to sleep this week and I'm a little embarrassed to show my house to someone!!

Other than that, annoyingly I've had to have a boiler repair done which has cost me £60 excess, but would have been a lot more expensive if I didn't have boiler cover at all.

I've also unnecessarily spent £13.50 on an entrance fee for a writing contest, but it's the only one I'm entering this year and it's a kick up the bum to start writing again.

In better MSE news I've had 6 nights for the charity so far this month, on top of the standard payment I get for my lodger so that will cover the boiler excess and probably pay for a few last little bits I need for Christmas.

All I want for Christmas is to pay off my credit card in December, which I know is an unusual request but I'm hoping Santa knows how good I've been nonetheless!!

Seasidegal58

A journalist! How interesting!

Re cleaning - I started a 30 day cleaning and organising programme from a book by Katie Berry at the beginning of last November to get things shipshape for Chtistmas and putting the deccies up and I repeated it this year as well. It can be a bit full on but you can take it a bit easier if you want. If you do want something that is more laid back then what about the Flylady website? There’s also a thread dedicated to it - on the Old Style board I think.

Good news on the charity nights!