Drawing a line under the debt

Drawingaline

So I have been thinking of having a diary here for a while. I love reading through other peoples journeys on here and have been feeling inspired. This past year has been awful for us and the debt situation has really come to a head.

My other half was made redundant last May and has struggled to find another job. The redundancy payout paid the mortgage for six months but since september I have had to find the money for that from my small part time wage on top of the regular monthly outgoings and debt payments. I have been lucky with overtime and a few months ago I took on a second part time job (I was always planning on doing this, but for money to do up the house rather than for paying the bills!) this is a self empoyed role so the income is variable, but is adding up to around an additional £300 a month at the moment. I have escaped paying tax on it this year due to low income and hoping to use my husbands allowance that he hasnt used, but from April I will have to start saving tax and NI from this, so am planning to increase this to around £400 by the beginning of May.

Debt wise we owe around £18800, but three months ago this was nearly £22000, since October I have paid off nearly 3K which I am super proud of! I signed up to YNAB after reading about it on speckysquarehead and loubys diaries and I love it. i was always trying to do something similar using lots of savings accounts and my diary, but it never seemed to work, so decided to give the free trial a go. It was so successful, I subscribed, I find it works well for me as I get money into the account on five seperate occasions over the month :eek:

Savings wise I had a sharesave mature through work so have kept this aside as an 'emergency/holiday fund', it is sitting at just over £1300, but I am saving £100a month to it. We are off to the Lake District in May so some will be used then, the rest is my 'my car is 16 years old' fund :rotfl:I am also saving £100 a month into a savings account which really is the beginning of a new car account, but so far it is only at £400, so will take a while. My own fault, I should have been saving it for years. We also have £400 in an account that i am using for the possibilitythat the council tax rebate we received is an error. We dropped to paying half our usual payment when my oh was made redundant, and then three months later they decided we had overpaid so gave us a refund. However I am convinced they are wrong so am still saving the reduced payment until April. If we dont owe anything I will use this to pay car/house insurance upfront and then save the direct debit payments for the following year. Lots of plans!

Money wise we are doing ok atm. The benefit system has definatley caught us, oh got a 1k tax rebate and paid off his overdraft, we have child benefit and tax credits and receive DLA for one of our children which means we are exempt from the cap. However I am getting increasingly concerned about the tax credit renewal in april, and am really hoping oh has a new job by then, he has applied for loads and has had a number of interviews, we are are facing the issue of either a minimum wage job (which would most likely mean shift work, hard as i work evening in my main job) or a 10k paycut with added travel costs, so making us worse off. but he is super bored and needs to be doing something!

So congtratulations if you have made it to the end, I amdetermined to be debt free by september 2019, thats when our mortgage deal ends, so am hoping to be able to get a better deal, or possibly extend the mortgage to extend the house.

Drawingaline

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1098
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1899
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2997

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 682
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50
Electricity............................. 59.26
Gas..................................... 35.14
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 72.4
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 20.12
Car Insurance........................... 40.44
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 115
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14.91
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 43.92
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 100
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Total monthly expenses.................. 2055.31


Assets
Cash.................................... 2100
House value (Gross)..................... 180000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 182300


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 121000...(682)......4.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 121000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
loan 1.........................3444......233.......0
loan 2.........................6979.98...166.......0
loan 3.........................8457......148.......0
Total unsecured debts..........18880.98..547.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,997
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,055.31
Available for debt repayments........... 941.69
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 547
Amount left after debt repayments....... 394.69

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 182,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -121,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,880.98
Net Assets.............................. 42,419.02

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

Drawingaline

ok a few things to add!

I know our elec/gas are high, we have been underpaying for over a year, head in sand etc, once we have cleared the debt we will look at other suppliers.

The mobile figure is for three handsets. Myself and the two older kids. I was previously sim only but broke my phone so had togo back to contract. The kids will go sim only once the contract is up for renewal.

The sky figure includes landline, internet and tv. However I have persuaded oh to cancel this from next month as the sports package increases in price. we are going to try without for a bit.

I have been saving £50 a month to car maintenance over the past few months for new tyres and MOT. MOT is this month, am hoping to drop to £30, but at some point it will be morecost effective to get a new car, anything in this account will be used towards this.

The insurance is contents/buildings together.

The life insurance is three policies for life insurance and accident and sickness. unfortuantlywe decidednot to get unemployment at the same time......

The present figure is high. However for the first time ever we didnt do xmas ona credit card and it felt fab! so I am saving £50 a month for xmas and £30 a monthfor birthday gifts and parties. This can be reviewed later.

The hair figure is high. Just before the redundancy I began toget my hair properly coloured and it is my one treat. I am going every 10 weeks or so, but htis next time willbeless due togetting a friend to go along so will get some money off. Also all three boys seem to need cuts every 6 weeks at £10 each !

The loans are not 0% but the figure is what is left to pay.

During the past four months I have managed to save over £200 for dental work and £400 for some home improvements, and pay an additional £300 a month off the debt. however this monthwith four birthdays and that budget being reset with xmas I paid half that. I alsoreally need a clothing budget, my mum and mil help out a lot with the kids, but me and the oh are in desperate need of some new bits, probably been a good couple of years since we bought anything for ourselves.

Anyway really ought to go to bed I suppose........

louby40

Wow! That's impressive saving and budgeting in the face of loss is a wage!

Keep posting

Louby

nonnie44

As Louby says that's fantastic, have subscribed and looking forward to following your journey xx

louby40

AND you've got 4 kids!! Anyone with more than 2 kids - I hold my hat to you!!

SpekySquarehead

Hello and welcome,

You've came to the right place. A bunch of super friendly people here who have more than likely been in a similar position to you before and can offer advice based on their experience.

I'm over the moon that you've aboard with YNAB and that you took influence from myself and Louby. Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can. I was shocking with my finances and now I'm all over it - thanks to YNAB.

I've 100% trust in YNAB because it does work. I would recommend making it a habit to check your bank statement and YNAB as often as possible. It seems laborious but it's not - and even if it was, isn't it worth it to get out of debt?

I appreciate your in a difficult position given that your OH is out of work at the moment but being able to pay a mortgage and feed 6 humans is a huge achievement on it's own - you're doing fantastic.

I've subscribed and I look forward to seeing you succeed.

Drawingaline

Thanks for all the encouragement. Spent I adore YNAB, wish I had discovered it years ago. I always checked my bank balance often, I used to work for a bank a long time ago, it was call centre work, but the online banking site was one of the few we could access so it became second nature. However the envelope system in YNAB just works so well for me, and I love the app too.

Well car passed the MOT with minimal fuss, it's my birthday this month and my dad always pays for this as a birthday present. It needs two new tyres which I am getting on Monday, Monday already budgeted, but dad has offered to go halves which is fantastic, means I can keep some money aside for any other car issues that may pop up.

Had to drop into the supermarket as needed a few bits, get money for food on Tuesday, so am planning on organising my online shop this evening. I used to work for a supermarket, but our department was 'sold' in September and i lost my discount card, so I have defected to another one and our first online order with them in November was fab, very impressed.

Anyway need to go pick up the little two from school. And louby two kids is an optimal number, four feels foolish

Drawingaline

So today has not been the best day money wise. My daughter's tap shoes broke this week so have had to order some new ones, £25 on the credit card. Also I needed a new pair of shoes, have been just wearing my boots which aren't the best for my second job, so £12 for a basic pair of pumps, also on the card. This os because I don't have a clothing budget, so think I definitely need to sort that out.

On a different note I have decided not to go up to Scotland this year. I go every year, this time I was planning on taking all the kids, but it will be a real stretch financially (I hire a car, and its to one of the islands, so ferry costs too) so I am postponing to next year, opening a new entry on YNAB and will start saving from next month. Now my overtime is a lot less, maybe anything I get from that can go towards it. But this does mean that I may be able to afford to do a long weekend away with the oh if my mil can have the kids :j

Drawingaline

This month overtime is around £55 so will be going to the credit card and the beginning of a clothing budget.

Bobarella

Just joining in with everyone else saying how well you've done in the face of a tough situation. Good luck with clearing the rest.

Bob