Where has the last 3 years gone?

Pengwern

I have gone a bit off track i ordered a load of clothes for summer online as a voucher came through the post. They have sent the clothes in batches and so far each parcel has gone straight back to the company. Unfortunately i would imagine i will need to cover the cc payment unless the refunds hit in time. What a silly thing to do, but at least one i can rectify.

I am now looking at the monthly budget, i am awaiting another mortgage switching bonus to hit the account. The last one came on the last working day of the month, so I am expecting the same. I have just cashed in £6 of NatWest rewards before my account is closed and I switch to the co op. Need to monitor that and make sure i set up the minimum pay in to get the switching bonus. Cannot remember how long that takes to arrive.

On the cc front i have in theory £600 to play with this month. I am pondering wether to put it all on CC1 or to keep some to add to the savings fund. Our rental house is oil heating and we have had the super news that our oil tank is leaking. So a new one is needed. I have yet to get the quote so I think i will wait for that before i use all the surplus for the cc debt.

Pengwern

What has been going on these past few months. I have secured a very small increase to my salary each month. It is only temporary till Jan and i have yet to see how that translates to my monthly pay slip but it will all be sent to the cc. I have done a balance transfer with no fee for 24 months. I will pay £150 per month and that should clear that in the time. This is for CC3, the remaining balance I will clear with savings. I will then look to concentrate additional funds to CC2 so that starts reducing. I have started to make monthly payments to the family loan which has made me feel better. I think we are getting there and my spending has been brought back into line. I am going to concentrate on the food bil for the next few months to make sure I am not wasting cash. We do not waste food but I am sure I can do things cheaper. I will update signature which will give you the current picture.

Pengwern

It has been a few months now I have had the extra salary and it is making a difference. We have had a big bill to pay for our rental house but thankfully the emergency fund covered it. That fund is now wiped out so we start again. I am finding the separate bank accounts much easier to manage rather than virtual pots. My present fund is now a healthy £400 with the aim of it being £500 for xmas. I have purchased most of my Christmas presents already managing to pick up items in the sales. I have ideas for the remaining few and that present fund will focus the mind in terms of budget I have available. Anything left over will be rolled into next year. What a refreshing change. I have made a payment to the family loan each month and will try to keep that up. I will update my signature so you can see the small progress being made. What is not so good is the incidental spending I put on my CC I clear each month. So far it is running at about £300/month which is really frustrating as it could be used for debt or savings. So this is the area next I need to tackle. If I can get this to half the amount I will be pleased. Looking back over the statements it is all nice things for the house. It does make me feel better but basically this is my extra cash I am earning. So in the grand scheme of it all I am not saving any extra money.

1 step forward and 2 back, but the positives are that I have a fund for presents (for other people not me!), I am money left in the bank account at the end of each month (It is about £10). I am making payments above the minimum to the CC and family loan each Month. My credit report is showing that I am reducing my short term debt. All heading in the right direction.

Next question I need to sort out is what to do about £9,000 of mortgage I have on the rental house. It is at 4.79% and I could extend the mortgage on the house we live in by £9,000 at 1.74%, it would halve the mortgage payments. We could either accept the reduced payment or over pay each month. I am just not sure what the pitfalls would be. It would push our mortgage over the 75% LTV again which has remortgage consequences. Also I need to look at the charges of paying off a mortgage, not something I have every had to think about before. May need to speak to my financial adviser.

Pengwern

It has been along time posting but we have been working hard and also have had some good and bad news. My extra salary has proved a fantastic addition and it has meant I have covered Xmas presents with no debt built up. My cc keep having steady payments too. I have 4 savings pots, one for my dream house, clothes, debt and presents. I have budgeted to sent a set amount to the clothes debt and presents pots each month next year. Bad news is the extra cash is stopping earlier than expected.

My family have also told us they do not expect the cash they lent us back. Cannot believe it but they are adamant they do not want it repaying. That leaves the 2 cc to pay off. The larger one I send £150/ month and that will pay it off by the end of the 0% term. The smaller one has £100/ month sent but will leave £900 at the end of the 0% term. So that is my aim over the next 9 months to save as much as poss so I can just pay it off without dipping into our savings.

Feeling positive with my new ways of managing my money. The pots are really helping. I just hope I can stick to it once the extra cash I earn has gone.

Pengwern

I have finally done it and my cleaner is cancelled. That is a saving of £18/wk and £71/quarter to the cleaning company, which frankly did nothing to deserve that payment. Sorry to loose the help but if I create a daily schedule I’m hoping to keep on top of it. Either that or house visitors will be cancelled.

Just awaiting my current Account switching bonus and i also haggled my broadband yesterday so its now cheaper with supposedly a faster connection. A good start to the NY but then I’ve not had to do the cleaning yet! That starts next week eek.

enthusiasticsaver

If that £793.84 is the rental income on your old house I would seriously address that as it looks like you are making about a £200 loss each month on that without allowing for gaps in tenancies or maintenance/tax etc. My feeling would be you should overpay that and sell asap.

Pengwern

What has been going on these past few months. CC debt is being reduced by £250/month. Cc2 rate ends in September and the money we pay off each month will not clear the balance so need to plan for that soon. CC3 monthly payments mean the balance will be cleared at the end of the promotional period which is good news so that can keep ticking along.

I had our financial advisor look at our rental property mortgage again and I am pleased to say we have finally transferred to a new provider with a payment of £295/month compared with the previous £1,000+. I am so pleased as we now have some income to cover any shortfalls in rent and ongoing repairs. Our rental income is £900/month so after putting some away to cover the tax bill we should develop a slush. We are in the process of repairing the front door lock and porch. 1st payment comes out this month so I am waiting patiently for it all to tick over so I can officially change the budget.

Husband finally got his company to sign up to child care vouchers so this months bill as only £97. What with that and a conscious effort to watch spending I have managed to stash away £3,000 in savings. My plans are to then use this to clear the CC2 debt in September. I’m so tempted to do it now but it is earning me some interest so I would like to keep it there for a few more months.

We are off on our early summer holiday in a few weeks so I cannot wait. Just need to not go mad on the food shop. Just because we are on holiday does not mean we eat twice as much food. I was really pleased with our meal plan last year and I have kept the shopping list. So will look to reuse that and tweak depending on the weather. It is Wales so it could be full blown heat wave or snow.

Pengwern

It’s also been nearly 5 months with no cleaner and I can say the house is not a tip. There are times I curse all the dirt but I am managing with the help of my husband to do the toilet and bathroom every week and hoovering and floor washing every 2 weeks, dusting is when I have visitors or feel the desire to distract myself from something else equally mundane.

The savings have definitely helped with the budget and it is nice not to have the mad panic every week about leaving money out any making sure it is all tidy. It’s done at our pace and funnily enough a lot less stuff is getting broken and paint work chipped. Safe to say I would have cleaners again but more on an ad hoc basis if needed.

I need to do a new SOA and repost so I can see the effect of the new mortgage

Pengwern

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 0 husband covers all expenses

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2125
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300 this is what I get each month from husband to cover bills. He saves some extra and covers the car.
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 802.8
Total monthly income.................... 4227.8

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 728.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 295
Rent.................................... 728.49
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 270
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0* all bills come from bills account which I send £270 each month to cover the lot
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 9.99
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5.99 Netflix
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 10
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0 I’m home based all work travel is covered.
Childcare/nursery....................... 150
Other child related expenses............ 31.99

Other child related expenses............ 31.99
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 4
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 42.13
Contents insurance...................... 0 included above
Life assurance ......................... 33
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0 we go to my parents place from free so grateful for that
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2776.36

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 3000
House value (Gross)..................... 600000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 603000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 192000...(728.4)....1.59%
Mortgage ......................156000...(295)......2.29%
Total secured & HP debts...... 348000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Cc1............................1500......100.......0
Cc2............................2050......150.......0
Total unsecured debts..........3550......250.......
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,227.8
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,776.36
Available for debt repayments........... 1,451.44
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 250
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,201.44 not sure it is this high every month. Some extra costs somewhere I have missed

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 603,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -348,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,550
Net Assets.............................. 251,450

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.

Pengwern

What have we been doing since my last post
Sold the rental house
Brought a new house. Which meant we needed a second car.
Managed to borrow my mums for 3 months as they wanted to see if they could manage with 1. Finally gave that back and picked up a second hand car to sort us out.

Debt busting has gone out the window but worse still is that this last month alone I have added £2k to my cc just before Xmas :eek:

Need to take stock, sort out what Xmas gifts are left to buy and stop heading into shops, or should I say online shops. Went to IKEA as I needed to return an item but ended up spending £100!

What has gone wrong. I will try and figure it out but I am disappointed with myself. After making a hard emotional decision to sell the rental to make sure we stoped frittering money away I go and do this. I have also had no time to sort out my finances and I need to change that.