£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Dare I say it? I feel slightly like I've broken the back of the hellish work to do list. Lots still to clear, but the really big jobs have been ticked off. Which is good, as it means I can actually enjoy the weekend rather than spending it stressing. AlthoughI will also be stressing as I have to give a presentation at a conference next week (unpaid, just helping out). It will be to about 100 people and I haven't done a public presentation for aaaaages.

Got paid a little bit more today, inching towards that October salary (and the closer I inch before the end of the month, the more of my end-of-month invoicing can go towards November's salary)

Had an interesting email from the mortgage broker today. Our house value has gone up quite a lot and she thinks we'll be able to get a better mortgage rate as our loan to value percentage is therefore much lower (and we have paid off about £6k since we took out the mortgage). Will be good if we can reduce that outgoing even a little bit.

to do today
1. bake freezer cookies. Done.
2. finish contract work for the month. Need to do a final read through, but all done.
3. enormous to do list of doom. Progress made.

to do this week
1. Launch website! Finally.
2. Spend a little time on smaller business - it has been SO neglected in recent weeks.
3. Redo SOA once DH has been paid (assuming pay rise finally comes in!).
4. Prep October's YNAB categories.
5. Start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500 (last month was miles better than the previous average £3,900, going to try to repeat the feat). More or less on track. Ish.
2. get my new website finished and launched (crosses fingers, toes and eyes).
3. just work as much as possible and make some money back to recover the enormous shortfall that faces us this month! Going better than expected, although still need more work in to actually clear the CC

armchairexpert

That's great news! What's your current rate?

Treadingonplaymobil

armchairexpert wrote: »

That's great news! What's your current rate?

I think it's 3.14%. I have no idea what a good rate is at the moment, I've kind of been assuming we'd just get the same rate or worse because of the debt! Our debt was about £8k less when we bought the house.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 33: Day 6

Woohoo, almost the weekend! One last day to limp through.

Need to do lots of planning today, as will only have a couple of hours on Sunday night to prep for the week and pack everything for a conference on Monday and Tuesday. Also have to squeeze in preparing for a talk somewhere along the line.

to do today
1. pack for weekend away.
2. laundry and ironing.
3. start October budget planning.
4. prep invoices for September's work.
5. redo SOA based on DH's current salary, in case of no pay rise <eyeroll emoji>.

to do this week
1. Launch website! Finally.
2. Spend a little time on smaller business - it has been SO neglected in recent weeks.
3. Redo SOA once DH has been paid (assuming pay rise finally comes in!).
4. Prep October's YNAB categories.
5. Start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500 (last month was miles better than the previous average £3,900, going to try to repeat the feat). More or less on track. Ish.
2. get my new website finished and launched (crosses fingers, toes and eyes).
3. just work as much as possible and make some money back to recover the enormous shortfall that faces us this month! Going better than expected, although still need more work in to actually clear the CC

Suffolk_lass

When you come to remortgage, don't forget the deals the brokers can't show you. The mortgage best buys in MSE main site tell you about the current offers - looks like Post Office and HSBC are the best short-term deals (26 or 27 months) at the moment but both have fees to set up. They are around 1.23/1.24 if you have 20% equity (80%LTV). Then when you come to look at a new deal in two years time you will be in a great place to either do your extension or shorten the term!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 34: Day 2

Hello! Had a lovely relaxing weekend, very necessary and feeling miles less stressed and wrung out now. You only realise how over cooked you are when you finally get to stop for a little while I think.

However, haven’t yet taken the time to go through October’s budgets and make sure everything is as it should be, redo the SOA etc. Realistically it’s going to have to wait until i’m back from my conference on Wednesday now. Have done my end of month invoicing though, so hopefully will get paid in the next day or two.

to do today
1. pack breakfast for loonnnngg drive.
2. start October budgeting if time.
3. no doubt field calls from DH all day about the DCs routines, food requirements and activities (I can’t complain, he is pretty good really, just out of the loop of their weekday routine because of not actually being here).

to do this week
1. social media for website launch.
2. redo SOA based on DH's current salary (he is still being promised pay rise next month).
3. October YNAB prep.
4. start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.
5. plan working time for October.
6. check total spend for last month.

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts.

missymoo81

Morning lovely, well done on a relaxing weekend. Sometimes you need to just stop for a bit. Sounds like you have a busy week again. Keep smiling and have a safe drive today.

Treadingonplaymobil

Right, a new month. Am slightly nervous to address the situation after the s%$tstorm that was last month's budgeting!

I've got an hour or so set aside right now to get everything in order, so I'm going to do the following:
1. Check all balances and add up current debt.
2. Redo SOA based on current income (I will ignored DH's theoretical payrise for now, as we can't keep waiting for it, and if it comes then fantastic).
3. Email mortgage broker with the numbers she needs to give us some mortgage info.
4. If time, redo snowball calculator with current figures.

My main aim this month is to stay away from the CC - if I can manage it this month, I'm fairly confident that I can continue to do so (at least until Christmas shopping begings, since our Christmas savings currently total a fairly underwhelming £100).

Treadingonplaymobil

Right, let's get the rubbish bit out of the way. I can't get the very latest balances on my Barclaycard and MBNA as I can only log in to those on he family desktop and I'm on my laptop, but they are within a few pounds of being accurate.

Debts:
Barclaycard £13,381.21
MBNA £485.63
Partnership card (the one I used Aug/Sept when the budgets didn't balance) £1,520.83
Tesco loan £20,292.35
Parental loan £20,000
Total £55,680.02

Right. That's fairly crummy, but actually it could be worse. To put it into context, the debt is £668 higher than it was at the beginning of August and £2,928.11 lower than it was at LBM. The real challenge is going to be keeping away from the CC and continuing to pay debt so that when the inevitable Christmas spending happens, it doesn't take us right back to where we were in February.

Treadingonplaymobil

OK, SOA time. This month we actually have even less to play with, as instead of piling everything on the Partnership CC at the end of last month we actually spent some of DH's salary. Not sure why, bad maths I think. So the 'income' for this month is the total balance of the account as it stands right now (child benefit has yet to come in).

I started with our 'ideal' SOA (based on DH's pay rise having appeared, and having his full salary to play with) then adjusted the figures until they matched the income. I really couldn't do it, so I ended up stealing the money that I put aside for work clothes from my business account. I hate doing this, as I know it's going to cause problems down the line, but I literally couldn't make the budgets balance this month otherwise, and I really really want to get out of the CC cycle.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3120.13 (start of month account balance)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 192.3
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3312.43

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 698
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 141
Electricity............................. 112.71 (and gas, all in one bill)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 95
Telephone (land line)................... 18.99 (and internet)
Mobile phone............................ 92
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 (this should be fun :eek: )
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 240
Road tax................................ 16.18
Car Insurance........................... 25.22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50 (DH's train fares)
Childcare/nursery....................... 14 (snacks and drinks at preschool, billed to make up the cost of the 30 hours)
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5 (dentist)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27.07 (and contents)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 16.26
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 50 (two children and I need a haircut. I haven't had one for a year!)
Entertainment........................... 120
Emergency fund.......................... 40
extension savings....................... 0 (this should be £140 a month)
YNAB subscription....................... 3
national trust.......................... 9.6
holidays/weekends away.................. 40 (can't eliminate this as we have to take DC1 up to London for a birthday present trip with his aunt)
football club........................... 10
swimming lessons........................ 48 :eek: :eek:
art club................................ 15
music lessons........................... 35
cubs/beavers............................ 35
pocket money............................ 5
Children's clothes...................... 60 (new winter clothes, shoes and coats needed, this isn't nearly enough )
DH personal kitty....................... 10
My personal kitty....................... 10
Leftover school lunches bill............ 20 (from end of last term)
icloud storage.......................... 2.49
Audible subscription.................... 7.99
netflix................................. 5.99
Total monthly expenses.................. 2570.62


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 300
Total Assets............................ 210800


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 172508...(698)......3.12
Total secured & HP debts...... 172508....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................13381.....310.......0
Partnership card...............1520.8....40........18
MBNA...........................485.63....10........18
Tesco loan.....................20292.....377.......10.3
Parental loan..................20000.....0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........55679.43..737.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,312.43
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,570.62
Available for debt repayments........... 741.81
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 737
Amount left after debt repayments....... 4.81

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 210,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -172,508
Total Unsecured debt.................... -55,679.43
Net Assets.............................. -17,387.43

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