Second time lucky... debt free diary.

brizzlegirl

You're doing really well CT...have a great weekend x

Bluegreen143

Just been reading some of your diary - well done on mortgage rate reduction! I!!!8217;d love to remortgage but I!!!8217;ve stopped working to be a SAHM so we wouldn!!!8217;t pass affordability now (even though we are clearly paying it!) on husband!!!8217;s salary alone. That!!!8217;s a great reduction.

charlies_tribe

Thank you all. I have just this second had the email to say it has all gone through.

Bluegreen143 It may be worth contacting your mortgage to see if they have a better rate. We wouldn't pass affordability either, we have also never missed a payment in 17 years but wont get a remortgage, so rang our own mortgage provider. We had to spend 45 minutes speaking to an advisor who asked about our work situation and any other income (told him tax credits and child ben) at no point did he ask how much we actually got in wages etc. He then asked what we pay out and how much spare we have each month for ourselves. Because of the debt he recommended the 4 year deal (the 2 would have saved us about £80 a month) and as DH was here we could both agree to it there and then and it's now complete (if DH hadn't been here we would have had to wait for a form to come in the post). If i had known that was all i would have done it ages ago, I didn't even know we could just switch to a better deal until i read something a couple of months ago.

Yesterday i reduced the printer ink contract to it's lowest saving another £6 a month. It wont come in to affect until our July statement though. But between just the 2 things it is a saving of £804 a year!!

Spent this morning trying to catch up on washing and cleaning the hall before the food delivery arrived. Still so much to do.

WannabeFree

Doing fab CT some amazing savings there.

Hope you have a lovely Bank holiday
x

charlies_tribe

Month 14 update

Loan: - £0!
mbna1: - £0!
lloyds: - £0!
mbna2: - £7232
barclay: - £8474
tesco: - £7128
sofa: - £3127

Total - £25961

£7593/£33554 (22.6%) paid.

Cant believe how long it's been since i posted. There has been lots of changes here. I now only work 3 long days a week. Lots of gardening going on with about £400 alone spent on skips removing soil to make it level so the children can play out there for the first time since we moved in 17 years ago. Some of the holiday fund has been used on a hot tub as we wont be going away at least until October half term on just a cheap week away.
I have 3 of my childrens birthdays in the next 2 weeks plus DH birthday and fathers day. DS 1 is sorted for monday. Not sure what DS2 is having yet and DD 1 wants driving lessons.
Suppose i better go and sort some lunches.

WannabeFree

Lovely to see you around again CT

x

charlies_tribe

Thank you WF. I really need to try and post more often as we went way over a lot of budgets last month and had to 'borrow' from other budgets.

DS is ill so DH took the girls swimming. He called at mr T and contactless didn't work but is now pending twice.

Spending 1st June
£72 2 x sacks dog food and new beds as others smelt awful.
£11.93 at mr T.

charlies_tribe

Well the regular updating didn't go well at all.
Not much to update really.
Gas and elec deal runs out on the 30th so just done a switch with £40 cashback and the car insurance had £50 cashback so if it all tracks it is £90 towards Christmas.
I really need to look at my phone as out of contract and paying way too much and also phone and internet as deal has ended and jumped to £55+ a month.
DS1 had his birthday last week and did really well with his money. DD1 birthday on Sat and we have paid for a block of 10 driving lessons, can't believe how expensive they are now. One thing i have always wanted to do since the children were born is put them through their lessons and buy them a car and it's still eating away at me so we are looking in to a car for her. It will help us no end as she would be able to help with the swimming/gymnastics and hospital runs when DH is at work.
DS2 birthday on monday and no idea what he is having yet.
Car needs it's MOT tomorrow. I'm a bit annoyed with DH at leaving it so close. I asked him to do it while he was off last week. We know it needs 2 back tyres and a bulb before it goes in as they have really cracked over the last few weeks.

charlies_tribe

It's been a few busy weeks and this week is going to be busy too. DS1 birthday last week, DD1 yesterday, fathers day today, DS2 birthday tomorrow and DH birthday thursday!
We bought DD her first set of driving lessons which she loved.

Budgets seem to have gone out of the window this month so i have been working on a proper SOA to try and get everything back on track from next month. At the moment it is looking like this but i need to see where i need to make changes as we don't seem to have any surplus each month.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 5
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 700 (this may be £750 but not sure with new shifts)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 900 (DH has dropped shifts for a while with my health not being great and while he has osteo on his back, again may be a bit more but not sure until first wage slip)
Benefits................................ 1518
Other income............................ 433
Total monthly income.................... 3551

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 519
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 89
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 150 (and gas)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 61 (think this is over 8 months)
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 65 (3 phones but i need to look at my contract)
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 10
Internet Services....................... 60 (deal just ended, need to look at this)
Groceries etc. ......................... 650 (this is high but i'm still struggling!! Need to find cheap easy meals and snacks to fill DH and the 3 teens that are always hungry)
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 55 (DD1 monthly bus ticket)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 105
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 100 (we have 3 older labradors, 2 cats a snake and fish so not much i can do about this at the moment)
Buildings insurance..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 14
Other insurance......................... 27 (phone, washer, fridge)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 250
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 100
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Osteo................................... 70
College lunches......................... 40
Amazon.................................. 7
Ink..................................... 2
Total monthly expenses.................. 3060


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 155000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 76350....(519)......3.19
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3127.....(89).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 79477.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card 1.........................7232......73........0
Card 2.........................8474......190.......0
Card 3.........................7128......72........0
Total unsecured debts..........22834.....335.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,551
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,060
Available for debt repayments........... 491
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 335
Amount left after debt repayments....... 156

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 155,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -79,477
Total Unsecured debt.................... -22,834
Net Assets.............................. 52,689

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

The christmas/birthday fund is high but it covers my 5 for christmas and birthdays and 10 nieces and nephews and 3 sets of parents birthdays and christmas plus any other occasions. £50 a month is park vouchers and i only used the last £30 last week on shopping so it doesn't all get used at christmas.

Need to sort the bank accounts ready for next month and may have to break my savings accounts down to a bit more detailed so i'm not dipping in to each category.

charlies_tribe

Morning, Just a quick post. Yesterday i changed internet providers and will be paying £28 instead of £60. DH phone will go up by £5 a month though as it had a discount for being on the same contract.

This also gave us another £85 cashback so if it all goes through ok there is now £170 in cashback towards Christmas.

Today's job is to look at the contracts. Mine ended in Jan and still paying £35 a month and DH will now be £10 a month. Think we will get SIMO through work a lot cheaper than £45 for us both.

Gas and elec is going to drop to £75 a month after the change over but i'm going to leave the full amount in there as i know that isn't enough to cover it.

DD1 finishes college at the end of the month so may cancel her bus ticket until sept and it can be put towards her driving lessons.