Want rid of this 10k monkey on my back!

NorthLondonChick

My first diary

A little about me: Late 30's, married to lovely DH & full time cushion to a very floofy cat.

I'm self employed & earn varied amounts. Generally no less than £3k mth but this goes straight into my Limited Company and I draw roughly £2k mth as wages/dividend. The rest stays in there to cover corporation tax & vat. I have around £6k in the Company which is not earmarked for the taxman. DH also earns £2k which makes it easy to split everything halfway. I'm just focussing on myself though for this diary.

Brief SOA:

Salary: 2000
Outgoings to Joint account for all bills: 1200
BTL Mortgage: 200 (25k outstanding)
BTL Insurance: 27
Cat Senior Care Health Plan: 10
Charity: 10
Rent income: 174

We recently took out a new loan with Barclays for 10k at 4.9% to finish renovating our house which we've been saving up to do for 6 yrs. We ran out of money first time round. We would have had enough now thanks to the loan to get the final 3 rooms up to a good standard but that money is now having to pay for something else (garage is collapsing through rot & is a serious danger to anyone near it so having to have builders demolish it and build a wall in its place)

I am gutted as really thought we'd get it all done this time & was so delighted with how the front part of the house now looks.

As well as this 5yr 10k loan shackling us, we now have a new £111pcm 1yr sofa loan at 0% & still no money to complete the rest of the house Both these loans come out of the joint account.

DH agreed to open another savings fund to save £50pcm each in to which will be our House Repairs Fund. Its not much but it's a start

I want rid of this 10k asap as I'm not used to having any debt. DH not in any hurry to clear it or do any budgeting as we can afford the payments ok but has grudgingly agreed to a groceries budget of £50 per fortnight as last month we spent £381 on food not including eating out lots too! :eek:

I'm hoping to not only save a bit of a buffer in the joint account due to food budget but to also save on my personal account. I haven't worked out yet if I'll be putting all the extra towards the 10k monkey or if I'll split some of it up for savings/towards BTL mortgage.

Big thank you to everyone who contributes to these forums. You have helped & inspired me! :T

mumps

Good luck, hope you get it all sorted.

Scott_Weiland_2

Best advice i can give is do on SOA and be honest with yourself ie what can you cut not cut to clear your debts faster ie do i really need that big sky bill or the latest iphone etc etc

NorthLondonChick

I'm struggling with the "official" stoozing SOA as I cant change too much in our joint account. Most of it is fixed like the mortgage, council tax etc. The thing I have most control over is groceries and I've put a £200 limit on that starting yesterday.My DH is reluctant to change too much in this account as he sees no issue as we are covering all payments ok.

I'll try to do one for my personal account though it might look strange as it'll have no mortgage etc. I'll give it a go anyway

NorthLondonChick

Well thats week 1 of being on a budget finished & it's gone pretty well :j

So far we have:

• Put £500 each into DH's empty ISA to keep for emergencies. Pressure is off now if washing machine etc blows up
• Opened a new savings account called House Fund, both put £50 each into it & both set up a DD to pay £50 into it the day after payday. This will help with continuing the house renovations
• Opened a new savings account called Baby Fund & both put £50 into it & both set up DD to pay £50 into it the day after payday
• Written the meal plan for the next fortnight & ordered online *only* what is needed for those 2 weeks. Budget was £50
• Taken my £150 out the ATM for my 3 x £50 spending money & put £50 in my purse & £50 each into 2 further envelopes for the rest of the month
• Removed my debit card from my purse to avoid temptation & put it in my bedroom drawer

Things I am cross with:

Online shop min spend was £40 not £50 as I thought so next time I will go just over £40 & keep £10 for things not available from online store like chickpeas as I ended up spending a few quid more buying them at local store. Also forgot to take delivery into account . It turned out to be free this time but will usually be £2.99.


Things I am happy with:

• We stuck to the meal plan & it worked really well. DH even took some of my falafels to work for his lunch one day.
• I went £5 over my personal budget of £50. But this was because I'd put my winter coat into dry cleaners the previous week (pre-budget) to have the zip replaced. It cost £30 but now jacket is ready for next winter. The RRP on the coat is £150 so am pleased that its still usable. I bought the coat preloved off ebay btw Also spent £10 of personal budget on birthday gift for my nephew so not going to beat myself up about it.
• Sold the car on Friday so no more insurance/tax/mot/parking permit/petrol/finance worries. Car insurance company even refunded the full amount even though I was 2 days into a new policy (was expecting a £25 cancellation fee)
• Have been listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts every day to stay motivated. Would normally have bought his book by now but so far I've resisted. Might get it if I have enough left over at the end of the month.
• Went to the library today & got 3 good books out. They don't stock Dave Ramsey but the other books looked good & they were my favourite price :rotfl:

Challenges ahead:

• Schoolfriend and her DP is visiting next week for 3 nights. She's already said it's their annual holiday so they want to "stretch the budget". I'd meal-planned for 2 of the 3 nights but friend would like to eat out 2 nights. Also, her DP cannot walk too far so they want to sightsee but have regular stops at coffee shops/pubs along the way to sit down.
• We're going to engagement drinks this Saturday. It starts at 3pm. I will try to have us arrive later so that we can at least have dinner at home first to save on costs

To Do List:

• Save on this week's personal budget to help with Schoolfriend week. Am working every night so the engagement drinks this Saturday should be my only expense
• I have cooked all day today anything needed for our dinner for the rest of the week since I will be working each evening. Being prepared helps us stick to budget as our sticky bits are forking out over the odds on convenience food. I made sure the meals were suitable for me to take to work too (no access to fridge/microwave & occasional access to a kettle)
• Post the rest of the ebay stuff. Have worked hard at it all week & made just over £90 to put in the House Fund so am very chuffed. Final push to get the last of the stuff listed

I'm on budget to have around £150 left in my account at the end of the month & to have £265 in the joint account so it's a good start & not been too painful

NorthLondonChick

Didn't have time last week to update as we had friends staying

Things have stayed mostly to plan :T

Things I am cross with:

• Went £9 over on groceries as I didn't spend enough time working out what I could make with what was in cupboards & instead meal planned with what meat we had in freezer & built it around that. Lesson learned.

• On the plus side, we seem to have a lot left so might not need to order another online shop for another week. And I've been given a free delivery pass for 3 mths so can make great use of that. I also found chickpeas in the store I'm online shopping from so no need for a separate shop to get them. Plus they're 39p instead of 69p at my local Sainsbury Local

Past challenges:

• Friends staying which meant eating out during the day and 2 evenings (they kindly paid for one meal as a thank you). I had saved £10 from previous week's budget to help and went £15 over which was quite surprising considering how many coffee shops and attractions were visited. Am planning on taking £5 off each week this month to make up for it.

Things I am happy with:

• Meal planning has worked. DH has been complimenting me on the meals and we are eating a wider range of dishes instead of the few usual on rotation. DH has been checking the meal planner board in kitchen if he comes home first & cooking the correct meal. He's even using the recipe if I've printed one out (usually the frugal version of a dish!).
• Batch cooking falafels & veggie haggis muffins has been a godsend at work. Defrost a few on the way to work & eat instead of popping out for an expensive sandwich. Will defo have to cook a load every Sunday & freeze for emergencies.
• Had £164 left over in my personal account which helped with a surprise tax bill.
• Had money left in joint account which we combined with ebay sales money to make over £300 to put into house fund.

Challenges ahead:

• No major challenges ahead. Family BBQ on Thurs so will have to buy a bottle of wine as a thank you gift and friends BBQ on Sunday so will do similar plus a little alcohol for us. Should easily come out of my £45 budget (£5 less than normal due to expensive Friend's Week).

• Only slight challenge I can see is wanting to spruce up garden and buy lettuce/tomato/spring onion plants and lots of herbs at garden centre whilst still in stock. I want our garden to work harder and provide for us. Must be mindful to not overspend.

To Do:

• Chase up a new client who showed interest last week in hiring me
• Chase another new client who has booked me for mid June but I need to finish my training there first.
• Begin painting our dining room. Filled in all wall cracks today so ready to rub down then paint. Time to stop moaning that we can't afford workmen & get to work on the stuff we *can* do
• Cook more veg haggis and falafels as have scoffed all the emergency frozen ones :rotfl:

Hiddenidenity

Great progress

NorthLondonChick

Another week has passed


Things I am disappointed with: (I'm changing the wording as "cross" was too negative)

• Spent £81 at B&Q at the weekend but that was for the dining room paint which we needed plus some grow bags which were also needed.
• Forgot to order big bottle of distilled white vinegar & baking soda when doing online shop. Will try to work with what I've got left.
• Chased a client about work and got an out of office reply so need to wait until next week now for their return.

Things I am happy with:

• Took our wheelie suitcase to B&Q so shoved grow bags in there and wheeled home instead of taxi and paint was on special offer too.
• Meal planning continues to work. Just did another plan for the next fortnight and another online shop. Came under budget by just under a pound but managed to squeeze in quite expensive non-essentials items like pine nuts, kitchen roll, herb plants, coconut oil. All up to date on cat food now too.
• Stayed mostly within my personal budget of £50. Spent £15 on ebay books but that covers 2 x xmas gifts so not too upset with that.
• Found The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey on ebay for £2.25 instead of £11.99 due to the listing title having a typo in it :T Have had my eye on this book for almost a month.
• Just been offered work tomorrow & Weds so snapped that up. Already booked to cover the Election from 5pm-5am on Thurs/Fri & extra shift on Sat :T
• Bought some reduced sad looking strawberry plants (12 for £2) which have completely recovered & are growing berries like mad.
• Lettuce plants continue to thrive & only found 1 snail on them which I removed :rotfl:
• Tomato plant has 2 flowers on it and sweet pepper plant has 6 tiny buds growing. The mint has gone bonkers, chives have recovered, sage has perked up and the coriander looks healthy. Getting excited about my small collection of plants (all bought from B&Q recently)
• Was admiring a friend's foxgloves yesterday (bees were going bonkers for them!) and she was delighted so gave me lots of foxglove seeds to sow :j
• Found an old black bucket a neighbour left out for bin collection tonday. Will clean it up and use as a planter

Challenges ahead:

• Visiting friends Sat eve into Sunday afternoon. Will need to budget a return train ticket into weekly budget along with thank you for hosting us gift of mid range wine plus cheapo wine/lemonade for me.
• Need to resist buying more veg plants

To Do:

• Confirm my training with new client for 12th.
• Finish painting & building my pallet herb garden
• Plant the lettuce out into grow bags as they're spilling out of the tray they were bought in

Incase anyone is interested this fortnight's meal plan is:

• Thai green curry with rice (packet sauce)
• Curried chicken, potato, lentil pot pie (MSE recipe)
• El Paso Chicken Fajitas (found in cupboard)
• Spag Bol (delicious version found on GoodFood website. Makes tonnes)
• Creamy mustard pork (another GoodFood recipe)
• Pesto Pasta (jamie oli recipe)
• Peach & Chickpea Curry (jack monroe recipe)
• Bean Burgers (MSE recipe)
• Lentil Lasagna (MSE recipe)
• Chicken Mince Risotto (Sooooo good! Kidspot Kitchen recipe)
• Garlic, mushroom & balsamic chicken (MSE recipe)
• Diet coke chicken (MSE recipe)
• Sherry braised pork cheeks (Goodfood recipe)

Hope that helps someone xx

Little_Miss_Winner

You're doing well. :T

Subscribed x

NorthLondonChick

Well its been a while since I've posted but I'm happy to report that we are now debt free! We have paid off the sofa loan and the 10k loan as well as carrying on with doing up the rest of the house. We have one bedroom and the kitchen left to renovate and we are cash flowing everything.

We stuck with the meal planning and still carry it on to this day. I made homemade veg soup to take to work every single day along with 2 flapjacks and cut way back on everything else. Had as many NSD as possible and crafted cards and gifts instead of buying.

I predominately followed Dave Ramsey's plan (google dave ramsey baby steps) and found them to work flawlessly. If Followed! I am now on baby step 3 and currently have 3 months of wages saved in my account. I'm aiming for 6 mths which I should have within the next few months.

Then the fun really starts! x