University Challenge x 2

System

It's great to hear that your daughter is going back to uni , she has worked out what is right for her . Good on her for getting another job as well. Your other daughter sounds verysettled doing what she is doing , that must give you peace of mind .

Glad to hear you are back on the MSE bandwagon , it doesn't take much to stray ! I know from experience .

Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday .

Plain_Jane

Thanks Cumbria Lass you too x

RhiBi

Hi, just read your diary from start to finish! I've a daughter who is starting uni in September and am really worried about the costs! My eldest daughter is finishing uni, but the system is changing and it's really worrying me! We live in Wales so the fees were capped at £3000 a year for eldest daughter, this is no longer the case and they're now £9000 a year! The student accommodation is £144 a week, that's the cheapest!!

I'd completely forgotten about the deposit that needs paying

Honeysucklelou2

That's interesting that your daughter finishes for the summer next week. My DD finishes in 3 weeks which did shock me, so much so I wondered if she'd got the date right! Obviously I'm out of touch with university term times!!!

Well done to your DD for getting a transfer in the same company, good planning.

Plain_Jane

Thanks Honeysuckle she's a good girl. I know I was shocked as well. Some of them are home already. It's a lot of money for 7.5 months tuition isn't it? I will be glad when she is home though - although I will probably be wishing she was away again in a few weeks :)

Plain_Jane

I decided in the week I would check when all my O% cards were due to be up. Of course I have been burying my head in the sand in true ostrich style and got a bit of a shock when I realised they are all up within the next year. The most immediate one is part of one of the MBNA ones at £714.00 which will buy me another few months at 0% for the rest. I can do this this month as I earned extra at work at the start of the month. This is a one off but has come at a good time.

This then started me off working on our budget and scrimping on everything to see if we can get this debt down and stop messing about. I’ve worked out we can pay over £1000 each month if we scrimp like mad - which means we would have paid £16k off which is almost half. I know this going to be hard and I have a DH is says he is on board until he wants something! We also need to continue to put by £200 a month for DT’s uni accommodation next year.

So here is me posting for luck which I think I’m going to need. I just hope we’ve not stretched ourselves too much. But we don’t want to pay interest if we can help it.

Hopefully by the time the year is out our credit rating will be better and I can find another 0% and transfer the others onto that then get them down as quickly as possible.

Hope you enjoyed the weather and the wedding if you watched it :T

Plain_Jane

So, here I am again with my tail truly between my legs - where did I go wrong?

My signature will tell you, instead of decreasing my debt, it has gone up. Not funny and not entirely ALL my fault but I'm not making excuses.

1. I had £1,000 emergency fund all tucked nicely away in our bank account. MOT time came around for mine and both DT's cars in May. Nothing too major for their cars but mine was nearly £500 - considering it is only 4 years old and only done 28,000 miles I was shocked. With the costs of mine and theirs it was about £600. Taken care of by the EF. Lesson learned - put monday aside every month and DT's to save also so they can pay for their own repairs.

2. Also car related. Freak storm arrived at the end of May. Massive hail stones flew out of the sky, the likes of which I could never believe would be real. They were like ice cubes and they literally flung themselves down. My car was pelted along with DH's and DT2. Luckily DT1 was out. It has taken over a month to sort because everyone in the north of our little town had the same thing happen. Finally got it sorted with insurance 2 weeks ago and my car is shiny and new again but at the expense of a £450 excess fee. EF obliterated.

3. Head went back into sand, felt sorry for ouselves. Was offered a week away to France to stay in a friend of a friend's gite - perfect getaway but we used the credit cards. Loved it though and wish we could just sell up and move there. We didn't go mad, Ryanair flights etc but it was expensive enough.

4. Forgot about budgetting - bought food when we wanted, had meals out and wrecked everything.

5. Flung too much at one of the running out 0% cards that it left us very short and that didn't help.

But, all is not lost! We know that some of our 0% cards are running out so have two more, balances have been transferred and budget has been drawn up accordingly. Can we get back from this? YES!! I want this silly debt gone so we can save and overpay our mortgage. Talking of which we have an appointment with our mortgage advisor next week to see if there are any better deals out there - you never know.

So, no more misery and procrastinating - need to get this debt sorted once and for all :A

Plain_Jane

So this month started really well and I am determined to not use a credit card so that they start coming down. BUT .... DH broke a tooth the other day and the cost to fix is £250! I'd put £200 back in our EF to start that back up but straight away that will come out and we have to find another £50.


I have received a refund of £45 from OVO and reduced my monthly direct debit so that will help a bit.


I'm now thinking we need another pot every month for dentist and optician as we are not getting any younger and things are obviously starting to fall off!!


Trouble is how do these endless pots get filled whilst trying to pay off debt?!


Think I need a new SOA

Plain_Jane

Also, what has happened to my signature I wish it was ZERO ha ha!


I will have to sort that at the weekend as well.

Plain_Jane

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 4
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2149.78
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2779.9
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 220 - Children's board and mobile phones
Total monthly income.................... 5149.68
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1169
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 162
Electricity............................. 60 - £120 for both gas and
Gas..................................... 60 - electric
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 71
Telephone (land line)................... 18.99 Within Sky package
Mobile phone............................ 191.06 Mine is £60, DH's is £10.01 DT's paid via income.
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 18.54
Internet Services....................... 13.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 425 - including a cat with a prescription diet and 2 very hungry pooches
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 2.5
Car Insurance........................... 145 3 x cars, DT's and mine.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100 - savings for MOTs etc.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 200 - to help DT1 with accommodation costs at Uni she already works.
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 105 - my prepayment certificate, 1 x script for DH and SH 2 weekly visits to head cracker for migraines (this is short term hopefully)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 95.25 (£45 insurance, £50.25 medivet - I feel it is just as well to pay this than getting everything separately).
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 39.72 (buildings as well)
Life assurance ......................... 59.55 (DH family have history)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 87 - DH £30 every 3 weeks, myself £70 every two months - I know, I know)
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 200 - to try and get to £1000.
Netflix................................. 9.99
Amazon Prime............................ 7.99
Lottery................................. 15 - I know.
Itunes.................................. 14.99 - Whole family uses it.
Storage Unit............................ 12.4 - whole cost is £64.20, we are looking after stuff for MIL she pays £50 a month we pay the rest - no use asking for the whole lot as we have a few bits in there.
WIndow Cleaner.......................... 10
Dog Walking............................. 40 For when I can't get home from work at lunchtimes.
Fitness................................. 80 Yoga for DH and I and DH's boxercise.
Christmas (Credit Union)................ 50
Bank Fees............................... 15 This covers travel insurance, mobile phone insurance etc.
Total monthly expenses.................. 3641.34

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 11000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 261000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 146000...(1169).....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 146000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................8437.71...85........0
Lloyds.........................4653.05...47........0
Barclaycard....................13756.4...290.......0
Optima Boiler..................1260.36...105.......0
MBNA...........................8146.45...82........0
Total unsecured debts..........36253.97..609.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 5,149.68
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,641.34
Available for debt repayments........... 1,508.34
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 609
Amount left after debt repayments....... 899.34
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 261,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -146,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -36,253.97
Net Assets.............................. 78,746.03
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.


All debts are o% at the moment - I am not sure what the mortgage rate is but we are into the capital now so coming down more quickly.


I can't understand how we are supposed to have £900 left at the end of the month as we certainly don't. I log all spends on YNAB and can sometimes rack up £400 in (stuff I forgot to budget for), but nowhere near that amount. I am perplexed. When we try to pay off £800 a month to one credit card we always end up in the hole. Saying that, we pay more than the minimum payments so I suppose that's where most of this is.


The more I look at budgets the more confused I get.