Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

BelleOfBilboa

I've just caught up with your posts from the last couple of days! Amazing progress! Really well done! Your DFD is so close I bet you can almost taste it! Keep going, you are so nearly there!

Belle x

DrSpendLittle

Thanks for swinging by Belle!

Looking forward to popping the champagne and starting on the savings mountain

ChasingSunshine

Hope you got some writing done. I have also been procrastinating on here at various times today rather than writing what I need to get finished. Not sure it's acceptable to say I don't have it done as was too busy reading about everyones money struggles and triumphs and the academic stuff is boring in comparison. Might be time to invest in one of those website blocker things for my laptop at least for work hours, boredom might actually force me to do something productive!

DrSpendLittle

Ditto, Chasing Sunshine!

Got what I needed done

I have a website blocker called Waste No Time. I'd recommend it. You have quite a lot of control compared to some others that are horrifically controlling and can't be deleted.

DrSpendLittle

Okay, since it's a snow day, I thought I would do my post-debt SOA. This should start from 1st April.

My main priority for the rest of 2019 is to put all I can (within reason, I'm not scrimping on life) into what I have called general savings. This will become a decent emergency fund / savings for moving fees and expenses. I'm aiming for £10K by the end of 2019, 6K for EF and 4K for moving. It might be more like 9k depending on what sort of holiday we take this summer.

My net pay will probably go up to £2430 in April (tax changes?) and then probably again to around £2530 in September. It might be a bit less as we have to increase pension contributions at some point this year. I've included my current salary for ease.

DF and I will combine finances at some point in the near future once we've decided whether to move or not (he is debt free and earns about 9K more than me). In the meantime, I wanted to focus on what I was doing with my money for the rest of the year, so here goes....

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2413.61 (Net of 9% pension contribution + £166 student loan payment)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2413.61

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 226 (My share)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 70
Electricity............................. 20 (Dual fuel. Average cost)
Gas..................................... 20 (Dual fuel. Average cost)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 6.64
TV Licence.............................. 6.42
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 16.37 (Includes landline)
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 (:p We like our food)
Clothing................................ 0 (Accounted for in personal spends)
Petrol/diesel........................... 70 (The most I'd ever spent per month)
Road tax................................ 2.62
Car Insurance........................... 17 (Paid annually, usually £200ish)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 20 (The most I'd ever spent per month)
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5 (Paid annually with contents, usually £240 a year for both)
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 83 (Seems expensive when you look at it like this!)
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 100 (This probably isn't enough, may rethink )
Emergency fund.......................... 100 (To top up existing EF savings)
General Savings......................... 1001.08 (Unspent money)
Ocado Monthly Pass...................... 1.99
Union Fees.............................. 26.49
ISA..................................... 50 (Will add extra £150 when student loan paid off to fund early retirement plan)
Bike Maintenance........................ 10
YNAB.................................... 3
Pocket Money (Cash)..................... 20
Toiletries | Cosmetics.................. 20
Personal Spends......................... 100 (Includes clothes, music, entertainment etc. Might need to increase)
Household Misc.......................... 50 (Window cleaner, wooden spoons, crockery and all that jazz)
Netflix................................. 3
Total monthly expenses.................. 2413.61


Assets
Cash.................................... 887
House value (Gross)..................... 210,000
Shares and bonds........................ 250
Car(s).................................. 3501
Other assets............................ 750
Total Assets............................ 215,388


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 48000....(226)......2.75 (My share of the outstanding balance)
Total secured & HP debts...... 48000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,413.61
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,413.61
Available for debt repayments........... 0
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 215,388
Total HP & Secured debt................. -48,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 167,388

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

DrSpendLittle

Wow! Owning a car and using it to commute to work costs a lot of money doest it?

The cost of maintaining my car this past 12 months has been around £480 (service, MOT, new brakes, tax, insurance).

I've probably averaged £60 per month on fuel and car parking (I have been able to work at home quite a bit this year and usually do around 2-3 times a week on average).

That means my annual commute costs are around £1200.

Is that a lot?

I suppose it isn't, really.

It may increase by £100 - £200 ish in any one given year due to big services / new tyres / other stuff likely to go wrong with a 6 year old car.

I live 30 miles from my place of work and I have to drive as the three phases of public transport I'd need to use (!!) won't get me to my office for 8am (I live in the sticks and work in a city). It would also be way more expensive and take twice as long using public transport. No thanks!

DrSpendLittle

Ugh. Can't sleep (side effect of some supplements I started taking which I will probably stop when they run out).

In preparing for February's payday, I noticed some incorrect maths in my STIF ('Stuff, Things, Interest and Fees') lists and all the subsequent paydowns - I'd included too many line items in the original list which meant my maths was all off in the subsequent ones.

So, after spending about an hour going through them all (!!), I've corrected them and they should all now make sense. And correspond to the remaining debt levels.

Now, to attempt some sleep

DSL

enthusiasticsaver

Soa looks good except food is very high for just one person. I guess if you can afford it then that is your choice. Presumably the £1000 going to savings post April is currently going towards debt?

DrSpendLittle

Hi Enthusiastic, yes the £1000 is currently going towards debt payments. My April salary, which gets paid on 31st March, will clear the final £992.64.

DrSpendLittle

Super busy day at work today. Bit tired too from my middle of the night number crunching

Luckily I'm WFH so no horrid cold commute and a bit of a lie in.

Currently having a break with some crumpets and coffee.

Today will be a NSD - lamb mince defrosting for dinner. Will make hotpot or Shepards pie.

Thinking of it, yesterday was a NSD too!

Payday is at midnight. I will be paying £1000 off my CC. Looking forward to it.

Savings will go down a bit with some planned expenses this month, but I still have a good amount to cover an emergency.

Eeek. I'll be under £2K in less than 12 hours. :T