500 days to debt free-achievable????

500daysaway

Hi,

I’ve been looking on these boards for a long time now and have decided that I need to get my finances in order and stop burying my head in the sand as I now am almost 30k in trouble.
I am lucky that I have a reasonably well paid job and I give my partner a lump sum on pay day and that covers mortgage, council tax, food etc so all the money I have after that is mine to spend. I’ve had a look and if I give myself £260 to spend every month and pay the rest to debt I will be able to pay my debt off in 17 pay days ( 500 days).
I can’t tell anyone how much debt I am in as I am horrified at myself.
I have attached my statement of affairs and plan to live as frugally as possible for the next 500 days. Achievable??? I am hoping so as I can’t keep going on as I am.

Statement of affairs
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 2600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2600

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 500
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 20
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 50
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 14.03
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Tax .................................... 105
Total monthly expenses.................. 994.03


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard cc.................13300.....300.......0
Santander cc...................2300......50........18.9
American Express cc............7186......200.......29.95
Virgin cc......................3136......50........0
Overdraft......................3500......0.........19.84
Total unsecured debts..........29422.....600.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,600
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 994.03
Available for debt repayments........... 1,605.97
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 600
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,005.97

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -29,422
Net Assets.............................. -26,922

500daysaway

Have been looking at different tips on these boards and thought would try the envelope with cash so just taking it out on payday and cutting up my credit cards and hiding my debit card.

Scott_Weiland_2

Good luck with your journey xx

Hiding cash in envelopes for me dont work i prefer the savings account option.

500daysaway

What is that?

500daysaway

After reading a lot of your diaries I am going to de clutter and sell on eBay. I have never sold anything online before. Any tips? I got an email from them this week saying you don’t pay anything until you sell until end of January.

500daysaway

I understand what you mean now after looking at other people’s diaries so I have now set up three accounts, one for Day to day spend, one for hair &beauty and one for gifts. Then on pay day will split my £260 between them so not having physical cash on me.

enthusiasticsaver

I like the separate accounts system. Have you looked at your bank and credit card statements to see how the debt occurred? What are your areas of overspending and have you done a spending diary?

£50 on haircuts a month is a lot so can you get that down? You also need an account for your car as I am betting you spent more than £60 last year on maintaining a car worth only £2500. £5 a month is unrealistic. Is that £260 a month just for entertainment?

On a reasonable salary you have a lot of debt so there has been some serious overspending going on. You also have no emergency fund and all your debts apart from Barclaycard and Virgin are on high interest rates so you need to be paying a lot more than minimums to make a dent in them or move them to 0% deals. Overdrafts particularly large ones are being targeted with high charges now so I would address that as a matter of urgency.

500daysaway

Hi enthusiasticsaver,

Yes overspending over the years and then transferring balances to 0% then doing same again. My partner earns a lot more and think I’ve just been trying to keep up but no more.
I spent £200 on the car last year but it’s now running like a dream.
That is £100 for every two months at hairdressers, I have cut down from going to the top stylist to the basic stylist at the salon but need to keep up appearances so that is a must. The £260 is for hair/Beauty/day to Day living/gifts etc.
Thanks for your advice.

ChasingSunshine

Have a look at your phone as well. £50 a month is expensive, if you are out of contract switch to sim only and can get a very good deal for an awful lot less.
Ouch to the interest on the Amex card but hopefully as you have a lot left over you should be able to get this down quickly. Have you used the snowball calculator to work out when you will have it paid off and the best way to hit the debt?

500daysaway

Chasing sunshine. I still have another year of my mobile phone contract. I regularly go over my data usage by £40 making it around £90 and there is no need so I am going to turn off on the data so only use it when it’s connected to WiFi!
No not used the snowball calculator although will look into that!
When I looked at my statements I regularly spend £600 a month on beauty treatment but I’m going to go cold turkey and just go for hair and waxing appointments! If I’m out of my £260 by time it comes for my appointment I’ll have to cancel, I’m going to stick to this budget, I have to!!!

500daysaway

Does anyone have a link to snowball calculator? Thanks in advance