New here, starting on my debt free journey

Mumof31987

Hello i decided to start a little diary to keep up with any progress i have been making with managing debt. Even if noone reads its still quite good to see it written down.
I am married with 3 young children aged 1,3 &4. My kids are all still very little and it has slowly put us into debt with me being off work and needing to get a bigger car combined with buying our own house and getting married.
my husband is working full time and i work 20 hours per week in the evenings (and any weekend overtime i can find) so im lucky that we pay 0 childcare costs.
Its difficult to work out what we fully owe as tbh i dont 100% know what debt my husband has. Although we share money i just make sure mine is paid and he does the same but il try and get it roughly anyway.


Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................650
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2000
Benefits................................ 190
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2840

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 490
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax.............................149
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40 & 45
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 280
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 47
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 75
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 40
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 50
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1773


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 155,000
Shares and bonds........................
Car(s).................................. 13,000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0
No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Overdraft......................0......0... .0
Credit card .....................2500.....50....... .0
Credit card 2 ................1650.....100..... .0
Tesco loan ..........8500......... 207......0
Car ..........13000 ..... 257 .....0.........0
Total unecured debts.........25650...... pm - 614


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2840
Expenses (including HP & secured debts)... 1773
Available for debt repayments...........1067
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 614
Amount left after debt repayments....... 453




I thinm i have probably done the loans wrong as they are secure.
I work out my money ENTIRELY different to that though, basically by husband gives me £650 i earn £650ish and get child benefit of £190 = £1490

I then pay around £700 bills myself and i am left with £790 for - £100 elec £100 petrol £250-300 food, £50 bdays/xmas savings and the rest gets spent on kids things with the occasional nightout/haircut thrown in every few months.


I basically just want this debt gone so we can actually have some cash left at the end of each month to save! I feel like im constantly scrounging at the end of the month and iv finally decided im going to get rid of one credit card ASAP and then work towards the other one.
Iv no issue with the tesco loan or car payments il pay them off just as im meant to but not anymore.

Mumof31987

Kids wise i pay 0 childcare. Oldest 2 are both in nursery at the local school 3 hours a day and i pay £5pw snack money for them.
My son goes to football which is £48 per term (normally every 10 weeks)
My daughter goes to dancing which is £30 (normally every 10 weeks)
We go to 3 toddlers groups which work out at £30 a month give or take.
We seem to go to a bday party at least once a month but in march we have 4! I shop around and stock up if i find a toy sale but id sale kiddie parties im 10-20pm (i know its optional)
these are judt the very basics which works out at around £105pm

I dont buy them new clothes often. I only really buy toys for bday, xmas or if its a special occasion. We tend to go to parks and take picnics alot and in the colder weather have film days or playdates.
Im not extravagant with xmas or bdays either so i do wonder how im always skint!!
We try not to go to softplay often as i could easily spend £30 there with the 3 of them now getting charged to get in.
I kniw everyone struggles at times but i do wonder how others manage so well!

savingholmes

Hello and welcome. You haven't given a total expenditure so its hard to work out what your shortfall is. Ditto apr rates for loans and credit cards are very important.

The things I would tackle first on your soa are mobile phone costs and sky/satellite tv.

Mumof31987

Hi, thank you. I ghink i gave up on the soa because i need to properly have a sit down and think about everything we owe.... i think my husband also has a next card and credit card of his own so its worse than that really.

My credit card id like to get rid of is about 23% APR the minimum payment per month is normally around £55 but i pay £100 but it honestly just wont go away. My other credit card is 0% until next year so im not overpaying on that one as i just dont have it.

The credit card is getting me down a bit, basically i took out the 0% one to close the other one but then i spent on both!! Very silly and i cant take out anymore as my wage isnt actually very high on my own i get refused even an overdraft at the bank

My phone contract is up for renewal in April and im hoping to get a better phone for around £30ish as i didnt realise i got NHS discount

We are going on holiday in May (all paid for with wedding money)
But after that we are not going on holiday/weekends away and getting to the nottom of these credit cards.

Iv decided im going to do a no spends March!
Im going to give myself £100pw and this is for £20electric £20petrol and £50 food shop, im giving myself £10for any kid urgencies like calpol or a cheap pair of new shoes etc as essentials do crop up and cant just ignore for a month.
There are 3 things il still spend - toddlers group, these keep us sane and are only £2 a time so i will take this out start of month
I have a mums nighout booked 17th of March and its been booked in Jan
Normally id budget £100 but il give myself £70 and hope for change
But thats it!!! No going to asda for a look, no softplay, no coffees at the park, no home accessories, no kids clothes, no cake and coffee catch ups
Im actually really excited about it!

savingholmes

Can you go on a sim only deal on your phone for a while rather than a new contract or is it glitching?

Have you looked at the Make £10 a day thread for ideas on how to make extra money? Its on the DFW challenge board.

Can your husband get any 0% or better credit deals in his name? Could you move some of the high APR card to that? By the way - don't overpay on the 0% just out any extra payments to the high apr card.

Mumoffourkids

Spends on things for kids soon add up. I have six of the little darlings, four of which are in school. So what I do is I have a general spending budget of £70 per week. This covers any trips out we do, any school trips or expenses, parking, basically anything extra that doesn't fit anywhere else. I am lucky that my budget can afford this but I very rarely spend the whole £70. I think the only week I did since the beginning of January was half term last week. Any extra I put towards debt or saving up for certain things.

Dizzy_Imp

Hello from another mum trying to balance the budget :hello:

I'm still trying to work it all out myself, so no advice I'm afraid, but wanted to offer my support. Small children are incredibly expensive, aren't they?! I'd like to subscribe to your diary, if that's OK?

x

warby68

If you personally have £1490pm but pay bills £700 and food,elec, fuel and birthdays £550 that only leaves you £240 pm. Your current debt payments are £150 so that only leaves £90pm for everything else and you've already allowed £70 for a night out in March plus £30 for toddlers groups and £10 a week for extras so that's a £50 deficit without anything else.

Unless your debt payments are already included in the £700 bills that looks pretty tight. Even if they are, that's only £100 left, even with 'no spends'

You sound really determined but the numbers seem to need a bit more work. Your joint position might help to make sure you have enough overall, that the division is fair and what can be spared to deal with debt.

Good luck

System

hiya!! i have 3 kids too (9, 6 and 4) and they are definitely burning a hole in my Debt free diary. I had to pay £45 last night for dd1 drama and today dd2 has 2 parties to go to which ive still not got cards for.

I think itll be slightly easier for you as theyre younger so not really asking for anything but im only on week 3 and already being accused of being cruel because im trying to cut back on everything and dp and the kids dont like it.

Good luck in your debt free mission. And the longer you can avoid childcare expenses the better! Its a killer with 3.

Mumof31987

So the £700 i pay is council tax £150, tesco loan £207, phone £40, contact lenses £30, gas £55, car insurance £47, cc1 - £100, cc2- £50 and bank fee £15.

I feel i need to have a sit down with the husband as i think the fact i dont even know what he owes isnt great. I also think he earns more than that as he got a payrise but hes never really said what his new wage is. He will treat us to a takeaway or day out every now and then but i think id rather see what all he has and work together as a team properly.

Mumof31987

So iv worked out after all the bills, 100 elec, 100 petrol and 300 food budget i have £300 left for the month on a normal month.
Now if i had a kids bday pressie to buy etc i can sometimes get that out of my food shopping budget, i also have an Asda xmas saver card so whatever iv left from food shop il just pop on there (if i shop at asda) so some of the things iv written are not set in stone.
Il sometimes do a bargain food shop and buy the kids new shoes etc with the leftover so it does change week to week.
In March i dont have council tax to pay so thats £150 extra that will be getting changed into euros and i done overtime at work (sat is time and a half and sun is double time) so works out around £163 extra i will get at the end of March. I also sometimes get a little extra for bank holidays or a little saving on a bill here and there.
I dont feel like we live badly we have a nice car, 3 bedroomed spacious house and the kids are never in desperate need of anything.

Its me that seems to miss out. Iv not had a haircut since august (and only because it was my wedding) i spend 0 on any nails, pamper days etc. I do wear make up but always get it for bday or xmas so thats not someyhing i usually have to buy.
With cutting down on the phone i know this is silly of me but its the one thing i really want to keep. I love photos and videos and feel its my thing that i enjoy. Id probably rather cut down in any other area