The light is well and truly on!'

RhiBi

Hi, I thought I'd come and post a full update on here as a few things have changed! We had our holiday to USA, we used our emergency fund as spending money, and had £500 in a holiday fund too. Whilst its not ideal that we now have to build up the emergency fund again, we didn't use credit cards (as we have done in the past)so I am seeing that as a small victory!

We have had a savings policy mature and had just over £7000 which was more than we expected. I know we should throw that at debts, and maybe we are foolish for choosing not to. We have some home repairs that if not done soon, could become expensive to sort - we have water leaking from the bathroom through to our living room, at the moment its a relatively small problem, but water damage has a habit of getting worse! We don't think its something we could claim on the home insurance for, its just a leaky shower which is causing the problem.

Family holidays are very important to us, and we have decided to keep the remainder of the savings for a ferry crossing to France taking our touring caravan next year. Again, Im sure some people would disagree with our choice, but having been through a life threatening illness, time together making memories is very important to us. If we were in a position where we were not meeting our debt minimum payments, then we would do things differently.

As I said, the Next debt is now clear, and the Littlewoods debts that was £400 when I first did my SOA, is now at £41 and will be paid off very soon. The £140 that was allocated to both of those debts will now be snowballed to start tackling the credit card.

I feel we have it all under control, and have made huge changes so far this year, both financially, and how we view our spending.

I know we probably could pay our debts off a lot quicker, but little pleasures it what keeps us focussed in the long term. I did think of not posting about the savings plan and our plans for the money, but I think its important to be totally honest. I've received invaluable advice on here and you deserve honesty in return!

Rhian xx

RhiBi

I'm posting an updated SOA of things as they are today. Our child benefit will decrease a little next month as one of our daughters has turned 18. She is off to university. We've got everything she needs for that, and hopefully, she'll find a job, if she doesn't that will have an impact on our spends which I will have to make adjustments for. Also, as the savings plan has matured, we have £25 extra a month to use towards debt repayments, although we're wondering whether to do a direct debit to an ISA to gain some savings...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 922
Benefits................................ 192.4
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4014.4

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 290.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 125
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36.5
Telephone (land line)................... 32.99
Mobile phone............................ 73.98
TV Licence.............................. 12.67
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 28.56
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 35
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 34.47
Buildings insurance..................... 19.37
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 66.25
Other insurance......................... 38.97
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 16
Holiday................................. 130
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1781.36


Assets
Cash.................................... 287
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 127287


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 27000....(290.6)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 27000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Littlewoods....................41........36.12.....0
Sainsburys Loan................4400......219.2.....4.2
MBNA 2.........................2200......65........0
MBNA 1.........................10000.....169.......6.9
Barclaycard....................7900......191.......0
MotoNovo (car).................5960......165.7.....4.7
Tesco Loan.....................3300......134.5.....3.9
Total unsecured debts..........33801.....980.52....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,014.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,781.36
Available for debt repayments........... 2,233.04
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 980.52
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,252.52

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 127,287
Total HP & Secured debt................. -27,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,801
Net Assets.............................. 66,486

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