I am being upgraded from Mum to Nan - I need a plan!

Honeysucklelou2

Congratulations on becoming a grandmother .

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on becoming a grandmother.

If your signature is correct then the debt appears to be around the same figure as it was in 2018 so yes that is worrying. Good that your brother is helping more as I question whether you can afford to help your sister financially given your own position. Is she working?

Mum2Nan

Thanks Beanielou & Honeysuckle.

My figures are so out of date that I'm going to need to update my SoA which I shall post later.

I have worked out all my debt figures and when the 0% deals end. After debt repayments tomorrow I will owe £19,839.96. BC1 deal finishes in June so I have upped my D/D to £365 so I can get rid of that. The good news is that all debts other than the loan are all on 0%.

I had let my Quidco balance accumulate again so I have transferred £98.69 into my Paypal account. I also have a small balance already in there from selling a couple of items on eBay so will leave that there for now until I decide what to do with it. When the Quidco balance hits, I should have about £130.

I am owed £654 in work expenses so will make sure I put my claim in on time this month. I now use Quidco routinely for all work expenses where possible which is why the balance had accumulated so much. I still have £68 in tracked expenses but about £40 of that won't be paid for a few months as I purchased my breakdown cover via the site.

November was always an expensive time of year for me as car tax, insurance, MOT, breakdown cover and contents insurance fell due at the same time and whilst I was putting some money by it was never enough so had to dip into savings. I have now staggered this a bit. I delayed getting breakdown cover until December (and made sure I didn't drive too far! lol) and purchased contents insurance just last week as I got a bit concerned my luck would run out. Weirdly, the cost of contents insurance went down to £6.5 per month although I paid for the full year.

My savings pots are looking a bit sorry for themselves and very empty so I need to start gradually filling them again.

Despite all this debt and not much movement I was pleased to help my daughter out and now I am back to work full time I am hoping to make some serious inroads into it. Fingers crossed I get a decent payrise in May

I also of course have a gorgeous grandson who I absolutely adore so don't regret a single minute of it...:D

Mum2Nan

Hi Enthusiastic

Those figures are seriously out of date. I plan to update them later today now that I have been brave enough to sort all the figure work out.

Yes, my sister does work but she's on a low income. Thankfully my brother is taking on more of the burden so that will definitely help.

Mum2Nan

So I have updated my SoA and it's not a pretty sight but I do at least know where I stand.

The good news is that I need to remortgage at the end of this year and even staying with my existing mortgage company my payments will reduce by almost £100 each month.

All debt figures are after the payments are made tomorrow with the exception of the mortgage.

[FONT=&quot]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2618.51
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 3
Total monthly income.................... 2621.51

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 805.32
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 117.[STRIKE]58[/STRIKE]36
Council tax............................. 141.00
Electricity............................. 29.39
Gas..................................... 19
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 15
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 31.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ [STRIKE]25[/STRIKE]
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 17.08
Car Insurance........................... 36.53
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 219.33
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 6.5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 25
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Animal Charity Donation................. 5
Sister.................................. 50
Vaping.................................. 25
Ground Rent ............................ 10.42
Boiler Service.......................... 5
Cat Food, Fish Food & Litter............ 70
Total monthly expenses.................. 2115.64


Assets
Cash.................................... 1176
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 4000
Total Assets............................ 246176


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 123275...(805.4)....3.19
Total secured & HP debts...... 123275....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Barclaycard 1..................1460......32.85.....0 (ends 01/06/2020)
Barclaycard 2..................4116......92.61.....0 (ends 01/11/2021)
Halifax 1......................10208.14..102.08.....0 (ends 01/12/2020)
TSB Loan....................3083.34...187.79....2.8 (ends 01/06/2021)
Barclays Finance...........961.58.....87.42.....0 (ends 01/01/2021)
Total unsecured debts.....19829.56...502.75.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income................................ 2,621.51
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,115.64
Available for debt repayments.......................505.87
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments...........502.75
Amount left after debt repayments................3.12

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 246,176
Total HP & Secured debt................ -123,275
Total Unsecured debt.................... -19829.56
Net Assets................................... 103,071.44[/FONT]

Mum2Nan

Obviously the Halifax is a major headache as I had underestimated that. I have made an assumption on the council tax as I haven't received the bill yet. Council tax is paid over 10 months.

Still don't need a TV licence and my internet, landline etc are all in one payment.

I could save an additional £35 in travel costs if I take an interest free season ticket loan and bought an annual ticket. Will have a think about that as it's an easy win.

I will update my signature later.

Mum2Nan

The Positives:

• The exact amount in my PayPal account will be £132.84
• I am due cash back into my Halifax account of £9.67 at the end of the month
• The cash back for my breakdown cover is £47.60 and will be paid on 16 May
• I have put a claim into Quidco as I should have had my contents insurance tracked so that will be another £10 if approved
  
• I have £58.80 on my Boots Advantage card
• £181.16 in Nectar points
• I made a claim for a train delay last week and it's been approved so another £3.20 to be credited soon
• I have £80 in clothing vouchers. I do not need any new clothes for the foreseeable future so will use the £25 to something else
• I have 4 items listed on eBay. These have been relisted. If they don't sell I will try our local FB group
• Friday & yesterday were no spend days
• I restarted my spending diary from 1 January so I can see how bad the monthly damage is
• I didn't spend a penny on breakfast or lunch at work in January
• I have completed my expenses claim
  
• I do not need to go food shopping this week save for some milk
• I will be going to the farm shop later to buy my meat. I usually spend around £50 but have been through the freezer and think I can get away with half that spend
• I am half way through a meal plan for the coming week
• Tomorrow I am going to apply for a STL as this will save me £33.37 each month and my monthly ticket expires on Thursday. It's going to be very tight timewise to get this approved and through payroll by then so may have to suck up one more month. We shall see
• My signature is now up to date. Shocking that it hasn't moved very much, if at all in 18 months. All I've done is shuffled it around. Onwards and downwards (for the debt) going forward
  

Now for the negatives:

• I left off the boiler servicing and animal charity I support so that's another £10 a month to be added to my SoA taking me into negative terrority only by a few pennies but negative all the same
• I have gone back to my old ways of not meal planning or checking what I have in so I have a very full freezer and duplicated items again, hence no shopping this week
• I am fed up of supporting my bum of a brother in law because indirectly that's what I'm doing. If only my sister would ask him to leave she would be better off financially as she would be able to claim WTC and SPD on Council Tax. So frustrating.
  
• I am on the last bag of cat litter so will need to place an order tomorrow evening. This will cost £39.92 to take advantage of free shipping. If I go through Quidco I will get a whopping £0.60 in cash back :rotfl:This will last for around 7-8 weeks if I am careful and Laurel & Hardy are careful!
• According to my spending diary I spent £67 on cat food for January. I don't know how I can get this down any lower as they are both fussy eaters. Their cupboard is pretty well stocked so unless the food is on offer I won't bother buying anymore for a week or two
• My Halifax C/C is a very real worry
  

beanielou

That is a LOT on cat food for a month. I have two cats & spend half of that!
Your prersents seem high~~that is just on a £1000 quid a year.

MidsHollie

Hi M2N,
Congratulations on the birth of your Grandson!
As I was reading your thread it seems like you've been working so hard to pay down this debt. I've got a slightly radical question - have you ever considered a lodger or an Airbnb type set up? If it is possible, it is a really easy way to make money off an asset. I have a lodger and the money I get from them really helps me pay down my debt pretty quickly. I realise it'snot for everyone, but it may be worth considering for you

Sarahwithlove

I agree with Hollie if you have the space then a lodger is a good idea and you can ask family and friends if they know of someone. The increase in council tax is well worth the additional help towards the bills