Debt free by 2020!

PawsForThought

Haha no, I don't think I would have much luck with gambling to be honest so not worth the risk for me, but I'm seriously impressed by your winnings!

Wow £100, that's amazing! Clearly I'm selling absolute tat, best of luck with your new round of selling. It can be quite time consuming but it's always a little thrill when you get a sale.

I can see you've just replied on my shiny new diary, thank you! Look forward to your updates, have a lovely, cheap weekend

ImpulseSpender

Good luck on your journey! Like you I'm 24 (almost 25) and food is one of my huge vices, especially takeaways. It doesn't take much to convince me to order one.

Good job on cancelling all the accounts you're no longer using. I think it can be easy to forget all the payments you have coming and going every month.

Looking forward to reading your journey.

eveningontheground

Good luck on your journey! Like you I'm 24 (almost 25) and food is one of my huge vices, especially takeaways. It doesn't take much to convince me to order one.

Good job on cancelling all the accounts you're no longer using. I think it can be easy to forget all the payments you have coming and going every month.

Looking forward to reading your journey.

Thanks, same to you! I'm 25 in two weeks. Or as OH keeps putting it, "halfway to fifty" :shocked: though the joke's on him as he's nearly 29.

It's definitely so tricky to keep track! I feel like I do a similar purge once or twice a year but new subscriptions/direct debits always creep in to replace them. I suppose it's similar to having a good clearout at home though, it has to be done occasionally.

eveningontheground

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1333
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1333

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 262.5
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 35
Electricity............................. 32.5
Gas..................................... 14.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 25.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 60
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 30
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 800.5


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
cc1............................689.61....0.........30.81
cc2............................1432.26...0.........26.4
Total unsecured debts..........2121.87...0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,333
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 800.5
Available for debt repayments........... 532.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 532.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,121.87
Net Assets.............................. -2,121.87

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

Couple of things to note here...
>I missed out minimum repayments but this is because it's too early in the month for my statements. It's probably £20ish for the small card and £40ish for the biggie. The biggie I'm paying minimum + 20 on - focussed on clearing the little one as the interest rate is worse.
> I live with OH but have just halved all the bills down the middle and not included his wage. Our finances are still separate at this point, we don't have any joint accounts but each pay half of everything.
> I know my hair column is expensive, but I'd rather give up several other things before it. I love my salon. It costs me £119 each time I go - I used to go every month but have cut this down to once every 2 months.
> The £51 for internet also includes our TV package with Virgin. I want to do away with the TV aspect which is a waste of for us tbh, but we're contracted at the moment, my OH took it out before we got our place together.
> I might not make lots of money, but my overall bills and rent are so cheap compared to most people on this forum! I'm so lucky I live in a relatively inexpensive area of the country, I don't know how people manage in the south.
> I have for sure been spending more than £200 on food shopping and takeaways (hence why so much available for debt repayment and yet so much debt!), but this is my limit going forward. I think this should be more than enough for my half of the shopping if we make more sensible choices, that's £100 a week for each of us.

Kitten868

Wow! If you could stick to that SOA plus your gambling win plus a few sales you could clear the first credit card in the first month! I realise you've put away money for London but you can see how short lived living tight would be. Plus any birthday money!
I think given your interest rates and how low your debt is I would have a few rubbish months of hammering the debt then work out a new budget that you suits your lifestyle. Building up savings and having an entertainment pot on there.
I wouldn't worry about selling tat - stick it all on - other people lap that stuff up. I used to have rules like list it on price, then auction, then lower start price, then charity. Do what suits you. With such a small debt every penny counts. You can definitely do this. I'm not saying this to undermine you but to make you feel strong xxxx

PawsForThought

Congratulations on doing your SOA and posting it - I imagine it's not easy to lay your truth bare online so really well done! :beer: (Can you tell I've been putting off doing mine for ages?)

I'd definitely agree with Kitten here, I think it looks really positive and with a few months of grafting you can absolutely shift this debt and then move towards a budget which works with your income and lifestyle choices. I completely identify with the need to make having luscious locks a priority - having mine done gives me such an esteem boost (and I spend far too much of my life picking at split ends if I don't get it done often enough so really it pays for itself by allowing me to be more productive), You deserve a treat!

Really good luck getting the food bill down - OH and I have the same budget and also really struggle with it. I've tried making sure we eat veggie a couple of times a week (OH is a total carnivore and pulls a face if I describe any meal as vegetarian but usually wolfs it down quite happily once he's taste-tested it for 'hippyness'), and a couple of very budget meals each week. It might help if you post a typical meal-plan for the week and perhaps people on here can make suggestions about how to keep the costs down?

foxgloves

Hi,
Just popping on re your food spend. We used to spend truly ridiculous amounts on groceries pre debtbusting. If you haven't been meal planning & shopping weekly to a tight list & you order frequent takeaways, it's likely that you'be been spending more than £200 a month on food. The thing that saved us the most money foodwise was definitely meal planning, then going through our food stores to check every item required to make those meals & only putting what we needed on our shopping list. Next big saver for us was swapping mostly to Aldi (& our local market for fruit & veg). Another big saver was taking 10 mins a day to make packed lunch for work......that saved us a truly scary £2000 a year!! Then takeaways. We used to have at least one a week. We have about 4 a year now & for a treat or an occasion, rather than greed & laziness coupled with poor planning. We find that cooking 'fakeaway' style meals like home made pizza, curry or kaatie kebabs can assuage that feeling of fancying a takeaway. Batch cooking also helps. If you make 4 portions then 2 can be frozen for a home made 'ready meal' next time you know you'll be late in.
It can be done. I've been trying to show in my own dfw diary that it's possible to change one's money habits. We're much happier with our more planned & frugal approach.
Good luck with it all,
F

eveningontheground

Thanks everyone!

I've realised I forgot to include that the £200 for London came out of October's wage, as did the bulk of my Christmas shopping (I spent £100 odds but I'm getting £37.50 back from my sister once she's paid this week for the ones we half in for). So not an accurate SOA for this month's spend, but certainly accurate for next month.

I'm planning to have the first card paid off in full when I get paid on the 30th - I should be able to pay a further £250-300 once my birthday comes around this time next week, and the rest on payday. Exciting!

I've been having a look at matched betting as a way to turn the occasional small profit risk-free. I've made £35 from my first go using a £50 free bet this week so that's another wee boost :money:. I'm also due £30 back from my Experian complaint so I'm going to look into that as I don't think I've received it yet.

Birthday in 7 days, weekend in London in 8 days :j can't wait!

PawsForThought

Wow - sounds like you're making amazing progress on the debt-busting!

Fab that you have some treats to look forward to! Happy birthday for next week, I hope you have a totally indulgent and relaxing day and get some great presents :beer:

eveningontheground

Thanks Paws! I'm really looking forward to getting away, in particular being away from my work lol.

My credit rating has jumped up by 70 points on clearscore and that's with me still not being on the electoral register. I noticed that I was pre-approved for a 6 month 0% balance transfer card too, so I'm escaping a little interest with that, yay!

I can't transfer the big card onto it unfortunately as it's through the same company as the balance transfer, which means my plans have changed. Instead of clearing the little one right away I've shuffled it onto the new card and set up a direct debit that will have paid it off in full within that 6 month period, without any further interest.

This means my focus will now be on chipping away at the bigger card with my disposable income as I'll have £115 go into the other one automatically.