Lets See How This Goes

improving47

Hello and welcome to my diary :hello:

I have been hanging out and reading other diaries and feel like it is time for me to start my own.

My debts are not substantial compared to others but they are a big deal to me.

I have been working to pay them off for 6 months now and been doing well.

I am also pregnant with my 1st baba and due at the end of June :happylove. I am the main earner in my home so we will be taking a hit when i am on maternity leave.

On top of this we have 2 family weddings abroad which we purchased tickets for on a 0% purchase card, so these will have to be repaid. We will also need to book a car and food for when we are there. We are hopefully getting a £4000 bonus in April which will cover this, but the bonus is not guaranteed, so we have to wait closer to the time to find out if we are getting that.

All my debts are on 0%. There is only 1 that worries me due to the 0% ending in December 2019. I currently overpay £50 a month on that. I could work really hard to overpay that, but i worry where that will leave me once i am on maternity leave. The other option is to get a 0% balance transfer, which i am leaning more towards. I still need to figure that out.

My Debts are listed below and ill keep updating this diary with my progress and other bits and bobs.

Council £755.60
Phone 1 £580.00
Phone 2 £160.98
MBNA £2,808.86
University £753.20
Wedding £1,710.46

Total = £6,769.10

I have started moving money into a savings account for our annual car and home insurance, emergency fund and yearly presents. I made my first payment this month and will continue to do so.

Ok, that is all for now :T

See you soon x

improving47

Hello :j

Seems i have been hiding, I got so excited to start and then life took over.

I am going to be starting on my SOA shortly.

I have been doing competitions, i have entered 702 so far. Question for the compers out there: how many did you enter before you starting winning anything?

I also managed to get a £12 deduction on my broadband, so going to be putting that towards savings i think, need to do my soa and see what is going on.

Speak to you soon :T

improving47

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1485
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1985

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 495
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 98
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 16
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 71
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10.5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 3
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Savings for baby ....................... 50
Magazine................................ 4
Dry Cleaning ........................... 4
Charity ................................ 22
Partner's Personal Spends ........................ 45.5
Wax..................................... 9.28
Netflix................................. 7.99
Car Lease............................... 220
Total monthly expenses.................. 1548.27


Assets
Cash.................................... 1650
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1650

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
1..............................745.6.....10........0
2..............................560.......20........0
3..............................160.98....32.54.....0
6..............................1667.7....42.76.....0
5..............................753.2.....53.8......0
4..............................2780.28...80........0
Total unsecured debts..........6667.76...239.1.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,985
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,548.27
Available for debt repayments........... 436.73
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 239.1
Amount left after debt repayments....... 197.63

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,650
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,667.76
Net Assets.............................. -5,017.76

A couple of points:
Our electricity and gas is included in our rent.
I wanted to input the amount we are actually spending, then i can allocate the difference towards things like eating out and holiday's.
I don't want to be tracking my daily spending too strictly, i did that in the past and it drove me insane, i feel i need to take a more relaxed approach.

Looking forward to hearing your comments and advise.

EsmeWeatherwax

Hello, exciting times ahead with a baby on the way!

I think you need to stop or reduce your charity amounts, re-direct it to over payments on your debts. Is everything at 0% at the present? I would also try to reduce your food bill if possible.

There's no TV licence on your SOA, I'm sure you have one!

I'm sure someone with more knowledge that me will be along soon, keep posting and I'll cheer you on!

Esme

improving47

Hi Esme

Thank you for stopping by

Definitely agree I’m trying to reduce the grocery bill however I find I have no energy to meal prep so were a bit all over the place with food.

We are not big watches we just about watch Netflix so we don’t have a license.

improving47

I have decided to embark on the £2019 in 2019 challenge.

I’ll update with my results :T

So far I made a purchase on Hollister for my hubbys anniversary present and got a email back a few hours later with a £10 voucher, so cancelled the order and placed the order again and transferred that £10 into our challenge pot :beer:.

I always like a challenge so hope that’ll motivate me. It’s so interesting seeing the challenge thread to see how people are making extra money.

I’ve signed up to Swagbucks and made £11.50 so far but waiting for it to be credited to my account and also made a list of other things I need to look into.

So my total so far is £10 / £2019 .... a while to go ....

Ok enough for tonight, I’m going to continue comping (it’s become an addiction :rotfl: )

Mnd

Why does your partner only earn £500 a month.

improving47

Hi Mnd

He started his own business of which he took out loans to fund and he has been paying those back so has not been able to pay himself a wage.

Recently i have had a convo with him and told him he needs to contribute and so he has been contributing £500, which is a massive improvement and i am happy with that....for now...

enthusiasticsaver

Have you worked out what your maternity pay will be when you are on maternity leave from presumably May or June? As you are the main earner it is fairly critical you get your outgoings as low as possible but your soa does not look too bad apart from the car outgoings. Is it essential? What is the plan re childcare when you return to work?

You are doing the right thing in saving now as maternity leaves often lead to rising debt. What is the debt to the council?

I think I would cancel the charity payment for now as you are in debt and will have a much reduced income in a few months time and your partner is not earning a great deal.


A plus is that the debt is at 0% and you have almost a year to repay the one which will incur interest in December. Which debt is that?


Good luck on sorting the debt anyway. If you can keep the debt at 0% and pay £240 a month it will be paid off in 27 months. If your OH can increase his contribution that will help greatly especially when you are on maternity leave.

improving47

Hi Enthusiasticsaver

Yes i have worked out my maternity which ill be taking from the latest possible date in the middle of June. I will be getting approx £300 less than i am currently and my hubby knows he needs to step up and cover that.

I know the car lease is one of my big regrets, such a waste of money. Unfortunately i am unable to cancel it, we have another year and a bit on it, then well make a more sensible decision.

I have not thought about childcare yet, i'll start thinking about that in the near future.

The debt to the council was a housing benefit payment they overpaid and i have a payment plan set up with them to pay it back.

Yes everything is on 0%, when i first started about a year ago i took a really serious approach and paid everything towards debts and we were left with no funds at all before payday, it was a huge stress and i stopped taking it seriously. This time i feel like i'm taking a more relaxed approach so hopefully it will stick.

As it is all on 0% i don't feel rushed, although i can just imagine the feeling of being debt free so....freeing...

I'm definitely not splashing out and buying unnecessary things, but i'm also not counting every penny which was driving me up the wall last time

improving47

So a little update :j

I've been lurking just not posting

I managed to get a £150 discount on my Phone 1 loan to pay it up all at once which is fab.

We also got our bonus in April which will be paying off our loans when converted.

Updated balances below:

Council £725.60
Phone 2 £63.36
MBNA £1,701.78
University £591.80
M&S £1,679.03

Total = £4,761.57

We have £2400 which will be allocated:

£1145 to the MBNA - so I can continue paying £80 a month and have it paid off by December when the 0% runs out.
£1105 to the M&S - so I can continue paying £45 a month until August 2020 when the 0% runs out.

The remaining £150 I'll move to our current account to pay off our cc from the wedding expenses.

This means everything is under control which Is a huge source of relief for me.

I'm also supposed to be getting a bonus at work before I start maternity leave next month but I'm really not sure how much I'll be getting.

I'll have to put that aside to ensure we don't fall into debt when I'm on maternity leave.

We also have £700 in our savings account for yearly expenses like car insurance, home insurance, birthdays presents etc. So that's slowly increasing which is amazing.

Definitely on the right track.

Have a good night all