CreditCardJunkie's back again... 6 May 2019 at 10:11AM edited 28 February 2020 at 4:45PM in Debt free diaries 81 replies 6.5K views

CreditCardJunkie

Here's the jist if you're new here;
- I had a previous diary and got lost along the way
- I was constantly in a trap of running up a card, then balance transfering it onto an interest free card, then running the first one up again
- I never budgeted properly, I didn't give myself spending money. I paid all my extra money off my credit cards so if I needed/wanted something I used my credit card - what's a 10er here and there
- Started using spreadsheets and quickly realised £10 here and there adds up to a few hundred pounds of pretty much nothing per month!
- I was pregnant when I started this diary because I only get statutory maternity pay and I was panicking about getting deeper into debt
- Buying second hand is SO much cheaper and is better for the environment
- Although my car is a you-know-what-heap, it's mine. Lease cars weren't really ever mine and now I don't have to worry about where I park

CreditCardJunkie

Updated SOA page 3

CreditCardJunkie

Thought I should note also, we've already got most things for baby. We still need to purchase a set of drawers, paint, curtains and a changing bag. We've bought tons of nappies and wipes in various sizes and my mum continues to buy these every week with our shopping.

katsu

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

I've listed my soa below, bear in mind I've added what I pay towards bills which is why some things may seem low...
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 (DH has a car but his income and expenses aren't listed as I'm responsible for my own debt)

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1370
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1370

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 157 (my half)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 200 (lease car with 3 payments left which is being returned at the end of the agreement)
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Rates............................. 22.5 (my half)
Electricity............................. 0 (DH pays)
Gas..................................... 40 (my half) Have you both checked you are on the best tarriff available, turn things off when you can etc etc?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 28 (this is for a phone at £8 p/m on sum only and a silly galaxy fitness watch I had to have - still over a year left on the watch) Well done on £ SIM only price - keep an eye on the deals on the main site page as you can get down to £5ish
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 No landline or internet?
Groceries etc. ......................... 80 (my half)
Clothing................................ 0 (only buy when I truly need something, I get quite a lot bought for me at Christmas and birthdays) If you really want to get your bvudger right you need to work out what you spend personally and start saving it, otherwise you can only be buying with debt by using your credit cards
Petrol/diesel........................... 30
Road tax................................ 0 (£20 paid yearly)
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 (lease car which I won't need to service before it goes back, have already just paid for tyres and breaks and it isn't old enough to have MOT - I will post a new SOA when I start driving the other car)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 18 (flea & worming treatments for dog as well as horse public liability insurance)
Buildings insurance..................... 10 (my half)
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 3 (my half, we only took out enough to cover the mortgage at this stage, when I return to work after maternity we will up our cover)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 (I just pay for these as and when) This sounds like part of your problem. Pay for them out of what extra money? Debt? You need to start saving
Haircuts................................ 0 (get my hair done twice per year which DH usually pays for half and I use birthday/Christmas money) Well done
Entertainment........................... 0 (I should have something here but truthfully my horse keeps me very busy, and I don't really do much else!) So you never spend any other money?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Horse................................... 140
Total monthly expenses.................. 770.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 80 (savings)
House value (Gross)..................... 60000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1200 (this is the car I'm still paying off)
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 61280


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 47231....(157)......2.34
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 600......(200)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 47831.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
NatWest cc.....................595.......25........17.42
Barclaycard cc.................2390......60........0
Car off family.................150.......50........0
V12 finance (bathroom improvement)....................258.22....43.02.....0
Total unsecured debts..........3393.22...178.02....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,370
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 770.5
Available for debt repayments........... 599.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 178.02
Amount left after debt repayments....... 421.48 Is this right? Can you get to the end of this month and see this money in the bank?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 61,280
Total HP & Secured debt................. -47,831
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,393.22
Net Assets.............................. 10,055.78

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

Well done for the decisions you are making about being prudent. I suspect the SoA is not entirely realistic. Hopefully some of my comments above will help you.

Have a look at survey sites and mystery shopping as ways to make a few extra pounds to help cover the baby things you still need.

CreditCardJunkie

Thanks for the tips! DH pays for internet, and no that's not what I have left over every month but each month I allocate £500 to debt in total, which leaves me with about £60....this is where if I fancy something for lunch it goes on my credit card, or if it's a birthday I'm usually borrowing it out of next month's surplus, so that £60 is normally spent before I even have it.
I can't seem to hold on to money unless it has a purpose, so I think the only way for me is to withdraw cash and put in separate envelopes for birthdays etc.
As the majority is interest free perhaps I should allocate less at the start of the month and if there's anything left then pay it off?
With regards to the gas we only have one supplier in our area. We're on a top up meter which I know is more expensive but I'm always cold and I fear big quarterly bills if we're not aware of what we're using!

CreditCardJunkie

Also any tips for how to get into mystery shopping and which survey sites to use??

Banana23

Remember that you’ll also be able to claim child benefit and possibly tax credits (depending on you and DH’s income) once baby is here. x

CreditCardJunkie

Thanks banana. I did the calculator online and don't think we can claim due to OHs income. We will get the one that's around £20 per week but I'm not planning my budget including that at the moment as I figured it will cover baby costs.

Today was a NSD, bought plenty in shopping for lunches which is often where I fall out of budget.

CreditCardJunkie

Plodding along until payday which is Friday...trying to be as frugal as possible.

UNPLANNED SPENDS
£6 on a drink at a concert this week (concert was booked last year) - used CC for this

£12 at Smyth's - Used the Smyth's £6 off £15 spend voucher for a friend's daughters birthday in July, have borrowed the money from our joint account for this and will put it back when I get paid. Total spend on this gift was £12, when I'd planned to spend £20 out of June's pay.

£36 - my half of a required overspend on bathroom DIY - dipped into the car fund for paying back a relative for this which I will put back when I get paid. We had someone come out and quote £500 to do this work so we've saved a fair bit by doing that ourselves. DH did a brilliant job.

£8 - voile curtains for the nursery. Used the joint account as these were on sale at 40% off so also need to make this up when I get paid.

Running total - £62 overspend

Trying to make it until Friday with no other personal spends. Have done a click and collect for shopping so should have plenty for lunches for work etc.

June will have plenty of spends, mum's birthday, father's Day, a relative's 70th birthday and two lunch outings with different friendship groups!

On the plus side of this it's also my birthday and I'm going for a pregnancy massage which was a bonus from work.

Going to pay my minimum payments, then all my gifts/outings and see what I've left to overpay on the debts. My aim for May pay is;

NatWest CC - £300
BC CC - £50
Car - £100

This should leave me with around £75 for the June spends mentioned above.

Karonher

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

Also any tips for how to get into mystery shopping and which survey sites to use??

Just found your diary. I use Marketforce for low paid jobs but there are lots of them. There is also Tern, React and Retail Active. MysteryShoppers have a few as do Bare International but all will have different amounts of work depending on where you live. It is also worth remembering that there is tax to pay as it seems that you already earn above the tax free threshold.

With regards to your last post - will £75 cover all the things you want to do?

PositiveBalance

Hello CreditCardJunkie! :wave:

Congratulations on your baby! :j

In the nicest way possible, I'm going to be quite blunt:

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

My trap is I have two credit cards, a 0% Barclaycard on money transfers and balance transfers and a standard NatWest one for everyday spending.There goes the problem, every day spending. Once I hit my 1k limit on the NatWest I do a balance transfer to the Barclaycard which costs me £27 and start the cycle again.

Yes, you are right. This is death by a thousand cuts and in some way more dangerous than the people who have incurred debt for a large one-off purchase like a car or home improvements as it's harder to cut back on. A tenner here or there doesn't feel like such a big deal, does it?

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

We've already started to cut our cloth accordingly, getting everything prepared for baby's arrival.My lease car ends in August and we're over half way of paying a family member for a used car for me to have in place of this.

Respectfully, other than this one area, you haven't. Your post showing all the unplanned spending shows as much.

You need to stop using the CCs. Now. It would be better if you cut them up, but even if for now you put them in the freezer and don't use them for a month to prove that you can do it, that would be a start.

I would highly recommend you start paying for everything other than the bills which are taken from your bank account each month in cold hard cash. It feels very different when you hand over cash rather than a card as you get a better sense of the money actually leaving your possession, never to return.

I would highly recommend you using a zero-based budget with an envelope system à la Dave Ramsey.

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

I I'll be snowballing the £595 I currently owe on the NatWest card and then making £100 per month payments off the Barclaycard as the first 0% doesn't end until June 2020 so I'll put the money to pay it off in a separate bank account.

Bad idea: you will find another use for the saved money or spend more on the card. I would recommend paying it off the card straight away as having a decreasing balance will inspire you to spend less and pay off more.

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

I can't seem to hold on to money unless it has a purpose, so I think the only way for me is to withdraw cash and put in separate envelopes for birthdays etc.

I would highly recommend setting up 'pots' for annual bills and present so that you can put a set amount aside each pay period so that you have enough money to cover the expense once it is due to be paid.

CreditCardJunkie wrote: »

As the majority is interest free perhaps I should allocate less at the start of the month and if there's anything left then pay it off?

You are nearly guaranteed to find something else to do with this money if you do this. I would recommend setting a zero based budget and paying off all the bills in the first instance so you *have* to stick to your budget for the rest of the month.