Keeping the Plates Spinning...

CarbonImage

I tried to start a diary when I bought my house two years ago, however reading all of your diaries coupled with some serious financial changes in my life have inspired me to try and keep myself accountable. Therefore I have decided to start a new one. A little bit about me before I post an SOA...

I am 26, I live with my wonderful fiance (OH) and our slightly less wonderful rescue cat, T.

Currently own a nice little 2-bed ex-council house with an LTV of 80%. I am the sole name on the deeds and mortgage as OH has not had a stable job thus far. However things are all set to change as she is going back to Uni for round 3 in September to study a PGCE and hopefully be a primary school teacher. Her lack of income for the year, combined with our decision to get married in 2021 has meant that as of next month we are combining finances, with me as the main contributor :eek:

Currently on a 35-year mortgage, but overpaying £150/month to bring it down to an expected 26-ish years. 5 year fix at 2.2% and 2 years in. I would love to pay it down further but this may not be an option in the short term. My goals are as follows:

1: Maintain an £18k emergency fund (already saved as of this month)
2: Save £12k by 3rd Jun 2021 for our wedding
3: Pay the mortgage down to under £140k in the next two years
4: Retain a bit of cash in a 'slush fund' as I know myself and I will make some silly purchase or other in the next couple of years.

What complicates things slightly further is that my income is made up almost 50% of commission payments, so I never know month to month how much I'm going to earn. My current plan for the next 12 months relies on my attaining £450/month commission payments pre-tax, which is very achievable, but I may need to maintain some of that slush find money from good months to bail me out in bad.

Thanks for reading this far, SOA incoming shortly...

CarbonImage

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................ 1646.82
Partners monthly income after tax....... 793.32
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 200
Total monthly income.................... 2640.14

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 565.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 142.10000000000002
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 147
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 28
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 70
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 51
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 59.49
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 16
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 17
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 100
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Mortgage Overpayment.................... 150
Personal Spend allowance................ 400
Total monthly expenses.................. 2431.39


Assets
Cash.................................... 24750
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 3000
Total Assets............................ 245750


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 155759...(565.3)....2.22
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5402.08..(142.1)....3.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 161161.0.-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,640.14
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,431.39
Available for debt repayments........... 208.75
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 208.75

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 245,750
Total HP & Secured debt................. -161,161.08
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 84,588.92

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

A couple of explanation points...

- I am currently in the process of reducing our internet bill, as V!rgin put it up by a whopping £16 last month. TV is also currently included with this. Looking a using my mobile provider E£ who will do fibre broadband for £27/mo
- The car finance was a silly decision that I justified to myself as I drive a lot for work. I do claw some of the money back in mileage payments, but not necessarily every month.
- The 'personal spend allowance' is a trial whilst we transition from separate to combined finances. This is £200 each to spend however we want every month. This is to cover clothing, harcuts, entertainment when we are not together, etc. The idea being that we both still get a bit of independence.
- 'Other insurance' covers a reward current account which provides travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, and home emergency cover.

savingholmes

You sounds really organised. Congrats on the £18K emergency fund.

Good luck on you journey. I would look at your mobile phone contracts and see if you can lower them. Personally, I would look into getting some kind of life insurance as your partner is dependent on your income and if you were to die she could end up homeless. Similarly, even if she's not the one bringing the £ in for a while, hopefully that's short term and either way if she were to die you might not be in a fit state to work for a bit. Although work based life insurance is good - it goes away if the job does so it tends to be worth having your own. You would need to get your own independent financial advice though.

beanielou

That is an awesome EF
Happy shiny new diary.

BachSoon

Good luck with your challenge, there are plenty of like minded people to cheer you on!

CarbonImage

Thanks for the responses and encouragement!

Yes I'm quite proud of the EF, the result of a few very good commissions made at work as well as some hardcore saving in the past couple of years. The reason I am keeping it this high and not paying down the mortgage is: 1) My job and income can be considered unstable compared to some, and I work in quite a niche industry so it would take me a while to find another. 2) We would eventually like to move to a more 'family friendly' home, and there will be a lot of fees associated with that, due to house prices being high in our area. My idea is that some of these are already banked in the EF even though we won't be moving for at least 3 years.

RE mobile contracts, mine is up in two months and I plan to go down to a £20/month SIM only one. I'd like to take it down further but i need a lot of data for work emails on the road and my boss refuses to pay for a work phone... grrr. OH made some silly decisions when taking out her contract so is stuck on a whopping £30/month for 500mb of data! I will be going to the phone shop with her next time...


Started the day on a high today after doing a full week's grocery shop last night for £24 for both of us (we like veggies and being creative, and I had a couple of clubcard vouchers). I also got a replacement fitness tracker on warranty after my last one broke.

HOWEVER the replacement they have sent me is also faulty, and they only replace the first one on warranty - they won't replace the replacement! So I'm very grumpy. I know I don't have to replace it but it has really helped me get fitter and I was very lazy when the last one stopped working. I won;t be going with the same brand if I do replace it that's for sure!

Oh well, a NSD day today, I'm going to go home and cook a nice healthy dinner and mow the lawns as it's sunny for the first time in ages.

CarbonImage

Not an NSD today sadly but feeling a bit more MSE after the couple of days I've had:

- Fixed my fitness tracker by doing some software jiggery-pokery +£150 saved
- Went to the pub last night but OH bought the drinks out of some spare cash to say thanks for driving her to a kids party she's doing this weekend. +£10 saved
- Spoke to a friend's mum about being our registrar as we've been to a wedding she's done before and thought she was fantastic, and she not only agreed but offered to do it for free! I was not even hoping for that but will graciously accept (although will definitely get her a present to say thanks). +£300 saved

Slip-ups:
- Yesterday I went for a walk at lunchtime with a colleague as we've both got into the bad habit of eating 'al desko' and not taking lunch breaks. We ended up at a local shop and I bought a bag of crisps and a can of coke, totally negating the health benefits, d'oh! - £1.65
- The cat has fleas so today I bought some tablets and a flea collar, to go along with the full bottle of flea spray in the ciupboard. -£10

Tonight OH is at work (working PT in a pub to get some extra dosh before starting her PGCE) so I will cook a bolognese for myself and there will be plenty of leftovers.

Did some sums last night and if we want to be in with a shot of hitting our target of £12k by Jun 2021, we need to have £5.5k in the wedding savings by September 2020. Should be easy, but it's a very slow period at work, meaning no commissions coming in and me getting depressed at the thought. I know it will get better though!

Also spoke to the life insurance people today, for the cover we need it's looking like about £30/month. Gulp. That is for critical illness cover too though, which is important for me as I have no sick pay.

Our neighbours who we get along with really well run a business from home and pay loads for superfast internet, so we are trialing sharing the WiFi between the houses using a booster I already have. Will report back on that, but could potentially save us a huge amount monthly. And they will be happy because we will subsidise their bill a bit. We'll see.

CarbonImage

Some exciting (not really but hey) updates :

- Sharing internet with the neighbours sadly didn't work out, so rang Virgin to tell them I was switching and they dropped my bill from £51 to £28 a month - result!
- Still haven't pulled the trigger on the life insurance, seems like so much cash to just 'throw away' but I know it's necessary. They are calling me tomorrow so I will probably take it out.
- Switched mine and OH's Spotify accounts to a family plan, saving £5/month (small victories). I also pay for my Dad's Spotify so I'm going to see if I can cheekily add him to our family as well even though he doesn't live with us (I know this is againt the rules, shh).
- The flea tablets worked on the cat and he is much happier, meaning we are much happier!
- Turns out we may still need to pay a registry fee even if we don't use the council's registrars, cheeky !!!!!!s. I am still working out if we can get round this.
- Remembered I had complained about the fact we were £200+ in credit on our dual fuel account last month, so checked our latest bill and they've reduced it to £44 for the foreseeable.
- Had to order a copy of my degree certificate as I'm applying for an MBA and can't find mine, £50!:eek: I put it on the CC to pay off on payday - bad I know but not feeling very liquid right now and I like the fact my EF is a nice round number.
- Got offered some overtime to work on Sunday, don't really want to do it but said yes as it is to work on site at one of my projects and I want to set a good example to my team. Also it's worth about £180 which I can stick in the wedding fund.
- Had some guys round yesterday to quote on landscaping our front garden. Not very MSE but it's the first thing I see when I get home every day and it doesn't make me feel very good about the house. Plus I have wanted to get it done for a while so I have the money to do it set aside already. Cheaper than I expected too so will probably be getting it done, just need to set a date.
- I have started doing i-say and convinced OH to do the same. Started off well, earning 200 points in a day, but the past 3 days I haven't managed to complete any - either being told they have too many respondents with my criteria, or the survey has technical issues and to check back later. I can see myself losing enthusiasm quickly at this rate!

OH away lots this week, which means I can cook whatever I want and save the leftovers for lunches! Just got to make sure I don't negate the positive effects of this by going to the pub... Hmm.:beer:

CarbonImage

Not too much MSE to report this week, just watching the time pass until payday when it will be the first month of mine and OH's combined finances:eek:

Slightly concerned as OH is supposed to start her teacher training next week and receive her first maintenance loan payment, but we've had no comms from the university or SLC since she accepted her place. I have told her she MUST ring them tomorrow.

A few other things:

- Completed some more i-say, up to about 700 points now so going to keep trying to do them when I remember.
- Had a work party on Friday, I was entertaining clients so my boss gave me some cash, meaning I didn't spend a penny except for taxi fare home. Boss has slightly irritated by requesting receipts for everything which he didn't warn me in advance about so I only have some of the receipts. Hoping he forgets about the missing ones but if he calls me up on it I will have to fight my corner!
- Worked on Sunday which meant I get some overtime next month and I could expense my lunch and dinner. This proved very useful as all the shops were shut when I got home so I had to have takeaway.
- Weekly shop yesterday, £25 for two of us which I was quite proud of. Amazing what can be achieved when I am in charge of food!
- Big Client has finally agreed to pay their outstanding bill from May, which means I can hopefully claim Big Commission next month. Trying not to get too excited until the payment clears though.

Weekend is fast approaching, going to treat the OH to a nice dinner out with my leftover spending money as a final hurrah before we are financially tied for life :rotfl:

CarbonImage

Well, the first of the month marked the official start of the financial shakeup.

Nothing has collapsed in on itself yet so hooray for that. I'm really hoping my budgeting was correct and we make it to the end of the month without having to bail out from EF, but we'll see!

A nice side effect is that OH seems to be more receptive to saving money now as it is 'ours' rather than just her own, and she knows she can't borrow off me to see herself through the month. However I am having to deal with feeling a lot less well off, as my current account has gone from having a pot of £600 per month to spend however I want, to just £200.

I know it's all worth it, but it has facilitated a rather more MSE mindset already and we're only 6 days in!

Friend's engagement party tonight, staying at their flat so hopefully not too much spending, followed by a private gig for work on Saturday, I'm going to drive so that I'm not tempted to spend all my money on beer.

yogavibes

all the best with your challenge. When me and OH combined money 20 years ago we both became more cautious about buying anything from our joint account. It helped massively with saving