Time to get my head out of the sand before I get buried fully

Hhannah2284

Long time lurker but finally got around to making a profile and posting. I've always been brought up very anti -debt and had huge anxiety about debt which luckily meant for the majority of my life I never had any...until last year. Due to a series of unforeseen events me and my husband ended up having 2 credit cards totalling over £3500 and a family loan of £8000 form my husbands nan to buy a car. We've managed to get the cards down to just under £3000 and the loan to £750 however the loan is a 'not bothered about when I get the money back kind of loan' so at the moment we're paying back £50/100 a month if we can but if we can't she doesn't mind.
Whilst we've been fairly diligent paying it off we've gone very lax lately as well as adding the occasional food shop/petrol etc towards the end of the month which soon adds up.

We've also just found out we're pregnant due in April so it's really important to me to pay the debt off as soon as possible as it's already giving bad anxiety without the thought of going on maternity pay and the plan was for me to go part time when the baby's here which is going to be unlikely if we still owe as much as we do now. Not to mention before all this happened we booked a holiday to cyprus for a family wedding where I'm maid of honour and there's no way we can cancel it as much as we would like to just to give us some more slack (not to mention we'll have a 3 month old to take too now). we've got about £2300 left to pay but I've been putting money in savings to pay it off and have about £2000 in there so far. When we look at our pay checks compared to our outgoings but we never seem to have the amount we should have at the end of the month. When we go through our bank statements it seems to be mostly spent on frivolous things such as takeaways or buying food at work rather then taking food with us which we definitely need to get a hold on.

Hhannah2284

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1200
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2500

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 479.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 135
TV Licence.............................. 12.83
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 32
Internet Services....................... 21
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 50
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 13
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 150
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Union................................... 15
Watch................................... 11
Total monthly expenses.................. 1758.33


Assets
Cash.................................... 2000
House value (Gross)..................... 95000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 106000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 69001....(479.5)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 69001.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Post Office ...................862.83....22........0
Post Office 2..................2183......55........0
family loan....................7600......50........0
Total unsecured debts..........10645.83..127.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,500
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,758.33
Available for debt repayments........... 741.67
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 127
Amount left after debt repayments....... 614.67

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 106,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -69,001
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,645.83
Net Assets.............................. 26,353.17

Hhannah2284

Forgot to add the MOT, Insurance and TAX we pay for both cars yearly and normally take that from work bonuses at the end of the year

Hhannah2284

Ended up phoning in sick this morning to work due to my morning sickness, I've not actually been sick yet but the nausea is something else. As well as that I've been getting dizzy spells and headaches the past few days which make the nausea worse. I've just turned 9 weeks today so I'm hoping the nausea dies down soon because I don't want to use up all my paid sick leave in the first trimester.

We desperately need a food and toiletries shop which DH was going to do after work but I'm hoping if I feel well enough later I can do it because he's rubbish bless him 😂 somehow he'll spend twice as much for half the stuff .

Because of the constant nausea I'm not wanting to eat proper meals lately, I've just been living off frozen waffles, pot noodles and super noodles and salt and vinegar squares. That's the only things that sound good to me right now but it means DH has been living off takeaways and ready meals because if I don't cook he'd rather starve than cook 🙄😂. I definitely want to get back into cooking and batch cooking as I do enjoy it normally and it definitely helps with money. Not to mention I'm on the larger side and all the crap food I'm eating isn't helping as I need to be losing weight not gaining it right now.

DH and I are going to have a sit down and talk about our money and debt properly tonight, it never goes well usually because money makes us both really stressed and I feel super guilty right now as I'm the one 'in charge' of the money so to speak. DH has handed his pay over to me every month since we moved in together at 18 so for 10 years it's solely been my responsibility. Although we've both always agreed to the spending that was done I can't help but think if I'd been stricter we wouldn't be here now.

We're also going to talk about him going back singing part time, he use to pub sing wth his uncle every weekend up until about a year and a half ago because his uncle had custody issues they quit but it was an extra £400 a monthif they did just one show a week when they normally did 2/3. I think that ending caused a bit of the issues as we were used to the extra money for so long and didn't really change anything when the money was no longer there, just spending the same amount of not more. It's a tough decision for him even though logically the thought of more money is tempting, I work every other weekend and the 2 weekends I'm off are the only time me and DH have to spend with each other. his uncle has his son on the weekend I'm working so they'd have to sing the weekend I'm off. Which means we'd only have 2 days a month together. It's also hard on DH fitting it around his day job, at the moment it won't be so bad as he works 8.5 hours a day Monday-Friday but in a couple of months his shift is changing to 10-12 hours Monday to Friday with overtime on a Saturday so he'll be exhausted doing it then.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

ratrace

Hi, i didnt want to read and run a few things stick out to me

First of all the 8k car is way way to expensive for his salary you can buy cars for 2-3k that will do the job well a ford focus or an astra is plenty sell the car and wipe off a big chunk of debt asap

I think you have made a mistake with what you are sepnding on fuel on both car there is no way that you are spending £50 a month for 2 cars, and if you are only spending 50 a month thats more of a reason to get rid of the car as you dont use it much

Mobiles are very very high go sim only i spend £10 a month and i think thats too much as i hardley use my mins


gas and electric are high for 2 people,we are a family of 5 who have showers everyday and cook in the evening and we spend £110 a month over the year

your spending £50 odd pound the net and tv,i spend £18.99 for virgen fibre 100 and have a netflix account saves a lot of money

hope i didnt come in with my size 9's just trying to see where you could cut back

Hhannah2284

ratrace wrote: »

Hi, i didnt want to read and run a few things stick out to me

First of all the 8k car is way way to expensive for his salary you can buy cars for 2-3k that will do the job well a ford focus or an astra is plenty sell the car and wipe off a big chunk of debt asap

I think you have made a mistake with what you are sepnding on fuel on both car there is no way that you are spending £50 a month for 2 cars, and if you are only spending 50 a month thats more of a reason to get rid of the car as you dont use it much

Mobiles are very very high go sim only i spend £10 a month and i think thats too much as i hardley use my mins


gas and electric are high for 2 people,we are a family of 5 who have showers everyday and cook in the evening and we spend £110 a month over the year

your spending £50 odd pound the net and tv,i spend £18.99 for virgen fibre 100 and have a netflix account saves a lot of money

hope i didnt come in with my size 9's just trying to see where you could cut back

You're very right I made a mistake with the diesel, it's £50 a week we spend so £200 a month. The car we spent more on as we'd previously bought a cheaper car for £2000 and ended up spending over £3000 grand in 2 years getting things fixed on it he also has to have a certain type of car for his job and this was the best one we found that had everything we needed as well as it being off a family friend so we know the history and got a very good deal for it, his grandmother tried to give us the money to begin with but we wouldn't let her as it would cause issues with other family members so for the sake of selling the car to pay her back there's not much point however if we'd had it on finance or a bank loan we would consider selling it!

The mobile contracts a bit difficult, it's actually both our phones, 2 family members phones (we pay for them as due to safety issues it's important they have phones and their mum won't pay) a tablet and a watch (gifts for said people as worker our cheaper with my discount each month than buying outright) because i work for a phone company we actually get a huge discount on them already. Without my discount it would be over £400 for it all however I am considering moving the two phones to sim only when the contracts are up. For myself I get a 75% discount so I only actually pay £15 for a iPhone XS right now so moving to simo would be pointless in terms of Saving money.

I agree we need to look at our gas and electric, the electric seems worse than the gas, we have about £200 on the gas saving up for winter but we're a end house and next door has been empty over 2 years so we tend to burn through gas in the winter. we're currently on a pay as you go meter which i know can make it more expensive but the company have quoted us over £100 to take the meters out so we definitely have to weigh up our options. I need to try and find out or actual rate an see if I can find a cheaper company.

Same for our entertainment, our sky has gone from £20 to £38 so we need to look into
That as we rarely use it. The internet again we get a deal with my company so I can't change that at the moment.

Thanks for your suggestions definitely giving me some things to think about!

ratrace

Hhannah2284 wrote: »

You're very right I made a mistake with the diesel, it's £50 a week we spend so £200 a month. The car we spent more on as we'd previously bought a cheaper car for £2000 and ended up spending over £3000 grand in 2 years getting things fixed on it he also has to have a certain type of car for his job and this was the best one we found that had everything we needed as well as it being off a family friend so we know the history and got a very good deal for it, his grandmother tried to give us the money to begin with but we wouldn't let her as it would cause issues with other family members so for the sake of selling the car to pay her back there's not much point however if we'd had it on finance or a bank loan we would consider selling it!

Ok thats no problem, its just that in your op, you said that having debt was giving you anxiety and that you wanted to get rid of it asap thats why i suggested to sell the car, as that would wipe a chunk of the debt despite its a family member as they will still need repaying


Ask your oh to speak to his employers and see if they are willing to contribute to any of the car costs such as mileage etc.... after all they want him to drive a certain car so they should help out a little, My brother has to have a certain car for his job as the company wants to maintain a certain image but he get a allowance which helps a lot with the running costs,as if it was upto him he would drive a nissan micra to work lol


Also being stressed and anxious is not good for your or the babys health, and please also try to eat more healthy as living on proccesed foods such as pot noodles is not good (sorry not having a go just concerned)


The mobile contracts a bit difficult, it's actually both our phones, 2 family members phones (we pay for them as due to safety issues it's important they have phones and their mum won't pay) a tablet and a watch (gifts for said people as worker our cheaper with my discount each month than buying outright) because i work for a phone company we actually get a huge discount on them already. Without my discount it would be over £400 for it all however I am considering moving the two phones to sim only when the contracts are up. For myself I get a 75% discount so I only actually pay £15 for a iPhone XS right now so moving to simo would be pointless in terms of Saving money.


Fair point on the phones front


I agree we need to look at our gas and electric, the electric seems worse than the gas, we have about £200 on the gas saving up for winter but we're a end house and next door has been empty over 2 years so we tend to burn through gas in the winter. we're currently on a pay as you go meter which i know can make it more expensive but the company have quoted us over £100 to take the meters out so we definitely have to weigh up our options. I need to try and find out or actual rate an see if I can find a cheaper company.


yeah get them meters out of the house you are paying a silly ammount for the gas and electric usage hence the reason your bills are very high for 2 people who work full time


Same for our entertainment, our sky has gone from £20 to £38 so we need to look into

yep see what deals are out there


That as we rarely use it. The internet again we get a deal with my company so I can't change that at the moment.

Thanks for your suggestions definitely giving me some things to think about!

All the best with your debt free journey ill hope in and out to steer you in the right direction lol

Honeysucklelou2

Try spearmint polos for the nausea...worked well for me at that stage!

Nonnadiluca

Extra strong mints worked for my nausea when pregnant, a while ago now! My son was pretty much nourished on those and refreshers, for heartburn: I put on 7 lbs during the pregnancy and he was 7lbs 2oz: he's now a healthy, strapping 6'2, so it didn't do him much harm!! Hope it soon passes.

Hhannah2284

I'll give the mints a try, thank you!

Felt a little better this afternoon so managed to do the food shop. Where we'd not been cooking proper meals we had hardly anything in the fridge and a lot of our toiletries like shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper and deodorant was coming to an end too so I budgeted £70 in total and it came to £48.78 so I'm very happy ��

Managed to make low fat sausages, mash, veg and gravy - not the healthiest but it's a start. My mam and nan have offered to make a load of meals over the next few days for me to keep in the freezer so that should help with the healthier eating and save us a bit of money too.

DH and I had the dreaded money chat tonight. He was a lot more supportive than I thought which is great. He's always been very laid back with money and debt that's why I've always been the one in charge of the money. At the moment going back singing is a no go but he's going to find out when his shifts change as that should give us an extra £100-150 a week which will make up for the money he'd get singing. He has agreed to going back for Christmas though as he normally gets over £2000 for the Christmas and new year period.

Going to try and count my penny jar tomorrow to see how much is in it and put it towards the debt, other than that we can't make any payments until DH payday on the 15th so I feel a bit deflated that nothing's happening yet ��