Starting my journey

Loadedsoul

I'm going to admit its a bit scary being in debt - feels like a ball and chain around my neck.
Bit of background, I'm single and taking care of my mum who's 75 and suffers from schizophrenia and dementia. I pay her bills as well as mine. This past 2 months i've drained my savings and gone into debt paying her medical bills. This was a one off thing as she needed emergency surgery and was in the hospital for almost a month.

Here's my SOA. I have a CC debt which i moved to a 0% cc for 26 months. I''ve currently set up a direct debit of GBP 250 a month (1st payment will go out on 30th September).

I also have a debt of GBP 2000 to my company but they are accommodating and have asked me to pay when i am able to do so, have not included this below.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2400

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 1045.50 (mine and mums combined)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35.7
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20 (locked into this for 2 years)
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 20 (shopped around and this was the cheapest i could find)
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 (mine and mums combined)
Clothing................................ 0 (cant remember last time i bought any. Have had clothes donated to me this year)
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
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..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 (alone so dont have anyone to save for)
Haircuts................................ 0 (I cut my own hair :rotfl:)
Entertainment........................... 18.4 (My only real expense, a cineworld card)
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1719.6


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
MBNA...........................6005.45...250.......0
Total unsecured debts..........6005.45...250.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,400
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,719.6
Available for debt repayments........... 680.4
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 250
Amount left after debt repayments....... 430.4

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,005.45
Net Assets.............................. -6,005.45




There is a one off charge of GBP 400 this month that i need to pay off for mum so will do that with the cash left over. From next month i can put more towards the CC.

Loaded

Loadedsoul

Do you guys think it's better to pay of CC quicker or would it be better to start saving a bit for emergencies?

Louoffofsparkle

Is your mum not entitled to any benefits at all? Or is she receiving them and you are paying the difference?

Loadedsoul

hi lou, she doesnt live in UK/EU and doesnt have any benefits. I basically pay for her. She is mortgage free so I pay for maintenance, electric, water, gas, phone (this is GBP 3 a month), carer , food, medication.

ceb1995

Loadedsoul wrote: »

Do you guys think it's better to pay of CC quicker or would it be better to start saving a bit for emergencies?

if you have absolutely no savings and you have a bit of time on the cc then it could be good to have some savings especially if you're paying your mums medical bills.

Loadedsoul

Have 26 months at 0% so do have a bit of wriggle space.

No savings anymore. Think i'll start doing that from next month put a little bit away even if it's £100. I want this to be separate from my main account though. Is it wise opening another bank account or is it better to do it with the same bank and put it in a savings account linked to my main account.

I've checked and HSBC has a Regular savings account for Advance/Premier bank accounts (i have one) with 5% AER / gross. Is this good?

Loadedsoul

Happy Sunday! :beer:

I haven’t taken any leave this year and have 25 days leave left. Had a long chat with my company director on Friday as he was pretty insistent that I start taking them or lose them.

Soooo I’ve taken 3 days of this week to sort myself out. I’m a worrier if you haven’t noticed :rotfl:

Sat down this morning and have put together a list of things I’d like to achieve by September 2020:

- Debt free in a year
- have a minimum of £3000 saved by this time next year
- I’ve really left myself go these past 2 years and have a small pot belly to show for it!
I’m 11 stone with a BMI of 24.5 - this is still in the healthy range but ideally i would like it to be a BMI of 23.

The last goal is harder than the other two put together! I work a short walking distance from home, and have long 12-15hr work days. Fitting exercise around this should be an interesting challenge to say the least.

This diary is my way of being accountable to myself. Gonna keep updating this as I go along to see what I can achieve. This feels cathartic as I can’t bury my head and hide when I’m baring my biggest fears out in the open.

Hey ho - upwards and onwards as they say. Time to get a coffee and catch up on some reading.

Loadedsoul

Monday’s are hard .... woke up with a start at 6am this morning and obsessively started cleaning my house. Don’t know what got into me but by 9am it was gleaming.

Had workers come in this morning at 10am to replace the kitchen pipe as it was old and rusted. Should be done in another hour.

On better news - mum is home from hossie and is doing well. Spoke to her for a while this afternoon and she’s in good spirits. Carer took her home and settled her in. She was having a cuppa when I called her and kept insisting I come have some with her (bless her, in her head I’m not 7000 miles across the sea).

I have the day off so going to do a meal prep for the week. Found a good slow cooker recipe for chilli that I’m going to try out. Also going to make lentil soup that I’m going to batch cook and freeze today. Just started to get into the habit of cooking at home and meal prepping since a month and I must say it’s so much better, healthier and cheaper to do it yourself rather than eating rubbish from outside. :j

Plans for today -

- Do my meal prep
- Do a 30 minute workout
- Movie tonight with a friend - catching up with her after months.

All in all I’m trying to stay positive. I’ve been so depressed the last few months it’s really taken a toll on me mentally.

monz

Maybe look at Groceries to cut down £400 is a tad steep. xx

EssexHebridean

Totally away from the money saving side of things, PLEASE ignore BMI, it's a nonsense figure with flawed science behind it that means about as much as your "credit score" does, in real terms! Focus instead on generally being more active, and getting fitter if that's what you feel you want to do - that could be achieved as simply as squeezing a bit of extra walking in (getting off the bus or the train a stop earlier and walking the balance, walking a mile at a fast pace every lunchtime on work days) and some bodyweight workouts at home - think about short interval workouts that get you working at high intensity for 30 second bursts with 10 seconds of rest between each exercise - and are done inside 15 minutes. That stops time being an issue - and therefore an excuse - as that sort of thing can be done while tea is cooking, for example, or even in front of the TV of an evening.

Pleased to hear the good news re your Mum being home! That's a tough old situation you have there - credit to you for trying to tackle the debt thing as well.

Couple of things stood out from the SOA - you are getting single person discount for your council tax, aren't you? Also the water rates - is that metered? You'd likely make a saving on a meter if not.

savingholmes

Glad your mum is out of hospital.

5% regular saver is a great rate providing your debt is on 0%. An emergency fund of at least £1K can bring a lot of peace. It's also good to have savings pots for annual bills.