Time to put my big girl pants on!

dreambig19

clarissa62 wrote: »

Well done in taking the bull by the horns! You've come to the right place, we are all climbing our own mountains. Look forward to hearing how you get on and congratulations on bump!

Oops no bump at the mo! A very energetic 10 month old, and we should be ttc for baby #2 in the new year. Thanks though

dreambig19

clarissa62 wrote: »

Well done in taking the bull by the horns! You've come to the right place, we are all climbing our own mountains. Look forward to hearing how you get on and congratulations on bump!

Paton47 wrote: »

Well done on taking back control of your finances. That's a huge step in itself to take the bull by the horns and deal with it. It's normal to be impatient but remember getting debt free won't happen overnight it will take time and determination which you have in bucket loads. Plus you have brilliant incentives there planning for your family's future. Just take one day at a time as things will happen to hamper your plan but as long as you keep going you'll get there. Do you have anything you could sell on Ebay or other online selling sites, will allow you to de clutter and put the money aside to pay a debt. Or maybe try online surveys where you get paid my friend does this and makes ok money Qmee is one of these sites.

Good luck with your determination you'll smash it.

Thank you! I've joined a load of sites to try and earn a bit extra, qmee being one of them. I'm only getting about £2 a day from that at the mo but that's still £60 a month more than I had before! I've got a seperate pot for 'additional earnings' and so far this month I'm up to £140 - really pleased with that!! Going to leave it until the end of the month (incase it's needed for groceries etc - this is the first month on just one income - husband is on shared parental leave - so not sure where we will sit with the budget) and then I think at the end of the month I'll use a portion of it as a budget buffer, a portion to start saving an emergency fund and a portion to go towards extra debt payments. Any suggestions on how to split this gratefully received!

[Deleted User]

dreambig19 wrote: »

Thank you! I've joined a load of sites to try and earn a bit extra, qmee being one of them. I'm only getting about £2 a day from that at the mo but that's still £60 a month more than I had before! I've got a seperate pot for 'additional earnings' and so far this month I'm up to £140 - really pleased with that!! Going to leave it until the end of the month (incase it's needed for groceries etc - this is the first month on just one income - husband is on shared parental leave - so not sure where we will sit with the budget) and then I think at the end of the month I'll use a portion of it as a budget buffer, a portion to start saving an emergency fund and a portion to go towards extra debt payments. Any suggestions on how to split this gratefully received!

Just wanted to say, that you have persuaded me to start using Qmee, I've been reluctant thus far!

dreambig19

SSDD23 wrote: »

Just wanted to say, that you have persuaded me to start using Qmee, I've been reluctant thus far!

Some days are pretty slow (particularly weekends). And I do get a lot of rejects, but I just plug away when I'm on the train to work or sat watching tv (so would be mindlessly scrolling social media anyway) and £2 a day average is better than nothing!

kazwookie

Check the interest rates on the amounts you owe, it is suggested you pay off the biggest % first.


Good luck

enthusiasticsaver

Before you go full steam ahead on trying to pay off the debts it is worth doing a proper soa (budget) and saving up an emergency fund so you don't put any more things on credit. If you think you have £1000 a month to throw at the debts then you will get them paid off in no time but I am betting that once you have accounted for everything the surplus will be much lower and the last thing you want to do is overpay on the debt then borrow more in an emergency. A long term sustainable budget should be what you are aiming for. That means some towards savings as well as debt.

Are you paying interest on any of those debts and have they already defaulted. Have you made arrangements with any of them?

I think you will feel less anxious once you have a plan. You have a lot of debts but on the plus side a lot of them are quite small so you should be able to knock them off one by one. If they are all defaulted and you don't have interest on any of them I would tackle the smallest ones first.

enthusiasticsaver

dreambig19 wrote: »

Thank you! I've joined a load of sites to try and earn a bit extra, qmee being one of them. I'm only getting about £2 a day from that at the mo but that's still £60 a month more than I had before! I've got a seperate pot for 'additional earnings' and so far this month I'm up to £140 - really pleased with that!! Going to leave it until the end of the month (incase it's needed for groceries etc - this is the first month on just one income - husband is on shared parental leave - so not sure where we will sit with the budget) and then I think at the end of the month I'll use a portion of it as a budget buffer, a portion to start saving an emergency fund and a portion to go towards extra debt payments. Any suggestions on how to split this gratefully received!

That is a good idea. Initially until you get up to £500 emergency fund I would save half and overpay the debt by half if you are not paying interest. If you are paying interest I would put more to the debt than savings so maybe £70 out of every £100 to debt and £30 to savings until the EF builds up a bit.

dreambig19

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Before you go full steam ahead on trying to pay off the debts it is worth doing a proper soa (budget) and saving up an emergency fund so you don't put any more things on credit. If you think you have £1000 a month to throw at the debts then you will get them paid off in no time but I am betting that once you have accounted for everything the surplus will be much lower and the last thing you want to do is overpay on the debt then borrow more in an emergency. A long term sustainable budget should be what you are aiming for. That means some towards savings as well as debt.

Are you paying interest on any of those debts and have they already defaulted. Have you made arrangements with any of them?

I think you will feel less anxious once you have a plan. You have a lot of debts but on the plus side a lot of them are quite small so you should be able to knock them off one by one. If they are all defaulted and you don't have interest on any of them I would tackle the smallest ones first.

Hi enthusiasticsaver, and thanks!
I've got a snowballs chance in hell of getting more credit at the moment :rotfl:
I'm putting some money aside into savings as well - only a small amount at the moment (currently one one salary) but aiming to bump up my savings pot as and when I can.

Only one loan is attracting interest at the moment - the salaryfinance loan at 7.9% (up to date and not missed any payments). The rest have all had their fees and interest frozen. I'm also pretty certain they've all defaulted, though can't see a number of hem on my credit files. If they have defaulted, is it worth offering a f&f so that I can close them off quicker - I am guessing the damage has already been done with the defaults - or would it make a drastic difference to still pay in full, does anyone know?

Thanks

dreambig19

So we're only a third of the way into the month and we have a grand total of £19.74 left in the bank for spending - not good!!
We're still in a better position than most recent months- I've got money totaling about £300 in various pots for food, bsby formula, pet food, remaining bills - and usually we wouldn't even have this left! But still, it's not good. This is why I've started a spending diary this month to see exactly where the money goes. Part of the issue is feeling 'deprived' - we go a few weeks without being able to spend anything, so when we get paid, we 'binge spend' for want of a better word - treating ourselves as we've gone without - but then end up in the same boat for the following months. We need to break the cycle!

I'm hoping the spending diary will wake us up to a few other bad habits as well. For example even without doing the maths, I know just from the number of times I've written 'eating out' that we've probably spent in the region of £100 on fast food since the 25th September. Considering we struggle to pay all the bills some times, and have debts I want to clear, that's absolutely shocking!!

I'm working on a bit of additional earning too. So far this month I've added £141 to a pot ( not included in the figures above - I don't want to touch it unless we absolutely have to) and by the end of the month will have added AT LEAST another £100 to that. I want to split this between paying off debts, and properly adding to our emergency fund.

No real point to this other than to check in with myself and keep the diary going. If anyone has any suggestions on how to break the cycle of binge spending and leaving ourselves with nothing for 2/3 of the month I'd be grateful!

Thanks
R

dreambig19

I've posted my SOA on another thread on the board to ask for advice, but thought for clarity etc I'd post a copy here too.

I've posted my SOA below but just wanted to note a few things (so as not to have to keep drip feeding info):

1. My partners income is currently £0 as we took shared parental leave. We chose to take the full 12 months due to ongoing health issues our son has from a difficult birth followed immediately by a stay in NICU over the Christmas period last year. I returned to work when SMP stopped, and my husband is taking the remaining time unpaid - we did this as I bring in a higher wage so we would therefore have more income. He will return to work mid Dec, so we will be back up to a 'full income' by the end of Jan
2. The 'additional income' is money I am planning/trying/so far succeeding in making through taking on extra work once home in the evenings.
3. Phone bills and tv/broadband bills etc I KNOW are high - I have tried reducing these with the providers already but we are tied in to contracts for at least the next six months on both. Will reduce these when I can
4. Groceries bill seems high - this is for 2 adults, 1 child (on a combination of formula and solid foods) and 3 pets.

Statement Of Affairs And Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number Of Adults In Household 2
Number Of Children In Household 1
Number Of Cars Owned 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly Income After Tax £1,745.00
Partners Monthly Income After Tax £0.00
Benefits £82.80
Other Income £310.00
Total Monthly Income £2,137.80

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage £500.00



£0.00
Council Tax £123.00
Electricity £45.00
Gas £45.00
Oil £0.00
Water Rates £50.00
Telephone (Land Line) £0.00
Mobile Phone £140.00
TV License £12.00
Satellite/Cable TV £95.00
Internet Services £0.00
Groceries Etc £350.00
Clothing £50.00
Petrol/Diesel £100.00
Road Tax £12.00
Car Insurance £56.00
Car Maintenance (Including MOT) £0.00

Other Travel £63.00
Childcare/Nursery £0.00
Other Child Related Expenses £0.00
Medical (Prescriptions, Dentist Etc) £18.50
Pet Insurance/Vet Bills £0.00
Buildings Insurance £0.00
Contents Insurance
Life Assurance
Other Insurance £0.00
Presents (Birthday, Christmas Etc) £25.00
Haircuts £30.00
Entertainment £45.00
Holiday £0.00
Emergency Fund £35.00
Professional Subscriptions £0.00
Total Monthly Expenses £1,794.50


Assets
Cash £0.00
House Value (Gross) £0.00
Shares And Bonds £0.00
Car(s) £600.00
Other Assets £0.00
Total Assets £600.00


Secured & HP Debts
Description Debt Monthly Apr
Mortgage £0.00 2.25
HP And Other Secured Debt £0.00 0.00%
Total Secured & HP Debts £0.00

Unsecured Debts
Description Debt Monthly Apr
Council Tax £334.11 £47.73 0.00%
HMCS Fine £370.00 £46.00 0.00%
Vanquis £381.71 £2.00 0.00%
ACI £575.00 £10.00 0.00%
Lending Stream £638.40 £10.00 0.00%
Welsh Water CCJ £860.00 £50.00 0.00%
On Stride £1,079.00 £0.00 0.00%
Cabot £7,440.00 £10.00 0.00%
Salary Finance £650.00 £84.00 7.90%
Total Unsecured Debts £12,328.22 £259.73


Monthly Budget Summary
Total Monthly Income £2,137.80
Expenses (Including Hp & Secured Debts) £1,794.50
Available For Debt Repayments £343.30
Monthly Unsecured Debt Repayments £259.73
Amount Surplus Or Short For Making Debt Repayments £83.57

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total Assets (Things You Own) £600.00
Total Hp & Secured Debt £0.00
Total Unsecured Debt £12,328.22
Net Assets £600.00



~~~~~~~~~~

Once my husband is back in work the difference will be:
Partners income £1340
Total income £3477.80

Amount surplus for making debt repayments: £1,423.57

Obviously once we get to the end of January we will be in a much better position for both paying off debts and putting money into savings.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

R