A debt diary with a newly-aquired Yorkshire accent!

Milly1974

New SOA on page 3. Edit 30/6/08.



Well, I guess first of all, I want to apologise if this ends up being another of those debt diaries that is abandoned within a couple of days for being generally uninteresting! I can only aspire to the heady-heights of being the next IA!

I do already post a little on these boards under another name, but knowing that that name can be traced easily by my work-mates, I've decided to add a second user-name for myself to hide a little from them, although I know you lot are quite happy to know everything!!!

So the basic story is that I am halfway through moving to Yorkshire from the South-East. My situation is a little complicated when it comes to living arrangements however! I bought a flat in September 2006, just before I started going out with my boyfriend. I lived there until this summer, when we decided to move in together. The sticky bit was that, for a whole pile of reasons, he wanted to move to Yorkshire and we didn't want to live in my flat in the South-East.

So this September I let out my flat and temporarily moved back in with parents. Good heavens that has been fun! We have now got things pretty much sorted. My boyfriend has been working in Yorkshire and staying with friends for a couple of months, and on Friday just gone we moved him into a rented cottage. I handed in my notice at my current job and have accepted a new job to start in January in Yorkshire.

Where it all gets debt-related (having strayed greatly from my topic!) is that I have almost £2k on two credit cards, and he has some debt as well. To add to the fun, while my OH has just started a job he really enjoys, it is not quite full time and may leave him a bit short.

So I guess this is really the background to my situation, and although the final SOA figures may not arrive for a while until we are settled, the next month or so is going to be interesting. Fancy some numbers?

floss2

Oh go on then!

Temporary SOA's are just as much fun!

BTW, welcome under your new name...:hello:

Floss x

cat4772

Welcome (back) Milly

(and welcome to Yorkshire)

Where are these numbers you promised

Cat.x

Milly1974

The story so far....

Current monthly income:
Wages £1357
Rental on flat £383 (did have to pay for some repairs last month, so was less than this!)

Current Outgoings
Rent to Parents £200
Mortgage £523.74 (fixed rate repayment)
Life insurance £12.30
Mobile Phone bill £42 this month (this has got a little out of control this month and next month, but I've got on top now and this should be £25 max from the new year)
Petrol budget £190 plus

New House Outgoings
Rent £425
Phone/Broadband £25
Council Tax £113 (over 10 months)
Water £50 (estimate)
Electricity £50 (estimate)
Wood & Coal £50 (estimate)
Food £200 (budget if I get my way!)
Monthly Train pass £300

Credit Card 1 £1090 ish at 0%. Currently paying over minimum at £90.23 a month. (Strange figure I know, but it makes sense to me!)
Credit Card 2 £860 ish at 12%.

Card 2 has been primarily strange odds and sods that have built up over the last couple of months through me not paying enough attention. Examples are lending my OH the money for a satnav he needed for work, hiring a van to move things and whatnot. I do have the money to pay this off, but just want to keep hold of that in my savings until the new year to cover stuff like my first month train pass, a hoover and a freezer.

In addition to saving on rent at home when I move to Yorkshire, I will also save on weekend petrol, as I won't need to drive to and from Yorkshire to see OH! He is (obviously) going to contribure to the cottage, and I have my fingers crossed for around £100 a week from him, as I think that is reasonable.

I think now that I have probably typed enough for one night, and might need to let my fingers rest for a bit!

Milly x

GavB79

Why are you overpaying the 0% card and not the 12% card? Would it not make more sense to make minimum repayments on the 0% and put the rest to the 12%?

cat4772

Milly1974 wrote: »

The story so far....
New House Outgoings
Rent £425
Phone/Broadband £25
Council Tax £113 (over 10 months)
Water £50 (estimate) a lot less than this - unless on a meter with the taps running all day!!!
Electricity £50 (estimate)
Wood & Coal £50 (estimate)
Food £200 (budget if I get my way!) an awful lot for just the two of you - check out OS boards
TV licence ?
holidays ?
contents insurance ?
holidays ?

Milly, shouldn't you each contribute 50% to the cost of running the flat and then what's left you can throw at your debts?

Cat.x

Milly1974

I was until recently paying the 12% card off in full each month. It's mostly a case of everything being up in the air at the moment, so I'll let the dust settle and then work out how best to pay what off.

The water at my flat was included in the yearly maintenance charge, and I had a shower and was using a laundrette. At the cottage we only have a bath and we do have a washing machine, so I was kind of plucking a figure out of the air.

When it comes to food, I'm hoping to be able to pretty much run that area of things, but until we try living together it's still a guess. My OH can have slightly expensive tastes, and i'm going to have to put my kitchen back together as a lot of it has been used up and not replaced while living with my parents to save space. That will include of course include cleaning materials, toiletries and the like.

As for the 50% thing, £100 a week from him and £500 a month from me will be about fair, as while I earn a lot more, I also have higher outgoings for my train ticket. That should balance out about right to cover TV licence and contents insurance as well, as they come to about £20 a month together.

I really don't want to have a big debate about who should pay what within my household, especially when I am still living outside that household! We are a partnership and at the moment, I don't have the cash-flow issues that he does, so I'm dealing with some of the up-front stuff like the (extortionate) BT reconnection. :beer:

In return, he is getting the fun jobs of getting the place cleaned up. He had a day off work today and cleared out the wood shed and the bin cupboard. He claims he evicted 20 spiders and 500 snails! :eek: I'm not quite convinced!

Thanks for your comments everyone!

Milly1974

Just adding, while i'm in a posting loads mood, that we've just talked about Christmas presents, and agreed that we will make each other a few vouchers for nice times together, rather than give each other gifts. Probably better than last year when he bought me a TV ariel so he could watch MOTD! :rotfl:

Milly1974

Well my good news for the day is that I will be getting back the deposit for the van I hired! :j

Hired a van at the weekend in order to get my stuff up to our new house, and paid £100 deposit. Only had 1/4 of a tank, so I filled it up with diesel before I left. Got it up to Yorkshire, and OH (who used to be a mechanic) said it sounded really rough. In all fairness, I figured it wasn't really my problem, as long as it got me there and back. I've paid my rental charge and they should maintain their vehicles.

Dropped the van back late on Sunday night, having topped it up with diesel before I left Yorkshire. Message on my voicemail on Monday left by the hire company claiming I had put unleaded in the tank! :mad:

You know those moments where you begin to doubt yourself, just because someone else so strongly states something? Well I had one of those, until I looked at my receipts. So I told the hire company that I hadn't done it and faxed them my receipts. They told me the van was being taken to head office for testing and they would let me know what was happening.

Fortunately, they have now agreed that there isn't any unleaded in the tank and have refunded my deposit. Think that I might have to change my card, just in case they change their minds again! :rolleyes:

Milly x

Milly1974

Morning all! Thank god it's Saturday. Amazing to think that it is December! :xmassmile
Well I have got a very busy morning today, so I need to make a list to make sure I get everything done.

-Phone letting agent. Something to do with washing machine and fridge in the cottage. This could be bad.
-Do mystery shop this morning.
-Take recycling down to recycling centre.
-Complete my reference/health forms for my new job and send them off.
-Complete the paperwork from my solicitor about the car accident from last year.
-Get a load of laundry done.

Think that may be it, but I might add more as the day goes on. :rolleyes:

Have a good day everyone!

squirrel_pigeon

Hiya Milly.

Just thought I'd BUMP incase someone else can add to your SOA.

I'm a bit shy about criticising other people's SOA cos the only one I have has been done by CCCS and then Payplan and it isn't vaguely accurate cos of 'guidelines' so I refuse to post it!