Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

shoppingobsessed2020

Food shopping now at £163/£250 with another 2 weeks to go.  Happy I can meet my target this month

been into work the past 2 days,  I decided to lock myself in my archiving storage rooms and have a sort out.  It’s now organised in a fashion and I’m going to spend a couple of days a week getting it organised.  It’s never been touched so there’s a lot of documents that need to be destroyed but will work on that after it’s fully organised and I’ve got a log in place to keep track of where everything is.

working from home today which is a nice change after being in the office.  

Not sure what to do re tea on a night, I’ve found since I don’t have monkey boy I’m picking at food rather than meals.  More so because I can’t be bothered cooking a meal due to the waste of leftovers.  My fridge is bare so need some picky bits in my shop tomorrow.

going to cut the grass later today once I’ve done some work.

shoppingobsessed2020

Finally managed to change the mortgage at long last.  New payment starts on 1st June.  Bank valued the house slightly higher than last time.  It’s now worth £117k so increased by all of 2k.  

Not sure what has happened as I did the mortgage calculator and our payment should have been £334 but it’s actually £421 going forward.  I have checked and we are on the same interest rate, the only thing I can think of is we have 2 parts to the mortgage.  One mortgage ends in 26yrs and the other ends in 7.5yrs so that I’m assuming the payment is actually higher than my original calculation to take into account the shorter mortgage.  I have fixed for another 5yrs so all being well in 5yrs time we will have a huge amount if not all debt bar the mortgage paid off and can then move to phase 2 and clear the mortgage and buy somewhere bigger.  I can live here for another 5yrs!  

Still awaiting my fluid card so I can do a balance transfer, I have got my payslip as I get paid next week and I’ve got £750 instead of the £400 I was expecting.  I’m assuming that’s an error but will speak to payroll next week and get them to check as the last thing I want is a few months down the line you owe us x and we are taking it back next pay.

Planning on moving my pay into a savings account when I get paid so I can then move all money at once for June.  I am tempted to pay off the rest of the capital one card now though and get rid of it now rather than leaving It for a few more weeks.

shoppingobsessed2020

New soa has been done, I do like an soa! have cleared the capital one card completely!!  My wages went in the bank today for some reason so I though sod it and paid it off,  there will be interest to pay but the statement is due in the next few days so that card will be completely gone.  Never in a million years did I think I could pay off a credit card in under a month.  What on earth have I been doing wasting money,  I want to happy dance and shout it out but we are doing this without telling anyone so it’s between me, you and dh for now.  Honestly it’s a better buzz than going shopping and spending 2k just because you can!

shoppingobsessed2020

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 1 

Number of cars owned....................  2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 750

Partners monthly income after tax....... 4000

Benefits................................ 82

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 4832[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 286

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 683

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 135

Electricity............................. 60

Gas..................................... 60

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 36

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 65

TV Licence.............................. 12

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 85

Internet Services....................... 0

Groceries etc. ......................... 250

Clothing................................ 20

Petrol/diesel........................... 100

Road tax................................ 20

Car Insurance........................... 80

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 135

Other child related expenses............ 150

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 10

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 45

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10

Haircuts................................ 20

Entertainment........................... 50

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 50

Pension................................. 50

Union................................... 50[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2547[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 117000

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 15000

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 132000[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 67536....(286)......2.25

Secured Debt.................. 11193....(136)......2.25

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 12088....(336)......0<

His car........................5367.....(211)......0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 96184.....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Next store card................2000......120.......30

Very...........................300.......0.........0

Debenhams cc...................2200......120.......30

Mbna ..........................10000.....250.......25

Loan 2.........................16250.....450.......17

Loan 1.........................15100.....362.......13

Barclays cc his 0%.............5345......120.......0

Barclays cc mine ..............6200......150.......30

Tsb............................970.......30........30[b]

Total unsecured debts..........58365.....1602......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 4,832

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,547

Available for debt repayments........... 2,285

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,602[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 683[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 132,000

Total HP & Secured debt................. -96,184

Total Unsecured debt.................... -58,365[b]

Net Assets.............................. -22,549[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]

DancingInTheRain

Well done on clearing the credit card, you sound so focused and determined. Best of luck on your journey 🙂

Drawingaline

Well done, its a fab feeling isn't it! 

WhySeaEm

Well done on clearing capital one! I hate mine, 30% interest and I didn't even know til I checked the other day. 

Sounds like you made the right decision about monkey boy if he's going to be safer. 

WhySeaEm

Also your mortgage makes me so jealous. I pay £1500 a month in rent alone!

shoppingobsessed2020

@WhySeaEm the only benefit to living in the cheap (compered to the south) north lol.  

shoppingobsessed2020

Been shopping after I finished work today.  I’ve lost track of my total spend for the month but I know I’ve not hit my budget.  I’m approximately at £200/250.  Tonight’s shopping was £24.32 so will do me a week easily.  The food I eat lots of is rather pricey and I did have to talk myself out of an £8 steak at the butchers.  Saying that though I’d have paid that in Costco for one twice the size so I’ll get steak when I’m next in Costco and it will do me 2 meals rather than 1 (well I’ll have to buy in bulk so will cost more like £30 but I’ll have lots of yummy meals out of that) I’m odd as I can only tolerate filet.  I’ve tried every bit of steak going and the only one my tummy likes is filet and given the tiny amount of steak I do actually eat I don’t mind paying that price.  We are very much quality over quantity food shoppers here and we do have an abundance of farm shops so we are very spoilt with some amazing meat on the doorstep.  

been doing some thinking, I’ve cleared my capital one card tonight.  It had just under £10 to pay in interest so that has gone, but I’ve discovered the interest rate is only 23.9%.  I say only like it’s a good thing!  But here is my thinking, am I not better transferring some of my next or my Debenhams  card to the capital one card as they are both 29.9%.  I need to sit with a calculator and do some sums.

i have got my fluid pin today so hopefully the card will arrive imminently letting me know what the credit limit is so I can then work at moving money around to take advantage of smaller interest rates and the 9 month interest free offer I got on fluid.  Once I’ve got that card and done the sums I’ll decide what I’m doing re moving balances to the capital one card and checking if it’s even possible to do a balance transfer to that card.  

On the plus side I have noticed my electric bill has dropped!  88p of electric used today, but dinner has been scrambled egg so not had to have the oven on.  Plus I’ve done no washing or drying today.  I’m sure when I go do my ironing shortly that it will boost to high heavens and then some but it’s surprising me how little I have used these past few days being on my own,