Trying to get the balance right

Mrsfreshstart2023

Hi all, 

Long time lurker over here 👋 and thought I'd finally bite the bullet and create my own diary. Mostly for my own self motivation and to keep tabs on myself as I am my own worst enemy at talking myself around or out of situations. 

I have stalked these forums for a number of years as I find reading other people's diaries inspirational and they make me feel like I can do it too.

A little bit about me, I am married  with 4 children ranging from 5 to 15. Our family is now complete and we have lived in our home for 10 years with no plans to move.  We have recently completed extension work  to our home for our family as they grow bigger and take up more space. 

We used our savings for the majority of the building work however due to costs increasing we found our savings had dwindled and used credit cards when there was a short fall. Fast forward a couple of years later and the current cost of living crisis, where I have put things on the credit card which I would not normally have done. I think over the last year I have felt the pinch more and have less surplus income. I've  noticed our debt repayments are really making this squeeze more painful and they need to get gone 👊. 

It has got to the point where I feel if we do nothing about this now then things will only get worse and unmanageable. 

My dh is on board and we are tackling this together however I am probably the most get up and go out of both of us and this diary is in part my gift to him of not talking his ear off about debt, overpayment and budgeting 🤣

At present we're looking at just shy of £20k credit card debt all on 0% interest. We also have a Tesco loan for our car however my attention is firstly on the credit cards.

My goal is to obviously pay this off but I would also like to be in a position where I can save enough to not have to rely on a credit card in any circumstances.
 
I'm really appreciative of any advice or support people can offer me to help me achieve my target and really looking forward to getting to know a you and make friends along the way 😊

Well done if you made it this far 👏  I will endeavour to make my posts shorter in future 😀 

Take care x

CreditCardJunkie

Well done for taking the first step!

The next step is to stop using credit. Set your budget and stick to it, its literally the only way you'll ever free yourself from debt. 

It took me 3 attempts to actually succeed at clearing my debt and I found its once you start living within your budget that you can really start paying down debt for good.

The general idea on here is you post a SOA to see where you can fine tune your budget, I personally find keeping a spreadsheet is the best way. I found in the first few months keeping a spreadsheet of every transaction showed me where I was going wrong (lots of £10 here and there on the credit card sure added up!).

Good luck!!

Mrsfreshstart2023

CreditCardJunkie said:

Well done for taking the first step!

The next step is to stop using credit. Set your budget and stick to it, its literally the only way you'll ever free yourself from debt. 

It took me 3 attempts to actually succeed at clearing my debt and I found its once you start living within your budget that you can really start paying down debt for good.

The general idea on here is you post a SOA to see where you can fine tune your budget, I personally find keeping a spreadsheet is the best way. I found in the first few months keeping a spreadsheet of every transaction showed me where I was going wrong (lots of £10 here and there on the credit card sure added up!).

Good luck!!

Thank you! 

I haven't put anything on the credit card this year and its a good feeling. I have deleted the card details from Amazon and my saved details so this takes away the temptation. I generally used 1 credit card for purchases which now has been cleared. 

I nearly closed this down a couple of days ago however decided to keep I open for the time being incase I need another balance transfer offer.

I'm working out figures and will complete SOA as soon as possible.

Thank you 😊 

Mrsfreshstart2023

I'm obviously not very good as keeping a diary 🙄 ..but I'm pleased to say I've stayed on the right track and there's been nothing added onto the credit cards. 

We've managed to get our credit card debt down to £14250 which I'm happy about.

It becomes weirdly addictive. I look forward to bill day so I can work out what the new figure is 🤓

Naomim

That's an impressive drop since March! 

I hope your husband's ears are still intact if you've not been posting on here!,🤣

Baron_Dale

Did you manage to put a SOA together? Your budget must be working if you have managed to reduce debt by several thousands of pounds since March. Well done!

Baron_Dale

Its been a while. How are things going?

Mrsfreshstart2023

Baron_Dale said:

Its been a while. How are things going?

I'm plodding along still. 

I've had a reply sat in my drafts for months as my formatting seemed to be off but I couldn't upload my response for some reason- I've now just learnt how to delete a draft post 😬

I still haven't done a SOA, I need to but life is so busy at the moment. Its on my to-do list. I know where my outgoings go though- kids! The older they get the more expensive they get. They do clubs and enjoy a good social life and to be honest I don't want to change that, the trouble we found ourselves in last year was our mess and I'm keen to tackle it without them feeling any impact if possible. I'm lucky that all the debt is on 0% so I can see it steadily coming down with what we pay off monthly. 

I'm a bit lost with finances this month as a few 0% deals were coming to an end at the same time so I needed to apply for new balance transfers and wait for new statements to see what my payments are going to be. So I'm not organised yet, I will be by the end of the month though. 

I've become so dead against putting anything onto credit cards that It really pained me to pay the fee for the balan e transfers 🤣. I managed to get around this a little bit as 1 card was fee free and the other 2 were 1% fee, so the cost was only £30 in total.

I'm also very lucky in the sense a family member has given/lent us some money to pay down the cards a little. This money will be repaid after the credit card debt has gone but for the sake of keeping my uplifted and invested in our journey it felt positive and gave me another huge kick up the bum.

Debt is now approx £9900. I will know full amount in a couple of weeks. 

I've switched my bank account this month for £200 fee and have some other money coming in this month from backpay for a promotion (approx £800) which will be paid off the credit cards. 

I have another balance transfer due 1st Dec for approx £1200 I'm hoping if I invest the above onto this card and then pay minimum payment on all cards other than where the balance transfer is due, then I can pay this off without the need to balance transfer. This is my next target! 

Sorry for the long reply 😅

@Naomim as you can probably tell..husband's ears are hanging on by a thread 🫣😆

Squirrelz92

Great to read how much progress you have made!!!! Keep doing whatever you are doing as clearly it is working. x

Baron_Dale

While I understand you want to minimise the impact on your children there is no harm in them being encouraged also to do their bit. Indeed it could be a valuable life lesson for them in financial management. At least they are hopefully helping with chores and other things to earn in some way all their treats and clubs.
Well done on the debt reduction so far. Hopefully your SOA will encourage others to put forward useful suggestions too.

Mrsfreshstart2023

[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......... 4

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

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 2013

Partners monthly income after tax....... 1751

Benefits................................ 386

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

Total monthly income.................... 4150[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 684.3

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 282.6500000000001

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 226

Electricity............................. 100

Gas..................................... 111

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

Water rates............................. 27

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

Mobile phone............................ 79.81

TV Licence.............................. 13.25

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 92.85

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

Groceries etc. ......................... 700

Clothing................................ 0

Petrol/diesel........................... 130

Road tax................................ 28.87

Car Insurance........................... 39.09

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

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

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

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 200

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

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

Buildings insurance..................... 10.75

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

Life assurance ......................... 14.75

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

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0

Haircuts................................ 30

Entertainment........................... 218

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

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Kids stocks and shares.................. 13

Gym..................................... 20[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 3031.32[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 2000

House value (Gross)..................... 350000

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

Car(s).................................. 16000

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

Total Assets............................ 368000[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

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

Mortgage...................... 106573...(684.3)....4.49

Secured Debt.................. 7977.75..(241.7)....7.1<

DFS............................1228.5...(40.95)....0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 115779.2.-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

Barclays credit card...........2425......66.78.....0

Natwest credit card............2850......28.5......0

Barclays credit card ..........1930......61.44.....0

Sainsburys credit car..........3077.56...72.54.....0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........10282.56..229.26....-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 4,150

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,031.32

Available for debt repayments........... 1,118.68

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 229.26[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 889.42[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 368,000

Total HP & Secured debt................. -115,779.25

Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,282.56[b]

Net Assets.............................. 241,938.19[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

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