Busting this debt before 40

Chocolatefund

Time for me to de-lurk on this thread and start my own dairy.

Long story short ish. Away on work last year all my co-workers talked about pensions. Then realised that I wouldn't get my state pension till 67. Also my work pension doesn't kick in till 67 either...(There's like a mini pension for when I've done my contracted time, but it's meh...)

This resulted in doing a ton of pension/investment/ISA research so I could maybe retire earlier. Then lo and behold the magic of Dave Ramsey popped into my Zoutoube feed...after a ton of unhealthy binge watching I came to the realisation that my whole family are sh** with money.  I've always been a spender, and now I get why...

Time to start building some proper long term plans.  Only thing is I'm at the tail end of a whole house renovation, ugh...

With the majority of it done now, I ended up with 25k of debt over two loans.  The smaller of the two loans I managed to pay off since I had my lightbulb moment back in Feb. So now I'm just left with the one loan with a balance of 19970.

I'm late 30s now, so have set myself to be debt free (apart from mortgage) by 40. That's a pretty neat feeling good goal If I can resist the temptation of house stuff.

Will post an SOA to reflect the budget I've been working with the last few months. 

Chocolatefund

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

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 0

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 3180

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

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

Total monthly income.................... 3180[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 840

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 116

Electricity............................. 105

Gas..................................... 0

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

Water rates............................. 21

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

Mobile phone............................ 14

TV Licence.............................. 13

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 37

Groceries etc. ......................... 220

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

Petrol/diesel........................... 120

Road tax................................ 14

Car Insurance........................... 60

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30

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

Other travel............................ 15

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

Other child related expenses............ 0

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

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

Buildings insurance..................... 220

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 25

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 60

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

Emergency fund.......................... 150[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2080[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 1495

House value (Gross)..................... 300

Shares and bonds........................ 1500

Car(s).................................. 12000

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

Total Assets............................ 15295[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

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

Mortgage...................... 150000...(840)......3.9[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 150000....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

Loan...........................19970.....285.......5.2[b]

Total unsecured debts..........19970.....285.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,180

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,080

Available for debt repayments........... 1,100

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 285[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 815[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 15,295

Total HP & Secured debt................. -150,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -19,970[b]

Net Assets.............................. -154,675[/b]

Some SOA stuff;
My gas and electric are 105 together. Got £300+ in credit for winter coming.
I pay annually for TV licence/Car Insurance/Tax/MOT/Service/Building&Contents 
I've not bought any new clothes this year. Going to try and keep it that way.  
Not been on holiday for the last year either due to the house reno being a money sucking black hole.
Just realised I missed a couple of zeros off the house value. }:-(

Chocolatefund

So my plan continuing;

£220 food/toiletries 
£120 petrol 
£60 Eating Out/Fun
£50 miscellaneous 
£50 in savings for an Xmas pot.

I've recently opened a Ch@se account to toy with the idea of having a separate bank just for spending and transfer £500 after payday. I'm sitting at around £200 atm which I need to reign in and try and last me till payday. I've got a meal out planned with a friend later this month, but other then that I'm going to be a hermit and spend far too much time in front of my PS5.

Going to aim to overpay the loan by £800 a month which quite ambitious.  All my bills come out on the 1st so whatever is left over will go into a separate savings pot. I've got a regular saver which is where my emergency fund currently sits at around £1450 and will keep going with topping that at £150 monthly.

Keeping a spending diary and a NSD calendar to keep the motivation going. Wish me luck.

On-the-coast

Great work. 

And good time of life to be thinking about future while you’ve got plenty of time to address it. 

Quick Q - 220pm for house insurance doesn’t sound right?

Mr.Generous

Great start, well done. @£800 a month soon clear the debt.

Chocolatefund

On-the-coast said:

Great work. 

And good time of life to be thinking about future while you’ve got plenty of time to address it. 

Quick Q - 220pm for house insurance doesn’t sound right?

Oops, my bad. Thats annually.  I remembed to divide everything else by 12 but not that.  Probably shouldn't do an SOA when I'm sleepy. 

Sarahwithlove

£800 a month repayment is great. Will definitely help get it gone. I would open a chase account for spending. Stops temptation of over spending as if not there you can't pay for it. 

Chocolatefund

Weekly update. 

I'm going to try and update every Sunday, so I can look back on the week to see how things have gone money wise. I might throw in a mid week update if something money exciting comes up.

I finnaly got off my procrastinating butt and listed some items on V1nted. Made some sales totaling £70 pound so far, woohoo! I can totally see why people get hooked on it.

@Sarah. I've had my Ch@se separate spending account for a couple of weeks now and it's been great for budgeting to see how much I've got left for the rest of the month. I'm one of those weirdos who's ever only had one bank account at a time. I do miss my N@twest double round ups though.

So this week's spends;

£8 on Am@zon. For packaging for posting items.
£3 Post office. Packaging again for said items.
£49 weekly food shop.
£14 Eating out. This came in way lower then I expected as my friend and I chose a local pizza place. 

I've got £152 left in my spending account to last me the rest of the month.  I've got no big plans coming up, but we all know life likes to throw something at us when we least expect it.

Here's to hopefully a low spend August!

Sarahwithlove

That's great and a very good amount left to last until end of month. Totally doable. Whilst I'm sure double round up on natwest is good, having a separate account will be better in the long run. 

Chocolatefund

Thanks @Sarah.  I'm definitely going to stick with the Ch@se account for the time being, at least till my debt is paid off and I have a decent emergency fund.

I've got too many money saving goals!  I want to;

Replace my front and back door. They are both single glazed old wooden doors. Not very efficient. Would love to replace these before winter sets in.

I've got some carpentry work that I'd like doing. Get some built in cupboards under the stairs, trim the doors down and re hang them, (new carpet is thicker) plus new handles.

I want to covert my front garden into a driveway in the distant future. I'd also like to landscape that jungle that I call a rear garden.

My goodness what a money pit. A money pit I absolutely love though.

I might think about a separate savings pot for these. As long as I can make my overpayment goal.

Hmmm, decisions.

Chocolatefund

End of week update

I have a couple of expenses coming up for September.  Decided to go ahead and get them sorted now as I have just about the money left from this month's budget.

I normally stock up on bulk firewood around Sept/Oct time to last me for the winter. I decided to go ahead and get a batch for £82 while it's still cheaper during summer months.

I have two family birthdays coming up in Sept too and was able to buy both presents totalling £52

Did a mini weekly food shop coming in at £10

Now I just have £7 left in my spending account till payday next Friday.  Got no plans for bank holiday nor next week...I can do it!  

Cashed out £97 from my V1nted. Woohoo!
Did an extra shift this week, so that should come in at the end of the month too.

This 'zero based bugdet' and 'looking ahead at next month's expenses' stuff, really works, huh?  😅