KellsBells and buckets of cash - debt free diary

KellsBells

Hi all,

I've finally decided after a year of umming and ahhing that I will am going to start my debt free diary. I have come to the conclusion that a dfd will help me keep on track, and if any of my experiences help someone else, then it has been well worth it in the long run.
So, where to start? Why not at the beginning.....
My name is Kelly, I am 26 years old and married. I have two young sons, one 6 and the other 4. I personally feel that I am in debt due to the awful example I was set while growing up. Both my parents were alcoholics (sadly I have lost both of them now on account of this illness) and as a rule spent every penny they had on more booze and cigarettes. My brother and I had quite a deprived childhood, hand me down clothes, cheap toys - you get the picture. As a result of this I find I give my children too much - the latest gadgets and computer games, new clothes and on and on.... it has to stop somewhere.
It is just over a month ago we lost my Dad, and the bereavement has caused me to take stock of my life. I want to stop giving the wrong example to my children with my spendthrift and 'devil may care' attitude to finances.

I apologise in advance if this diary is boring and mundane. I apologise if I ramble and confuse.However, I make no apology as to my reason for the diary - I am after a better way of life for myself and my children. What better reason could there be?
SOA to follow.

KellsBells

My SOA.

Income
My wage - 1200
Hubby wage 1200
Tax credit 307
Child benefit 120

Total: 2827

Outgoings monthly

Mortgage - 560
House ins - 17.24
Ctax - 130.00
Water rates - 2.70
Gas bill 90.00
Elec - 45.00 (both b/gas for the dual fuel discount)
Phone, internet & tv - all virgin media - 75 - 80.00
Mobile phone 10.00
Dh mobile 20.00
Laptop repair cover 8.99
Car ins 49.00
Car tax 10.00
Petrol 40.00
Food & grocery 400
Work clothes 25.00
Nursery - 266
Laundry 10
Dvd rental 10
Pet costs 25
Gym 29.50
Family night 80
Tv lice - 11.61
Birthday 30
Hairdresser 43
Dentist 20
Optical 15

Monthly spends Total: 2042.04

Debt.
Marbles (dh) - 448.00 apr 15.9.
Barclaycard (dh) 1907.81 apr 24.9
Cap 1 (dh) 369.81 apr 2.15
Storecard 1 388.92 apr 8
Storecard 2 541.50 apr 8
Storecard 3 200.00 apr 15.9
Visa card 816.49 apr 24.9

Total debt: 4672.53

KellsBells

Now, I'm not a complete novice in the ways of the DFW, but I know I have much to learn. You are welcome to read and see how I get on, and I would be greatful for any advice along the way.xxxxx

neverdespairgirl

KellsBells wrote: »

Income
My wage - 1200
Hubby wage 1200
Tax credit 307
Child benefit 120

Total: 2827

Outgoings monthly

Mortgage - 560
House ins - 17.24
Ctax - 130.00
Water rates - 2.70
Gas bill 90.00
Elec - 45.00 (both b/gas for the dual fuel discount) - £135 on bills per month seems very high to me - are you sure these figures are right?
Phone, internet & tv - all virgin media - 75 - 80.00 - that's an awful lot, altogether you are spending £110 a month on phones and TV. Virgin do much cheaper deals, perhaps you should have a look at one of their all-in-for-under-£40 deals?
Mobile phone 10.00
Dh mobile 20.00
Laptop repair cover 8.99 - this seems a very high amount, over £100 a year for repair insuance? I'd get rid.
Car ins 49.00
Car tax 10.00
Petrol 40.00
Food & grocery 400 - seems quite high for 4 of you, I reckon you could shave £50 of this without even noticing.
Work clothes 25.00
Nursery - 266 - have you checked whether either yours or OH's work does childcare vouchers? it's a much cheaper way of doing things.
Laundry 10
Dvd rental 10
Pet costs 25
Gym 29.50 - hand on heart -do you get the value out of it?
Family night 80
Tv lice - 11.61 - sounds painful, maybe you can get some cream to get rid of them....?
Birthday 30
Hairdresser 43 - blimey, what do you do to it? You seem to have gorgeous hair from your avatar, but £516 a year is quite a lot LOL
Dentist 20
Optical 15

Monthly spends Total: 2042.04

Debt.
Marbles (dh) - 448.00 apr 15.9.
Barclaycard (dh) 1907.81 apr 24.9
Cap 1 (dh) 369.81 apr 2.15
Storecard 1 388.92 apr 8
Storecard 2 541.50 apr 8
Storecard 3 200.00 apr 15.9
Visa card 816.49 apr 24.9

Total debt: 4672.53

I think there may be things you've left out - children's clothes, toiletries, car maintenance, MOT, etc?

Looks good though - even without any reductions, you have £800 a month to pay off your debts. Are you paying the minimum on all except the highest, and throwing all spare cash at the highest-interest debt?

ms_london

Hiya. Welcome to MSE & well done for making the first step.

It does look as though some of the things on your budget are high, as in, are they definately monthly costs? For example the hairdresser, dentist, optical, birthday etc etc. Are you just putting figures in here as an average or do you ACTUALLY spend this much per month? Its great budgeting for these items, definately, but it is different as to whether you actually pay that each month, or just feel like you may need to pay that much in case something crops up. You could just bundle all of these costs into an emergency fund, and dip into it when you need to.

Debt.
Marbles (dh) - 448.00 apr 15.9.
Barclaycard (dh) 1907.81 apr 24.9
Cap 1 (dh) 369.81 apr 2.15
Storecard 1 388.92 apr 8
Storecard 2 541.50 apr 8
Storecard 3 200.00 apr 15.9
Visa card 816.49 apr 24.9


Are you sure the storecards are 8%? That seems pretty low for storecards, theyre usually the highest apr culprits of them all! Do you have any room on any of the cards to balance transfer? Just noticed your cap 1 card, again I dont think the APR is 2.15%, that must be the AER (is that what its called?!)

I would be inclined to get rid of the smaller debts first, regardless of whether they have the lowest APR or not, it will be satisfaction to get rid of them, and see one creditor less on your list.

You should call them all, see if theyll reduce the interest, stop charges, or at least agree for you to pay a monthly repayment you can afford, rather than the normal minimum repayment, which is still too high sometimes, esp if you have numerous other debts.

xx

KellsBells

Hi there, thanks for looking at my soa.
Elec - 45.00 (both b/gas for the dual fuel discount) - £135 on bills per month seems very high to me - are you sure these figures are right? Sadly, yes. Am paying off arrears, plus we use a lot of gas
Phone, internet & tv - all virgin media - 75 - 80.00 - that's an awful lot, altogether you are spending £110 a month on phones and TV. Virgin do much cheaper deals, perhaps you should have a look at one of their all-in-for-under-£40 deals? Fantastic - I will do just that
Laptop repair cover 8.99 - this seems a very high amount, over £100 a year for repair insuance? I'd get rid. Are you sure? the laptop is brand new and was a costly investment at £449, would be hearbroken if anything were to happen to it...
Food & grocery 400 - seems quite high for 4 of you, I reckon you could shave £50 of this without even noticing. I'll try, but this does include pet food and toiletries etc
Nursery - 266 - have you checked whether either yours or OH's work does childcare vouchers? it's a much cheaper way of doing things. We do them at my work, I've never really understood them but I'll speak to personnel on Monday
Gym 29.50 - hand on heart -do you get the value out of it? I adore the gym, BUT I have the race for life coming up and my training will be all outdoor - I will cancel the gym dd and just pay when I go
Tv lice - 11.61 - sounds painful, maybe you can get some cream to get rid of them....? lol!! didn't notice that!:rotfl:
Hairdresser 43 - blimey, what do you do to it? You seem to have gorgeous hair from your avatar, but £516 a year is quite a lot LOL I know it's a lot, it's a cut and colour at 65.00 every three months

beckseven

I'm no expert at all on this and quite a newbie at the money saving business but this webiste is brilliant so I will offer a little bit of advice.
Mortgage - 560
House ins - 17.24 Try shopping around with this and then in future use one of the cashback sites such as pigsback or quidco so you get money back.
Ctax - 130.00
Water rates - 2.70
Gas bill 90.00
Elec - 45.00 (both b/gas for the dual fuel discount) -Have you ever swapped supplier as swapping to other providers could save you money
Phone, internet & tv - all virgin media - 75 - 80.00 - Mobile phone 10.00
Dh mobile 20.00
Laptop repair cover 8.99 -
Car ins 49.00-again try shopping around for this and getting through cashback sites.
Car tax 10.00
Petrol 40.00
Food & grocery 400 - This can definitely be cut down on. Look at the old school board for advice on meal planning etc.
Work clothes 25.00
Nursery - 266 -I use childcare vouchers and it saves me nearly £1000 a year..
Laundry 10
Dvd rental 10
Pet costs 25
Gym 29.50 - Family night 80
Tv lice - 11.61 -
Birthday 30
Hairdresser 43 - Dentist 20
Optical 15
I bet with some really careful planning you will get your situation sorted out in no time without your family having to suffer in any way whatsoever. It's just been Christmas so your kids must have loads of toys to keep them going. It's amazing how you can change your mindset. I used to be such a spendthrift-I used to go to Sainsburys everyday and buy bits and bobs for dinner and would use my credit card to buy things to make me feel good-clothes, beauty treatments etc etc. I used to spend about £30 on my lunches at work alone. Once you have paid your debts off you will soon get the mindset of saving and planning for things rather than splurging. This year for the first time ever when my car went wrong i had an emergency fund of money on hand to spend on it rather than using my credit card. Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

KellsBells

ms_london wrote: »

Hiya. Welcome to MSE & well done for making the first step.

It does look as though some of the things on your budget are high, as in, are they definately monthly costs? For example the hairdresser, dentist, optical, birthday etc etc. Are you just putting figures in here as an average or do you ACTUALLY spend this much per month? Its great budgeting for these items, definately, but it is different as to whether you actually pay that each month, or just feel like you may need to pay that much in case something crops up. You could just bundle all of these costs into an emergency fund, and dip into it when you need to.

Debt.
Marbles (dh) - 448.00 apr 15.9.
Barclaycard (dh) 1907.81 apr 24.9
Cap 1 (dh) 369.81 apr 2.15
Storecard 1 388.92 apr 8
Storecard 2 541.50 apr 8
Storecard 3 200.00 apr 15.9
Visa card 816.49 apr 24.9


Are you sure the storecards are 8%? That seems pretty low for storecards, theyre usually the highest apr culprits of them all! Do you have any room on any of the cards to balance transfer? Just noticed your cap 1 card, again I dont think the APR is 2.15%, that must be the AER (is that what its called?!)

I would be inclined to get rid of the smaller debts first, regardless of whether they have the lowest APR or not, it will be satisfaction to get rid of them, and see one creditor less on your list.

You should call them all, see if theyll reduce the interest, stop charges, or at least agree for you to pay a monthly repayment you can afford, rather than the normal minimum repayment, which is still too high sometimes, esp if you have numerous other debts.


Hi Miss London, thanks for your reply. You are correct - the dentist and hairdresser amounts are averages of the year divided by twelve. The Optical is correct, it's contact lenses at £15 a month.
The store cards are correct, this is beacause they went to CCJ and the court set the interest levels at this - I have it in writing. Not sure about cap 1 though, as that is hubbies debt - I shall look into and report back.
No way on Earth we can balance transfer - we've royally screwed our credit ratings and no-one would touch us financially with a 10ft barge-pole. The accounts we are paying have actually had the cards withdrawn and we are just paying back the minimum amounts.

To be honest I was planning to pay the highest apr of first and work down, but I see your point about the smaller balances and feeling like you've made more progress. I shall give it some thought.xx

KellsBells

Hi Beckseven,
Thank you for your lovely words of support and your advice.
House and car ins - I will check out the cashback sites, already registered with pigsback and quidco, so will see what they have to offer on these. Groceries etc - I always try to go for the best deals, bogof's etc, and sometimes buy online to prevent inpulse buys. Not tried the old style board - will definately check this out.
I know what you mean about the work lunches - I work in an office full time and we generally nip to asda at lunch and a pub lunch once a week. To combat the costs of this I'm going to start taking lunch in and work through lunch, claiming that I'm too busy to go to the pub!

ms_london

I know the logical thing is to pay the debt with the highest APR - whatever works for you! I followed this aside from a few straggly debts I had that I just wanted to get rid of!

My credit rating was shot to pieces too! I do have a credit card now with Capital One (in an attempt to repair my credit rating!), but havent paid a penny in interest since I had it - the interest is 30%! :eek:

I am sure your kids would prefer to see you happy & healthy more than anything else - a loving family is all that is important, not having a new game wont scar them for life, although they wont see it like that :rolleyes:

Sounds like you have your head screwed on, you can do it!!

I used to find that having all of my payments come out at the same time just after payday meant I knew where I was with the money I had left (or didnt have as the case was, hehe!!) - ING savings accounts are great for having little pots of money, to separate your finances - and you can name the accounts too! Even now I need to separate my finances, otherwise I think I have more than I do!

Good luck xx

beckseven

I just looked at your signature and you're doing really well already. I never ever thought that I could cut down as much as I have now but when I had my little boy and moved to a new house I knew I just had to or else we would lose everything. Making lunches is the way forward-it's part of my morning routine now that I make myself and my husbands sarnies. you don't have to give up going to the pub-eat your homemade sarnies before you go and then just have a drink with everyone else-socialising keeps your spirits up!