Our road to recovery-Part 2

ltm07

Hi all again!! Well not much to tell you this week, apart from the new way that we are budgetting seems to be working quite well so far, as we know exactly how much we are spending. Off to a workmate's wedding do tomorrow night & he & his wife have asked for cash instead of presents. Asked a few of the lads at work how much to give & one said he was giving £30. I was thinking of giving £20 but another of the lad's at work has suggested we all chuck in a tenner,so we will do that! I don't know if that's a bit mean or not but I will buy them both a drink too! Anyway here is our new update, thanks for reading.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)-£33,744.48
Debt Today(May 16th 08)-£31,700.04

ltm07

Congratulations on completing your SOA. What you need to do now is to highlight, copy and paste everything (yes, I mean everything) below the line into a post on the MSE website. When you have done that, you can type any other relevant information at the end of the post. For example, the number and ages of people in the household, the type of work you do, the type of accommodation you live in, the number of cars included in the SOA or anything else you think is useful to explain your circumstances.

<===== Copy and paste EVERYTHING below this line into your MSE post =====>


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1083.33
Partners monthly income after tax....... 860
Benefits................................ 126.74
Other income............................ 300
Total monthly income.................... 2370.07

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 423.37
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 0
Council tax............................. 85
Electricity............................. 26
Gas..................................... 65
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 43.04
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 11.61
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 390
Clothing................................ 65
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 13.75
Car Insurance........................... 28.2
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 43.33
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 14
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 22
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 22.62
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 43.33
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 173.33
Holiday................................. 43.66
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Window Cleaner.......................... 7
Endowment............................... 68.46
Total monthly expenses.................. 1771.20
Bank Account Fee £10
Daughter's pocket money £32.50
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 7000
Total Assets............................ 135000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 70000....(423.37)...5.17
Total secured debts........... 70000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax Overdraft..............1415.01...30........13.35
Halifax Free OD................300.......0.........0
Nationwide OD..................745.49....8.........9.9
Mum............................3370......21.66.....0
Natwest........................2873......60........0
Tesco..........................2361.38...65........0
Citicard.......................3071.82...60........5.85
Barclaycard....................2253.98...50........6.5
Abbeyloan......................292.86....97.62.....6.9
Nationwide Loan................3181.34...97.84.....6.7
Nationwide Loan................6362.8....148.6.....6.7
Halifax Loan...................2948.64...138.6.....6.9
Halifax CC.....................2382.47...45........6.95
Nationwide OD..................140.23....5.........9.9
Total unsecured debts..........31699.02..827.32....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,370.07
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,771.70
Available for debt repayments........... 598.87
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 827.32
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -228.45

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 135,000
Total Secured debt...................... -70,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,699.02
Personal net worth...................... 33,300.98

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

Gemmzie

That's quite a chunk of deficit, are the debts listed the minimum payments?

ltm07

Thanks Gemmzie. Yes they are minimum payments. Tried shifting everything onto lower interest & 0% cards but it has really stretched our budget to the limit:mad: . The minimum payments will get lower but we need to basically find another £40-£50 a week from somewhere. Thanks for replying.

ltm07

:hello: all again. Well as some of you may have read on The Long Haul Supporters thread I had a bit of a rant about things last night & was(and still am) toying with the idea of consolidating some of our debts to make life easier for us by lowering our monthly payments. Posted our SOA up on here yesterday & although there are a few things you folks could still pick at & free up a little more cash, it will still be a struggle to keep on top of things. So for the time being we will budget for everything that we need & if our debts don't go down as fast as we'd like to or even increase a little,then so be it. Just can't go on the way we are worrying about every single penny & not enjoying life as much as we'd like to. OH doesn't know that I'm posting this but going to have a talk with her later to find out exactly how she feels. I guess many others feel like this from time to time during their DFW journey, especially with the cost of living rising so fast, but at the end of the day we need to do what's best for us. So we will probably be around on here for a couple of years more than we planned & I have set our DFD target accordingly to February 2013(my 40th birthday)! Off to Alton Towers on Sunday as a surprise for DD. We will get one half price ticket through the Walkers brittrip website & have booked the other 2 tickets online, so have managed to save ourselves £30 by doing. Don't get me wrong, we ain't going to bury our heads in the sand & have taken on so many invaluable things from Martin & you good people. We have learned from our mistakes & will continue to live life DFW style as much as we can, but are going to allow a little slack so we can enjoy life a little more. We will budget fo EVERYTHING, but if we do go over budget now & again & have to dip into our overdraft from time to time then so be it. Thanks for reading & I hope that no-one is offended by this post, it's just that it feels like we are trying too hard & missing out on too many things because of these debts. So here is our new update & it is accurate within £50, but Halifax website is down so can't get an accurate figure,so will edit later.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)-£33,744.47
Debt Today(May 23rd 08)-£31,703.57

ltm07

Well it seems like we're taking 2 steps forward & 1 back at the moment but saying that we are allowing for a bit more slack. We have decided to take the plunge & get married next year & have found what looks like a really nice venue & the prices are very reasonable too. We have done our sums & reckon we can do the whole day with the honeymoon thrown in for £5,000 to £6,000, but will check out the Wedding forum for some more advice & tips, to see if we can do it any cheaper. You may think that we are mad to get married when we are this much in debt, but it's something that we want to do & just can't wait another 4 or 5 years to do it once DF. We have twice set a date to marry, but have had to put it on hold due to our debts. Our ultimate aim was to be DF by February 2013 when I turn 40 & I reckon we will still get there by then. We have learnt so much from Martin & you good people so there's no way that we will go back to our old ways & add to our debts. However, we do feel that we need to strike a balance & not go from one extreme to the other. Not going to consolidate,but going to try our upmost to stick to our budget but at the same time not worry too much if we do go over budget now & again. Some of you may not agree with this but my week off gave me time to take a long hard look at myself & to work out what I really want from life. I am probably sounding a bit morbid here but no-one knows what the future holds & I have found out that someone else I know has terminal bowel cancer at 35(not a close friend or anything but it is still a big shock) & may not live to see Xmas. It really does make you think about life when things like that happen so close to home. So this DFW journey will be more of a stroll than a sprint to be DF for us. We will continue to search for bargains, shop at Aldi & always search for the best deals & offers, but at the same time if we want to go to that rock concert that we can't really afford or that weekend away, we will do so. We do have our debt under control & we are so lucky to have had a LBM so we can stay on top of things, but can't be doing with the feelings of guilt if we spend a little too much now & again. Our weekly update should look a little better as there are some transactions still going through. So thanks for reading & here is the new update.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)-£33,744.47
Debt today(May 30th 08)-£31,712.49

ltm07

Hi all! Well we have provisionally booked the wedding venue & registrar today for August next year & the day itself should come to no more than £3,000 & we reckon that we can do the lot with honeymoon for not much more than £5,000. OH's Mum also giving us £1,200 towards the day so that will be a massive help. We can't wait & it gives us a purpose & a kick up the aris to earn as much money as we can through overtime & extra shifts. Still at a bit of a sticking point regarding debts, but that's because we have piggybanked alot of money into seperate accounts for food,petrol etc.,so if we offset it our update would look quite a bit better. Also our mortgage & council tax have gone out this week so the first week of the month always sees our debts go up a little. By our 1st anniversary of LBM we should have paid off between £2,500-£3,000 off our debts which isn't as good as others, but if we hadn't had LBM & advice from Martin's website & you good people on this excellent forum, we would probably have added £2,500-£3000!! Anyway here is our new update.

Debt at LBM(July 1st 07)- £33,744.49
Debt Today(june 6th 08)-£31,841.51

firesidemaid

this is why me and my partner don't get married - we feel we cannot justify spending that kind of money! we have been together 16 years....... but i have looked into it for when we have the time to plan. a castle wedding for £300, a hot lunch buffet in our village pub and an evening do in our village hall (costs £40 to hire) - i reckon the total would be less than £1500 tops. i would even contact the local college to see if a student would like to photo our wedding as a project for a small fee. honeymoon with the dogs in a cosy cottage.

i obviously have no experience of organising a wedding but i know many people on these threads have done it for very little - there are lots of hints and tips in martin's book 'thrifty ways for modern days' too.

if you posted your ideas and thoughts about your wedding plans on here i bet the good folks would have loads of ideas etc about bringing the costs down.

congratulations on your forthcoming marriage x

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Congrats on bookings!

Well done on getting the debt down. I would say that you would probably have put your debt up by more than that pre lightbulb moment! I know i was spending silly amounts before my light bulb moment. So look on it as a positive of it going down!!!! Keep up the good work.

ltm07

Thanks to you both. I do see where you are comng from firesidemaid. We would love to do a similar thing to you & have the reception in one of our locals & we did toy with the idea. However, we have decide to have the whole day at a venue in the city centre which we feel & everyone who we have spoken to has said that the prices are very reasonable & is also easily accessible for all the guests. We are having 60 guests for the daytime & 120 for the night time. We did enquire about other venues a couple of years back but the prices were way out of our price range. We will be buying all the wedding attire from Asda & other reasonably priced clothes shops, OH's brother can print the invitations for free at his workplace & we will not have to hire a wedding car as the whole day will be at the same place. We are going to have our honeymoon in Ireland(not the cheapest place in the world but not as expensive as many other European countries). I have started to put more hours in at work & OH will be on full time hours soon too so all this cash will be saved towards the big day + although I don't like the idea of doing a wedding list, if people do ask what we would like as a present we will say cash. I know what you are saying about not being able to justify spending that sort of money & that is understandable, but we feel that the time is right to get wed. We were going to wait til we're DF but feel that we can't put our lives on hold for that long. I do like the idea about the photographer from a local college & will definately look into this. Thanks again for all your advice & thanks to you too EAMD.