IA's road to becoming a CAB Debt adviser.

bandraoi

I have a suggestion.

You're tired of scrimping and scraping and paying every last penny of the debt and you want to start enjoying life now that you've got control of your finances.

So budget for the fun and the gadgets

Add in a holiday component, and a music equipment component and an electrical equipment component. Put them into a savings account and instead of being like a dieter who does the cabbage soup diet followed by a month of cream cakes, your spending will be truly under control.
£900 (?) + £739 + £500 = £2139 of additional debt.

Maybe half your Ann Summers money and an extra £50 a month.

immoral_angeluk

dancingfairy wrote: »

um gas/electric - have you switched? it seems quite expensive to me but then I guess you don't have a 1 bed flat like me and you are at home more during the day?
um food for Ste? could potentially cut down here?
Nursery fees- you using childcare vouchers?

Looks good to me.

We haven't switched but £60 is one of the cheapest. British gas wanted £100 pm :eek: We have a 2 bed house, electric cooker etc and a lot of gadgetry so use a lot of electric. Except mon and thurs afternoons there's someone here 24/7.
Ste's already cut down but his money includes any little treats. That's like his pocket money :rotfl:
Childcare vouchers would end up costing us more as we get help from tax credits.

immoral_angeluk

I'd love to have our budget as simple as that... but Ste's wages go into a seperate account to cover the bills. The surplus is added to the child benefit to pay the nursery fees. We then live off tax credits each week like this
£132 every weds.
£50 food
£30 petrol
£10 ste
£10 band practice
£32 saved (usually.. lol :whistle:)

This is why a normal SOA is quite difficult for us and doesn't show the whole picture.

dancingfairy

Cool -I was fairly certain you'd have looked into it all and not missed anything.
Def think the idea of a saving fund for treats is a good one.

wannabespendthrift

What about ....

Bills per month are £ 897.66
Debts per month are £ 200.50
TOTAL coming out £1098.16


Ste wages £ 984.00
ARGOS £ 120.00
TOTAL coming in
from wages £1104.00

Ste's wages and ARGOS can cover all bills.
Get Ste £ and ARGOS paid into the one account and have all bills covered by DD, small surplus.

THEN:

Tax Credits £525 + CB £125.01 = £650.01 per month.
Less
food £200.00
petrol £120.00
£320.00 per month 'essentials' for family

this money (£320) is put into a 2nd account and £320.00 is taken out by cash/debit card to pay for these items.

£650.00 - £320 = £330.00 - £50.00 web saver for car tax/MOT etc. leaves £280.00 spendypennies. have 3rd spendypenny account.

£140.00 Ste (this includes money for lunches and £20.00 towards band prac)
£140.00 Sar (this includes your £20.00 towards band prac).

This budget covers all items and leaves you and Ste with £140 each which you possibly withdraw in cash at the beginning of the month and make sure to keep back £20.00 each towards band practice. It would probably work better with TC being paid monthly though?

On the bright side you have a healthy surplus not even including Ann Summers so there is really no need for you to have to put your fun money on plastic. Onwards and upwards hey?

daphne_descends

Hi IA, apologies if I'm speaking out of turn, but the way I see it is this:
most of the time you look at the bigger picture - your whole family budget, all your accounts, everything you have going on, what money is accounted for and used etc etc etc...

but sometimes there are things which just aren't part of 'the bigger picture'. And IMHO a tribute to your mum is one of those things. I don't think it should get swept up in the day to day running of your household... this is special and like you and others have said, you earned this. Do what your heart says on this

<mumbles something about not having done her own SOA for months...>

<hides>

pinkpr1nc3ss

I agree that you should get the tattoo, you and ste have worked bloody hard ad like you say have reduced you debt to a comfortable level. People maybe don't realise that for a period of time you literally spent nothing on yourself. I have been reading for a while and I remember you desperately needing clothes after you had K and you wouldn't buy them because you wanted every penny to go towards debt.

The way I see it is you are looking at the bigger picture, you are training for a better career whilst juggling part time jobs and childcare. Families with young children don't have it easy (I know as a 28 year old mother of 3) but you know what you never get this time back. Yes you spent on the credit card but you had a great time and the girls had a great time. Its all about making memories for your girls and they'll always remember their first family holiday. You could be concentrating on ONLY paying off debt while life passes you by but you know only too well that life is too short for that.

Get the tattoo then you can concentrate on the debt busting. Don't feel guilty about wanting a life long tribute to your mum. I have lost my own mum so I realise how much this means to you.

Jo4

Well done on your running time, you must be well chuffed. :T If I was you I would have the tattoo.

JET34

I have put off posting as what IA does with her money is none of my business. But I can see what everyone has been saying however my personally my journey to debt freeness wasn't easy I had 2 or 3 light blub moments before I really did anything about it! I would get the debts down to almost paid off or even paid off then I would slip back in to debt spending like it was going out of fashion. But what I can see of IA and Ste is that although at the moment they are taking a break from the stress of paying every spare bit of cash on there debt they haven't let there lightblub go out and it is in there mind to get back on to it once they have had there break. I am sure that everyone will agree that babies/children are only that for a short while and it is now that you form all your best memory's having holidays, day trips and having happy parents not stressed out mums and dads bogged down with life! The time you get to soend with your kids is the best time your ever going to have so they should be enjoying it now. anyway sorry for that but I felt I had to say that.
just remember your Lightblub is still shining bright so go get that tattoo I think it's a lovely idea! Not that you needed me to say that it's completley up to you.
P.S Can I also say ( you can shut me up oce I have started) Thanks for sharing your life with us all!

barnaby-bear

bandraoi wrote: »

I have a suggestion.

You're tired of scrimping and scraping and paying every last penny of the debt and you want to start enjoying life now that you've got control of your finances.

So budget for the fun and the gadgets

Add in a holiday component, and a music equipment component and an electrical equipment component. Put them into a savings account and instead of being like a dieter who does the cabbage soup diet followed by a month of cream cakes, your spending will be truly under control.
£900 (?) + £739 + £500 = £2139 of additional debt.

Maybe half your Ann Summers money and an extra £50 a month.

I kind of agree with this, the telly works out at £70 a month for a year which is basically the same as the gas - so equally important for the budget. Lets face it the toys are needed to keep Ste in and childminding to enable you to work.
I think there's also a component to be considered of those one off expenses that always cause upheaval or stress... your car will blow up (they like to do that - mine do at least) and I try to think of it not in terms of just the petrol costs but that I need to sped £25 on my 'bus pass' account a week... which is the replacing the car fund.... I have an aversion to car credit
The thing that will make the big difference is if you can pull off the better job with the CAB and get the OU qualification... but in my experience it's a difficult transition (we were sub £7k joint to a lot LOT more in the space of 6 months) the toys got bigger and we felt so a lot richer than the reality but other desires got stronger like a house, the wish for the financial security to change career / work less and the urge to pay cash and avoid expensive credit lining others pockets.