Debt-free in 12 months?

count_rostov

Hi all,

I've been lurking and posting a bit for the last few months, but thought I should introduce myself properly. My boyfriend and I have just under £12,000 of debt, not including mortgage or student loans which charge inflation-linked interest. We bought a house last year which needed a lot of work. However, it is our 'forever' house so worth the work. Most of our debt comes from that, but some of it is also from my boyfriend doing things like never opening statements on a dormant account, forgetting that he has a service charge, and ending up with over £1000 worth of charges and interest! The debt also includes a low-interest career development loan I took out to do an MA.
We are getting married in September (a very relaxed affair funded by my lovely parents) and want to try for a family straight away so our goal is to clear all debt excluding the university debts by April 2009. We still have some work to do on the house, want to get some savings together, and also plan a nice honeymoon as we haven't been on holiday for two years and probably won’t for another twenty if we have babies.
This is how we plan to tackle debt and budget for our expenditure:
· I have started opening all the post and dug the sand out from around my boyfriend's head!
· I am salaried and he is self-employed so all of my wage will be spent on mortgage, council tax, utilities and debt repayments. His earnings will be split equally between his business account, our joint account for food, heating oil, my car etc, and our house-doing-up account. I'm really tight with household expenses so the left-over money will move to a savings account for our honeymoon.
· we already live the good life with chickens (eggs & meat), sheep (meat), ferrets (sorting out our rabbit problem = meat) and a good fruit and veg patch. We also live by the sea so catch mackerel, gather mussels and cockles and will put a lobster pot down in June. Our aim is to become as self-sufficient as possible and maybe sell excess
· I’ve already closed all accounts with service charges and switched balances to 0% offers as far as possible
· reclaim his bank charges
· I will take on more freelance work to add to my salary
· I will get a better paid job with less travel (I’m away 1 in every 3 weeks at the moment)…dream on
· our things to look forward to are a lovely honeymoon in five months time, and hopefully a baby in 14 months!
· we will get used to living on my boyfriend’s income so once our debt is cleared we can start saving and eventually I can start working part-time

A rough SOA:

Mine
Income after tax: £1320 monthly
Also due about £2500 for freelance work over next year
= £18340 by April 2009
Outgoings:
Mortgage: £622
Council Tax & Water: £99
Life insurance: £13.27
Landline: £20
Internet: £17
1 RBS c/c: £25
2 RBS c/c: £25
A&L c/c: £25
A&L overdraft: £5
RBS overdraft: £5
Career development loan: £95
Dad loan: £50
Total: £1001.27

£319 to spend on overpayments

Debts
1 RBS c/c 0% £1050
2 RBS c/c 0% £2448
A&L overdraft 4.00% £1421
A&L c/c 0% £2925
Dad 0% £1100
Career development loan 0% £1904
RBS overdraft 19.05% £768
Total: £11, 616

I’ve only got about £6300 to spend on debt repayments over the next year (unless I get a better paid job and successfully reclaim bank charges) so I’m not going to feel bad if I can’t pay off the career development loan and my dad. However, we’re still going to have to find other ways to up our income. Any suggestions? I’m a bit frightened of ebay but am going to amazon a lot of textbooks come October.

Boyfriend’s
Monthly income: anywhere from £800-£3000 (can’t invoice regularly), this is divided between three accounts:
Business
Covers his pick-up, diesel, tax, NI, mobile, materials, tool maintenance etc
Household
Household & groceries: £100
Heating oil: £80 (for range cooker so does heating, hot water and cooking)
Electricity: £8 (we have an annoying pre-pay meter which I’m reluctant to change as this seems really really low!)
Petrol: £100 (I work remotely and currently have to drive 50 miles/day to use my parents broadband – ours should be installed by September)
Trains: £115
Animal feed: £15
My mobile: £10
My car maintenance & tax & insurance: £39
House & contents insurance: £26
Haircuts: £20
Clothes: £20
Presents: £20
Total: £573
This is too much. It will help a lot when we finally get broadband installed. Also, if I get a job closer to home I won’t have to cover trains.
House doing-up
Covers too many things to mention – for the next few months, re-wiring and diy materials

So, I’m not going to keep a strict diary but want to update this every so often to keep us on track and hopefully track our progress!

mizmir

Sounds like you have a pretty tight plan. Good luck in your efforts. You have a really good motivation to become debt free which helps. Being able to grow your own meat, fruit and veg and go fish for fishing for free is great! I have friends up on the north coast who collect shell fish etc - nothing tastes as good as them straight from the sea!

Look forward to hearing your updates.

jak

Your plan sounds great! My own is similar actually. Except i've done the wedding and am now on the expecting a baby bit! I tell you what tho....Nothing has ever been a bigger motivator than wanting to live my little one a better life with holidays etc. Also we are not home owners but soon hope to save for our first home!
Good luck, you seem to have a pretty good idea about where your money goes, your budget looks good and your food sounds divine!!!!
Enjoy
J
X

count_rostov

So, we're getting there, slowly. I was paid today and have reduced the debt:
1 RBS c/c 0% £[STRIKE]1050[/STRIKE] £1025
2 RBS c/c 0% £[STRIKE]2448[/STRIKE] £2413
A&L overdraft 4.00% £[STRIKE]1421[/STRIKE] £1401
A&L c/c 0% £[STRIKE]2925[/STRIKE] £2855
Dad 0% £[STRIKE]1100[/STRIKE] £1050
Career development loan 0% [STRIKE]£1904[/STRIKE] £1809
RBS overdraft 19.05% £[STRIKE]768[/STRIKE] £500
Total: [STRIKE]£11, 616[/STRIKE] £11,053
Our 'good life' has been going well. We killed a cockerel the week before last and have been catching LOTS of rabbits. The vegetable patch is growing too slowly for my liking but I made nettle and chickpea soup and rhubarb crumble for tea last night so both parts had free main ingredients. I'm planning on getting mussels on Friday and my boyfriend will go fishing next week.
We've also cut lots of (free) peats so the fuel store will soon be full for next winter.
Other parts of our debt-free campaign haven't been going so well. I've applied for two jobs and have my fingers crossed, but haven't heard anything yet. I haven't put anything on Amazon or Ebay. On the other hand, I have started a formal claim for some money I'm owed for freelance work (£360) and have started to claim back a council tax over-payment and bank charges. Natwest are keeping us informed, but Alliance and Leicester are ignoring us so I need to read Martin's article on what to do next.
The other anti-MSE problem we've had is that my boyfriend is due to go on a friend's stag weekend at the beginning of June. He's paid a deposit of £50 and owes a further £150 for accommodation & activities. We estimated food & drinking will be £150 AT LEAST (it's Friday to Sunday). Then, he hasn't booked flights yet which will be £85. Grrr - I don't see how we can afford this as we’re saving for our honeymoon. I think stag weekends are so stupid and am refusing to have a hen do myself. Anyway, I haven’t been at all naggy or cross with my boyfriend and said that I thought he should go to see his friends (we live at the other end of the country from them) so long as he can afford to pay the oil bill (£350), my car tax (£60) and the house insurance (£350) in the next month. I know that it’s either/or but I really hope that he sees it that way!
As for planning our wedding, well, I finally sent the invitations to the printers. There's only 3 1/2 months to go so by the end of next week we need to sort out a band, waitresses, and my dress. I had hoped to wear my mother's old wedding dress but she can't find it anywhere, such a shame, it was by Hardy Amis and very elegant.
So we still have lots to do on our debt free/wedding/baby journey! Over the next month I will:

• Chase up bank charges
• Chase up other money owed to me
• Try to overcome fear of ebay
• Sort out waitresses, band and my dress for the wedding

Jak – how exciting, you’re getting close to your due date. Do you think you will manage to be debt free?
Mizmir – I’ve been watching your diary too, keep it up!

scorpio_biker

Hi Count,
Forgive me for butting in on your thread, but I was interested in your 'Good Life' lifestyle as this is something my husband and I (oooh I sound all royal :rotfl:) are working towards.

If you would be happy with me asking you questions about what you do would you PM me?

Thanks

MiasMommy

I dont really have anything to add, but just to say goodluck, you have a good plan and you seem to know what your doing,keep it up!

count_rostov

A brief update. Easyjet have a sale so I've just booked my fiance tickets to go on this stag do for £39. This means it will *only* cost him about £350. That's 12p/minute over the weekend. (raise eyebrows)
Why oh why are stag dos neccessary? Why do they have to be so expensive? The problem is that a lot of his friends work in finance or accounting and aren't married or don't have children so they have a lot of disposable income. It's really tough on the few in that group who don't earn much or who have children.
Anyway, I'm really glad that he's going to get to see his friends. He moved to other end of the country because I was homesick and now he hardly sees his friends and family. The quid pro quo though, is that he's going to be really careful over the next few months and a) not buy bottled beer after a hard days work b) sort out his tax c) not moan if we don't eat meat every day.
Neither of us are spendthrifts but we must fritter as we're always broke. I think a spending diary is in order to find out where we're leaking money...

tsharp

I've just been on a long stag wkend in Magaluf with the lads, and it cost about £400, and that was only because 4 nights accommodation only cost £26 per person for the whole trip! I'm looking at spending the same again probably for the wedding. In a way I can't wait til we're all married, but then they'll be no lads drinking sessions to attend!

count_rostov

Hmm, I'm sure you lot still find another excuse to go on over-priced lads excursions once you're married. Pah!

count_rostov

Fiance's parents are visiting for a week so I'm planning on feeding them:
moules frites with mussels collected from the shore
rabbit pie
eggs (souffle? roulade)
mackerel
trout
We'd hoped to slaughter a lamb but have been too busy. I think we can be good hosts with this list though.
We should have some more chickies hatching over the weekend too so it's all go!

count_rostov

I have some very bad news which is going to seriously damage our MSE journey. I had a job interview on Friday and the interviewers asked my current boss for a reference BEFORE the interview, even though I had specifically asked them not to and given them details of two other suitable referees. My boss asked me to hand in my notice and I didn't get the other job so I currently have no jobs. Angry is not the word.
I've negotiated to work a long notice in my current job, up to three months unless I get something else sooner. So, I will be able to bring our debt down to four figures before I join the dole queue which will be a huge psychological boost.
I'm trying to look on it as a disguised blessing as I hadn't been happy in the job for a while and wanted to get something with less travelling. Maybe it's the push I need to start pursuing other things - I will sign a contract on a book in the next few months and we're also thinking about starting a campsite. Still, it's massively disheartening and couldn't have come at a worse time. We've had to cry off two friends weddings this summer and have downgraded our honeymoon from three weeks in the US to a weekend in Edinburgh!
Anyway, I really want the organisation who messed up to give me more than an apology as they've lost me a permanent contract, accrued maternity and sick leave rights etc. Does anyone have any expertise in this? Is there anything I can do?

Pauperishly,
Count