New Debt Free Wannabe!

Naomim

Hi All,

Well I have just had my lbm and been and done a SOA. I have worked out an action plan to pay off the credit cards and hopefully will be debt free by 2010. Maybe before if DH and I can sort ourselves out and get some proper willpower to give up the smokes (don't all beat me up I'm trying! )

One of our problems is I get paid 15th of each month and DH last Friday of every month. I wonder if I should get all our direct debits changed to the same day?

Below is my SOA
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1261.26
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1520.43
Benefits................................ 117.03
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2898.72

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 688.86
Secured loan repayments................. 31.71
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 0
Council tax............................. 140
Electricity............................. 46
Gas..................................... 51
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 31.71
Telephone (land line)................... 22
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 11.75
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 72
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 170
Road tax................................ 16.25
Car Insurance........................... 58.35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 55
Car parking............................. 5
Other travel............................ 5
Childcare/nursery....................... 320
Other child related expenses............ 15
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 59.13
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 23.71
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 124
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Smokes.................................. 250
Total monthly expenses.................. 2536.47

Assets
Cash.................................... 200
House value (Gross)..................... 275000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 277200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 127000...(688.86)...5.9
Secured Debt.................. 5000.....(31.71)....0
Total secured debts........... 132000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................883.5.....0.........16.9
Virgin CC......................4632.18...130.......0
Total unsecured debts..........5515.68...130.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,898.72
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 2,536.47
Available for debt repayments........... 362.25
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 130
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 232.25

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 277,200
Total Secured debt...................... -132,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,515.68
Personal net worth...................... 139,684.32

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

Here's to getting my a**e in gear and getting sorted!

Naomi

SamanthaA

Congrats on your LBM & posting.
I am going to comment & run, as I am not in a position to be much help,

BUT you SOA says £65 per month for food! i`m thinking this is a typo, or you ought to have your own thread on the grocery challange! LOL

Good luck & someone of more use will be around soon....

Naomim

Ooops I meant £65 a week :mad:

Thanks for pointing that out. Will go and fiddle with it.....

Lucifa73

Hi there,

First off welcome to the club:j

I had my second LBM about 2 weeks ago and have had great support from people on this forum.

£150 a month on 'entertainment' seems quite high - what does this cover?

£72/month on satllite/cable seems high, especially as you seem to have a separate landline. We've got Sky (all channels) with broadband and a call package and we only pay £55 a month plus £11 line rental to BT so I think savings can be made there.

Your gas.electric seems expensive too. Are you on a dual fuel package with DD? Have you checked to make sure you're using the cheapest provider for your circumstances?

Mobile phones look pricy - are you on contract or PAYG? Have you made sure the tariff you're on is best for you?

Can't comment on car expenses as I don't drive.

[STRIKE]
And £65 a month on groceries is fab although it makes me think that some of your entertainment budget might be on dinners out?
[/STRIKE] (Just saw post re £65 a week...)
Have you budgetted for the little fripperies like coffees/magazines etc that are bought on a whim?

Hope this helps and good luck with achieving your DFW date

Lucifa73 x

Lula-Hula

Hi Naomi & welcome,

Well done on posting your SOA ; I'll leave the fine tooth combing to the experts but the main things that jump out are entertainment, sky/satellite & the naughty smoking.

I'll be on my way now but should you decide to quit those nasty things I fully recommend the giving up smoking thread ; we are a fab bunch of peoples, very supportive & we have a lot of fun too

Good luck

Lula

Naomim

Hi Lucifa,

The £150 on entertainment is made up of £114 for DH's football season ticket but that only pays for 6 months, £8.50 on DVD rental club and the rest on odd days out as I have a 3 year old and we sometimes go to the farm or soft play for play dates. I have been checking out Tesco clubcard deals today for our days out. We very rarely eat out as we can't afford it. Maybe for a birthday or something.

£72 on digital is all channels exl movies but inc Chelsea channel which DH watches a lot and multiroom as we have such different tastes in programmes! It's also covering £10 the cost of the extended warranty as those pesky Sky boxes can't be trusted to carry on working! lol

Our gas and leccy is on dual fuel with N-Power and we pay by monthly DD but I had large bills last quarter so they whacked up the DD's.

We're working on mobiles. We are both on contract and I've just changed mine to £15 a month with a new moby I don't want so that will be on ebay this week, and DH's contract is due up so I have told him to do lots of research and we can get him a better deal than the £30-£40 he's paying now.

I haven't budgeted for coffee's and mags as I just don't buy them! lol

Naomi x

Lucifa73

Sounds like you're essentially on the right track.

If DH is really with you on the DFW maybe he can have either the season ticket or the Chelsea Channel? (If I read you right though the £114 is for 6 months so the monthly budget is £19 - perhaps a separate account to set aside this amount each month so when renewal comes up its not a case of putting it on a card or scrabb;ing for cash?)

Do you need DVD rental and movie channels?

Naomim

It's £114 per month for 6 months for the season ticket. But I think when this 6 months is up I'll carry on putting it aside so we can pay in full straight away next year.

We don't have the movie channels anymore. I cancelled them but I think I am going to cancel my dvd rental too as I probably don't watch as many as I should.

Naomi x

lilian1977

If you have that many channels on Sky, do you really make use of the DVD rental? I find that the free trials that are out there are useful if you save up a bunch of films you want to see for a few months, you can put a few nights aside every now and then and get them all watched!

Have you registered on Walkers Brit Trips? There are a lot of 2 for 1 deals on there for days out. You can also get free days out vouchers at Tesco at the moment when you spend £10 (or £5 in Express stores). If I'm planning a day out I look on Ebay, there are often a lot of BOGOF days out vouchers on there for less than £1.

Good luck! xx

Lucifa73

I got a couple of Tescos day out vouchers with my last online shop delivery. If you want to PM me your address I'll happily send them to you as we'll never use them.

jopwo_87

I dont know much about all this debt busting business.... but i guess a few things that jumped out at me were the chelsea season ticket and the expensive satellite tv? id say one or the other.
Also the smoking... can you smoke roll ups? i have recently gone from spending £5.69 a day on 20 menthol cigarettes, which is about £40 per week, to a pouch of tobacco and rizlas and menthol filter tips which costs me about £10 a week!! Thats a pretty huge saving!!. If both of you smoke.. (you must do for that price) then thats a huges saving monthly... (£200 approx by my calculations!!)