Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility
Comments
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Today I've worked at home. Not my finest or most efficient working day it has to be said. My job is very discretionary as to how and where I spend my time. This means I can choose to work at home pretty much anytime I like, unless I've arranged meetings or decide to show my face so my colleagues remember I exist.
Anyway, I'm wittering. Below is the main purpose of my post, to highlight my MSE wins for Tuesday. They are...
- Got my !!!!!! together and created a DFW diary
- Had a NSD and planning on another tomorrow
- Had homemade soup for lunch, made yesterday using up left over veg, accompanied by DFs homemade bread (I've tasked DF with realising our new habit of bread making and he's scarily enthusiastic and engaged with the whole thing. I fully expect lots of random bread making products to arrive in the post over the next week. Face palm.)
- Used up leftovers from the freezer for dinner. I always batch cook tomato sauce for pasta.
- Got a bid on eb£y for a item I'm selling.
- Used topc£shback to switch gas and elec suppliers, saving £220 per year and gaining £25 cashback
Tomorrow I'll be working at home so I hope to have a NSD. My car probably doesn't have enough fuel in for the round trip to the office, so I'd need to top up and I've only budgeted £20 until pay day. Thus, my plan is to work from home for the rest of this week and then head into the office next week for some meetings. Very MSE.
Might try and get an SOA done tonight.0 -
Okay, first attempt at an SOA based on my YNAB budgets. This therefore reflects my post-LBM spending.
This SOA is also based just on my 50% share of our current household bills but includes my debt repayments. Right now, I probably pay a little less than this as we pro rata our bills in relation to our salaries. However, I want to start paying half since there is no reason not to. I plan to get a joint account set up so I can see all these direct debits going out and be 'closer' to the financial action.
I haven't looked at switching car insurance or buildings / contents insurance yet. They are next on my list and I'm sure you'll identify those as potential areas for saving. Car insurance is ridiculous at the moment - multi car with Admiral and we auto renewed last December (I know, don't..). I reckon we can knock 1/3 off that easily and we'll pay annually to save credit check and interest.
We have EE phone and broadband so I've put my half in the landline and kept the broadband empty. We might change this as the bill is variable monthly and it can get expensive, especially when DF is working from home.
I want to pay more into an emergency fund after paying of a good chunk of debts. We already have £1K set aside for a new boiler.
There is no holiday fund as of yet as I need to get these debts paid off as a priority.
Mobile phone contract expires in November and I'm going onto SIM only after than since the handset is still in good condition.
Thoughts very much welcome.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2240
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2240
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 278
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 81
Electricity............................. 17.5
Gas..................................... 28.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18
Telephone (land line)................... 17
Mobile phone............................ 20.75
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 2.62
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 14.3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 8
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Toiletries.............................. 10
Sport................................... 15
Union Fee............................... 23
Bike Maintenance ....................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1087.87
Assets
Cash.................................... 180.05
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4100
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214280.05
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 102000...(278)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 102000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
BoS CC.........................1253.73...12.99.....0
B4rclaycard CC.................9124.13...205.2.....0
JL CC..................312.34....11.98.....16.9
Total unsecured debts..........10690.2...230.17....-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,240
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,087.87
Available for debt repayments........... 1,152.13
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 230.17
Amount left after debt repayments....... 921.96
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,280.05
Total HP & Secured debt................. -102,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,690.2
Net Assets.............................. 101,589.850 -
Forgot the car loan of £157.94!!
Will re do.....0 -
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2240
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2240
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 278
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 157.89999999999998
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 81
Electricity............................. 17.5
Gas..................................... 28.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18
Telephone (land line)................... 17
Mobile phone............................ 20.75
TV Licence.............................. 12.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 2.62
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 14.3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 8
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Bike maintenance........................ 10
Union Fee............................... 23
Sport................................... 15
Toiletries.............................. 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1245.77
Assets
Cash.................................... 180.05
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4100
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214280.05
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 102000...(278)......2.5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 1894.92..(157.9)....7.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 103894.9.-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
BoS CC.........................1253.73...12.99.....0
B4rclaycard....................9124.13...205.2.....0
JL CC..................312.34....11.98.....16.9
Total unsecured debts..........10690.2...230.17....-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,240
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,245.77
Available for debt repayments........... 994.23
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 230.17
Amount left after debt repayments....... 764.06
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,280.05
Total HP & Secured debt................. -103,894.92
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,690.2
Net Assets.............................. 99,694.930 -
You can definitely get those insurances down. £384 for buildings and contents insurance is huge. Same with the car insurance.
The groceries bill could come down if that £200 is just for you although I know you said you shop a lot at waitrose and go for high quality. That is just a consumer choice as obviously you can afford to pay your debt repayments it is just a trade off. I personally shop alternate weeks at Lidls and Waitrose which also happen to be our closest supermarkets. The fruit, veg and meat at Lidls are really good quality (sometimes better than waitrose) and british so low carbon footprint.
I wonder if the car maintenance figure is high enough given that your car is worth £4000 so presumably not that new. The rest of it looks ok. Ignoring the John Lewis card which you say you pay off (normally) each month you will clear the credit cards in a year if you pay £865 per month. Could be tight but definitely doable especially as the car loan will be paid off next August.
I work from home a lot as well especially at this time of year (joys of academia) and definitely saves a lot in fuel and time as long as I don't get distracted
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Hi ENTHUSIASTICSAVER
Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, contents insurance is high but we do have a few high priced things (ahem, you can see where the dosh has been going.....) so that does bump up the necessary sum insured as well as individual items. However, I'll defo look at switching that and the buildings insurance. I wont tell you when we last switched these insurances......
Cars - yes, on it. Need to wait for Sept salary and to get DFs details as he had a small fender bender in '15 and then had to go on a naughty speeders course a few years ago. I had some malicious damage last year. Tiresome to trawl through all the documentation but it'll be worth it. Will pay in full, I'm expecting around £380 - £400 all in.
I will certainly revisit car maintenance. Its been well serviced over the 5 years I've had it. Just passed MOT and had two lots of brakes and one lot of tyres over the years. I average about 8000 miles per year, so not too excessive but I agree, the expensive things that always go wrong with cars will likely bubble to the surface over the coming years and I should mitigate against this. If I put in £40 per month, that should cover an 'expensive service' at £250, plus MOT at £50, plus a misc. £100 for tyres or brakes. Might up it to £50 actually, since that doesn't leave much for CAM belts and the like. Will reflect. Got a £250 service due around Dec/Jan so that's my saving priority for now.
Foodwise, yup, the £200 is just my bit. But as you say, its our 'thing' we like to indulge in so I'll plan for £200 per month and see how I go. I'll seek to change my habits and try to use up what we've got in rather than nipping out to get something new for dinner and dropping £30 every few days, such was my previous habit.
Right, back to work!0 -
Today has been a NSD as planned. DF will pop out later to get some beers and some cheese since he is diverting from this week's MSE meal plan I created. He wants quiche so we use up the left over roast and all we need is cheese. Still, he's paying so still a NSD for me.
So, today I've been looking over my spending habits for 2017 thus far and boy oh boy is it erratic! Here goes....
January:
1st: £794
4th £-13
30th £-1005
Overspend culprits: weekend away with girlies; new bedside tables
February:
1st £1172
8th £-113
27th £-758
Overspend culprits: holiday deposit; sport hobby
March:
1st £1471
13th £-14
30th £-226
Overspend culprits: sport hobby
April
1st £1600
27th £322
Overspend culprits: sport hobby; bedside table lamps
May
1st £2565
22nd £-50
30th £-221
Overspend culprits: sport hobby; holiday gite payment
June
1st £1993
19th £-21
30th £-350
Overspend culprits: clothes; dentist; haircut; sport hobby
July
1st £1225
14th £-124
28th £-639
Overspend culprits: being on holiday; parking permit
Aug
1st £1438
14th £32
18th £227
Underspend culprits: LBM Eb£y sales YNAB
Other than the overspend culprits I've identified, I really don't have much else to show for the overspend. Such is a life of frittering away money and thinking of an overdraft as 'my money'.
Well, no more!!! :money:
I knew I was throwing quite a bit of ££ at my sport hobby. I'm not sure whether I used my CCs much over this time. I think I may just have stopped paying off more than minimum payment.
Around March, April, May time I did have a mini LBM but not to the extent that it made any significant changes. I was reassured from my April behaviours that I could stay in the black, but then came the final balance for the Gite and all was lost!
I'm pleased with August's performance. I had my LBM when returning from holiday. I knew I needed to get my act together and I was determined not to go into my overdraft so went on a huge Eb£y selling binge to claw my balance back. This has worked and I'm really pleased.
Might look over my CC statements and add in anything else that I've missed.
DSL :j0 -
You've done some amazing working out there! Good idea though to see where money leaks away with nothing to show.0
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DrSpendLittle wrote: »
I'm Plan 1, pre 2012 batch, which basically means I'm getting too old to be still having a student loan
It's all relative - I just voluntarily cleared the final balance of my last loan - taken out in 1994
My mortgage free diary: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6498069/whoops-here-comes-the-cheese0 -
Hiddenidenity wrote: »You've done some amazing working out there! Good idea though to see where money leaks away with nothing to show.
Thanks Hidden! Nice bit of detective work and didn't take too long thanks on online banking. Just about to check over my CC statements. This will reveal what I've been putting on there... gulp 0
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