Where has the last 3 years gone?

Pengwern · 1 February 2017 at 6:38PM

Hi

Well as you can see I seem to have made some progress over the last 3 years, but either I was not being honest or we have gone backwards over the last 12 months.

We have a family loan of £7,300 that is interest free and we are currently paying zero. We have 3 credit cards:
CC1 £450 0% ends in 4 months
CC2 £1,600 0% ends Sep 2018
CC3 £5,000 0% ends Nov 2017

All are on 0% with a good few months left to go. I have in savings the following:

£4,500 in my name
£2,200 in our joint account.

That still leaves us with a balance of £7,650 to pay off.

So my head says to keep the cash in the high interest (well for current climates) while we are paying 0% on the CC. However my heart just wants rid of them all once and for all. We do not have enough to cover it all but it would halve the debt. However that savings is also our only emergency fund.

I need to stay strong this month as I currently have £400 food budget for the 3 of us and that is it. I do not have any spare cash for life's luxuries.

I currently have £300/month over the minimums to pay towards the CC debt. Of that I am currently putting it all towards CC1. The rest are just on the minimum. so CC1 will be gone in 2 months. I am just getting too impatient with it all. CC3 0% offer will end before I have paid it off, so I do intend to use savings to clear it rather than to transfer the balance again. The 0% ends in Nov 2017 so a few more months left to go.

I need to get this debt sorted and gone as our fixed rate mortgage ends in June and I really do not want to have to fess up to the financial adviser that yes I still have that credit card debt. And no it is not the same as before, I paid that off but just built it back up again.

Last time it was because of a wedding, this time it was due to me not earning for 6 months. So all in all it could be worse, but still it is frustrating.

I am hoping that keeping writing this down it will help in some little way and stop me going to sleep every night dreaming of a life without the debt.

Today was good as I cashed in the 3 Oyster cards we no longer use and that will be £20 heading to my bank account soon.

Bobarella · 1 February 2017 at 7:31PM

You sound organised Pengwern nice to have the oyster rebate.

Pengwern · 1 February 2017 at 8:10PM

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2090
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 793.34
Total monthly income.................... 4183.34

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 501
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 1424
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 72
Gas..................................... 0 in with elec just switched
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 9
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 4.99 Netflix
Internet Services....................... 0 just cancelled
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 300
Other child related expenses............ 31.99
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3.00 NHS dentist twice a year
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 80
Contents insurance...................... 0 in with buildings
Life assurance ......................... 31
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 85
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 300
Holiday................................. 0 go away to my parents flat by the sea. Free and we are very grateful. No more skiing for us.
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 10
Lottery................................. 8
Cleaning................................ 100 Started when on mat leave and need to cancel but I just struggle to find the time.
Total monthly expenses.................. 3652.1

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 6700
House value (Gross)..................... 530000 2 houses eek
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 536700

Secured & HP Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 119579...(501)......2.69% our house
Mortgage 5.....................9266.....(66).......4.74% rental
Mortgage 4.....................78937....(498)......3.25% rental
Mortgagt 3.....................79364....(501)......3.25% rental
Mortgage 2.....................81693....(359)......1.89% our house
Total secured & HP debts...... 368839....-.........-

Unsecured Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC1............................450.......4.5.......0
CC2............................1600......25........0
CC3............................5000......50........0
Family loan....................7300......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........14350.....79.5......

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,183.34
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,652.1
Available for debt repayments........... 531.24
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 79.5
Amount left after debt repayments....... 451.74

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 536,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -368,839
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,350
Net Assets.............................. 153,511

I think this is about right as I try to send £100 to savings and £300 to pay off the CC. But it still feels tight.

Yes we have a car but husband covers all of that. He sends me the £1,300 per month into the joint account which I manage (yes I do tell him about all that I do and I have a handy print out for him just in case the worse happened). This month he sent me some extra so that also goes to the savings. I want to make sure we have enough to cover the mortgage of our rental house if we have a gap in tenants. We have the house because we could not sell and had to move for work. So for our sins we owned up to the mortgage company and added an extra 1% onto our mortgage rates. We cannot get another deal with them and yes we have spoken to our financial adviser to get onto a BTL mortgage but with our rental income it is too low for the amount we owe. We need to pay another £9000 off before it swings to our favour. So that is probably in a few years time.

Oh well I am sure it will come right at some point.

Please be kind, I know I could make savings but this is my first steps to really cutting back.

Thanks for reading and hope everyone has a good evening.

Pengwern · 3 February 2017 at 2:58PM

Hello

Today I have set up a separate savings account for presents. I really do need to spread the cost out over the year. I am getting better and start buying xmas presents in October but it is still not enough. I have been fairly ruthless and culled a number of people from my present buying list. A couple of other friends are on my hit list for this year. It just seems crazy to keep buying gifts as we have all moved on and we just do not see each other as much now. I would rather we had a nice meal together more regularly than an xmas gift.

So as my cleaner has not come this week I have sent that money to the account instead. It now has a grand total of £18.00

Kitten868 · 3 February 2017 at 6:47PM

Are the rental mortgages fixed rate? How much could you overpay without penalty?
As i would be tempted to clear the cards with savings and this month's pay then overpay the £9k mortgage £280 a month and £100 to family savings each month. This would get you to your goals quicker. You'd be able to review your mortgage in June and then the rental mortgage too.
I'm not trying to be annoying i just was trying to give you my perspective on achieving your goals. I know what you're saying about it all being on 0% but I think you should have it long gone in time for the mortgage application.
keep up the amazing work with thr savings! x

Pengwern · 6 February 2017 at 10:54AM

Hi

Thanks for your thoughts Kitten, something I had not considered doing. So I will ponder on them and see how I feel about having no slush to fall back on. But you are right paying more off the mortgage would help more than stashing it in a savings account, as interest rates are so low.

The rental mortgages are on the base rate with an additional 1% added as we rent the house. So they did go down by .25% the other year when the base rate dropped, so we kept the payments the same to help a little.

I have just set up a xmas and present savings account. I want to see very clearly how much I have to spend when it comes to that time of year. I kicked it off by sending the money I would have given to my cleaner (she's on holiday for the next two weeks). I also managed to reduce my xmas buying list down by 2 as a friend and I have agreed to buy for the little ones but not each other. That will help a bit more this year and she has just finished work so should help her too. Not sure I got an entirely positive reaction, but she agreed so can't have landed with her too badly. I love buying presents but when you are on a budget I would rather spend time with my friends than spend cash we do not have on a gift that is not entirely what we want to give as we cannot afford the real present we know they would really like.

On a negative note I purchased a dress (in the sale) for a summer wedding this year. So not what I needed for my budgeting but I hope better than panic buying a really expensive one in the summer.

Pengwern · 7 February 2017 at 3:39PM

Just had my £20 Oyster refunded to my account. Not sure why I did not do this sooner. I was planning on just running them down, but thought why should they have my cash. It was such an easy process that I will be recommending it to others to do too.

Does anyone else always have a mental list of things they want to purchase? I do and most of them are what I call non essential items. I sometime write them all down in the hope that it will get the desire for them out of my system. At the moment I have been drawn back into expensive scented candles. In the winter they are so cosy when lit in the evening. I have resisted so far and buying any myself and I am down to the last one I received as a gift at Christmas. I will be strong and not buy any more.

I feel I am doing better than previous months as apart from the dress all I have purchased is food. I have done a meal plan and so far stuck too it. I have been trying to eat down the freezer as a way of figuring out what is in there.

Not much else to do now other than to enjoy the rest of the month without spending cash..

JoJoC · 7 February 2017 at 3:59PM

I do struggle with a desire to buy 'stuff' and it's frustrating! I console myself with using birthday money and Christmas money to buy these things and try to avoid other unnecessary expenses. It is, however, unrealistic to never buy a treat for yourself I think. If you were buying a candle every week it'd be a concern but if you can set yourself a goal like: "If by September I still really want this candle I'll treat myself to one before the dark nights come in" providing you've managed to achieve savings and spending goals.

Would that work for you as an incentive?

I'm also starting to use up freezer things - two of this week's meals are from the freezer. Good way to save a bit more on groceries!

Pengwern · 8 February 2017 at 1:49PM

Well the desire to buy anything has now been well and truly shot down. Our tenants have just given their notice to quit and will be gone by the end of the month. Let's hope for some new tenants soon. We can cover the mortgage but it will be tight and no additional debt payments will be happening while we do not have any rental income coming in. On a positive note it means that we get our fabulous house back for a bit, we could have a camping holiday there while it is empty. Fingers crossed there is not too much painting to do when they leave.

Pengwern · 20 February 2017 at 10:32AM

It has been a few weeks and I think I have come to the last of my spends this month. So according to my budget I have over spent by £68. Well that is the amount I have had to transfer from my savings into my account to keep me in the black. I am still awaiting £9 from top cash back to be paid. Once that comes in it will be going back to the savings pot. My shopping has just arrived and that should be enough food to keep us going for the rest of the month. Unfortunately it included nappies so £75 spent, which brings our monthly food bill (includes nappies, toiletries and cleaning supplies) to £205 for the month. Considering I budgeted £300 I can consider my food shopping a success this month. Thank goodness I was nearly £100 under budget as that has covered my dress purchase and some clothes for my baby (they were 25% off) for now and a few tops in the next size. I always struggle with the size transition and if I have nothing in the next size I tend to buy more (when not in the sale) to overcompensate.

Considering all of the above I have not resorted to using the CC, so the remaining balance of the CC in my purse is £120, which can be paid off in full next month. Considering it is normally £500 minimum by now I am very pleased. Long may my no spending continue. Looking back over the month I can see that I have just not be buying the odd thing here and there because I like or want them. Being honest with myself I have not missed them either. So long ridiculously expensive scented candles, hand soap etc etc my life is still the same And I can manage without you.

We have also found tenants (subject to passing checks) for our house. So we should have 12 days with it empty which is a good thing as there are a few jobs that need sorting. It is much easier to get them done with no tenants to work around. I always found the tenants that are departing to be rather challenging when we were just trying to get work done. I thought they would welcome an active landlord that continues to maintain the property they live in. But no it always seemed like they were doing us a favour!! So in a way I am glad they are going and these few jobs can be sorted without tiptoeing around them. I am sure the new tenants will come with their own set of quirks but I am hoping we get a few months before we discover them.

So onto next month, hopefully a better one with no overspends. I need to wait to see what the council tax and utility bills will be for the 12 days we have no tenants. I can then fully look to throw as much as I can towards the debt clearing. I was hoping to get rid of the remaining £450 on the one CC, but I think I may have to wait until April until that one is gone.

Drawingaline · 20 February 2017 at 10:48AM

Sounds like a good start to your journey.

I have started saving for next Xmas too. I have £150 already, for the first time ever! It's a nice feeling and also means that if I see a bargain earlier in the year I already have the money set aside to deal with an unexpected purchase.

Where has the last 3 years gone?

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