Getting & staying debt free, whatever happens!

Bluegreen143 · 4 May 2018 at 2:47PM

I’m going to start this diary as my most frugal times have always been when I’ve been posting on this forum. I used to use the grocery challenge years ago and it was fab, but I’ve never stuck at it again.

Some background:

- I’m a stay at home Mum to my 2.5 year old son, and currently in the very early stages of pregnancy with our second child (shhh!) so sickness and tiredness is an issue right now when it comes to cooking

- my husband works full time earning £1840 a month after tax/pension. Could sometimes work overtime at weekends.

- I have a little part time work I can do in the evenings right now which earns me £150-200 a month and I should have this for another 6 months, and we get the usual child benefit at £82 every four weeks

- total income roughly £2,050-2,150 a month

- the bad bit - our debt is on two cards - one is at £2,131.94 and the other is £1,684.84. So £3,816.78 in total. I know some people have more but I’ve never had consumer debt since I cleared my student overdraft when I got my first job and I’m really upset and worried we’ve allowed it to build up

thankfully we have no other debt except my student loan which I don’t intend to pay off early.

- we do have just over £1,100 in an investment account. It’s not very easy to access as I need to set up the DD by sending in a paper form, but you can withdraw without penalty

- we don’t have a lot of spare cash to work with - here a rough breakdown of our expenses:

Mortgage £725
Council tax £140 (over 12 months)
Home insurance paid annually, but about £12 a month
Life insurance £15
Car insurance paid annually, but about £50 a month
Road tax paid annually, but about £11 a month
Gas & electric £77.96
Internet & phone £42.99 (this was £25 til last month so I need to switch)
TV license £12.37
My phone £34
Husband phone £44 (these are both locked into contracts now for at least a year more)

Around £1,165 total on bills

This leaves £885 each month which needs to do credit card payments, food, petrol (luckily husband drives a work van during so it doesn’t include commuting costs), clothes, doing stuff with my little boy, our own spending money, stuff for the house & garden etc. It looks like loads when I see it written down but it doesn’t feel like it!

Our strengths - I’m a pretty frugal cook/everything is made from scratch, we don’t do expensive day trips, cinema etc, rarely eat out unless we’ve been invited by family, don’t get takeaways, don’t buy branded clothes, I cut my own hair & LB’s, we grow our own herbs, fruit & veg, we have chickens so have lots of eggs, we don’t have expensive hobbies, use the library etc. When we socialise it’s often inviting people round to ours or occasionally going to theirs which does save a lot.

Weaknesses - we seem to have bought a lot for our house & garden lately - not expensive stuff but it adds up. Husband vapes and drinks quite a bit of beer (I’m reluctant to nag so much as he works very hard and doesn’t ask for much, at least I’m not drinking now at all being pregnant!). Husband is brilliant at DIY and making things which saves a lot over getting them professionally done but means he does buy a lot of DIY stuff/tools. I have a weakness for stuff for LB as I like expensive wooden toys etc, I’ve stopped buying anything the last two months though. My biggest weakness is seeing “bargains” in Lidl and picking them up

it used to be Amazon shopping but I gave that up at New Year when I realised about the debt.

Fingers crossed - I should be inheriting some money this year from a deceased grandparent (it’s going through probate now. This would actually clear the debt and more. I’m not counting on it as I don’t have a definite amount yet and don’t know when it’ll arrive. Plus we’ve clearly got into the debt by overspending so we need to address it by cutting back regardless what happens!

I’m going to have a sit down tonight and look through my budget for this month again (I use YNAB so no excuse for not being on top of things really) and will post back with a plan of action

redofromstart · 4 May 2018 at 2:59PM

Hi Bluegreen, just wanted to say Happy New Diary, and good luck with your journey.

The middle of Lidl/Alid is fatal. All those things you never knew you wanted, and such a bargain. I eventually realised that I bought yet another thing every time I looked, and that the simple solution for me is don't look.

Would your OH consider homebrew? Uncanny Scot does his own, I'm sure he'd be helpful you ask on his diary. Maybe a kit as a sneaky birthday present?

Bluegreen143 · 4 May 2018 at 7:03PM

Thanks for dropping by redofromstart

Brewing your own is a great idea, in fact last month he did brew his own batch. He!!!8217;d need a bigger kit to keep up with his demand (it!!!8217;s a mini space saving kit which only produces 8 pint size bottles in one go) but he does love the taste of the stuff he made. He did agree tonight he!!!8217;ll need to cut back as his Lidl staple beer has gone from £2.65 for four this week to £4.10 due to the minimum pricing on alcohol in Scotland. Perhaps he!!!8217;ll need to get his sister to bring some from England when she visits next week

Pretty reasonable day today - spends of:

£2 - toddler group entry fee
£8.20 - eight beers for DH

Frugal dinner - homemade pittas, homemade coleslaw and leftover roast pork shredded & mixed with BBQ sauce, plus HM sweet potato chips on the side. Was really good actually

I nearly texted DH asking him to buy wraps as I felt yucky this afternoon but I!!!8217;m glad I made the pittas as we had all the ingredients so silly not to. And my son loved helping me with the dough.

I forgot to mention before we do have an additional debt - £3.5k left of £5k we borrowed from my MIL towards our house deposit. I forgot as we!!!8217;re not under any pressure to pay it back any time soon & aren!!!8217;t actively paying it but it will need paying after the cards too

will sit down ASAP and figure out an exact budget & payment plan.

beanielou · 4 May 2018 at 9:04PM

I dont go round the middle of Aldi any more!

Happy shiny new diary.

Bluegreen143 · 4 May 2018 at 11:55PM

Agreed Beanielou, it!!!8217;s just not worth it!

Didn!!!8217;t get chance to sort out budget tonight as spent some time with husband instead. I did submit my monthly invoice for boring part time work so should get paid in around 2-3 weeks

Bluegreen143 · 5 May 2018 at 8:52AM

Just sitting down thinking what we will need to spend this weekend (which makes a change over thinking about it after the fact!). DH is up with DS but I’m wide awake so I have a little free time.

Saturday - the last few weeks weve implemented a plan on Saturdays where we spend the morning in the garden getting gardening stuff done & playing then go for a family walk in the afternoon. If its pouring there are two good free museums we can take our son to locally instead and just pay for parking (a transport themed one and a natural history/art one, theyre both ideal for the toddler age). Im loving our simpler Saturdays and theres really no need to spend a fortune on trips out etc for a two year old. It does then a world of good to get outdoors, use their imaginations and just spend a lazy day with their families. DS really is happiest chasing the chickens about and digging for worms :rotfl: I need to remind myself of this as I have a lot of friends who seem to do exciting activities and trips all the time and its easy to get sucked into doing similar because of following everyone else instead of sticking to our own values.

Tonight DH has a stag do. He has passed on the £80 paintballing :eek: and is probably just going to the pub after (he has agreed he wont drink much or be out late though he will need to get two taxis - I wont be able to drive him as will have DS sleeping here). He is checking where dinner is as may join them for that if its a cheap buffet place or similar. Im going to estimate he could spend £30 maybe?

Sunday - my Papa is coming to visit for the day, we will probably go for lunch but he will pay. Depending where we go I might drive and have parking to pay for, around £3 or similar.

Bank holiday Monday - we are going to go on a day trip to a beach with my husbands best friend & wife (probably about an hours drive). We will need to put petrol in the car but will take a packed lunch, flask of coffee for DH etc so dont anticipate too many spends. Possibly an ice cream each if we feel like it. Will put £20 in the car (though there should be petrol left for the week after that) and maybe £5-10 on any ice creams or refreshments needed when we’re out.

I don’t think that looks too awful for a bank hol weekend which includes a stag do

I’m really looking forward to taking DS to the beach as he’s only been once, about this time last year.

We normally do our weekly shop on a Monday, I will save it for Tuesday but may need to get a top up with stuff for the picnic as we’re nearly out of bread. Will try and spend under £5 as we have crisps (for the adults), fruit & salad veg, some HM muffins in freezer etc.

As DH is out tonight I will have the opportunity to sit down and fully go through the finances. He is reasonably amenable to my direction but likes me to do all the admin and budgeting then just let him know what the budget is

Bluegreen143 · 5 May 2018 at 9:04PM

Ok, I've done a rough SOA - I hope iot's Ok that I've slightly changed and added some categories - it makes it easier for me to calculate as I've corresponded them to my YNAB categories. I've tried to do averages as some things vary from month to month, and this is an honest look at our current spending, not the ideal level for debt reduction! I'll post some thoughts on where we can make reductions

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 150 ** varies from 150-200
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1840
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 82
Total monthly income.................... 2072

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 726.8
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140
Gas & Electricity............................. 77.96
Water rates............................. 0 ** included in council tax bill
Telephone (land line)................... 0 ** included in internet bill
Mobile phone............................ 77 (2 mobiles, both in contract)
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 42.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 (food, toiletries, pet food, cleaning supplies etc)
Clothing................................ 20 (estimate)
Petrol/diesel........................... 50 (including parking)
Road tax................................ 12 (pay annually)
Car Insurance........................... 50 (pay annually)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 60 (budget to do things during the week)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings & contents insurance..................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 14.95
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 0 (I cut mine & LO, husband included in his spends)
Family entertainment........................... 100
Husband's spending pot....................... 100
My spending pot................................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Home & garden........................... 100
YNAB fee..................................... 4
Total monthly expenses.................. 2025.07

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 155000
Shares and bonds........................ 1110
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 157610

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 128000...(726.8)....4.25
Total secured & HP debts...... 128000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax CC.....................2182.16...46.04.....12.95
Tesco CC.......................1684.84...25........18.94
MIL loan.......................3500......0.........0

Total monthly income.................... 2072
Total monthly expenses................ 2025.07
Min payments on debt.................. 71.04

Leftover........................................ 46.93

Bluegreen143 · 5 May 2018 at 9:21PM

OK, some thoughts:

Food etc may be able to come down a bit - I used to have this lower although this was before DS. It does include food for two adults and a toddler, packed lunch for DH work, toiletries, cleaning supplies, cat litter/chicken bedding/pet food, pullups for night time for DS (he is potty trained during the day luckily, we could go back to cloth nappies at night to save the extra expense although he resists putting them on now )
Clothing - DH and I rarely ever need and MIL tends to get us clothing vouchers for our birthdays but having a toddler means he does need new clothes when he outgrows them. We always buy second hand or just from Tesco etc
£60 budget is £15 p/week to get into playgroup, do any little outings or go for a cheap lunch out with friends, anything leftover I tend to spend on toys or art supplies for DS every so often
DH budget is really non negotiable, it covers his beer/vaping and any little bits he might want for himself, haircuts etc. Some months he spends less, others more. If I broach the subject of removing this he will likely suggest I go back to work - he is supportive of me being a SAHM but not if it means he gets zero money to spend on himself which I understand.
my own budget covers my Spotify subscription which I guess I could cancel again (I keep cancelling then missing it) and any bits I may want like books or yarn, though I'm trying to be very good and keep things like this at a minimum
entertainment is a best guess average to cover family entertainment (tbh we usually just go for walks or to a free museum but in case we wanted to do a daytrip) or if we occasionally go on a date night or more likely stuff like weddings, birthday parties, taxis to a friends' house etc. I will try and drive more now I'm not drinking so we can really reduce taxi fares (I don't always like trying to drive and park in the city centre but needs must)
Home & garden - a weakness area. DH main hobbies are DIY related, he's very skilled at making things so this covers things like wood, screws etc and also seeds, compost etc for garden. Will need to reduce this and be sensible about how many projects we take on. A lot of what DH does saves us a fortune over getting professionals in but still adds up. Because he can do virtually everything himself he gets impatient waiting for funds and would rather just do stuff as it occurs to him.

Bluegreen143 · 5 May 2018 at 10:48PM

Just an update on spends. Today we ended up spending an unplanned £6.95 today - we ended up having a very stressful afternoon due to an unexpected errand and DH suggested we pick up something easy for dinner. As he!!!8217;d been intending to eat out at his stag do this probably cost less than that would have tbh. We never buy premade food so it was a bit of a treat not to have to cook.

Daily spends

£6.95 - Lidl - cat food, chips, scampi, bread, veg samosas

DH has taken £40 cash to his stag do (though he has his card too) so I!!!8217;ll update on that tomorrow.

Tomorrow I!!!8217;ll sit down and make some targets for the month

Bluegreen143 · 6 May 2018 at 7:03PM

Ok, we have spent a lot more today than I meant

Spends

(From last night) - £40 cash - husband took £30 on stag do, got another £20 out and returned with £10. A little more than I’d hoped he’d spend but not a ridiculous amount.

£58.78 - Tesco today

I’ll break down the Tesco spend:

£12.88 - for the picnic tomorrow. A bit over budget as DH decided he wanted to take a mini BBQ instead of sandwiches. The cost is for feeding us, DS and two adult friends so hopefully they get our ice creams tomorrow at the beach

we got a disposable BBQ, strawberries, crisps, 2x packs really nice sausages, a bottle of cheap cola for DH and 2x packs hot dog rolls.

£2.40 - 2 packs of Tesco own brand ice lollies. We don’t get sunny weather a lot in Glasgow

£2 - pizza for DH tonight. DS and I were stuffed after lunch out with my Papa (paid by him) and DH was hungover so didn’t want to cook for himself.

£1.50 - frisbee on request of DH as he accidentally snapped ours in half the other day.

£13 - swim shorts and jelly shoes for DS - both pretty necessary as he only owns boots & wellies in his size and has outgrown his swimwear.

£27 - summery things for me

shorts, sunglasses, a sun hat and flip flops. In my defence I didn’t own sunglasses or a hat already and I do feel the glasses at least were necessary if it’s going to be sunny. The shorts I needed as I put on my only pair of shorts today to discover they are too small. I’ve just bought a size up so it fits ok just now and will also save me getting maternity shorts when I get bigger. The flip flops (which were £5) I’m returning as I thought I didn’t have any but found some in the cupboard tonight. So at least that will take the spend down slightly.

I’ll sit down tonight to tweak YNAB and set some interim payment goals for this month and I can then start tracking how I do in different spending categories.

Bluegreen143 · 6 May 2018 at 9:21PM

Have set up YNAB, doing a fresh start and rejigging some categories. Too much faff to try and work out getting screenshots on here so I've just retyped :rotfl:

MAY BUDGET (Until DH paid around 27th of the month. I've removed bills like mortgage which have already come off this month)

Funds in all current accounts & in purse - £1,359.09

Bills - £698.78
Internet & landline .................. £42.99
Council tax ............................. £140
Life insurance.......................... £14.78
My phone ................................ £34
Husband phone ...................... £44
Spotify...................................... £9.99
Car insurance (saved for annual bill) ............. £200 (running total £200)
Road tax (saved for annual bill)...................... £49 (running total £49)
Home(saved for annual bill) ........................... £129 (running total £129)
YNAB fee (saved for annual bill) .................... £36 (running total £36)

Spending - needs - £210.60/£255
Petrol & parking .................... £50
Groceries (food) .................... £4.40/£120
Groceries (household)........... £20
Groceries (pets) .................... £20
Medical/dental ....................... £5
Clothes .................................. £40/£40

Spending - wants - £144.62/£159
Husband ............................... £75
Me ........................................ £0
DS/SAHM budget ................. £1.50/£34
Entertainment & socialising .. £12.88/£50
Home & garden .................... £0
Charity .................................. £0

Savings & debt repayment - £305.11
Tesco card ........................... £25.11
Halifax card .......................... £0 (payment made already this month)
Birthdays etc......................... £20 (running total £20)
Christmas ............................. £240 (running total £240)
Car MOT & repairs ............... £20 (running total £20)
Emergency fund ................... £0 (running total £0)
New baby & child stuff .......... £0 (running total £0)
Holidays ................................ £0 (running total £0)

CARD BALANCES 06/05
Tesco [B]-£1684.84[/B]
Halifax £2182.17

Hope this all makes sense. The figures show how much of our available cash I've put in each fund for this month which isn't necessarily a budget I'll use for future months e.g. I've left myself with no spends at least til my pay comes in for part time job, things like Christmas I've put in £240 at the moment to catch up to where we are in the year, but next month and going forward I will only stick £60 in.

I will track my spends in here primarily for the discretionary stuff e.g. food, entertainment etc, but of course I'll have a look at reducing bills etc too.I have a couple of goals/actions already for this week:

- cancel Spotify

- sit down with DH to apply for 0% balance transfer card in his name to move balances too (worried I won't get accepted now as a SAHM though they're both currently in my name, he's more than happy to move them to his name as it's both our debt. Our finances are totally shared)
- shop around for a new internet package as our initial introductory offer has ended
- return unwanted flipflops from earlier to get £5 back
- pay Tesco card - done before I saved this post

Getting & staying debt free, whatever happens!

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