Just looking for some advice

EssexHebridean · 20 November 2017 at 11:26AM

Well done for taking the hardest first step Tom and acknowledging that there is a problem.
You've made great progress with dealing with the gambling issue too - informing your employer must have been really tough - well done for being so brave.

I'll comment on the SOA in red as usual...

Deleted_User wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 110
Total monthly income.................... 2360

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 800
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 55 This is high - I assume it's a contract?
Once you're approaching the end of the current contract look at changing to SIM only.
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 This is high for a single person - make sure you're not "paying for convenience" by buying lots of pre-prepared stuff - if you can't cook from scratch currently then this is a great time to learn!
Clothing................................ 0 You need to start budgeting for replacement of clothes as they need it at least.
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 25
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 Is there a contents insurance policy ion place for the whole property that you would claim from if the worst happened?
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 You need to start budgeting something in here now.
Haircuts................................ 0 Do you just do it yourself with clippers?
Entertainment........................... 0 You need to budget something here -
it's unrealistic and unhealthy to never do anything for entertainment, although I imagine it's seemed of less importance when you were gambling.
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 Start building this now - aim to start with putting aside a £500 EF - you can build further over time.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1130

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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Nationwide Credit .............1575......25........18.9
Nationwide Loan................7802......149.......3.6
Nationwide Loan................5376......163.......4.5
247 money box..................85........0.........0
Krevis.........................110.......0.........0
Lending Stream.................524.......0.........0
Wage day advance...............150.......0.........0 I don't think any of these pay day type loans are 0%, are they?!
Wonga..........................300.......0.........0
Mr Lender......................750.......0.........0
Nationwide Overdraft...........500.......10........0
Total unsecured debts..........17172.....347.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,360
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,130
Available for debt repayments........... 1,230
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 347
Amount left after debt repayments....... 883 This is a good surplus - do you definitely have that amount left over each month?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,172
Net Assets.............................. -17,172
.

OK - ideally as others have said you pay off the debts in interest rate order - however if you are currently in a position where you have this month's surplus in the bank but don't know the interest rate details personally I'd make a start by getting rid of some of the small pay day loans. Those ARE going to be high on interest, and you are potentially in a position to get shot of some of them right away. I'd tackle:
247 money box..................85........0.........0
Krevis.........................110.......0.........0
Wage day advance...............150.......0.........0
as a start, and then take stock and find out interest rates on the rest so you can get them into some form of order. You definitely need to find out what the minimum payments are - your last month's bank statement should tell you what each of them took then, as a start.

Once you know what the minimums are on everything that's left over you can redo the SOA - remember to account for things like entertainment too when you do it - and maybe set up separate savings accounts for things like clothes, emergency fund etc. Nationwide are great for having easy to set up savings accounts off the back of their current accounts - I think they're called something like "e-savers". Check out that overdraft too to make sure it definitely IS fee free - flexaccounts charge interest by the day otherwise and I think the Flexdirect charges a flat monthly rate for being in an authorised overdraft? If your OD isn't authorised though likelihood is you're being charged a lot more.

enthusiasticsaver · 20 November 2017 at 2:04PM

I agree tackling the payday loans first is sensible as probably the most expensive. With that much disposable income you could clear those within 2 months

[Deleted User] · 20 November 2017 at 8:16PM

middleclassbutpoor wrote: »

Sounds like you have taken some proactive steps so far so well done.

If you have £1k spare (as you probably do need to include things like money for clothes/birthdays/haircuts and emergencies etc, even if its like £100 per month) and your family are willing to be patient to be repaid then my suggestion would be as follows:

Use the snowball effect so, when you repay a debt off, you apply the money paid to that, to your next debt so the amount you have to repay to your debt increases overtime.

Get your payday loans repaid asap as a priority - they will be the highest interest bearing and pay minimum on the rest. Looks like a couple of months and they will be gone.

Next get your O/D sorted and your credit card - again another couple of months to do this and things will start to feel a lot better.

You seem to have missed PayPal off that list too - so is this family or missed?

I would then probably pay your family back at this point and then overpay your personal loans. I would do that because they are reasonable interest rates and whilst financially its not the best way to do it - but you need the support of your family too.

Within 6 months you should be in a far better place financially. Within 12 months you will be nearly debt free if you do this right.

As a single person, in your position, I would probably also look to find something else to fill your time in the evening to replace the time you spent gambling.

Why not get your dad on here too to look at what steps you are taking - it may help him help you with your finances.

Hi
Thanks a lot for your reply! Some helpful advice in there. I missed out pay pal because i have tried to contact them telling them i cant pay off the negative balance on my account but they said to me there is nothing they can do about that in terms of setting up a repayment plan. They will have to leave it until the collections department eventually passes it over to an agency who will then contact me. So i do not know what is happening with that current situation! Once again thanks for the helpful advice

[Deleted User] · 20 November 2017 at 8:22PM

Dobbibill wrote: »

Hi tomgrogan - welcome to the forum.

You have done really well to start dealing with your gambling addiction. Admitting things to yourself and others is a good first step, the other things you have done are good too. Keep at it.

It sounds like your Dad really wants to support you. A support network is good and worth so much - you are very lucky.

You SOA doesn't look too bad, with a reasonable amount of disposable income.

I haven't been majorly picky with the groceries etc but just highlighted a few that jump out at me.
I think an entertainment budget is needed so you don't fall off the GA wagon.

If you put your mind to it this can be do-able with a bit of focus.

Don't expect it to disappear overnight (that's not how it got there in the first place) but some determination will see the pay day lenders gone in a few months.

All the best with GA and the debt busting. Stay strong.

Hi,

Thanks for all your helpful advice, i really do appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to give me some helpful suggestions and interaction in dealing with my problem!

In terms of my SOA:

Phone Contact - i do not know how to get a different contract, i am tied to it for at least another year. I will look at reducing it as soon as i can.

Presents- yeah sad to say i have not bought anyone anything including myself for about 2 years now. Gambling turns you in to a selfish quite unpleasant person. Will be looking to rectify this beginning in 2018. If i could afford it this year i would but i am being chased up by a lot of my debts asking for multiple payments that i have missed. What budget would you think of allocating for that?

Haircuts- Cut it myself!

Entertainment- Once again, gambling inflicted. I have lost a lot of friends and lost a lot of passion for doing things i use to like over the last couple of years. It eradicates any kind of drive to do anything else bar gambling. What would you suggest allocating?

Pay day loans- yeah all the interest is frozen. I spoke to all of them today and they are putting them on hold for a month so no more interest!

Overdraft- yes this is interest and fee free. Thankfully!

[Deleted User] · 20 November 2017 at 8:23PM

Mnd wrote: »

On a personal note, does you user name reflect your real name. If you don't want this to become common knowledge then it may be worth changing

Would you suggest i change it to something else? Is there a lot of negative connotations with having your real name viewable?

[Deleted User] · 20 November 2017 at 8:25PM

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

Congratulations for the first step of many.

You need to have a responsibility with your finances, I assume you haven't abdicated responsibility of managing your finances to your Dad and he is assisting you with advice on the 'problems'

Get accurate record of interest rates (and charges) for all of your debts (including your OD)

Rank them with highest first and pay them off in that order.

Do a cash flow and interest schedule on Excel to work out how much is attributed to which load and when plus a cumulative interest/charge per debt perf month. This will allow you to produce a plan for payment and a real life view of how your debts will change per month.

With you Dad produce :-

Cash flow with annual, 1/2 & 1/4 ly costs and do cash flow to see what you need to put aside to pay for these when they come due.

Produce a bank reconciliation every day including all of the debt repayments planned and the accrual (described above), this will start to mae you take responsibility for your daily spending, monthly spending and future spending plus the debt repayments. Accurately tracking account will avoid you going into OD (as this is expensive way of obtaining credit too)

Start to plan to make insurances a one off payment rather than monthly (as they charge interest on monthly plan), this may take a while to generate the necessary one off payment required, but you should start accruing for this once the debts are being eaten into.

Review a month before Bills are due, so was you can start investigating better deals and have time too switch etc.

The cash flow and excel docs sound dull but they will inch you into taking more responsibility and become your best friend (well thats a slight overstatement!)

Thanks for the helpful techniques listed above. I will be sure to start working on them with my Dad this week. For the moment he has full control of my finances and sends me a daily budget to live off. Otherwise i will gamble it most likely! How do you get companies to agree to a one off payment instead of monthly drips and drabs. Also will they want the full amount or will they offer discounted rates?

[Deleted User] · 20 November 2017 at 8:36PM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Well done for taking the hardest first step Tom and acknowledging that there is a problem.
You've made great progress with dealing with the gambling issue too - informing your employer must have been really tough - well done for being so brave.

I'll comment on the SOA in red as usual...

OK - ideally as others have said you pay off the debts in interest rate order - however if you are currently in a position where you have this month's surplus in the bank but don't know the interest rate details personally I'd make a start by getting rid of some of the small pay day loans. Those ARE going to be high on interest, and you are potentially in a position to get shot of some of them right away. I'd tackle:
247 money box..................85........0.........0
Krevis.........................110.......0.........0
Wage day advance...............150.......0.........0
as a start, and then take stock and find out interest rates on the rest so you can get them into some form of order. You definitely need to find out what the minimum payments are - your last month's bank statement should tell you what each of them took then, as a start.

Once you know what the minimums are on everything that's left over you can redo the SOA - remember to account for things like entertainment too when you do it - and maybe set up separate savings accounts for things like clothes, emergency fund etc. Nationwide are great for having easy to set up savings accounts off the back of their current accounts - I think they're called something like "e-savers". Check out that overdraft too to make sure it definitely IS fee free - flexaccounts charge interest by the day otherwise and I think the Flexdirect charges a flat monthly rate for being in an authorised overdraft? If your OD isn't authorised though likelihood is you're being charged a lot more.

Sadly i do not have any surplus right now. My final binge was on the Saturday just gone. Living off scraps till i next get paid on the 30th. My OD is authorised and it is fee free and interest free for another 4 months i think. So hopefully will be able to clear that by then as it is reasonably small.

SOA Comments-

Phone- sadly i am locked in to this contract for a while. Will address it when i can!

Groceries- How much would you advise spending? And i might be pushing my luck here but do you have any easy and cheap meal suggestions. Not as easy to put stuff together as a 22 year old male when your Mum is not around haha.

Clothing- Yeah i kind of wear a lot of things with rips and holes in them. Probably need to address that at some point.

Contents insurance- Yes the house has one that covers my stuff aswell.

Presents- As mentioned above never have given presents for the past 2 years. Any suggestions on a suitable budget for that?

Haircuts- Do it myself!

Entertainment- Need to discover what i like doing again first!

Emergency Fund- This is an interesting one. Gambling has led me to be obsessed with money. It hurts me to even buy a loaf of bread from the shops. I always have a thirst for my bank balance to be on a larger amount then it is. Probably what got me in so much trouble with my gambling. Always wanted more. Ideally i want my bank account to be on at least 1000 at all times. I have been a lot higher then that but also a lot lower. So seems a good comprise. 500 is a good short term goal though.

Pay day loans- luckily they all agreed to stop adding interest for 1 month. I told them my problem and i told them about my gambling. Pretty understanding about it all to be honest! Was quite surprised.

Surplus- Yeah that is my current budget. Once i commit to paying the pay day loans off/monthly payments that will decrease.

Thanks for all your help.

Mnd · 20 November 2017 at 9:40PM

As far as I am aware there are no positives or negatives regarding the use of your real name, I just concerned that you might not want your mates/neighbours etc being aware of your financial situation.

Dobbibill · 20 November 2017 at 9:56PM

Deleted_User wrote: »

Presents- yeah sad to say i have not bought anyone anything including myself for about 2 years now. Gambling turns you in to a selfish quite unpleasant person. Will be looking to rectify this beginning in 2018. If i could afford it this year i would but i am being chased up by a lot of my debts asking for multiple payments that i have missed. What budget would you think of allocating for that?

This would depend on who you intend to buy for -
if it's just a few close family ie parents & siblings then £8 pcm would be sufficient - take the amount of people multiply by the cost of gift then divide by 12. For anyone you would buy for birthdays do the same.

Entertainment- Once again, gambling inflicted. I have lost a lot of friends and lost a lot of passion for doing things i use to like over the last couple of years. It eradicates any kind of drive to do anything else bar gambling. What would you suggest allocating?
What hobby/past-time do you plan on doing to distract you? Are you going to do a sport? Go to a gym? Do some PC/Xbox/PS gaming? Drinks with mates - coffees or alcohol. Work out the cost then put money into a category for it.

Some suggestions in red - it really is personal preference though.

EssexHebridean · 20 November 2017 at 10:18PM

Take a look over on the old style board here for some great frugal meal suggestions - I'll start you off with a super useful one though:

Easy tomato sauce:
Roughly chop a couple of onions and fry off in a little oil in a large saucepan - sprinkle over a good pinch of salt to season, this also helps them to soften and cook. You're aiming to soften them and get them to go slightly golden without burning at all.
Roughly chop a punnet of value/basics mushrooms and throw them in.
Roughly chop up a couple of peppers - red, green or yellow, it;s not important - and throw those in - look for the bags of "cooking peppers" as they're cheaper than buying them individually - OR if you don't think you'll use the balance of the bag then buy a bag of frozen sliced peppers - you'll want around half the bag for this.
Stir everything together regularly until it's all softened. You can throw in a couple of cloves of finely chopped garlic too - or again, you might do best to buy one of the squeezy tubes of prepared stuff if you won't use the rest of the head.

Once it's all soft empty a couple of tins or cartons of chopped tomatoes into the pan - and season with some black pepper. Simmer the whole lot together for half an hour or so to let the flavours mix.

That should make you around 5 portions - and you can vary it in all sorts of ways - as a bolognese sauce with minced beef and maybe some dried italian herbs added, add a bit of chilli powder and a can of kidney beans for a veggie chilli. Some paprika and a touch of extra Garlic and you've got a nice sauce to have with chicken portions. Mix in a can of tuna and a portion of cooked pasta and chuck it in the oven topped with cheese and you've got tuna pasta bake.

Just looking for some advice

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