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KatieKat's SOA

Hi, here is my SOA - wow, what an experience - our situation is more shocking than I thought!! :eek:

Here is also my original thread asking about possible bankruptcy, with more details of my situation http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2471454#post2471454


Incoming
Partners salary - £1092
Child Tax Credit - 175.36 (every 4 weeks)
Chld Benefit - 69.80

Total - £1337.16

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage (DH’s name only)- £339.19 (as of Dec will be £250) £40,000 remaining
Secured Loan (DH’s name) £248.96 (£17,000 remaining)
Council Tax - £113.69
Gas - £10 - £20
Electric - £40 (in process of switching)
TV License - £11.07
Phone and Broadband- £85.50 (in process of going elsewhere)
Food, & housekeeping, basic toiletries £175
Clothing, footwear (really only for our daughter and occasional work clothes for DH) - £50
Nappies £4 (nearly completely potty trained! – our toddler that is)
Car Insurance - £89.82 (it just went up because car was broken into in a secure parking lot at DH’s employment!  - must look for something cheeper)
Petrol to get DH to work and public transport (for myself)- £80
Life Insurance £5.25 for our child, £10.15 for DH
Building and contents insurance £18.69
Contact Lenses £16

Total £ 1302.07

HPs (all in DHs name)

Black Horse Finance - £35.16 – living room sofa HP (about£400 remaining)
First Response Vehicle finance £142.84 (£2,000 remaining)
HP from Dell £25.13 (£650 remaining)

Total: £203.13

LOAN to Father-in-law

GE Capital £500 (15,00 remaining)

Total: £500


Debt in my name:
Capital One – Balance 664.34 (limit £600) APR ?
Barclaycard – Balance 1849.99 (limit 1800) APR 17.9 %
Bank of Scotland Overdraft - £997 (limit £1,000) APR 0%
Bank of Scotland Visa 1443.93 (limit £1400) APR ?
Abound £326.14
Additions £45.00
Vertbaudet £95.68
Next £600

Total: £6022.08

Debt in DH’s name:
Capital One – Balance £632.51 (limit £600) APR ?
Virgin – Balance £3170.53 (limit £3000) APR ?
Littlewoods £483.75
Lloyds TSB Overdraft £4987 (limit £5000)

Total: £9273.79


What we're currently trying to do:
- For starters, we're opening up parachute accounts and are going to try to claim back credit card and bank charges. I'm SO motived about that!!

- I have an appointment with CCCS tomorrow - let's see what they say.

- We're in the process of switching electricity, phone and broadband suppliers. Have already cancelled our mobiles, Sky TV and moved to freeview, no more DVD rental club, more meal planning

- need to look into that car insurance. it was £50 a month before our car was broken into while it was parked in a secure lot at my husband's work.

-I'm depressed and have been staying at home with our 2-year old. I'm also in my comfort zone, living the toddler life (toddlers are so much more fun to talk to LOL) but I am now afraid of the idea of working outside the home - so I'm trying to get over this postnatal social fear that I have and to get a weekend job, but as of yet have had no success

- Ebay. the cupboard under the stairs is FILLED with things to sell. Brought in £500 -£600 last month and was able to make ends meet... I just don't know how long I can keep it up for... or if or when we will run out of things to sell, but currently ebay IS my job

Also the debt in my name wasn't as bad as I thought, although IMO it isn't that great.
KK
«1

Comments

  • Hi KatieKat. Well done for getting your SOA together so quickly. You look to be making the correct initial moves so far ie: meal planning, cancelling sky and shopping around for providers. Another one to look at although may only be small is the cost of the contact lenses (but every penny helps) try looking at the ones you can buy online. Reiterating what someone said in your earlier post about your FIL the suggestion was made to talk to him into maybe taking another loan with a lower interest rate. If you are unable to afford the full £500, (at the end of they day you cannot magic money from nowher - if only) then it would be beneficial for him to do so.

    And doing e-bay as your "job" at the moment is great, whilst you have got the time and the stuff to put on there, then you are gaining that extra income. Unfortunately I am not so good with the more serious debt sorting ideas at the moment, but all the best with the advice someone else will come along with.
  • KatieKat_2
    KatieKat_2 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Thanks, I never thought of cheaper lenses since they are for DH. I'll look into that :)

    I've also just wanted to say that I am SO happy I found this site!!

    I probably had my lightbulb moment when I was pregnant back in Autumn 2003. I contacted CCCS, but for some reason never proceeded with the application because it resulted in a lot of nasty letters from our creditors... and that scared me off (with my hormones I was possibly too scared and vulnerable)... eventually consolidated our debt and swore to never touch the cards or catalogues again... but of course our debt too FIL has been too hard to pay so we reverted back. Things 'seemed' okay for a while.

    Ebay is okay for now but with nearly a £0 bank balance it ia pain with most people paying by PayPal and having to explain to them that we cannot ship until the money is in our bank account (and then just hoping and praying that the night the money shows up in our account, that a huge DD didn't come off as well... reminds me, I should just use my bank account for ebay/paypal and DH's for the direct debits... Hey! So much easier, as we currently just use his)
  • Floss
    Floss Posts: 9,043 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    if you have a NEXT store near you (out-of-town ones are good for this) ask if they have any jobs in the evening, usually 5-8pm, or on a Sunday. My mate works 12-5 on Sundays + the Sale days, and it kept them going when her self-employed hubbie was off sick after an accident.
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  • KatieKat_2
    KatieKat_2 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Floss wrote:
    if you have a NEXT store near you (out-of-town ones are good for this) ask if they have any jobs in the evening, usually 5-8pm, or on a Sunday. My mate works 12-5 on Sundays + the Sale days, and it kept them going when her self-employed hubbie was off sick after an accident.

    I would love to! But do you think they'd accept me if I owed them £600 and can only afford to pay them token payments each month of £1 - I wonder if they check on that kind of stuff. Seriously would be great if they don't check because I really need to work evenings and weekends
  • jessicamb
    jessicamb Posts: 10,446 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Supermarkets could also be an option for investigating work. They tend to have a lot of different shifts, especially evenings/weekends. It could also help you to socialise a bit more and get over your fears. From there the world is your oyster!

    Otherwise you look to be making a great start to things.

    Also looking at some of the catalogue debts - have you tried shopping at places like Primark. They are considerably cheaper than Next and similar, especially for childrens clothes as they grow out of them so quickly.

    Once you've got the bills sorted out and you can get yourself some income I bet you'll have loads extra that you can throw at the debts.

    Oh - and keep up the ebaying. I bet you'll find loads of stuff for ages yet.
    The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese :cool:
  • KatieKat_2
    KatieKat_2 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Well I just had my appointment with CCCS and the lady was so lovely to speak to. I think that she genuinely felt bad for me… and I notice that the more I talk about my debt problems, the more confident I feel about being able tackle it and the less afraid I feel about my/our creditors. Seroulsly, I feel as though I can now embrace the fact that we have a serious problem and I am no longer afraid to admit it - there is just NO SHAME in it

    Unfortunately there is little they can do to help us out other than offer advice. The main issue is my FIL’s loan and we cannot be paying both that loan And our mortgage and secured loan. Something has to go and the obvious one would be FIL’s loan so we need to persuade him to come to some sort of agreement.

    I also need to keep looking for a job (until recently I was self-employed, but my business wasn’t really making much money – but part of it was my own fault because I didn’t feel comfortable really taking money off people not knowing if they were in financial trouble or not. So I often sold things at nearly wholesale prices. I am just too nice to run a business LOL – I would have been much happier running a charity in order to help people out). Anyway… We are in a deficit of £800/month. I actually under budgeted on most things, so I am going to take their advice and cancel all of our unessential direct debits, keep looking into cheaper things like car insurance etc… and I am going to withdraw the money we NEED at the beginning of each month and set it aside.

    I’ve decided that I am going to ‘evict’ all of our previously paid bills and things from our secure metal box (all that stuff can all go in an old shoe box and shoved under the bed LOL) and use the box for budgeted money i.e. separate envelopes for food, clothing, set aside a few pounds each month for emergencies etc. And then just make sure that we don’t lose the key!!! I just LOVE that idea – so much better than going to the cash machine each time we go shopping.

    They agreed that because we are £800 short each month according to what they think we need to survive on (and our essential debts) that bankruptcy would be our best solution…. But then there is the issue of FILs loan and he would get zilch if we went that route and our post-bankruptcy budget wouldn’t be able to include him in it.

    So it will be interesting how we manage to solve everything

    KatieKat
  • Hey KatieKat,

    I've just read both your posts - sorry I missed you earlier in the week. Your posts really touched me as you seem to be in a bit of a pickle, but you seem to tackling everything with humour and enthusiasm.

    I don't have any children, but one thing that always strikes me is the amount of cheap as chips children's clothes at car boots (big bag fulls for £5) and charity shops - they are so cheap and barely worn! I feel like stocking up for when I have babies!

    I also really understand what you were saying about having money to post eBay/Amazon items - I had this problem too - even having to *borrow* money from the finance lady at work one day as petty cash for a meeting - shhhh (of course, I paid it back!) in order to post something! Now I keep a pot of money STRICTLY for the post office and eBay/Amazon sales - its £50 which sounds such a lot of money but this means I have plenty just for this use, then replace this money first before paying off any debts once I have transfered my money from paypal.

    Anyway - good luck with everything. I don't have much practical advice about CCCS/bankruptcy/business stuff/being a mum but I am always here as a person to listen and a shoulder to cry on.

    Lots of love and luck

    scottishspendaholic x
    MBNA = £4,000 / Next = £925 (approx. tbc on 19/8)
    Tesco = £2,910.11 / Smile overdraft = £500
    Bank of Scotland = £2,782.83
  • KatieKat_2
    KatieKat_2 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Thanks :)

    Right now I just feel that the more positive I am, the easier things will be to manage. I keep trying myself "that before things get too bad, that they WILL get better"

    Funnily enough, DH and I seem to take it in shifts w/ regards to feeling depressed about our debts. When one of us is feeling degressed and all 'doom and gloom-like' about our situation, the other one is always there saying that it will be all okay... and as it is, he is currently depressed about it, so I am the one needing to be strong... and I am sure that next week will be my turn and he'll need to help me ;)

    Great tip about ebay - once I get enough money in, I will try to keep a pot of money for p&p, and just keep it around, say £50. We made Powerseller status by selling our old unwanted/un-needed stuff, so I am always paranoid that we will lose what we worked towards.

    Great idea about buying kids clothes at charity shops and car boots - might save a fortune. She recently turned 2 and already wears an age 4-5 in most things. She's SO tall... and I am not tall at all - far from it! It can be so expensive when they grow so quickly... particularly when I expected any girls I had to be shorties like me LOL... but hey, in a few years she can probably wear my hand-me-downs. That would save money LOL ;)
  • KatieKat_2
    KatieKat_2 Posts: 25 Forumite
    Thanks :)

    Right now I just feel that the more positive I am, the easier things will be to manage. I keep trying myself "that before things get too bad, that they WILL get better"

    Funnily enough, DH and I seem to take it in shifts w/ regards to feeling depressed about our debts. When one of us is feeling degressed and all 'doom and gloom-like' about our situation, the other one is always there saying that it will be all okay... and as it is, he is currently depressed about it, so I am the one needing to be strong... and I am sure that next week will be my turn and he'll need to help me ;)

    Great tip about ebay - once I get enough money in, I will try to keep a pot of money for p&p, and just keep it around, say £50. We made Powerseller status by selling our old unwanted/un-needed stuff, so I am always paranoid that we will lose what we worked towards.

    Great idea about buying kids clothes at charity shops and car boots - might save a fortune. She recently turned 2 and already wears an age 4-5 in most things. She's SO tall... and I am not tall at all - far from it! It can be so expensive when they grow so quickly... particularly when I expected any girls I had to be shorties like me LOL... but hey, in a few years she can probably wear my hand-me-downs. That would save money LOL ;)
  • Hi, well done for posting your SOA - haven't got round to doing mine yet!...
    Have you bought many toddler clothes from Ebay too? I have kitted out my baby daughter's wardrobe for the last 9 months from Ebay items; they are all in really good/excellent condition for minimal cost. Perhaps you could use the paypal acc money; that way even though its not transfered to your bank account to use, it seems like you haven't spent anything anyway - then, the £50 on your SOA you have allocated for clothes, you could put towards a bill. Do you have other family members or friends with slightly older children who are having a children's clothes clear out?
    Also, do you get working family tax credits - your partner seems to earn only slightly more than my hubby, and we get it...
    Best of luck x
    Buy nothing for a month challenge - Oct
    12/31 NSD

    CC - [STRIKE]£536.02[/STRIKE] £336.02
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