another credit card or loan which one!

glitzy · 17 July 2007 at 6:35PM

Up to date SOA here goes hope i havent left anything out

Monthly Incomings

my wages 1000 after tax
husbands 1300 "
tax credit 42
ch benefit 72
Total 2414

Monthly Outgoings

Mortgage 729.99 just moved, fixed rate 4.39%
Endowment 40.65
Sky 37.00
life ins 12.76
gas/elect 60.00 think this not enough!
water 32.60
tv licence 11.37
sofa 33.37 0% int but dog has chewed it!
pet ins 7.98
council tax 123.00
gym 29.00 husbands
swim lessons 13.50 daughter 9years old
Total 1131.22

Credit cards

M&S £150.00 3.9% life 5000 outstanding, limit 6000
If £50.00 4.9% life 2500 outstanding, limit 5750
hsbc £50.00 0% 12mths 1632 outstanding, limit1750
tesco £60.00 0% 12mths 2160 outstanding, limit2300
Total £310.00
Am Ex we pay off each month

Mobile phones

Husbands £20
Mine £35 but really free as its reclaim cashback

Overdraft A&L 1,000.00 5.9%

These are average monthly amounts
Greenflag £5.75 cheap due to ins with direct line
Car ins £19.66 pay off yearly
Van ins £27.04 pay off yearly, need it for carpet cleaner machine
Car tax £10.54 at present paying twice yearly - lack of cash
Van tax £16.50 "

Car mot/repairs £3.77 still under warranty so long as a service is done!
Van " £10.71
Petrol/ train £41.67
Shopping £271 food, drink, toiletries, cosmetics, cleaning solutions
Clothes £20.00
Daughter £17.89 Clothes, uniform, dance lessons
Dog £9.50 food, chews & balls
Lottery £8
Entertaining £28.32 take away, eating out & bbqs
Tickets £17.80 Football/Concerts
Household £12.50 Iron, curtain poles, lights etc
Gifts £20.00 Birthdays fathers/mothers
Phone/broadband £29 with virgin media, want to change to a better deal

Total £559.00 approx

Going by my calculations we are £641 short a month!
Any ideas to find the bal for the hols within the next 6 weeks!

Valley's_girl · 17 July 2007 at 7:08PM

Hi I am sure someone will be along shortly who will be able to look at your budget in more detail, I notice that you haven't included food in your budget.
Ally xx

glitzy · 17 July 2007 at 8:28PM

Thats where our problem lies, as we live off fresh air! Petrol, car tax, ins etc is not included. I tend to shop around for those and it is always cheaper to pay in full rather than monthly, so our am ex card takes a battering but we always pay it off.

My husband does earn cash in hand! for cleaning carpets but we are only busy in the summer, this week he has earned £50 - we did try to start a business, but made a loss. I have just read another thread so am going to try the snowball thing and see how that goes. Fingers crossed

Crown · 17 July 2007 at 11:08PM

Hi, Personally I dont think getting a New Credit Card or Loan is going to help you at all to be honest. If you are still using credit cards to live on Monthly then you are just shifting the problem by consolidating. How long will it be before the cards get run up and you need to do it all over again?

I dont mean this harshly but I have been in your situation as well as a lot of people on here. The Easiest way to sort the problem is to do a budget and try to use cash only to stay within your means as you are gouing to find it tough to get out of debt why still using the tools of debt.

I would take your holiday and then have a serious chat with your family about how seriously you want to get out of debt. I would say that you need to do a full SOA so you can actually work out what you are spending and also start keeping a spending diary to gt an accurute overview of your situation.

Wish you all the best with it

betti911 · 17 July 2007 at 11:24PM

Do you need Sky? Could you cancel it and get freeview?

Do you need pet insurance?

CLAPTON · 17 July 2007 at 11:38PM

if you want to control your finances you need to know your income and your spending details and the full debt details otherwise the figures sim ply mislead.

Income:
what do you mean by saying your OH earns 1300 ..
are you saying your OH earns 15600 per annum take home or what?

as far as spending is concerned you need to work out everything your will spend in the next 12 months .. divide by 12 are see how it compares with your average monthly income

so essential to include that holiday, food , car insurance, tax, MOT, repairs, petrol, clothes, socialising, kids activities, xmas and birthday expenses, haircuts, hobbies ... well everything you spend

start keeping a spending diary and write down everything you spend and find out where it all goes.

Until you have done that its makes no sense 'consolidating debts etc' because you will probably simply run up more debts.

glitzy · 18 July 2007 at 9:56AM

betti911 wrote: »

Do you need Sky? Could you cancel it and get freeview?

Do you need pet insurance?

My husband is an avid football supporter, with freeview you dont get sky sports and if i cancel the pet insurance something might happen to the dog, but my arm could be twisted on that one.

Sparkles81_2 · 18 July 2007 at 10:04AM

Hi, Could your husband not go round to a friend or family to watch important football matches. When cutting back everyone has to do it or it doesn't work.

Does your husband really use his gym membership, could he not go running instead.

glitzy · 18 July 2007 at 10:10AM

CLAPTON wrote: »

if you want to control your finances you need to know your income and your spending details and the full debt details otherwise the figures sim ply mislead.

Income:
what do you mean by saying your OH earns 1300 ..
are you saying your OH earns 15600 per annum take home or what?

as far as spending is concerned you need to work out everything your will spend in the next 12 months .. divide by 12 are see how it compares with your average monthly income

so essential to include that holiday, food , car insurance, tax, MOT, repairs, petrol, clothes, socialising, kids activities, xmas and birthday expenses, haircuts, hobbies ... well everything you spend

start keeping a spending diary and write down everything you spend and find out where it all goes.

Until you have done that its makes no sense 'consolidating debts etc' because you will probably simply run up more debts.

Thanks for your advice - our wages is take home. I said to my friend i was going to see how much the school holidays cost, so i will do a spreadsheet for everything - SCARY!

I went on the snowball calculater and my for life credit card balances are not as good as they seem if you only pay the minimum (which i do) be it £200 a month and the overdraft £1000 that s my husbands wages already, so im inclined to get a loan for 48mths at 6% and clear the overdraft etc. and i will pay much the same interest but be debt free sooner! Whatever i decide has to be by sept as that is when we have to pay the balance to the holiday and then we have to find spending money HELP! i dont want to play anymore, my head is just so confused.

glitzy · 18 July 2007 at 10:15AM

Sparkles81 wrote: »

Hi, Could your husband not go round to a friend or family to watch important football matches. When cutting back everyone has to do it or it doesn't work.

Does your husband really use his gym membership, could he not go running instead.

Exactly but my husband is stubborn and thinks we should move if we cant afford the house - i think we can afford it if we clear the overdraft as we would have an extra £1000 a month. As for sky he likes his home comforts and you will not believe this but he has just got a gym bench & weights in the garage, i did mention is he going to cancel the gym but he needs to do cardiovascular, whatever that is when its at home.

SarahNeedle1872 · 18 July 2007 at 10:34AM

Hi Glitzy..... sounds as if ur DH has not has his LBM just yet

From ur OP, u appear to have approx £12.5k of debts.... are these joint? And is he aware of all of them? The reason I ask is because u will find it hard trying to deal with these all on ur own! It's all well and good having a budget if only one of u is sticking to it - personal experience tells me this, altho OH is finally starting to come round

.

There also seems to be a lot missing from ur SOA - the most important one is food!!!

Take a look at SouthernScouser's sticky at the top of the page, and try to write urself out a full SOA - going back thru the last couple of months bank/CC statements is a good way to tell how much u've spent. Also get hold of ur APRs for the debts - phone the companies if u have to, so we can see a true picture and try to help u cut back. You may find that u won't need to consolidate after - unfortunately u won't find many fans of consolidation here, we've all done it too many times and it hasn't worked... It only works if the loan/card u get means u are paying less overall (not just monthly payment, I mean total interest) AND u adjust ur attitude so that u don't run up debts again.....

God, that all sounded like such a lecture - please don't take offense to any of what I just said.
Please please keep posting here, there are always people here to help, with a vast amount of experience, as we have all been in similar situations. U will pretty much always find someone here, 24hrs a day, and no question u ask will ever be judged or considered silly.

Take care

Sarah x

another credit card or loan which one!

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