Want to be debt free before new baby!!!

Firstly I am so sorry about your baby passing away :hugs: I can't begin to imagine what you've gone/going through. Very exciting news about your rainbow baby. Don't be tough on yourself about the debt. It happened, and well done for trying to free yourself from it before your little rainbow baby is here.

Looking at your soa, it's pretty tight already. Be careful it's not too tight, and you have a little money for yourselves. I did notice that your petrol is very high. I can understand that if you both commute to work, but is there a way of lift sharing, or would public transport be a cheaper option? Would you also save on car parking then as well? How long have the car payments got left?

You need to put something into an emergency fund, and also plan whether you need to buy things for the new baby or whether you will be reusing? We're reusing a lot for our second, but have still bought new bits.

Is it realistic to have £0 in for gifts, entertainment and hair? Is there a chance that these spends still happen, but aren't accounted for? Have a look through you past few months' bank statements to see what you actual spends have been?

Are all your cards/overdrafts on 0%? How long ago did you switch electricity? Have you checked your bills to see actual usage? I found it took a while for our bills to settle to a realistic amount, going from paying too little to paying too much.

You could get your landline a little cheaper. I'm with Talktalk, and pay under £20 per month. I'm pretty sure there are cheaper ones again out there.

I'm sure others with a far better ideas will be along with their suggestions soon. Good luck, and well done for tackling this.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your little one - it must have been absolutely devastating and I can well understand why you would not have been looking to the future so much at a time when it felt as though your future had just been destroyed. Fantastic news about your impending new arrival though - congratulations and well done for looking to take a grip!

orngeladee wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2200
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3300

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 212
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 422 two cars on HP When does this finish? Once they have finished is there a final payment to make or do you simply keep the cars?
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 119
Electricity............................. 80 This used to be around £40 but I changed from prepay meter to normal one and it's doubled Check your meter readings are accurate and submit them every single month - it's crazy that it's gone up as a result of you making this change! Join the MSE Cheap energy club to research best tariffs too and move if needed.
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 20
Water rates............................. 0 Are you in Scotland so this comes in with Council tax?
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 65 2 contracts. Expire in Feb
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 500 Assuming either a lot of travel for work or long commutes? If the former can/do you reclaim mileage and does your car insurance cover for business use?
Road tax................................ 0 If this is currently included for your car, how long is that for, do you need to start budgeting now to have the money ready when the time comes to pay this yourself?
Car Insurance........................... 0 If this is currently included for your car, how long is that for, do you need to start budgeting now to have the money ready when the time comes to pay this yourself?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 Is everything included with the deal you're on? Even depreciation items like tyres. batteries etc?
Car parking............................. 60
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 5 This is very low for two of you - will the payout on this actually clear the mortgage in the event of one of you passing away?
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 There should be something here - I bet you buy at least something for each other for Christmas/birthdays, no?
Haircuts................................ 0 Unless one of you has it rond their ankles and the other has a buzz-cut done at home, there needs to be something here!
Entertainment........................... 0 You never spend anything at all on non-essentials, either of you? No quick coffee, magazine, cheeky takeaway at the end of a long week?v
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 That surplus you have - next month, £1,000 of that goes straight to emergency fund, and from there you add to it at the rate of £50 a month - you really must have this in place as homeowners.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1720


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 58000....(212)......2.12
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 9000.....(202)......0<
HP.............................10000....(220)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 77000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR Are these really all at 0%?
Credit Card....................1000......10........0 Barclaycard
Credit card....................5000......30........0 Barclaycard
Credit Card....................800.......10........0 Capital one
Overdraft......................1500......30........0 Halifax
Overdraft......................3800......92........0 Halifax
Overdraft......................1000......20........0 RBS
Total unsecured debts..........13100.....192.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,720
Available for debt repayments........... 1,580
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 192
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,388 Do you actually have this left?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0 There's figures to go in here - you're making your picture look worse than it is, currently!
Total HP & Secured debt................. -77,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,100
Net Assets.............................. -90,100



I know we're in a lot of debt atm. I am currently diverting about 1000 to credit cards. I cancelled our sky and any unnecessary expenses. Any more advice?

Actually, on your current income, you're NOT in that much debt. I know that's an unusual thing to hear on here, but there you go. :rotfl: You are however doing absolutely the right and responsible thing wanting to get it cleared to give your new baby the best start possible in life - so definitely crack on as planned.

First thing I'd suggest is to see if you actually DO have that surplus at the end of each month - and on the basis that your SOA currently shows NO personal spending at all for either of you, my guess is you don't. As someone else has said - be careful you don't cut things unrealistically tight.

There are some things there that you may need to budget for - with an eye to the future. Car expenses for example - are the cars on introductory deals that include servicing, tax, and insurance? If so think about when these end and look to make sure that you have enough in the pot to sort those things out paid up front when they become due. As a guideline we set aside £155 per month and that covers our two cars reasonably well - It looks as though at least one of you does high mileage though so you may need to budget a little more.

Remember that minimum payments will never clear a debt fast! Assuming that some of what you're paying on does have interest being charged, you need to find those figures and add them to the SOA - that then tells you what to target first. If they are all on 0% genuinely then sort them out in order of the 0% deals ending - target the shortest deal first. If they all end at a similar time personally I'd pay off the smaller ones first to get your numbers of cards down. I assume that you're no longer spending on cards at all and all of those have been cut up?