Debts same as income

Davidp77

Hi All

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Just wanted to provide a bit more info in response to some of them.

There is no council tax on her SOA as i pay that at the moment, there are no transport costs as she does not own a car and walks to work. The haircut thing was put on as she probably only goes for a hair appointment every few months, but unfortunately her appointment costs about £140 a time. The groceries I put on as about £50 as before I knew this was a big a problem as it is, we were kinda going halves on food. The entertainment costs are usually just for a meal out or a few trips to the cinema. We will be trying to make cutbacks in other areas.

I am seeing this as my problem also, but the last few days I have just been seeing what ways we can try to tackle the loan and credit cards from just her side first and then use my income for living on. From now on I'll be paying for all the groceries, entertainment on top of the household bills, but unfortunately this won't leave me much left over either.

Could someone just explain what all the abbreviated options are such as the CCCS/CAB are?

I'll do a joint SOA also later to see if that makes things look a bit better.

Thanks again

Dave

SouthernSoftie

Davidp77 wrote: »

Hi All

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Just wanted to provide a bit more info in response to some of them.

There is no council tax on her SOA as i pay that at the moment, there are no transport costs as she does not own a car and walks to work. The haircut thing was put on as she probably only goes for a hair appointment every few months, but unfortunately her appointment costs about £140 a time. The groceries I put on as about £50 as before I knew this was a big a problem as it is, we were kinda going halves on food. The entertainment costs are usually just for a meal out or a few trips to the cinema. We will be trying to make cutbacks in other areas.

I am seeing this as my problem also, but the last few days I have just been seeing what ways we can try to tackle the loan and credit cards from just her side first and then use my income for living on. From now on I'll be paying for all the groceries, entertainment on top of the household bills, but unfortunately this won't leave me much left over either.

Could someone just explain what all the abbreviated options are such as the CCCS/CAB are?

I'll do a joint SOA also later to see if that makes things look a bit better.

Thanks again

Dave

Ok, so a joint SOA is a good idea.

I would imagine, depending on what it says that you can either...

1. Both cut back and scrimp and save really hard and raise as much money to pay of the debt a.s.a.p with the snowballer.

2.If that is still too much, you could ask the CAB (citizens advice bureau), NationalDebtline or one of the non-fee charging places that can help you see what your best options are. The two are called CCCS (which is a charity) and Payplan. Do not ever get tempted to use any DMP who say they can do it all for you, they are only out to make money from you and may make claims about reducing your monthly payment and having you debt free quicker but they will take a big whack of what you pay to your creditors, usually 17-20%. Also creditors tend to take more notice of CCCS and Payplan, although neither them or the fee charging ones can guarantee any creditor will agree to the DMP most will agree in time.

A DMP will affect your gf's credit rating for about 6 years, but if none of the debts are in your name they will not affect yours, though as I say, if it is a joint DMP you will both have to give up any credit you have. When you have apid off the debts your gf's credit rating would be the same as if she has never had credit before, a clean slate so to speak.

You will both have to set up a basic bank account. We have just done this.

You could go to CCCS website.... here... https://www.cccs.co.uk/debtremedy/(S(bwrdwn4540lkfcv03rqfue45))/start.aspx?hp=3

Put your SOA in and see what it says. When you have done it once it can be tweaked and done again. Filling it in doesn't commit you to anything.

Davidp77

Hi again

Here is our joint SOA.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1050
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1090
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2140

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 595
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 115
Electricity............................. 15
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 34
Internet Services....................... 14
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 40
Entertainment........................... 250
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1348

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

No Secured Debt

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Egg Credit Card................1500......30........21.9
Halifax Credit Card............1500......30........14.9
Personal Loan..................19000.....309.......10.9
Catalogues.....................790.......125.......24
Overdraft......................4450......45........12.9
Capital One....................1000......30........20.9
Barclaycard....................2300......50........25.9
Lloyds ........................2000......40........14.9
MBNA...........................5000......90........21.9
Total unsecured debts..........37540.....749.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,140
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,348
Available for debt repayments........... 792
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 749
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 43

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -37,540
Net Assets.............................. -37,540


After doing this i suppose the obvious cutbacks will be on the entertainment etc. Both of us have large families so it will be difficult to reduce the birthday costs down.

I guess the £43 left over should be used to pay off one of the cards each month but obviously this won't help get rid of the problem.

Please does anyone suggest where we go from here?

Thanks

Dave

SouthernSoftie

Yes, def cut down on the entertainment, to free up £200 a month when you are that far in debt is the sensible thing to do.
I notice the hair cost has come down too, have you had a word with her about that?
Who do you get your satellite with? Can you also get your net for free? I do with sky. If not do you really need the satellite?
Big family or not £480 a year in pressies is a lot, could you not tell them you are trying to save for something and cut down that way?

I notice you've shaved a few pounds off here and there, which when you have just £43 a month left makes all the difference but it just shows how tight this is.
You also have no insurance of any type and must walk everywhere.
Have you got stuff to Ebay?

GeorgeUK

Council tax............................. 115
If paying over 10 months, can you ask to pay it over 12?

Mobile phone............................ 40
Change to PAYG?

Telephone (land line)................... 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 34
Internet Services....................... 14
Can you get these together as a package cheaper?

Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Look at the old style board - it may give you a few ideas for meal plans etc which may save a bit

Entertainment........................... 250
This is way too high - tighten the belt and have fun when you know the bank isn't taking your money, then spend that on yourselves.

That's alot of cards and a huge loan - i hate to imagine how much you are paying in interest alone. Was the loan to consolidate previous debts? If so you need to be very careful - even your current spending cannot bemaintained and you should be trying not to use creditcards at all. Might also be worth keeping a spending diary so you can see if there are extras that you are needlessly spending your money on that you could be paying off more of the debt with.

As suggested, put thedetails into the snowball calculator for both the best way to pay off the debts and see what your debt free date may be.
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Debt_Free_Chick

Your gas, electricity & grocery budgets look too low to me - given that we've seen massive increases in recent months.

Your gas & leccy -is this what you're currently paying on a monthly plan? If so, I would factor in an increase. Groceries would include everything you buy at the supermarket including household & cleaning stuff.

Entertainment at £250 a month has to be the target. Bear in mind you've allowed twice as much for entertainment as you have for food & groceries You should also allocate something to an emergency fund, otherwise it will just go on a card. In particular, you need to put something aside for higher fuel bills.

Davidp77

Hi all

thanks again for the replies.

We have been talking about it all weekend it seems and have agreed to obviously cut back first on the entertainment, to be honest it mostly goes on nights out so we can definitely cut back on those.

The mobiles were a joint total, mine is £15 a month contract and she pays about £25 on pay as you go. The satellite/internet costs are with Virgin but we still have a few months to go in our first year of contract before I can think about reducing that.

We are going to try and cut back on the food/groceries and try to do the presents a bit cheaper.

I worked out the gas/electric costs through previous bills that we have had and did them on what roughly it is per month, but I guess we will have to expect an increase in those.

The credit cards will all be cut up but GeorgeUK was right, the loan was previously to consolidate all her debts but unfortunately the cards have again been used. Even though the loan cost is high, least with that i know it is slowly being paid off even though it still has a few years to go. My main concern is the credit cards as the minimum payments more or less just covers the interest so we'll never get anywhere just paying the minimum. Hopefully with a few cutbacks here and there we can start paying more than the minimum and slowly start chipping away at the debt.

Thanks again for everybodys advice.

RAS

David

she pays about £25 on pay as you go

You are plainly a lovely guy as you are effectively agreeing to pay off GFs debts.

There are couple of things that worry me. One is that you are on here not her and I am not sure she has really had her lightbulb moment yet. She is going to find it really hard to take responsibility when she is being so well looked after, so make her do some of the donkey work.

For a start that PAYG figure is massive. You need to agree a £5-10 per month limit and if it runs out, there is no more.

Also I think that she and possibly both of you need to get some part-time additional work, plus clicks, survey sites, e-bay,amazon etc to find money to start knocking those debts down.

Steel_2

I agree with RAS. I suspect she hasn't had her lightbulb moment.
Also, please don't take on any debt of any kind in your name to help her out either. Unless you plan plan to marry and enter into a joint financial arrangement, don't trash your credit record out of chivalry. One of you needs to maintain a good clean credit record and if you two split up, you'll be left paying her debt.

BTW, she has to have been spending a LOT of money on crap over the years to get to £30k (although I appreciate some of it going on there now is for bills).

Looking at her SOA, I don't see much money set aside for shoes, make-up, shampoo etc, handbags, household furnishings, jewellry and all the other little things that women spend money on. Can you go back over her statements and see what she has been spending and where so you both understand her spending patterns and can deal with them.

I suspect like many she puts her little treats etc on a card and forgets about it, so how will she cope when all her cards are cut up and her avenue for buying all the little treats to make herself feel better is cut off?

Are you sure she won't feel so deprived she'll try and get another card without you knowing?

Been there, done it.

While a plan of action sorts out the physical problem of overspending, it doesn't sort out the emotional reasons for it.

Davidp77

Hi

Thanks Ras. I just want the mess to be sorted out and for her to have some money each month but this going to take a while to sort out.

I won't be putting anything into my name or getting credit myself to help her out, just have decided to contribute to the repayments to slowly start getting the debt down. The only concern I have is that it is gonna stretch us so every now and again we have to dip back into it but am determined to not let that happen.

Steel, to be honest I think a lot of stuff was brought over the last few years like clothes etc but now the cards have just been used to get by day to day. Now they are at the limit, the test will come and hopefully she will also realise that we will have to go without stuff and that we have to stick to our budget. I am a bit concerned that no other credit is taken behind my back but will just have to trust her.

We have started getting stuff together to sell on ebay and i think she realises there is a problem.

Could someone explain how I could start to make some money through survey sites and plus clicks?