Starting to panic

phantom9999

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/do-you-qualify.htm

use this link to see if you qualify for working tax credits - may only be a small amount but better than nothing

P

In_Search_Of_Me

Please think long and hard about remortgaging. Your debts are doable with some hard work you should pay them off reatively quickly but if you consolodate you will be paying a debt until mort paid off which will cost you years of interest...in my opiion (for what its worth!) dont do it!! Just cut down on unucessaray spends and it will be gone in no time plus start doing clicks, quidco etc to maximise money when you do spend ...

shaziow

OliveOyl wrote: »

Originally Posted by shaziow
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 772.65
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 772.65

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 308.92
Secured loan repayments................. 70.5
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 68 single persons discount included? Yes, this is including the single persons discount
Electricity............................. 30 mine is less, but I see you have no gas, presumably you're taking every saving measure you can? That's correct I do not have any gas, I did arrange to over-pay slightly in my monthly direct debits to cover additional costs in winter (i.e. heating, etc) but to be honest last winter I used my heating only once or twice so it may be worth looking into seeing if I can reduce this
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25 You may well be better off with a meter. I have a meter - technically I should only be paying about £12 a month (so they say, I only found this out the other day when I called to ask them what on earth was going on as they wanted to charge me over £30 a month) but I have a £65 outstanding bill so this is included in my monthly payments at the moment - this should be cleared early next year and I should be able to go down to £12 a month
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 19.92mine is only £11, are you "catching up"? When I first moved in I bought my TV licence in full for a year as I could afford it, but I forgot to start paying by direct debit for the next year before the first one expired, so effectively I am catching up
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 150You know what we're all going to say? get over to the OS board and work out ways of lowering this I forgot to say that this is just estimated, as I have no idea what I actually spent so I went on ND's suggestions of a minimum of £152 a month for a single person - in actual fact I think I spend less than this, as I think I roughly spend about £35-40 twice a month on a 'big shop' and top up with bread and small things throughout the month, but I'm very good at looking for deals and 'cutting corners' (I am not bothered about buying cheap things). Definately need to try to work out how much I am spending, but it's going to take me a long while to do so and I am really concerned about putting *less* straight away when I will be sending off the letters to the people I owe debts to soon :S
Clothing................................ 10
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).... 15 Do you have many prescriptions? Is this a "season" ticket? I have at least two prescriptions every month, so I have put this down as the monthly cost of an annual pre-payment certificate plus a small amount to cover two dentist check-ups a year
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15.84
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 748.18

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 82500
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 82500

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(308.92)...0
Secured Debt.................. 0........(70.5).....0
Total secured debts........... 0.........-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
HSBC (FlexiLoan)...............2435.17...0.........0
MK One (storecard).............1175.92...0.........0
A&L (overdraft)................500.......0.........0
HSBC (overdraft)...............250.......0.........0
Evans (storecard)..............486.01....0.........0
Argos (storecard)..............500.......0.........0
HSBC (credit card).............496.57....0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........5843.67...0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 772.65
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 748.18
Available for debt repayments........... 24.47
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 24.47

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 82,500
Total Secured debt...................... -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,843.67
Net Assets.............................. 76,656.33

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========
I live on my own in a studio flat. I am fairly certain (or at least every calculation tells me that) I am not entitled to any benefits. I work full time and have no dependants.

there is a site which you can confirm this, hopefully someone will advise. Is this ref benefits? If so, I've already looked at it - it initially hinted I may be entitled to Council Tax benefit, but after further questions said that I'm not entitled to anything.

How are you travelling to work? Are you able to walk? You have no travelling costs here. I walk to work, it's less than 10mins down the road luckily.
The only other suggestion I have is to get over to the up-your-income board, I don't know how much your circumstances will allow, but you may need a second job. I will take a look at that, thank you already looking for a 2nd job, unfortunately there's very little going around at the moment as most companies have already recruited their seasonal staff and of course there will have been an influx of school leavers and those on their educational breaks looking for work too.
Well done for posting your SOA, and I expect some wiser bods will add their thoughts too.

Thank you, and thanks for your help

shaziow

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Please think long and hard about remortgaging. Your debts are doable with some hard work you should pay them off reatively quickly but if you consolodate you will be paying a debt until mort paid off which will cost you years of interest...in my opiion (for what its worth!) dont do it!! Just cut down on unucessaray spends and it will be gone in no time plus start doing clicks, quidco etc to maximise money when you do spend ...

Eek, good point - I'll look into it but will be careful, thank you.

To be honest, I am failing to see how I can clear over £5000 worth of debt (this is my non-priority debt which excludes my secured loan) any time soon with £25 a month...

I don't think I have budgeted any unneccesary spending but I could be wrong, although the groceries are estimated and could be lower.

I signed up to a few sites yesterday - some click-through and some that give you points for surveys etc which you can turn into vouchers . Even if it's not 'hard cash', something like a voucher for Sainsbury's will help!

Thanks for your advice .

shaziow

phantom9999 wrote: »

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/do-you-qualify.htm

use this link to see if you qualify for working tax credits - may only be a small amount but better than nothing
P

Thank you, but I already know I don't (I've checked again just to be sure) - I'm under 25 and don't have any children so I am not entitled to working tax credits

DreamerHelen

Hi There, please don't despair....there are lots of people on here that want to help you!! I've been where you are, where I just didn't know what to do next...

If it is a Secured Debt then you MUST pay it!! But I know that you know that....if all you can manage is £1 per Debtor then that's what they'll have to accept....If they decide to take you to Court then the Judge will simply look at your SOA and say that all you can afford is £1 each...so please don't worry!! Your other Debtors may not like it but they can't do anything about it if you are paying SOMETHING off your Debt.

With regards to a Second Job, do go over to the "boost your income" forum...and have a look there, they have some great ideas!! It sounds like a Second Job would be the best option....so see if you can manage that, even if it's only another £100 a month it will be worth it.

Good luck, and do let us know how you're getting on!!

shaziow

DreamerHelen wrote: »

Hi There, please don't despair....there are lots of people on here that want to help you!! I've been where you are, where I just didn't know what to do next...

If it is a Secured Debt then you MUST pay it!! But I know that you know that....if all you can manage is £1 per Debtor then that's what they'll have to accept....If they decide to take you to Court then the Judge will simply look at your SOA and say that all you can afford is £1 each...so please don't worry!! Your other Debtors may not like it but they can't do anything about it if you are paying SOMETHING off your Debt.

With regards to a Second Job, do go over to the "boost your income" forum...and have a look there, they have some great ideas!! It sounds like a Second Job would be the best option....so see if you can manage that, even if it's only another £100 a month it will be worth it.

Good luck, and do let us know how you're getting on!!

Thank you that's really helpful, I wasn't really sure exactly what would happen if they 'refused' my offer so it's useful to know that a Judge would look at my SOA. Hopefully when I get a 2nd job I will be able to afford to put more towards it - I'll take a look at the BYI forum, thanks .

dancingfairy

If you can find any extra money to make sure you make the payment to your secured loan this month that should be your priority. Why not head over to the OldStyle Board and see if they can help you make all the food in your cupboard stretch as far as possible to enable you to pay as much (if not all) of your secured loan repayment this month?
Any chance of getting out there and doing a car boot sale or anything?
Your unsecured creditors aren't going to like £1 a month much (well who would?) but hey - they can't have what you haven't got and keeping a roof over your head and paying council tax, electric and food etc is far more important. Stay strong. df

shaziow

dancingfairy wrote: »

If you can find any extra money to make sure you make the payment to your secured loan this month that should be your priority. Why not head over to the OldStyle Board and see if they can help you make all the food in your cupboard stretch as far as possible to enable you to pay as much (if not all) of your secured loan repayment this month?
Any chance of getting out there and doing a car boot sale or anything?
Your unsecured creditors aren't going to like £1 a month much (well who would?) but hey - they can't have what you haven't got and keeping a roof over your head and paying council tax, electric and food etc is far more important. Stay strong. df

I'm hoping I'll be able to take money out of one of my bank accounts (the one I don't get my wages paid into), which will leave it even more overdrawn but at least it will pay the secured loan. If not I will speak to the debtline and see what they say but I may need to just make an 'offer' this month.

I haven't got a car so I can't get things to a car boot. I am selling things online though. As soon as I get a 2nd job I'll be able to afford to pay more to my creditors, but in the meantime it's something or nothing I guess...

Thank you x

shaziow

OK folks, managed to take money out today so all OK in terms of paying the secured loan - phew! Now that's covered I may have enough to carry on with my birthday celebrations after all, as it's only a meal and I won't be drinking alcohol. So feeling positive at the moment .

Hoping that the paperwork from the National Debtline will be there when I get home today. If not I may resort to using the information on their website as I don't want to wait any longer!

I've put a few more job applications in, too.