Is consolidation the answer?

chevalier

my comments are in blue

dizzypink wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1988
Partners monthly income after tax....... 721
Benefits................................ 243
Other income............................ 0 can you ebay stuff, do car boots to get some more money, what about extra hours either for you or for hubby?
Total monthly income.................... 2952

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1121
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 132 ask to spread this over 12 months rather than 10
Electricity............................. 75 does everything get switched off not left on standby
Gas..................................... 75 if your water is so hot you need to add cold to cool it down, this is wasting money, so you could turn your thermostat down. Same for heating set at say more than 20 degrees
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45 as you have more people than (i am assuming rooms) you probably won't benefit from a water meter, but they will fit them for a trial period to find out.
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 10.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 13 can you get the free broadband sky offer, or get one of their bundles?
Internet Services....................... 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 for 6 of you this is pretty good.
Clothing................................ 50 sugget only buying for the children for a while to cut this down. I save a fortune on childrens clothes by getting mixed bundles from ebay, and then saving the ages I don't need yet for later.
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 140
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15 would a prepayment thingy be cheaper for you
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25 can you get this cheaper?
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 65 have you checked if you can get this cheaper, see the articles about life insurance on the main site.
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60 try to buy things through out the year in the sale, or make things, do IOU cards etc, hamper. There is a whole section on doing good presents cheaply, so I think you could trim this a bit.
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2477.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 187500

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 153000...(1121).....6
Total secured debts........... 153000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Card.....................7362......223.......17.5
Mint...........................4000......90........14
Barclaycard....................7640......159.......6.75
A&L Overdraft..................2000......0.........6
HSBC Overdraft.................3300......0.........18
M&S............................3821......95........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........28123.....567.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,952
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 2,477.5
Available for debt repayments........... 474.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 567
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -92.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 187,500
Total Secured debt...................... -153,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,123
Net Assets.............................. 6,377

good luck with sorting this out. It is doable you know, but it will be hard work.
chev

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hiya sweetie,

Consolidation can only ever be part of the solution - if at all. The main solution is lifestyle change.

It's like having Liposuction but continuing to eat too much - the fat comes back.

If you consolidate, but have made no significant changes, then in 6 months or two years or whenever you'll find yourself in the same boat all over again.

What worked for us was to be conscious of our spending (Why are we buying that - could we do without it? Do we need it more than we need to keep a roof above our heads?)

The first thing to do is to challenge every regular expense you pay out, then keep a track of the little bits and pieces you spend.

Can you do without it? (cars, mobile phones, sky telly, clothes, contact lenses etc)

Can you get it cheaper? (gas , electric, phone, internet, hair cuts, Prescriptions etc) Switch via quidco for extra dosh!

Can you use less of it? (petrol, gas, electric, food, phone, etc)

The one thing that jumped out at me from your SOA was your Gas and Electric . We used to pay £110 a month but I kept a beady eye on the meter for a couple of months and retrained the kids and hubby to switch things off properly then we reset timers and thermostats etc and now we pay £80 a month.

The other thing I wanted to say was that getting our kids involved was one of the best things we ever did. It's good for them to learn this stuff now and it's great for us as a family to all be pulling together.

It would really make me resentful if I was running myself ragged working extra hours just so someone could leave the hot water on 24/7 , or have lights, music and a tv on in every room. (bleedin' blackpool illuminations! )

Definitely speak to CCCS hon - if you want to get an idea of what they'll say in advance fill in the Debt Remedy tool

https://www.cccs.co.uk/DebtRemedy/(S(upphmbvbwhad5wbtl2cbaouw))/Start.aspx

We consolidated some of our debt to get a lower interest rate and pay it off faster.

We used the Snowball method to pay off higher interest debts first.

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=us

We asked our lenders to freeze interest for a while. (Most of them did.)

We sold everything that wasn't nailed down, worked extra jobs and saved money all across our SOA.

Our projected debt free date as of August 17th 2006 was 2028 but now it's Feb 2009 (and I'm secretly hoping to do it by Christmas 2008!)

Looking at your SOA - on the face of it it looks as if you can make all of your payments so if you can earn more and spend less you'll be able to clear them faster than you think.

You can ask lenders to only contact you in writing so you don't have to field stressfull phone calls, and whilst in an agreed debt management plan you shouldn't have to deal with bailiffs or debt collectors personally after an initial flurry whilst they get used to the idea.

That's all I can think of for now..

Love Jacks xxx

PS Also - I forgot to say: We were being overcharged for gas and leccy, so if you can get your head around the maths check your bills. (Our provider had to pay us back £1000!)