Ashamed of myself (Ourselves)...Very First SOA

poorpeople

My Wife and i are both 42 and should be doing better. Both of us and especially me have always been poor with money. I was the original buy now pay later idiot. I always thought that there would be plenty of time later in life to sort our finances out , but with three kids, a dog, 2 goldfish and a hamster; i have now became aware that we need to sort ourselves NOW.

Now follows a a tale of stupidity..........We bought our current house 8 years ago for £80,000 (it,s a 3 bed detached with garage) it needed a bit of work, but we got it for a good price. We now owe £139,632, i added more on to pay credit card debt and loans, basically at this point we were living beyond our means. Foreign holidays, meals and generally having a good time. The company i worked for at the time went bankrupt and I had to change jobs for less money;we had another child and from this point things got difficult.

I kept our financal problems to myself for a good while but eventually i told my wife.
She went crazy:mad: because i hadn't told her how bad things were and let her believe that she could spend money like there was no tomorrow.

I now owe around £5,400 :eek: on credit cards and have a overdraft of around £1500 on one acount and £1300 on another. The overdrafts were much worse this time last year and i hope to reduce them futher.

Please have a look at our SOA and offer advice. There isn't an amount for Building insurance as i have combined the home and building together. We live in Scotland, hence we don't have any water rates, they are added to our council tax. We are paying interest only at the moment on our mortgage, but after 19 months we know we need to start paying it again, what do you think? We are starting to have sleepless nights.




Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1823
Partners monthly income after tax....... 623
Benefits................................ 370
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2816

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 633
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 185
Electricity............................. 53
Gas..................................... 53
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 28
Mobile phone............................ 11
TV Licence.............................. 11.6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 18
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 15.41
Car Insurance........................... 32.48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 8.33
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 30.85
Life assurance ......................... 28
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 41.66
Emergency fund.......................... 31.79
Total monthly expenses.................. 1642.78

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 1200
Total Assets............................ 188200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 139632...(633)......0
Total secured debts........... 139632....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................2800......48........0
Abbey Credit Card..............2560......10........0
Car Loan.......................1788......149.......0
Total unsecured debts..........7148......207.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,816
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,642.78
Available for debt repayments........... 1,173.22
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 207
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 966.22

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 188,200
Total Secured debt...................... -139,632
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,148
Net Assets.............................. 41,420

Gemmzie

Hi poorpeople, you have a massive surplus each month, more than your partner's income so I'd suggest a spending diary to find out where that money is going and start snowballing

tallyhoh

Your contents/house insurance is still high, even if you are currently stuck in contract have a look at a comparison site for this sort of thing.
Is your council tax really £185 a month? even with water included it seems a large amount.
Do you really have to pay £41.66 for prezzies & holidays, Have you got a holiday booked? Can you do without one this year?
The grocery bill is high as well, have alook at the "money saving, old style" board for ideas.
Quite honestly I dont think your debts are unmanageable & with a bit of cutting back you should be okay soon.
Try running your credit cards through the snowball, its really motivating.

Merlot

poorpeople wrote: »

My Wife and i are both 42 and should be doing better. Both of us and especially me have always been poor with money. I was the original buy now pay later idiot. I always thought that there would be plenty of time later in life to sort our finances out , but with three kids, a dog, 2 goldfish and a hamster; i have now became aware that we need to sort ourselves NOW.

Now follows a a tale of stupidity..........We bought our current house 8 years ago for £80,000 (it,s a 3 bed detached with garage) it needed a bit of work, but we got it for a good price. We now owe £139,632, i added more on to pay credit card debt and loans, basically at this point we were living beyond our means. Foreign holidays, meals and generally having a good time. The company i worked for at the time went bankrupt and I had to change jobs for less money;we had another child and from this point things got difficult.

I kept our financal problems to myself for a good while but eventually i told my wife.
She went crazy:mad: because i hadn't told her how bad things were and let her believe that she could spend money like there was no tomorrow.

I now owe around £5,400 :eek: on credit cards and have a overdraft of around £1500 on one acount and £1300 on another. The overdrafts were much worse this time last year and i hope to reduce them futher.

Please have a look at our SOA and offer advice. There isn't an amount for Building insurance as i have combined the home and building together. We live in Scotland, hence we don't have any water rates, they are added to our council tax. We are paying interest only at the moment on our mortgage, but after 19 months we know we need to start paying it again, what do you think? We are starting to have sleepless nights.




Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1823
Partners monthly income after tax....... 623
Benefits................................ 370
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2816

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 633
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 185
Electricity............................. 53
Gas..................................... 53
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 28
Mobile phone............................ 11
TV Licence.............................. 11.6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 18 - Do you really need this?
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 50 - This is high £50 per month is alot
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 15.41
Car Insurance........................... 32.48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 8.33
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 30.85 - This seems high, have u checked this out? Have a look on the comparison sites
Life assurance ......................... 28 DO NOT CANCEL THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.66 - I know you have children, I do, but this is high, teach your children about money from young age and they will appreciate the wee things you get them fo.r birthdays and christmas
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 41.66 - mmmm, can you take a holiday in the UK instead of going aboard, you live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, I love Scotland, do you have a tent? If so, pack up the car and take to the Highlands or the Lowlands depending on where you live.
Emergency fund.......................... 31.79 - Whats this?
Total monthly expenses.................. 1642.78

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 1200 _ whats this?
Total Assets............................ 188200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 139632...(633)......0
Total secured debts........... 139632....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA...........................2800......48........0
Abbey Credit Card..............2560......10........0
Car Loan.......................1788......149.......0
Total unsecured debts..........7148......207.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,816
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,642.78
Available for debt repayments........... 1,173.22
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 207
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 966.22

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 188,200
Total Secured debt...................... -139,632
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,148
Net Assets.............................. 41,420

Welcome to the board.

You have a huge surplus each month and your debts are nothing in comparison to others. U must start a spending diary to see where your money is going. You could clear this debt within 6 months and still have a "life" according to the figures on your SOA.

A really really tight 6 months and you could be debt free, isn't that a lovely thought? You can do this.

Merlot.x.

Merlot

Scotland council tax is high in comparison to England, I know, I lived there for years, and I couldn't believe the difference.

Floxxie

Agree with the others. You need to check the figures you have put in as you have a large surplus left over despite a lot of 'unnecessary' expenditure.

Floxxie

poorpeople

Floxxie wrote: »

Agree with the others. You need to check the figures you have put in as you have a large surplus left over despite a lot of 'unnecessary' expenditure.

Floxxie

Hi there, we really try not to spend, things like, my work always go out for lunch on a friday bout £5 and its frowned upon if you dont go, we dont go out, it was our anniversary yesterday and we only bought a card each - I did have a dentists bill over the last two months for £200 - and I have been told i need 2 teeth crowned at a cost of £600 over the next 6 months - help! we try to be careful - i took a top back because I was fed up wearing the same two tops to work every week - and I did add to a new one by£8 we do try but any other advice would be appreciated....

poorpeople

Merlot wrote: »

Welcome to the board.

You have a huge surplus each month and your debts are nothing in comparison to others. U must start a spending diary to see where your money is going. You could clear this debt within 6 months and still have a "life" according to the figures on your SOA.

A really really tight 6 months and you could be debt free, isn't that a lovely thought? You can do this.

Merlot.x.

thanks, think a spending diary would help, just cant seem to get out of this hole - we dont have any social life at all, and things just seem so helpless - the money must be going somewhere - maybe we spend too much on shopping. It all really started when we had to add £50K to our mortgage as my husband had run up debt now we cant seem to get out of it - and it didnt help when he told me he had two credit cards totalling £6,000 approx - with all the interest on these it doesnt help much! We have moved one to interest free, but we really want to start paying our mortgage but worry that if we do we really cant afford to and will be in debt forever. We did go on a small "sun" holiday this year £200 but spending money totalled it to £500. Is that where we went wrong?

Ossireo

poorpeople wrote: »

Hi there, we really try not to spend, things like, my work always go out for lunch on a friday bout £5 and its frowned upon if you dont go, we dont go out, it was our anniversary yesterday and we only bought a card each - I did have a dentists bill over the last two months for £200 - and I have been told i need 2 teeth crowned at a cost of £600 over the next 6 months - help! we try to be careful - i took a top back because I was fed up wearing the same two tops to work every week - and I did add to a new one by£8 we do try but any other advice would be appreciated....

So basically the figures on the SOA are correct and you have that high a surplus after the necessaries have been paid out? Mention if that is the case as I am sure some folks can then come up with more advice

milliemonster

I really think you need to do a spending diary as with a surplus of £900+ you should be laughing really but your posts tell another story, the suprlus is obviously being spent on something so keep a diary for the next month to see where its all going

Merlot

poorpeople wrote: »

thanks, think a spending diary would help, just cant seem to get out of this hole - we dont have any social life at all, and things just seem so helpless - the money must be going somewhere - maybe we spend too much on shopping. It all really started when we had to add £50K to our mortgage as my husband had run up debt now we cant seem to get out of it - and it didnt help when he told me he had two credit cards totalling £6,000 approx - with all the interest on these it doesnt help much! We have moved one to interest free, but we really want to start paying our mortgage but worry that if we do we really cant afford to and will be in debt forever. We did go on a small "sun" holiday this year £200 but spending money totalled it to £500. Is that where we went wrong?

Don't think about the past too much, you can't do anything about the £50K, you have added that to the mortgage now and thats that.

You have to think, you don't have huge debts and you could be debt free within 6 months and then you could overpay your mortgage by £100 per month and still enjoy life, you are pretty lucky to be in such a situation really, many of the peeps on here would like to see light at the end of tunnel so easily. Please please make sure your OH and you cut up all cards and do not use any form of credit as from today, if you ain't got it, you can't spend on it.

You have made huge progress today simply by posting on here, why not set up a diary on here and we can track your progress, if you are spending too much money on groceries, may I recommend that you "meal plan", write a list of meals for 7 days and buy that only at the supermarket and of course a few cleaning bits and tolietries, but nothing else, if you run out of something, then you run out and don't buy it until your next shopping trip, if you pop to Tesco on the way home for a jar of coffee, if anything like I used to be I could spend £20 and I only popped in for one thing.

Merlot.x.