Confused!

Rabbit-in-headlights

Thanks Tealady, I haven't heard of greenmetropolis before, I'll check that out! And I have loads of books and old records I could sell.... never done it before, so something new for me to learn!!:T

I'll keep you informed how it goes:D

msmicawber

Hi there. Since there's only you at the flat and you're not keen on getting a lodger in, it strikes me that your water rates are high for one person. Can you get a water meter instead? I suspect that would save you about £30-£35 per month. (My Mum lives on her own in a flat and pays £12 per month on a meter; I pay £15 for 3 of us.)

Rabbit-in-headlights

msmicawber, you are a star! I'll get straight onto that first thing tomorrow! Didn't realise the difference could be so big! :j :A

msmicawber

I had another glance and notice that your contents insurance seems very high. When it comes up for renewal, I'd recommend using the comparison sites to try and get a better deal. Preferably pay the premium up front for the year as it's much cheaper, and see also if there's any cashback available via Quidco or Topcashback. (I just renewed for £47, so a quarter of what you are paying.)

mummytofour

I know this is obvious.. But if you do go onto a DMP the first couple of months when the DMP is being set up you will only need to pay token payments to the blood suckers use this time to save,save and save. This will allow you to have some emergency money so you wont need too rely on credit ( you wont be allowed credit anyway).

Rabbit-in-headlights

Thanks for the advice, Mto4, I'm so muddle-headed right now even "obvious" points are very welcome!!:T

I think all I can really do now is go ahead with the DMP and if they don't agree then at least I can say I tried, if a more drastic approach is needed...and if they do agree, then for the first time in years I will have a proper budget and not rely on credit cards to get by.

The road my be long, but at least I will be travelling in the right direction at last...;)

angelflower_2

Rabbit-in-headlights wrote: »

Thank you so much, Angelflower and Merlot, for your kind responses. As requested, here is my SOA:eek:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2336
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2336

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 844
Secured loan repayments................. 21
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 58
Council tax............................. 84 can you pay this over 12 months rather than 10 (if that is the case at the moment)
Electricity............................. 89 seems really high - electric heating is notoriously high so can you find ways to reduce consumption. Make sure you are subscribed to Martins weekly email for advice re the best time to check suppliers and switch if necessary.
Gas..................................... 0 (elec only)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 26
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 19
Internet Services....................... 5
Groceries etc. ......................... 144
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 6
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0 (included in monthly mgmt fees)
Contents insurance...................... 16
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 25
Charity................................. 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1604 the rest of your daily expenditure seem reasonable to me and in fact may be even slightly underestimated and so suggest you keep a spending diary from today onwards to see exactly what you spend. Last thing you want is to start on a dmp to find that you had underbudgeted and need to reduce payment figures even more!!

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 121100

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 103000...(844)......6.9 sorry, cant remember if you said but can you go onto interest only for a while to reduce this and help you get on your feet?
Secured Debt.................. 4000.....(21).......7.4
Total secured debts........... 107000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
AA Loan........................8834......132.......6.9
A&L Loan.......................8051......322.......6.9
M&S Loan.......................7600......197.......7.4
M&S CCard......................7600......197.......7.4
Citibank CCard.................4460......136.......16.9
A&L CCard......................10853.....275.......16.9
AA CCard.......................6739......135.......16.9
Total unsecured debts..........54137.....1394......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,336
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,604
Available for debt repayments........... 732 suspect this figure may be slightly too high (see comment above.)
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,394
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -662


Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 121,100
Total Secured debt...................... -107,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -54,137
Net Assets.............................. -40,037
I adult, no children, 1 car

OMG this looks worse n print:o

Yep, as you can see for yourself, you cannot continue to make payments as per the contracts. You need to cut up your credit cards now...today...and in fact you could even post a pitcure just to motivate yourself to do it. You need to not spend one more penny on credit and you need to remove the safety blanket you feel you have with them.

You still have a resonable amount to pay off to creditors so that really is a good thing. I reckon you are more likely to have £600 a month to pay towards your unsecured debt. Yes, this will take a long time to pay off at that rate but you just have to break it down and get started. There is no guarantee that your creditors will stop charging interest but it is a reasonable request and would obviously make things easier. CCCS will be able to negotiate all that for you....what is your next step with them?

Once you get over the inital fright and panic....you should consider joining some of the challenges on this board. My favourites are 'make £10 a day', a payment a day, grocery challenge. I also find it really helpful to participate in the 'what have you spend today and what small dfw thing have you done today' threads. You could start them right away

Hope this helps a little

ms_london

Hi Rabbit

Hope you are feeling a bit better now that it is down in writing - I know it is scary seeing the figures in B&W (especially because more often and not it is higher than you think - been there, done that) but it can feel better to have a clear head and know exactly where you stand.

I know you said you didnt want a lodger, and understandably your past one has put you off, but imagine what you could do with that extra money. Not sure what you could get in rent, but even if you did it for a set period, that way you can see a light at the end of the tunnel in getting rid of them , but the extra money also help in the meantime. You could find a fab flatmate, and think of all the fun you would have - if you live with someone fun, you dont necessarily need to go out and spend money! (I've had bad flatmate experiences in the past, but if you pick the right person it can be great!). Get a deposit from them, even if they are someone you know or a friend.

Your electric also seems high??

Do you really need satellite?

Groceries are way too high for 1 person if I am honest. Head to the 'old style' board for some great tips on stretching that grocery budget.

Charity does start at home. You can restart these payments again once you are in a better position.

Medical - do you often spend this much on prescriptions or is this a high estimate? Sounds like a lot...

Birthdays - I have to agree that perhaps people will have to get cheaper presents, or homemade items for a while. I think making gifts is a lovely idea - or just stock up on sale items and make a 'gift cupboard' which you can raid on those special occasions.

You are on a good wage and its great you are thinking about every little spend. Could you do a spending diary if you really dont know where your money is going?

When I was in debt, my life was basic, here are a few things I did (or didnt do):
- took lunch into work and rarely had lunch out, this doesnt mean your lunches have to be boring, just get creative (people used to drool over my homemade lasagne and spend 5 pounds on the same thing, where it probably only cost me this to make 6 portions!)
- signed up for the free dvd trials online, think I had a good 6 months where I didnt pay to rent a dvd
- take advantage of your local library
- use the 3 for $1 (excuse the dollar sign) magazine offers, sometimes you may be lucky and get a free gift too
- sell on ebay
- I had 2 jobs, but I know this isnt always an option. Mind you, it kept me out of trouble and meant I was doing something constructive (as much as I moaned about it) rather than sitting at home worrying about my debt and not being able to do anything because I had no money
- Used annual leave and temped during it for extra money (madness!)
- shop around for EVERYTHING
- frequented this site a LOT
- didnt buy clothes for a long while and didnt even bother looking around the shops, this just made me miserable because I couldnt afford stuff, so I was better off not looking. Loved hitting car boot sales & charity shops.
- downgraded a lot of my beauty products and realise that most of them are a marketing ploy anyway, and still use the cheaper versions

Sorry, I have rambled on bigtime.

It looks as though a lot of your debt are on lowish interest rates which is great. Would any of your creditors consider a balance transfer or reducing your interest rates? If you dont ask, you dont get.

As your next step I would cancel your direct debits or any planned payments to your creditors. This will buy you a bit of time and breathing space. Then you should call each one, tell them what you can afford to pay and go from there. Usually if you are up front and honest they will be helpful, just dont agree a payment and then dont make it, or send them less. So agree a payment you CAN afford and be firm with that amount - write down who you spoke to, what you agreed, when the payment needs to be made etc etc. Some may want you to agree to pay $X for 6 months for example, and then renegotiate after this period. I was saying to someone else, I am sure there is a calculator where you can enter in the money you can afford to repay and it divides it amongst your creditors, taking into account how much you owe them and the interest rate - will try and find them.

Do you have payment protection insurance on any of these debts? You may want to look into cancelling this (if it is right for you of course).

Hope some of this helps, will pop back xx

Rabbit-in-headlights

angelflower wrote: »

Yep, as you can see for yourself, you cannot continue to make payments as per the contracts. You need to cut up your credit cards now...today...and in fact you could even post a pitcure just to motivate yourself to do it. You need to not spend one more penny on credit and you need to remove the safety blanket you feel you have with them.

You still have a resonable amount to pay off to creditors so that really is a good thing. I reckon you are more likely to have £600 a month to pay towards your unsecured debt. Yes, this will take a long time to pay off at that rate but you just have to break it down and get started. There is no guarantee that your creditors will stop charging interest but it is a reasonable request and would obviously make things easier. CCCS will be able to negotiate all that for you....what is your next step with them?

Happy to say I have totally stopped using all my cards this month, and all direct debits have been cancelled!

The down side is there is already one co. calling my home several times a day - I switched on an old mobile this morning (PAYG, zero credit!) and within 5 minutes they were calling that too. I have blocked incoming calls to my work phone as they also tried there last Friday. I was in a 3 way netmeeting already so was able to be firm with them that I did NOT have 2 minutes to go through their security questions just so they could scold me (I didn't use those exact words but you get the drift). That knocked my concentration for 6, I work with numbers (not financial ones!) and need a clear head to concentrate and do my job - if they keep calling me there I will be in danger of losing it (in both senses), or going off with stress, which would make me even more stressed, it's a vicious circle! Not to mention the office is open plan, no privacy whatsoever (which doesn't help concentration either, but that's another story). Anyway enough ranting from me there goes the phone again...

I don't know if I'm doing the right thing avoiding speaking to them but I want to be the one to call them (just the loan companies, I have all the credit card statements I need) to ask for a statement of balance, when I'm feeling strong and ready.

About the CCCS DMP - they've sent me the form letters to send off to my creditors, and I have to state a reason why I'm in such a mess, but I can't think of anything to say except "financial incompetence" ??? (they don't need to know anything more, do they?) but will that make them dig in and play hard ball? I don't want to bear my soul to them!! If anyone has any suggestions what I could put please help?

I do hope I will be able to offer advice to others on here one day, I do feel guilty just asking for help all the time, but maybe this is the learning experience I need to go through to be able to do that.

Thanks again to everyone who has posted and offered support, you are helping more than you can imagine, beyond the practical advice, I haven't spoken to anyone I know about this so it really makes a difference :-)

RiH

Rabbit-in-headlights

ms_london, thank you so much for all the tips, a lot to think about! I'm taking everything one step at a time, and am paring everything down to a minimum, raiding the food cupboards, etc so I hope this month to prove to myself I can manage on the amount in my SOA.

The Sky is tied in with the internet, and the internet is under contract for another 10 months...clever Sky, eh. But what would I do without the internet?:eek:

I don't have PPI, it's too expensive and a way of making profits they can hide away from the headline interest rates. And I bet they never pay out anyway...

RiH