Help needed - got bad finances

2_many_bills

Hi There

Can anyone help and give some sound advise on my current situation.
just been working out what i earn and my outgoings and it doesnt look too
good. Basically once i have paid the most important bills like Mortgage, Water, Petrol, Cas, Electricity and Council tax i only have approx £200.00 left
over and that isnt including food or any other item.

I have just joined so any help or advise would be heighly appreciated.

I have got myself into so much debt with a loan and mortgage arrears that i cant see any light at the end of the tunnel.

This current situation has been partually responsible for the break of the relationship i was in. Basically i am not financially independant.

I cant get credit because my rating is totally bad. I know i may have to option of getting a higher paid job but really dont want to. Could get a lodger but only have a small flat of maybe sell my flat and use the money to pay all my debts off and have some extra cash but then i need to find somewhere to like.

Any advise of help would be great

Thanks

ms_london

2_many_bills wrote:

Hi There

Can anyone help and give some sound advise on my current situation.
just been working out what i earn and my outgoings and it doesnt look too
good. Basically once i have paid the most important bills like Mortgage, Water, Petrol, Cas, Electricity and Council tax i only have approx £200.00 left
over and that isnt including food or any other item.

I have just joined so any help or advise would be heighly appreciated.

I have got myself into so much debt with a loan and mortgage arrears that i cant see any light at the end of the tunnel.

This current situation has been partually responsible for the break of the relationship i was in. Basically i am not financially independant.

I cant get credit because my rating is totally bad. I know i may have to option of getting a higher paid job but really dont want to. Could get a lodger but only have a small flat of maybe sell my flat and use the money to pay all my debts off and have some extra cash but then i need to find somewhere to like.

Any advise of help would be great

Thanks

I think the most important thing is that you are not going into a negative balance each month and can still pay all of your bills and have £200 to spare (or is this without having repaid your debts).

If you could, would you please post a list of your incomings & outgoings (known as a S.O.A - statement of affairs). List everything that you pay out each month and we will advise you the best we can, it might be that you can save money without realising it.

Is your flat a two bedroomed one? Perhaps it is an idea to rent out a 2nd room, it isnt always ideal, but even if its for the short term to help you repay some of your debt, thats always good - it wont be forever.

If you could also list ALL of your debts, and preferably the balance, minimum repayment & interest rate.

Sometimes a consolidation loan isnt a good idea, and if you cant get a 0% credit card, then you have to work with what you've got (I couldnt do either of these when I realised I was in so much debt, so had to pay each creditor off one by one, snowballing my repayments as I cleared each debt).

You have certainly come to the right place.

Ms_London

2_many_bills

Thanks. Here is my S.O.A

Income £1350 pm

Outgoings
Mortgage £800
Loan 1 £20.00 Both Loan payments have been reduced for 6 months
Loan 2 £20.00
Water £38.00
Petrol £150.00
Gas £30.00
Electricity £25.00
Council Tax £100.00

Total: £1183.00 Actually worse than i calculated

Now as you can see these are the most important bills. This doesnt count for food and other important items.

Now food is approx £120.00 pm.

I am going to give up smoking tomorrow as quite clearly cant afford it anymore and i have done it before so will do it again. Thats not going to be a problem but when i also think of such items as toiletries and other important things them i am stuck.

Also there is no chance of saving any morey and i cant afford to even go out anymore.

Thanks

Ems!

Now, i am sorry if this is a really stupid idea as obviously will slightly increase the amount you owe on your mortgage in the long term.... but...a friend of mine was in some debt a few years back and was looking for a lodger... she knew that once she got a lodger she would be ok again and able to meet her payments on everything... but she needed a short term fix, but wasn't able to/didn't want to , go into further debt, nor did she want to join payment plan type thing, as she knew this would make her credit rating even worse....so what she did was get her mortgage company to change her repayment mortgage to interest only - this saved her about £150 month which she then used to pay her other bills till she got a lodger, then she swapped it back again (i think she did this for 3-4 months). She did it over the phone and it was impemented straight away. Next time they reviewed her mortgage payments because of the change in interest rates, it went up by a few pounds more than it otherwise would have , and obviously long term will probably cost her quite a lot - but she was really happy with it as an easy cost- cutting short term solution. Please someone say if you can see some huge flaw in this but it seems like quite a good idea to me - epecially if you pay back the missed "repayment" element of the mortgage soon after you get a lodger. Also, in this case, if the flat is sold quite soon you won't be losing out as much anyway.
I would also say that take other less drastic cost cutting advice b4 u do this! oh and anothe thought, if your mortgage is flexible , could you get a payment holiday? ( i have done this in the past) - basically same pitfalls as above, but not sure where u would stand if you are already in arrears.

ms_london

2_many_bills wrote:

Thanks. Here is my S.O.A

Income £1350 pm

Outgoings
Mortgage £800
Loan 1 £40.00 Both Loan payments have been reduced for 6 months
Loan 2 £40.00
Water £38.00
Petrol £150.00
Gas £30.00
Electricity £25.00
Council Tax £100.00

Total: £1183.00 Actually worse than i calculated

Now as you can see these are the most important bills. This doesnt count for food and other important items.

Now food is approx £120.00 pm.

I am going to give up smoking tomorrow as quite clearly cant afford it anymore and i have done it before so will do it again. Thats not going to be a problem but when i also think of such items as toiletries and other important things them i am stuck.

Also there is no chance of saving any morey and i cant afford to even go out anymore.

Thanks

So that leaves you with £167 per month for yourself.... If it is just food for one person, then £120 is far too much!!! Check out the oldstyle board for ideas...

If you divide that say by 4, then you have £41.75 each week to spend & live on - and this is definately manageable, especially if you have already budgeted for petrol (could this be cut down at all, use the car less?) And on that note, you have no budget for Car Tax/MOT/Insurance, what about tv licence?

xx

black-saturn

You didnt include things like the TV licence, phone and car. Do you have any of these?

minimayhem_2

your council tax is a lot on your own - depending on where you live of course! do you get 25% single occupancy discount? what about house insurance? internet? (asusmme you have it as you are on here), Phone? water is also a lot at £38 a month - ours is £27 for a 3bed house!!!

2_many_bills

Sorry forgot those.

TV £10.00
Car Ins Paid
Phone £5.00 a week but sometimes a little less

Petrol might be able to come down a little but cant be sure so £150.00 is safe

2_many_bills

I do have internet at home but that just has to go now.

I do get a 25% discount on the council tax.

Home phone is £15.00 per month but that can go as i have a mobile which i rarely use

skintchick

I spend £60 a month on food for me and one cat.

You mentioned twice 'other important things' - like what? You need to be honest with your budget or it won't work.

Thefunkygibbons

How much are the loans, those are only your payments?

If you know the apr that would also help