Maybe fresh eyes will help?

cady

Hi

Im hoping you guys can offer some fresh ideas, (i dunno if anyone has seen my diary) but here it is in a nutshell....

Im on a low wage, get no benifits and can just pay the bills everymonth but i was managing to pay off my debt (very slowly and in small amounts) well i was doing of (nothing major) but hey bit by bit well now my car has failed its MOT (£500 :eek: ) i need it for work so it cant go ...... with all the rain my flat roof is leaking £100 i need to pay for the excess to the insurance ..... ive been off sick so had ssp for half of last month and now going to be half of next month to. The house is FREEZING (i havnt put the heating on due to a big gas bill were trying to pay off so wanna wait until nov when get next bill through) its very open plan and we have a loft extension that wasnt done propery when we moved in so all the cold air is escaping through there......
any way getting a bit side tracked we have had to put the car costs and the roof on a CC Natwest (0% for 6months)

I just cant see a way to keep our heads above water at the moment ive posted my SOA underneath and ive amended any bits ive changed ..... please be brutal i cant carry this on!!!


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 780
Partners monthly income after tax....... 950
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1730

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 661.42
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 91
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25.06
Telephone (land line)................... 10.5 a BT line for the sky
Mobile phone............................ 55 £7.50 for mine £30 for BF and i pay £17.50 for my mams
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55 Ringing sky today as cannot cancel as in contrat but going to try and reduce the cost
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 dropped this to £40 been on OS baord :j
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 46.26
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50.1 bf buss pass
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 22.69 in contract till nov
Contents insurance...................... 22.69 " "
Life assurance ......................... 32.79 " "
Other insurance......................... 9.02 boiler/drain cover
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1383.53

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 94000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 95000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 105000...(661.42)...0
Total secured debts........... 105000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Halifax........................7485......159.2.... .10.9
Egg............................699.98....15....... .19.9
overdraft......................600.......0........ .0
Total unsecured debts..........8784.98...174.2.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,730
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,378.53
Available for debt repayments........... 351.47
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 174.2
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 177.27

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 95,000
Total Secured debt...................... -105,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,784.98
Net Assets.............................. -18,784.98

We now on top of this have a HSC loan £1300, Natwest card £600 & a £500 OD on our joint account.

Thanks for taking the time to help me

GeorgeUK

Not really much there to cut back on. You seem to have done a pretty thorough job already.

Council tax - if paying over 10 months, can you ask to pay over 12?
Electricity and Gas - check the comparison site to see you are getting the best deal.
Is sky a phone, internet and telephone package?

Is the overdraft the new Natwest 0% card?

Who's name are the cards in? Would it be possible to get a 0% card to transfer the higher interest egg debt to?

cady

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Not really much there to cut back on. You seem to have done a pretty thorough job already.

Council tax - if paying over 10 months, can you ask to pay over 12?
Electricity and Gas - check the comparison site to see you are getting the best deal. we still owe aour gas bill £80 so waiting till nov to see if its been paid off then we can switch cos we dont have the £££ to pay a lump sum out
Is sky a phone, internet and telephone package? yeah its all together

Is the overdraft the new Natwest 0% card? no we also have £500 overdraft on the joint account

Who's name are the cards in? Would it be possible to get a 0% card to transfer the higher interest egg debt to? in my bf's name but cant get another card and this one is maxed!!

Thanks for the reply, im stressed to bits as think were gonna freeze this winter then starve then not be able to afford the bills and be homeless !!!

dancingfairy

The only things I can see that you could possibly cut back on are:
7.50 for your mums mobile - can she pay for it? not sure how easy it would be to get out of for you.
30 for bf phone - can he cut down to a lower tariff/use the phone less at all?
petrol/diesel find the cheapest place you can to fill up
Buildings,contents, and life insurance - do you think you may free up a bit of cash by shopping around in November on these? could make the difference and November is not that far off.

Perhaps a DMP would be worth looking into as there really isn't a lot to cut back on to be honest. Have you phoned CCCS or National Debtline or been to your local CAB?

Good Luck
df x

peb

TBH I think you are doing all you can - a lot of what you could change seems to be in contract. It may be worth lookin to see if there are penalties to change mid contract.

The other thing that stands out is the total for mobile phones - can anything be done about that?

Sky does seem to have to go if possible.

Good luck.

CLAPTON

How realistic is the SOA... although there is little to cut clearly there are lots of things left out or under estimated.

So firstly you need to update the SOA with the missing items
so .... you have 10 for car MOT and maintenance but you are having to spend 500 to repair the car... change that to at least 50 per month

you have nothing for emergencies ... with a house and car that's just unrealistic ... you say you have to pay a 100 excess... put at least £30

why leave out the costs of repaying the HSC loan/ OD and Natwest card

..by leaving them out you are just kidding yourselves that things are better than they are.

do you really spend absolutely nothing on socialising, xmas, the odd present, a haircut, medical/optical/dentist etc


The basic problems here are really the two low incomes... is it possible for one/ both to get a part time job and really hammer the debts.

CAFCGirl

Hi There,

Sorry to hear you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by the situation, but never fear there is always help at hand.

What I've noticed is that all your insurances seem high to me I'd start looking at quotes now for these ready for when they come up for renewal.
Also sign up to Quidco (if you'e not already) buying insurance online via that site will mean you get cash back on it, and for some of them that can be £50+.

As above with the council tax idea, ask for it over 12 months as opposed to 10.
Gas does seem pretty high but I know you mentionned overpaying a huge bill, maybe give them a call and see how much more is left to go on there.
I'd also say if you can put the £10 for clothes and gifts to one side every month and just explain to our family that you've had some house repairs that you need to pay for.

Do you have anything you could ebay to earn some extra money? Any chance of overtime at work?

As for the car, understandably you need that for work purposes. I did notice that you listed the cars worth at £1k, and have to pay £500 for works to it. Maybe its worth considering getting a smaller/cheaper car which is more reliable than what you've got? My mum bought a 1.2 fiesta on ebay for £200, and hasnt had to put a penny to it aside from petrol/tax etc and shes had that for 4 years now. And its an old car too. There are still some good ones out there!

Your calculations also show a £177 surplus per month without your changes. Do you find you've got this at the end of the month? You then mentionned debts on joint account. I would suggest doing the SOA over again and include all the debts on there so they are in one place and you know where you stand.

Looking out for 0% deals is a good way to go as well, but try not to apply for too many, especially if they are getting rejcted as this can affect your credit score.

P.S Also wanted to ask why you are paying your Mum's mobile phone bill?
Is there anyway you could cancel all these and go onto PAYG? £55 is a lot to spend on mobile phones really

cady

Thanks for the response dancing fairy .... My mams phone is £17.50 and i pay for it as she uses it for work and is always on call and she helped us LOADS when we first moved in and paid lots of money out so i dont want her to pay for it.... BF is in contract till APRIL but will dig his contract out and see when and maybe ring them to see if there is anything cheaper ..... i fill the petrol up at morrisons which is the cheapest here and collect points for the voucher too.... will DEFO shop around in NOV and will do it through quidco too so can make some £££ on it ..... i REALLY dont wanna be on a DMP i spoke to these people before and its something i want to avoid at all costs so kind of doing it the OS way lol

cady

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Hi There,

Sorry to hear you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by the situation, but never fear there is always help at hand.

What I've noticed is that all your insurances seem high to me I'd start looking at quotes now for these ready for when they come up for renewal.
Also sign up to Quidco (if you'e not already) buying insurance online via that site will mean you get cash back on it, and for some of them that can be £50+.

As above with the council tax idea, ask for it over 12 months as opposed to 10.
Gas does seem pretty high but I know you mentionned overpaying a huge bill, maybe give them a call and see how much more is left to go on there.
I'd also say if you can put the £10 for clothes and gifts to one side every month and just explain to our family that you've had some house repairs that you need to pay for.

Do you have anything you could ebay to earn some extra money? Any chance of overtime at work?

As for the car, understandably you need that for work purposes. I did notice that you listed the cars worth at £1k, and have to pay £500 for works to it. Maybe its worth considering getting a smaller/cheaper car which is more reliable than what you've got? My mum bought a 1.2 fiesta on ebay for £200, and hasnt had to put a penny to it aside from petrol/tax etc and shes had that for 4 years now. And its an old car too. There are still some good ones out there!

Your calculations also show a £177 surplus per month without your changes. Do you find you've got this at the end of the month? You then mentionned debts on joint account. I would suggest doing the SOA over again and include all the debts on there so they are in one place and you know where you stand.

Looking out for 0% deals is a good way to go as well, but try not to apply for too many, especially if they are getting rejcted as this can affect your credit score.

P.S Also wanted to ask why you are paying your Mum's mobile phone bill?
Is there anyway you could cancel all these and go onto PAYG? £55 is a lot to spend on mobile phones really

Looks like we posted at the smae time lol ... i will do my SOA again im just lazy at the moment so thought a rough idea is better than non haha.... the gifts and things we dont have anything till nov and id started for xmas already so doing ok with that.... i was going to get another car but was looking at paying £400 for a car that would be able to handle how muc i travel and the stuff that is getting repaired on my car is stuff that is unlikley to happen again so i didnt want to buy a new one then in a year be in this situation again .

tallyhoh

You need to shop round for your insurances a couple of weeks before they are due, especially the life insurance, its way over the top.

Do you have boiler/drain cover with Homeserve by any chance? If so call them up & tell them you need to cancel when due cus you cant afford it. They will put you through to the "cancellation" dept who will offer you all sorts of inducements to stay, aim for a really low price. Same thing applies to most insurance companies.

I dont get this mobile phone thing being necessary, we did without them until a few years ago.

Good Luck.

LoulaBelle

I'd say to get a second part time job and to ebay as much stuff as you can.

Also just get pay as you go mobiles and think about every call/text you make/send.

How big is your place - do you have a spare room you can let out?