Too late?

chevalier

my comments are in blue

liquidcoolingsystem wrote: »

[tt]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1320
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0 can partner do online surveys, daily clicks, mystery shopping, put things up on ebay, anything to add some money to the pot?
Benefits................................ 870 I guess most of this is child benefit. this being the case are your benefits correct? On such a low income for the whole family would you qualify for council tax benefit for example?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2190

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 881.74 Is this repayment, or interest only? Can you ask them for a payment holiday, or to extend the term of the loan to give you some breathing room. The extension to the term can then be renegotiated when you are back on an even keel.
Council tax............................. 119 see my comment above. Also you can ask to pay this over 12 months instead of 10 to spread the load.
Electricity............................. 25 for both of these are you in credit with them. This as a monthly price seems very low?
Gas..................................... 28
Water rates............................. 35.68 Do you have water hippos in your toilet cisterns? Can save you on water.
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 11.61
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 120 as other have said :eek: . Cut this to the minimum you can get away with, or if you are out of contract, then switch to freeview, you still get cbeebies and cbbc on there. You can use your sky box as a freeview decoder I think.
Internet Services....................... 0 is this in with your satellite package? othewise how are you connecting to the internet?
Groceries etc. ......................... 450 even allowing for feeding 5 children and 2 adults, with meal planning, and batch cooking you could still cut a bit off this.
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 18.33
Car Insurance........................... 41.28 is this for both cars?otherwise it is high.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 16
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 10
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 41.88 even if that is building AND contents insurance this is still too high. I get mine for about half that. Have a look at one of the comparison websites, and then use a cashback site like www.quidco.com, or www.topcashback.co.uk to switch and get cashback as well.
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 36.13 again this is high, and you can get a better deal unless it is covering existing med conditions.
Other insurance......................... 24.76 what is this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 29.71
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 5
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2049.12

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 220000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 225000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 172397...(881.74)...6.9
Total secured debts........... 172397....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan Norther rock..............29597.....196.7.....6.19
Loan Lloyds tsb................23825.....510.4.....8.5
Credit card Mbna...............14221.....321.......16.9
Credit card Egg................3994.25...79.84.....16.9
Credit card Lloyds ts..........4415.74...89........15.9

good luck
chev

liquidcoolingsystem

Hi, thanks for those tips.

The Other insurance is payment protection - never had to use it, but always though it would be handy if I was off work for a long time. Saying that, I recently had an op - and was off work for 5 weeks - and my employers paid me full wages!

Internet - yes, it is in a package with Virgin. So Internet, phone and TV are all in that whopping price. Sorting some of this today.

Water - not metered. I don't think 7 people in the house would help reduce water costs with a meter! So the £35 per month is for the standard water rates from Wessex water.

Mortgage - It is interest only. There is a loan tied into this too with Northern Rock, bringing payments up to £1080 per month. Phoning them today. Also, I will open another account with another bank to cover just the mortgage, Council tax, water, gas & Elec - you think thats a wise move?

Other income - the wife.... - Will train her up on the SELLING points of Ebay! Just managed to stop the BUYING points of ebay!!:eek:

Again thx for your help, and thanks to the others help so far!

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Sorry i dont think anyone else has said this but you have a deficit of £1056.06 each month. No wonder your having to pay credit cards with others!

Please speak to one of the debt charities for professional help as even with all the savings the people on here can find by the time you pay your mortgage,council tax and minimum payments on the debt you are in a £7 deficit.

liquidcoolingsystem

Well, having filled out the CCCS form online, it has recommended a Low Start Debt Management Plan. It worked out that I would have £510 per month to pay into this - and take 13 years and 7 months to pay off my debts..... and that is with me adjusting the figures on Virgin, shopping etc!
I've read up on the IVA things on the main website - and having spoken too CCCS, the chap there said that 'if an IVA was an option, then it would have been given as a solution rather than the Low Start Debt Management Plan' !
Is this the best option for us? 13yrs 7mnths - I'll be 50 when it finishes! OMG!

liquidcoolingsystem

Update:
I have contacted Virgin to see what they can offer in the way of discounts..........
Not enough:mad: So have cut back to 2 for £20. This is a saving of between 60 and 100 quid per month:o - thats a start.

Next up - short term fix and prob get some flack......
Payment holiday from my Lloyds loan for October (£510) and payment holiday from my mortgage for October and November (including attached loan) (£1081 each month).

This will give me a chance to get the overdraft down and work on some kind of solution to this problem.

Do you guys n gals think the Low Start Debt Management Plan is the right move? or would anyone here suggest IVA? I know IVA's seem to be devils work - but 5 yrs compared to nearly 14 yrs ???

Sarah777111

Really feel for you - Im in a similar situation (54k in debt). Have you had any joy from Egg at reducing your payments ??? Im going to take the plunge and call my cc and loan companies and try to get some breathing space ... 14 years sounds like ages but a lot can change in that time and you may be able to pay extra off with payrises etc. It's just a horrible situation to be in and I really feel for you x

LoulaBelle

HI there,

I can't offer you any advice about your last question - others more clued up can.

Re: you teaching wife to sell on ebay rather than buy - you must give her all the info as to how much debt you are in otherwise I can see that she may just 'buy' something with the money she has made.

Other ideas;

Mobile - get 2 pay as you go and carry them for emergency only and texting - I can make £10 credit last for nearly 2 months .

Satelitte - you've dealt with that so savings there. I'd go as far as to cancel it completely and just have 'normal' tv with a freeview box - or depending on kids ages go to a few car boot sales and pick up the odd video for 25p - thats how much you can get them for these days and let them choose what they are going to watch that day. Satelitte is a luxury not a necsessity.

Groceries - yep you sure can cut back even with the amount you have to feed - it takes careful meal planning. And when shopping buying the 'value' brand - my husband used to go mad when I brought blue and white stripped loo roll so one day I cut up some sheets of newspaper and put them in 'his' downstairs loo .................. I wish you could all have been there - hence he rarely moans about it now (12 rolls for about £1.10)

Clothing - well again I say stick with what you have got

Car Ins - shop around

Presents - you need to put a hold on that for the time being - the only important people are your kids no-one elses and if you can get your wife to do some 'clicks' to claim vouchers for the shops. You just have to explain to people without revealing too much that you need to cut back this year - they'll probably be breathing a sigh of relief too - its affecting us all.

Entertainment - consider you new form of entertainment as ebay - do you any watchers or questions and then in the final stages of a sale refresh!!!!

Emergency fund - this is kinda an emergency.

One last thing - I don't know your kids ages but have you heard of the NCT 'National Childrens Trust'? well they have groups in everyones area and usually twice a year they have 'Nearly New Sales' and you can list yourself as a seller - you don't have a stall or anything and don't have to be there when your goods are sold even - you simply phone the co-ordinator and they will send you all the info you need - basically they sell nearly new items - clothing is up to the age of 7 years, highchairs, stair gates, baby baths all sorts of equipment - I'm guessing that you could have some of that stuff that is no longer used !?!?! I'm gearing myself up for one this Saturday - as they are a chairty they do take 25% but hey you get 75% and if its not being used by you then its money in your pocket. The website is www.nct.org.uk

I wish you all the best and please no more anchor thoughts - not even joking about it your family need you even if you downsize your house etc etc etc

LoulaBelle

Will check in on you later