Should I sell my house?

BabySteps

Monthly income after tax................ 1534
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 144
Other income............................ 400
Total monthly income.................... 2078

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 722
Secured loan repayments................. 398
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 135
Electricity............................. 57
Gas..................................... 57
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 57
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 21
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 280
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 70
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 10
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 18.64
Contents insurance...................... 19.36
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 91
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2113

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

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 145000...(722)......5.95
Secured Debt.................. 40000....(398)......10.59
Total secured debts........... 185000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Abbey Credit Card..............5097......213.......0
Barclays Overdraft.............4400......0.........0
Barclays Loan..................4500......137.......0
Barclays Partner Fina..........3000......55........0
Virgin Money...................3842......10........0
Marks & Spencer Card...........9991......259.......0
LTSB Card......................3308......67........0
Egg Loan.......................10381.....212.......0
Egg Card.......................7539......154.......0
Total unsecured debts..........52058.....1107......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,078
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 2,113
Available for debt repayments........... -35
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,107
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -1,142

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 225,000
Total Secured debt...................... -185,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -52,058
Net Assets.............................. -12,058

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.[/font]

petrafyde

Good morning!

Hope you're well. I know doing the SOA is very stressful (been there) so I think you've done great keeping up with it and posting.

Groceries can go down from £280 easily by dropping a brand (go on savers brand if need be) Cheaper bread etc.

Clothes - £50 per month. We don't need that much. Try getting rid of that one altogether for a while.

Can you switch buildings & contents to be together? Might be cheaper that way?

Water rates seem very high - can you call them and ask for an over 12month plan to ease the monthly burden? Same for Council tax.

What is the other insurance for?

Look for a deal for telephone, broadband and sky altogether - you can get some for £22 or less a month in places, TIscali is one I believe and this will save you £34 a month.

How far into your mobile contract are you? There are some cheaper plans out there or you could go to PAYG?

These are just my suggestions from people who've helped me, the people who can really ferret out moneysaving will be along soon. Chin up! There's definitely money to be saved there.

petrafyde

Also, eBay/Amazon are great for getting rid of stuff you don't need and will make money you can use for necessities. Have a root through the garage/loft and bookshelves, you'll be surprised!

BabySteps

Thanks for the suggestions - my phone, broadband and sky are altogether (we have multiroom) I can easily get rid of multi room and channels, or even Freeview, and then look around for a better deal - it comes to about £56 per month, so tried to split it out across the spreadsheet.

The other insurance includes critical illness and pension which comes out of my salaray - I pay a lot of stuff at source out of my salary so I am going to see which ones I can drop.

Thanks for your support, you are right about feeling better, although I was feeling desperate I feel better having people to talk to about it. I am smart enough to sort this - it is frustrating that I have let it get so bad which makes the challenge even harder but now I have done the scary thing and looked at the whole picture I am constantly thinking about how to make money (ebay and bootsales) and save on expenses etc. My food shop was £30 on Saturday and we'll be eating what we have in the house till payday LOL.

Teenagers a bit shocked and grumpy about me being skint (I've sort of protected them from it till now) but they will get over it and realise how lucky they've been till now. The more I think about things I really want to sell the house, it served it's purpose of allowing the kids to stay in the same high school when we needed it, but I have a huge interest only mortgage and would prefer to start from scratch.

BabySteps

Water rates are over 12 months! Expensive I know.
Mobile contract, I am 14 months into an 18month - I am going to call them and see if I can sweetalk them into letting me payg. Clothes, yes I can definitely lose the £50.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hellobabysteps well done for coming on here and im so glad you are feeling better there is always support on here good luck with everything xx

petrafyde

Hey!

Sooo positive and it's so nice So how much do you think you've saved in the past hour then? I find it so rewarding whittling it all down. I've listed my hubbys vinyls all on eBay and they costed 15p to list because I started them at 99p. Also selling my Wedgwood collection which is worth over a thousand - started it all at 99p - just did a few 'bold' auctions to draw attention. Initially I didn't want to do it cos its worth so much, but I've decided that once my house is clutter-free I will be too, and it's worth it. The collectors of the stuff always ferret out the good items anyway *fingers crossed*

Is Council over 12m too? Which mobile company are you with? It's worth surfing the net for PAYG deals - orange are doing some great offers at the minute but from what I've heard o2 are really good too.

So are you considering selling your house to buy another, or to rent? It would certainly be a huge worry off your back that's for sure. It hurts taking what feels like a step backwards, but with that mortgage off your back you'd be 'in the wonga' from what I can see? If your credit is good, there's nothing to stop you starting again!?

Can't say enough how great it is to see you so positive. If you feel down at all, come straight back here and post - that's what I do! *avoids looking at her post count in a week* *cough*

petrafyde

Also Quidco is a cashback cooperative website - if you do ANY shopping online you can reduce the cost by getting cashback - just go through the Quidco website before you start your shop (look at my signature in the past 5 days!)

There are also free clicks that bring cashback, so if you don't shop online you can still make a few bob

petrafyde

Which would mean a rebate. That's good. Have you tried pushing to speak to a head honcho over the phone? End of the year is no good to you when you're struggling etc, you should lay it on thick, they're duty bound to provide decent customer service, these are the people you pay money to for fire/ambulance/police! They have to provide someone who understands certain circumstances, how else do you find out otherwise?

Our council is also like a call centre, but I just stay on the phone until they give me what I want - it IS what we pay for after all I just go very polite but very firm, and if all else fails I make myself sound more upset than I am unless it's obvious I'm getting nowhere, then I head down to the office pronto. Over the past few days I've learnt so much about dealing with people its untrue, not ashamed to admit the above either - it gets me places faster.

petrafyde

Brill, let us know how you do *fingers crossed*