where do i start????

bustmydebts

Hi Guys,
I'm new to mse and hopeful that someone can give advice on where to start with our ever increasing debts. We have never missed a mortgage payment but we have fallen behind with our credit cards and we are at the limit with them all. We can't get new credit to do debt consolidation as our credit score is so low, and with Christmas approaching things just seem to be getting worse. One of my store cards is due to default on Tuesday and we don't have the money to pay it.
Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1450
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2850

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 925
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 50
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 31
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Life assurance ......................... 32
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1692

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 160000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 164000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 149000...(925)......6.9
Total secured debts........... 149000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
credit card ...................3700......120.......18.9
credit card....................1200......70........18.9
store card.....................900.......60........28.9
personal loan..................5500......199.......12
personal loan .................9500......260.......12
car finance....................4000......150.......10.9
Total unsecured debts..........24800.....859.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,850
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,692
Available for debt repayments........... 1,158
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 859
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 299

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 164,000
Total Secured debt...................... -149,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -24,800
Net Assets.............................. -9,800

10past6

Hello BMD :hello:

Welcome to the forum, couple of things stand out, your mobile & cable TV seem high, any reason? there are cheaper deals out there.

Take a look here it's the old style board, some great suggestions for cutting back and loads of money saving tips.

Edit: Forgot to mention, click the link in my signatiure and speak to the experts, they will advise you on how to deal with your "Priority Debts"

skintandscared_2

Can I advise keeping a diary of EVERYTHING you spend?? It looks from your SOA that you should actually be able to meet your minimum payments, after all your normal expenses, and have £300 over.... You could use the snowball calculator to show you how you could utilise that extra £300 to pay off debts in the right order, as quickly as possible, or put half of it towards debts and use the other half to save for a "slush fund" (for car repairs, christmas, etc).

beanielou

As has been said your mobile & satalite are both really high as well as your land line.
Can you reduce them at all?

Forgot to say hi & welcome to MSE.

~Beanie~

bustmydebts wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1450
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2850

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 925
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 50 - Is this right? Mine is more than this and I am in band A with 25% single occupancy discount!
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 50 - This is very high
Mobile phone............................ 50 - As above.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 - Reduce your package or cancel completely and get freeview
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 31
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Life assurance ......................... 32
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1692

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 160000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 164000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 149000...(925)......6.9
Total secured debts........... 149000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
credit card ...................3700......120.......18.9
credit card....................1200......70........18.9
store card.....................900.......60........28.9
personal loan..................5500......199.......12
personal loan .................9500......260.......12
car finance....................4000......150.......10.9
Total unsecured debts..........24800.....859.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,850
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,692
Available for debt repayments........... 1,158
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 859
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 299

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 164,000
Total Secured debt...................... -149,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -24,800
Net Assets.............................. -9,800

According to your SOA you should have £300 per month spare, i assume that you don't and that is why you are here? Have you tried keeping a spending diary where you keep track of EVERYTHING you spend money on? All those magazines / lunches at work / lottery tickets etc soon add up!

tealady

Hi and welcome. Here are my thoughts.
Could you not cut down your clothing budget for a bit?
Store cards - they usually have very high APR's so cut them up.
Use the snowballer to see which debt to clear 1st.
Try the downshift challenge or go onto https://www.mysupermarket.com to see if they can recommend cheaper brands
Look at https://www.petrolprices.com to see where fuel is cheapest in your area.
electricity - check with a comparison site to see if you are on the cheapest tariff - if not switch using a cashback website.
Switch every thing off when they are not being used, leaving things on standby just wastes money.
Hope this helps.

Prudent

It would be fairly easy to free up some money from the budget for debt repayment.

£50 on cable tv - get rid of this and get free view.
£50 on landline phone - change your package. I only pay £20.50 for both internet and phone
£50 mobliles - change to pay as you go. Look at cheap tarriffs which give plenty of free texts and text rather than call where possible.
£50 on clothes - don't buy anything other than absolute essentials just now.

These changes could free up about £160/£170

bustmydebts

Hi Guys,
Thankyou all for your suggestions, unfortunately i'm tied in with my mobile until June next year. I've begged and pleaded with o2 to let me cancel tried every fib in the book!!!, freeview doesn't work from our house and while I know our subscription to cable is very high, this is us cutting back from hubby going to the pub to watch matches and rental of dvds,couldn't believe how much we were wasting , so our tv is our social life! we are going to contact sky and threaten to cancel to see if they will offer us anything else a little cheaper. I changed our phone plan to a bt anytime plan so we should hopefully see a good reduction in our next bill( last one was 185 quid and there is only two of us in the house!!)
Any other advice from you guys will be greatly appreciated
Thanksx