I'm new! Please help me!

Jesthar

Heya, sel, and welcome!

First off, congratulations on getting to grips with things - that's a big step to take!

One question; you say o/h has gotten you INTO debt, but doesn't pay much towards it? If that's true, then why not? And how did he manage to make all the debt yours in the first place? It all sounds very unfair to me... *hugs*

Right, let's have a look...

sel_chick wrote: »

This is the reposted SoA - have taken out all the irrelevant bits that I don't need to pay!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1540

Total monthly income.................... 1540.00

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 450
Council tax............................. 90 (includes water rates) - if OH will be departing soon, can you gets single occupancy discount?
Electricity............................. 50 - this may be too high an estimate if based on what you pay now and you are budgeting for after OH leaves.
Oil..................................... 40 - can't speak for this really, but again if this is for after OH leaves it could lower this bill.
Telephone (land line)................... 45 (including internet) - it may include internet, but it still sounds very expensive!
Mobile phone............................ 35 - due for renewal - good! Either go PAYG, or haggle, haggle, haggle if you really need a contract! And don't go for 'we'll give you a better phone', insist on a callplan discount! I have a friend who does this every time renewal is up, she saves herself a small fortune playing the various retailers off each other...
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 - ouch! Either cancel completely if you can, or reduce to the most basic package possible. If you're paying for it, do this now - o/h will just have to make do without Sky Sports!
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 (includes clothing, presents etc) - It's probably better to split these out into groceries, clothing and presents, it's hard to work out where you can save money otherwise. Clothing (barring essentials) and presents budget will be better spent servicing your debts for a while. Are you budgeting for groceries for both of you, or just one? If one, you can definitely get this down a lot, and probably make some significant savings if for both of you too.
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 12.50
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Buildings and contents insurance.........16.60
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 15 - union - does this come out of your paypacket before you get paid (mine does, hence the question) - if so you don't need to put it in here, so it's worth checking.
Entertainment........................... 40 - gym membership - unless you really use this, you may be better off dropping this for a while, sorry
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Other................................... 150 (this money is paying my parents back for putting me through my education - it is accessible in cases of emergency, but can't be used otherwise)
Total monthly expenses.................. 1331.10

Unsecured Debts
BarclayCard....................£1900
MBNA Credit Card...............£2870
Virgin CreditCard..............£3400
Cap 1 Credit Card..............£1872
Total unsecured Debts..........10,042
How much are you paying off these each month? And what are the minumum payment amounts?

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income....................£1540.00
Expenses (including secured debts)......£1331.00
Available for debt repayments...........£209

Aaarrrgh! The amount available has just got less!

It is just the o/h and I, but this budget is based soley on me as I don't see us lasting very much longer. He currently only pays for the tv/phone/internet, so when that gets back into my hands, then I will have to look at those costs because they are ridiculously high.

Having checked mobile contract, I can upgrade phone now, but contract is up beginning of December, so will be looking into the best deals for that shortly.


Virgin card is interest free until August 2009 - and then goes to what APR?
Capital one card interest free until February 2009 - and then goes to what APR?
Barclaycard APR 14.9%
MBNA APR ? I honestly can't find this - but on the balance above, we're almost £50 in interest every month. - based on the outstanding amount and £50 interest, that calculates to and APR 20.9%, making this your first target to pay off.

Thanks everyone for your comments so far

Quite a few of your espenses are going to depend on whether or not your o/h is going to be moving out. If he isn't going yet, then there is no reason for you to be taking on yet MORE of the bills until he does so. If/when he does move out, then although you will pick up extra bills, a number of them will be reduced, so the impact shouldn't be as great as you fear.

Hope that helps,

~Jes

dancingfairy

sky could seriously be reduced as well - would look into an all in one package or get onto the basic sky package (around 19? a month) or even go freeview. We get virgin 3 for 30 so we got phone,internet and tv for 30 plus the mobiles are also on good 10 a month deals with virgin at the moment so worth looking into.
df

sel_chick

Thanks for the comments jesthar!

We already have a council tax discout as o/h is a student.

Electricity may come down - this has only recently dropped to the price it's at - I did have electric heating and this time last year owed them just short of £1000, which is long paid off - and I enjoyed the refund they gave me (paid for my house insurance)!

The oil depends on what's being used, and obviously has to be bought in bulk - I'd rather spend more on this and have money left over, than have no heating!

I'd be happy for the Sky tv to go - the HD box would leave with the o/h if he went anyway. Only problem I have with that is there is no external arial to the tv - wasn't one when I moved in - so how do I get tv reception?

The grocery cost probably would come down - I don't really spend much on clothes (although i'd like to!), and I have a small family, so presents are few and far between. I don't go out much, but I am including nights out in that cost.

I do use my gym membership - I go to 3-4 classes a week, plus the gym itself at 2-3 times - which would cost me around £20 a week without the membership. (that cost also covers my monthly fees for my hockey team)

Union membership is paid seperately - not out of wages.

Mimimum payments:
Virgin: £25
Capital one: £58
MBNA: £53
Barclaycard: £42

We manage to make the payments every month, and usually try to pay a little more where possible on the cards which are gaining interest - for instance £100 was paid to both MBNA and Barclaycard this month, and if it wasn't for Christmas, more could be paid to them this month as I have paid off two other debts.

I can't find what the APR will be on the virgin and capital one cards once the interest free period is over.


Thanks

Jesthar

Hee hee - more comments!

sel_chick wrote: »

Thanks for the comments jesthar!

We already have a council tax discout as o/h is a student. - great!

Electricity may come down - this has only recently dropped to the price it's at - I did have electric heating and this time last year owed them just short of £1000, which is long paid off - and I enjoyed the refund they gave me (paid for my house insurance)! - I love those refunds too! :rotfl:Well done on getting that cleared - have you checked about changing suppliers now you are no longer in arrears? You may be able to get a cheaper tarrif; I just arrange to switch and I'll be saving £120 a year

The oil depends on what's being used, and obviously has to be bought in bulk - I'd rather spend more on this and have money left over, than have no heating! -oh, definitely - better to have it and not need it! Is this a recent bill, then, or a monthly average?

I'd be happy for the Sky tv to go - the HD box would leave with the o/h if he went anyway. Only problem I have with that is there is no external arial to the tv - wasn't one when I moved in - so how do I get tv reception? - You'd have to get an aerial installed if you wanted to pick up TV that way - make sure you get one which will pick up Digital TV to a good level if you can, as otherwise you'll have to change it when the switch to Digital occur. Alternatively, you have a sattelite dish, so you could just go for FreeSat if you are not in good digital aerial - FreeSat boxes can be had for between £50 and £150. Either which way it'll be cheaper than forking out to Sky!

The grocery cost probably would come down - I don't really spend much on clothes (although i'd like to!), and I have a small family, so presents are few and far between. I don't go out much, but I am including nights out in that cost. - I'm single living on my own, and spend around £50 on groceries in an average month, a little more if I stock up on a few things. Check on the Old Style Moneysaving forum on here for great ideas on stretching your food budget further, though, i could probably save another £10 or so if I followed a few more of their tips!

I do use my gym membership - I go to 3-4 classes a week, plus the gym itself at 2-3 times - which would cost me around £20 a week without the membership. (that cost also covers my monthly fees for my hockey team) Sounds like a fair investment to me, then.

Union membership is paid seperately - not out of wages. OK - just thought I'd check!

Mimimum payments:
Virgin: £25
Capital one: £58
MBNA: £53
Barclaycard: £42

We manage to make the payments every month, and usually try to pay a little more where possible on the cards which are gaining interest - for instance £100 was paid to both MBNA and Barclaycard this month, and if it wasn't for Christmas, more could be paid to them this month as I have paid off two other debts. - then smile, you're already doing very well!

I can't find what the APR will be on the virgin and capital one cards once the interest free period is over. - OK, if the APR calculations hold true for 0% minimum payment calcs, Virgin could be about 8%, and Cap One could be a whopping 37%! No idea if thouse are accurate, though, sorry, so I wouldn't take these as gospel - try and find the paperwork, as it should say?

Thanks

You're welcome Regarding overpayments on your cards, I suggest you check out 'snowballing' - the art of paying the minimum only off all your credit cards, then overpaying whatever you can afford each month of the card with the highest APR, as that is costing you the most in interest. There is a handy calculator here:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

which will tell you which order to pay your cards off in (you'll start with the MBNA as it is at 20.9% APR), and also show you how much quicker you will pay off your debts if you overpay by various amounts rather than minimum repayments only. Have a play and see what you come up with!

Edit: And you might want to check out about balance transferring your Cap 1 card to a new 0%/low APR card when the 0% part runs out if you can.

~Jes

sel_chick

I will have a look at changing my energy supplier, but tbh, my mum and my best friend have had so many problems after switching to different suppliers, that I'm inclined to stay where I am.

The oil tank cost us about £500 to fill 3/4 full last time, so that's where my estimation of cost comes from! I'm currently trying to save on that by spending little to no time in the house and I don't need heating when i'm sleeping!

I've been having a look at the brand dropping etc. and think there's definitely savings to be had here! Really have to get back to cooking in bulk and freezing...

Will look into reducing the sky cost, or into getting freesat - christmas is a-coming and the parents keep asking me what I want! (mind you, if the o/h leaves, i probably wont have a tv to watch as I imagine he'll take that with him! - Bonus - I'd save on sky, and tv license costs!!)

Off to check out 'snowballing'!

you've been a star! thank you so much!

TurnaroundSue

Hi sel_chick and welcome to the boards:wave:

I notice in your first SOA you had a secured loan repayment of £150, but didn't have your parents monies in it, whereas in your second SOA the secured loan repayment has gone and your parents monies are there. Just wondering if this were one of the same payment and if so is it actually secured on their house? Or do you in fact have 2 lots of £150 coming out each month.

If you are happy with your phone why don't you look at a 'sim only' deal. They are a 30 day rolling contract so you are not tied into it for more than a month at a time. I have just ordered 2 for the kids for christmas and for £15 my dd will get 250 mins and 1000 texts and for £20 my ds will get 600 mins and unlimited texts. I also went through Quidco and got £90 cashback on each sim, so really getting my ds's sim for nothing!!! Only thing is you have to pay it for 4 months before it becomes a validated payment!! That is with vodafone, however, I know Orange do a similar thing so I expect the other companies do as well - not sure what sort of cashback you would get with the others, if any at all!!

I would also include the monies your OH gives you for his tiny part of things as income, as that will help you get a true reflection of the situation coz the way it stands it looks like you are paying for it whereas in fact that is being covered by his money - even though I agree he certainly does need to increase any contribution whether he stays or not.

Good luck;)

TurnaroundSue

Me again....... I also meant to ask if you had any scope left on your interest free cards by doing a balance transfer of the ones you are paying interest on? If so, that will save you money in interest until you can shuffle the cards next year.

sel_chick

Sorry, the original secured payment is the money I pay to my parents - wasn't sure where to place it first time round, and since it isn't actually secured I decided to move it the second time - should have made that clear.

I do have an extra £95 with o/h minimal contribution for the sky and phone, so whilst he is still here that gives me £304 to play with - but that extra money has been going on paying back debts (owed money to next and laredoute which were finally paid off this month!).

By doing the SoA the way I have it's made it clearer to me the position I'll be in if (when?) I do kick him out.

lotto-dreamer

For a slightly more in depth article about 'snowballing' I found this really helpful

snowballing (thanks to EdInvestor)

sel_chick

no scope on the cards I'm afraid.

thanks for the link lotto-dreamer, will go have a look!