Where to start?

crazyhazy

Ok, I have been on here on and off for a couple of years but now have finally decided we need to make more effort to get our debts cleared so we can eventually move in a couple of years, I think I already have a good idea where we can save money and will be starting on those things today but am aware there will be things I haven't thought of so though I'd post everything here so I can get some advice too. I'm quite shocked now I've added all our debts up but then at least I can account for a large & of the debt as we've done a lot of work on our flat since we bought it 2 years ago, although some of the debt is thanks to hs gambling which we are trying to deal with as well, hence me now taking control of our finances. I've included the soa but not got figures for some things like road tax, buildings insurance etc because I have recently just paid all these upfront for the year and we have savings to use for them next year so I would rather concentrate on paying off the debts than saving more money when what's there should be sufficient. Right enough waffle from me, here goes.....

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1284.94
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500
Benefits................................ 292.50
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2077.44

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 584.80
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 138
Electricity............................. 66
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 21
Mobile phone............................ 62
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 41 (just took stuff off to bring it down from 60)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 21.48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 42 (reduced mine from 23 to 5pm! just got to sort hs out and then it'll be under 15pm)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1517.28

Assets
Cash.................................... 1200
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 127200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 97194....(584.8)....0
Total secured debts........... 97194.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
rbs overdraft..................600.......0.........18.2
Goldfish credit card...........792.08....0.........12.9 hoping to transfer this to the rbs card at 0%
M&S Loan.......................1131.81...36.51.....0 not sure of rate but int front loaded
rbs loan.......................7654.08...150.1.....0 again not sure of rate but interest front loaded
lloydstsb loan.................4734.84...133.6.....10.9
rbs credit card................1768.67...0.........0% for 16 months
Total unsecured debts..........16681.48..320.21....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,077.44
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,517.28
Available for debt repayments........... 560.16
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 320.21
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 239.95

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 127,200
Total Secured debt...................... -97,194
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,681.48
Net Assets.............................. 13,324.52

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========
There is 2 adults, a 2yr old and a baby. Car is needed for getting to work as no public transport, h already car shares part of the week to save petrol.

98jdougl

1st thing i would look at is the satelite tv- what about getting freeview?
nothing for haircuts and in the emergency fund?

crazyhazy

98jdougl wrote: »

1st thing i would look at is the satelite tv- what about getting freeview?
nothing for haircuts and in the emergency fund?

Thanks

We're going to try calling sky today and see if we can knock it down a bit, problem is h signed up for setanta which I think is a min of a year, which accounts for £13pm, he does watch a lot of sport but we're going to see if we can take the movies off to reduce it a bit.

I only get my hair cut a couple of times a year and my mum generally treats me for xmas/birthday, will add something in for h though. Haven't put an emergency fund because we have savings already, obviously they won't last forever but should be enough for anything that might arise in the next year plus the insurances when they need renewed.

crazyhazy

Have just spoke to sky and taken some channels off bring it down to 28 from 47pm, although think we're stuck with the extra 13pm for setanta for now. Also, finally sorted my life ins, was paying 23pm, got it down to 5pm! Just got to sort hs out next. Anyone got any advice to get these debts paid off quicker? Thanks

Cyril

Your OH could look to increase his income, is he in work ? 5OO pm seems very low.

crazyhazy

Cyril wrote: »

Your OH could look to increase his income, is he in work ? 5OO pm seems very low.

his income is the first, I listed mine 2nd and I'm on maternity leave till May which is why it's low, have started doing surveys, selling stuff on amazon and daily clicks to try and bring some more in too.

RAS

crazyhazy wrote: »

some of the debt is thanks to hs gambling which we are trying to deal with as well, hence me now taking control of our finances.

There are number of other posters here for whom gambling is or was an issue. Get OH to come and talk to them.

I've included the soa but not got figures for some things like road tax, buildings insurance etc because I have recently just paid all these upfront for the year and we have savings to use for them next year

It would make a lot more sense to use your saving to sort out that very expensive overdraft and then put some money each month into an ISA for the tax and insurance, so it is there when you have to pay next year.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1284.94
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500
Benefits................................ 292.50
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2077.44

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 584.80
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 138
Electricity............................. 66
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 21
Mobile phone............................ 62 - this is massive and needs to be cut back a lot, then go PAYG
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 41 (just took stuff off to bring it down from 60) get it as low as possible and cancel as soon as you can.
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 you can cut £50 off this.
Clothing................................ 0 - are you a memeber of www.uk.freecycle.org or do you need money for clothes here?
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 21.48
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50 what is this?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 42 (reduced mine from 23 to 5pm! just got to sort hs out and then it'll be under 15pm)
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1517.28

Assets
Cash.................................... 1200
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 127200

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 97194....(584.8)....0
Total secured debts........... 97194.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
rbs overdraft..................600.......0.........18.2
Goldfish credit card...........792.08....0.........12.9 hoping to transfer this to the rbs card at 0%
M&S Loan.......................1131.81...36.51.....0 not sure of rate but int front loaded
rbs loan.......................7654.08...150.1.....0 again not sure of rate but interest front loaded
lloydstsb loan.................4734.84...133.6.....10.9
rbs credit card................1768.67...0.........0% for 16 months
Total unsecured debts..........16681.48..320.21....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,077.44
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,517.28
Available for debt repayments........... 560.16
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 320.21
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 239.95

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 127,200
Total Secured debt...................... -97,194
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,681.48
Net Assets.............................. 13,324.52

A few thoughts.

crazyhazy

Thanks RAS, will look into using our savings to pay off the overdraft, would still leave £600 for emergencies so not too bad. Have got the sky as low as we are willing to go for now, although h is going to call tmrw and see if we are tied in with setanta or if we can cancel, that would save another £13, we don't go out much though and h does love his sport so the actual sky is used a lot and prob saves us cos he would go to the pub to watch the sport otherwise :-) We don't really need any new clothes, and neither do the kids cos we get bought a lot by family, the odd things we do but are included in the groceries cos it's normally things like babygros, socks and stuff we get in asda. The mobiles we'll look into tmrw, mine is £15pm and I think I'm still tied in but will check cos I could def go PAYG cos I don't use it very much but h uses his alot for work and ha sjust signed a new contract recently but we'll see if it can be reduced even a bit. The £50 child stuff accounts for the toddler groups I take the children to, plus anything else that pops up, the groups are £4 per week and are necessary for my sanity plus my little girl loves them so couldn't give them up.

Am feeling quite good now I've sorted some things out today, got a meeting with the bank tmrw and hopefully will get our joint account sorted out, think it'll prob be jan before everything is set up properly and I'll have a clearer idea where we are. Thanks for all the replies so far, it's good to get other opinions.

Caroline73_2

Do you have a SureStart centre near you? They do free toddler groups and classes - you don't need to be on benefits or anything to attend these groups. They are open to all.

The local library often do rhymetimes.

Netmums website organises local meetups too to get mums and lo's together.

98jdougl

If OH is using his phone credit for work shouldn't he get an allowance towards it or a company phone?
I know that my dad got £x a month of his bill paid sort of deal.

You can get a setanta sport set to add to freeview I seem to recall seeing if that is worth looking into, still a lot of channels and then the sport as well.

crazyhazy

Thanks Caroline, we don't have a sure start centre nearby. The two groups we go to one is a rhymetime session and the other is a normal toddlers group, both are £2 which is quite good I think, I put £50pm but while some is for this I included extra for anything else child wise that crops up.

H has spent more time on the phone today and has managed to reduce his mobile bill by £15pm and get the setanta down from £13 to £7pm. So since yesterday we've managed to reduce things and save £70pm so am feeling very positive about everything :-)

Quick question, we're going to pay the overdraft off with our savings and have already sorted the balance transfer so all the credit card debt is now 0%, so which of the debts should we be paying off first? Two of the loans are front loaded interest so is there any point making overpayments to them or should we concentrate on the other loan and the credit cards?

Thanks again for all the advice and support, this place is fab :-)