My SOA - Gulp! Lightbulb moment!!

angelflower_2

hi

i just wanted to come in and say hello and well done on posting. It is quite a scary amount which is due out but there is not a debt problem that cant be fixed.

For me the most obvious one is the mortgage. It does sound like there is a bit of a lifestyle here that you perhaps want to try and keep but as your sons education is a priority to you, perhaps you would consider downsizing the house? You could probably reduce this outgoing by half as you still have some equity in the house too.

I agree the life cover seems very high and you may wish to look to see it will protect you as per your requirements.

Have you also considered that as your son is 15, you may lose the benefits soon should he choose to stop full time education? This would include the 25% reduction on council tax.

Bit worried about some of the aprs you have. the mortgage one is particularly high....can you go and speak to them about having this reduced?

St0lli

Thanks to everyone is looking at my SOA and giving me suggestions!

Firefox - Yes the amount for my council tax is with the single persons discount. Think I need to see about spreading it over 12months which would help I also need to investigate my life cover and see if I need the amount of cover I've got. I agree about getting the interest rates frozen on my CC's! Here's hoping...

Worried Jim - what a great name, think I should change mine to worried Stolli! I'm hoping that its positive when I speak to either CCCS or payplan and that I can arrange something with my CC companies..

Thank you both!

St0lli

Angelflower - I'm not sure I can do anything about the mortgage APR as it was only taken out in August 2008 and is fixed for 3 years. The penalties if I change before that time are very high. Unless someone has had success in getting fixed rates changed?

Thanks!

St0lli

Viktory - no I'm not metered - Another thing for me to have a look at!

Thanks for everyones suggestions - what a great site!

Supreme_2

Being a little more constructive than i have been in my previous posts, here are a few ideas You need to have approx £1,000 more per month for the debt repayments. In my opinion this will be very hard with your mortgage as it is.

- Downsize the home. Look for somewhere that will give you a mortgage of approx £650 (gives you approx £550 more a month), hopefully get some money from this too
- Get a 2nd job of some sort, nothing too intensive to start with, but something that brings in say £250 more a month
- Get rid of the tv package and go with freeview (£60 saving)
- Reduce the water rates (£20 saving)
- Half the presents fund (£25 saving)
- Lower the food amount (£50 saving)
- Find a more affordable life insurance package (£25)

Pinky15

Hi there. I have recently have my LBM also and look forward to reading your diary and see how you get on !!Good luck and keep going !! x

St0lli

Thanks Pinky... its going to a long haul but I'll get there in the end I hope. At this present moment in time I just feel like crying as the extent of debt I'm in finally hits me. The worse thing is, I've only got myself to blame. How could I be so stupid???!!

Prudent

Hi from another single mum of a teenager. The points that came to me were:

Food - this is quite high. The amount in my sig covers the same as yours for myself and a 16 year old plus two cats.

Bring the presents down to £20. I have cut list of people who I buy for and just explained I needed to cut back. I try and do something nice for them instead

Tv - use freeview

Internet - I pay £9.99 for aol.

Life insurance - do you need it? Do you get a 'death in service' package with your job.

School fees - sounds like you have made the only decision you could make for your son. Is it possible to get reduced fees? I know of a couple of cases in which this has happened.

The house... I know I bought a three bed semi when I could have bought a two bed flat. I just wanted the best place for my daughter. My top tip would usually be to throw all spare cash at the mortgage as it comes down quite fast, but perhaps you would be better clearing higher interest credit cards first.

My main concern when I read this is that when your son leaves home you are going to be in a worse position. You really only have a couple of years to make serious inroads into the debt.

Supreme_2

Prudent wrote: »

The house... I know I bought a three bed semi when I could have bought a two bed flat. I just wanted the best place for my daughter. My top tip would usually be to throw all spare cash at the mortgage as it comes down quite fast, but perhaps you would be better clearing higher interest credit cards first.

The problem as far as i see it here is that the minimum payments are over £1,500/month, though this could probably come down with better apr rates? So there is no money to pay off more of the mortgage, and the mortgage is interest only not capital repayment anyway.

My point still stands that by far the easiest way out of this is going to be to move... £1k extra a month isn't that easy to come by, and unless you can reduce the debt repayments then you have no choice than to either get more work, or reduce the mortgage.

St0lli

Hi Prudent! Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping to stay in this house for the next 3 years until the fixed rate is finished and would fit in with my sons plans to go to university. Then I want to move to a small flat. Thats dependant on me keeping the mortgage going of course! I definitely need some tips from you on how to shop. Do you work full time as well?

Son already receives a bursary and another discount for the length of time he's been there so I don't think there is much more I can do there - apart from ask for more money from his Dad..

Based on the replies I've got so far I've had a look at go compare for life insurance and I could get covered from around £26 from Norwich Union. Thats not got critical illness cover so I need to have a read of my exisisting cover and decide if I want to go without being covered for critical illness. But what a saving from £115 to £26!!!

I'm also going to look at getting different internet provider but Virgin is the only cable provider around here and I just want to be clear in my mind what the performance difference is if I go via Sky - although for £15 saving that may not be a consideration!

Thanks everyone!