The penny has finally dropped!!

sherman74

Hello,
I've been in debt now for 15 years in some form or other, been married for 7 years and have been spiralling ever since.
What's changed? A gorgous baby daughter!

Here's my SOA and some background info, £275 groceries includes £25 pet food and £50 toiletries (partner has severe pysorasis and requires specialist make up)
Have considered changing jobs as I travel 60 mile per day but the job paper is getting smaller each week.
I'm looking forward to reading your advice and getting started on tackling this problem, the car boot season is upon us and I've got numerous bags of baby clothes ready for ebay.

Regards
Sherman

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1410
Partners monthly income after tax....... 840
Benefits................................ 120
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2370
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 589
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 94
Electricity............................. 38
Gas..................................... 37
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 14
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 65
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 10
Internet Services....................... 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 275
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 70
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 270
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 13
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2028

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 98000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 106000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 94000....(589)......0
Total secured debts........... 94000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC cc........................500.......11........15.9
Natwest cc.....................5862......135.......3.9
MBNA cc........................7000......40........5.9
Capital One payroll............200.......35........0
Natwest o/d....................100.......1.........15.9
HSBC o/d.......................500.......5.........15.9
HFC............................450.......25........29.9
Natwest Loan...................26232.....237.......8.9
Egg loan.......................7212......164.......7.9
Total unsecured debts..........48056.....653.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,370
Expenses (including secured debts)...... 2,028
Available for debt repayments........... 342
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 653
Amount short for making debt repayments. -311
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 106,000
Total Secured debt...................... -94,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -48,056
Net Assets.............................. -36,056
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

paybacktime2008

Welcome. Your SOA shos more going out than coming in so some things are going to have to go!

Groceries. I got slated (nicely) for putting £320 a month for food......that was in October. Now I'm spendibng £30/40 a week. Do go if you havent already to Old style board for loads of food money saving tips.

Mobile phone...might have to go PAYG for a while

Presents and entertainment also need to be cut back.

Can you go interest only on yr mortgage for a while to hit the debts?

Are either of you able to claim childcare vouchers so you don't pay NI on the childcare costs?

I'm sure someone else will be along with some other gems of advice......Good Luck

Your benefits look low......are your tax credit applications up to date?

sherman74

Thanks for reading my post!

Will check out the food advice asap!

All our tax credits are up to date, tried to claim for help with nursery costs and was declined, also our benefits have been reduced this month too.
Neither of our employers buy into childcare vouchers at the moment.

Will look at the presents and entertainment budget again.

Thanks again

paybacktime2008

Another thing that helped me enormously was keeping a spending diary theres an online one www.spendingdiary.com and only carrying cash. Too easy to buy steak, and curry bags etc when you are paying at the supermarket on a card.

How old is your daughter? I have a 7 year old.....are you using own brand nappies? Seriously you will save a fortune over the years and they are just as good.

Without wnating to depress you further ! When you little one is little SHE won't care that she wears hand me downs, gets second hand toys from the charity shop etc etc....however as she gets older she will !!! So take advantage of the years when they are oblivious!!

Oh and i thought the make up was under hair at £50 a month.....you know it has to go...the haircuts that is!

Supreme_2

- £50 haircuts? that is something you cant afford.
- Drop the satellite tv
- Reduce presents to £20
- Reduce groceries by £50 at least
You can probably save at least £100 there.

Do you need two cars?
Is the £8k of cars what you would realistically get if you sold them? If so you must think about downgrading as that would give you a good boost.

Other than that, maybe find another source of income that would bring in a few hundred a month. Maybe some part time work?

paybacktime2008

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13814091#post13814091

Great thread to get you started

10past6

sherman74 wrote: »

(partner has severe pysorasis and requires specialist make up)

Click here and make sure you're claiming what your entilted to.

gailey_2

Hi congrats on daughetr and sorting it out.

few areas
mobile can you downgrade tarrif or go on payg
speak to gp as you may be entitled to stuff on nhs toilitries wise and soem people claim disabily for exma.
Hair cuts cut back local colleges have cheap salons and big salons student nights for cheap cuts. I colour at homehubby uses clippers and trim toddlers hair. Super cuts is cheap less than £20.
cut presents by half
check out old style board as groceries can come down w eare family of 3 and aiming for £200 cook more from scratch and freeze for instant ready meals.
childcare oh does salray release they take £160 tax free out of salry in return for 243 voucher giving us extra £80 a month worth looking into as most nursuries accept them.
I used cloth nappies big saving and made my own baby food with cheap blender and froze in pots.
I get lots of 2nd hand clothes off ebay or cheap stuff from supermarkets or buy in sales/outlet shops.
Check out up your income board to increase income by ebayingsurbeysbingo quidco and much more.

theoretica

If you did find a job closer a lot of the petrol spend would vanish (cutting down to £50 a week would be the equivalent of a £3k wage rise over the year), which would make quite a difference, and maybe you could commute by bus/bike so not need two cars- keep reading that section of the paper and online just in case something good turns up. I assume there is no-one you could ride share with at present so you don't drive every day?

The car insurance seems quite high too- the article on that here saved me a lot of money.

Perhaps your partner could use slightly less makeup to make it stretch further?

Fire_Fox

I think a prepayment certificate is cheaper for prescriptions - basically if you get 4 scripts in 3 months, or more, it's cheaper to prepay.

I wonder if it is worth your partner working where she does, if you need childcare and all the costs of running a second car. It might be worth looking into?

You should be able to reduce your gas/ electric by switching and by being more careful.

sherman74

thanks to all who've taken time to give some advice,

The haircuts is high because of my wife's pysorasis, I have my own clippers and have a buzzcut once a fortnight by a friend. We should be able to reduce this but not sure by how much yet.
I would like to reduce the two mobiles and Virgin but we're under contract, does anyone have any advice about getting out or reducing without incurring any extra charges?
Going to look at own brand nappies.
Tried to sell car back to selling garage who offered £4k on a £9k car in under 4 months, even though Parkers value at over £7k.
Reducing presents to £20 per month.

And the good news, just found out that my wifes job may go permanent and they offer childcare vouchers, fingers crossed!