Newbie debt help please

netwinkle

We have 2 cars and would love to go down to one but are having trouble selling the 2nd car in current economic climate.
My husband works full time and I work part-time as well as being self employed (hence the £500 other income which is currently used to pay CCs).
We feel that we are trying to repay but barely chipping away at our debts so any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2400
Benefits................................ 125
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... 4125

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1590
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 525
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140
Electricity............................. 85
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 360
Car Insurance........................... 122
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 42
Total monthly expenses.................. 3609


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 195000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 19000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 225000...(1590).....5.25
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 22000....(525)......0<
HP 2nd car.....................3900......-.........10.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 250900....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin.........................5800......0.........14.88
HSBC...........................5800......0.........17.9
Halifax........................4000......0.........12.92
OH Barclays....................3500......0.........24.9
OH HSBC........................5900......0.........18
Total unsecured debts..........25000.....0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,125
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,609
Available for debt repayments........... 516
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 516

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -250,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -25,000
Net Assets.............................. -39,900

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

talliedebtbuster

Hey there newbie welcome!

Well good on you and hubby for trying to get debt sorted. Its really hard to give things up i know but even if you did it for one year it would be a difference....so here is my suggestions

Gym.....get rid...go for walks, do dvds from the library in stead.
Satelitle telly - get rid of...get a 15 pound freeview box instead!
Groceries....half this budget at least...
Clothing....no new cloths use up what you have
Mobile phone....go onto pay as you go and reduce this

Hope this helps!

~Beanie~

netwinkle wrote: »

We have 2 cars and would love to go down to one but are having trouble selling the 2nd car in current economic climate.
My husband works full time and I work part-time as well as being self employed (hence the £500 other income which is currently used to pay CCs).
We feel that we are trying to repay but barely chipping away at our debts so any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2400
Benefits................................ 125
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... 4125

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1590
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 525 - What is this for?
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140
Electricity............................. 85
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 360 - per MONTH or do you mean per year???
Car Insurance........................... 122 - Per month? This is high
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 42 - Do you really need this?
Total monthly expenses.................. 3609


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 195000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 19000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 225000...(1590).....5.25
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 22000....(525)......0<
HP 2nd car.....................3900......-.........10.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 250900....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin.........................5800......0.........14.88
HSBC...........................5800......0.........17.9
Halifax........................4000......0.........12.92
OH Barclays....................3500......0.........24.9
OH HSBC........................5900......0.........18
Total unsecured debts..........25000.....0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,125
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,609
Available for debt repayments........... 516
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 516

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -250,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -25,000
Net Assets.............................. -39,900

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

Is your road tax figure correct or is that the annual amount?

You also need to include the minimum payments on your debts.

netwinkle

Thanks for the comments - I have updated the SOA with more info.
The mobile phones are contract so will have to wait until the contract expires then move onto pay as you go or get rid altogether.
Gym membership has another 5 months to go but will give notice.

Bit stressed that we only have £13 to play with once min payments have been made so desperate to find a way to get those paid off.

We will have a good look at monthly food bills to try to get those down. Store cupboard cooking here we come!

Any more pointers greatly appreciated

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2400
Benefits................................ 125
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... 4125

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1590
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 525 (for 2xcars)
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140
Electricity............................. 85
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 10 (babies clothes not ours)
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 122 (high due to husbands crashes in the last year but hopefully will go down if he is more careful!)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 42
Total monthly expenses.................. 3279


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 195000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 19000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 225000...(1590).....5.25
Hire Purchase (HP)my car debt ...... 22000....(525)......0<
HP 2nd car(OHs).....................3900......-.........10.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 250900....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Virgin.........................5800......83........ .14.88
HSBC...........................5800......146........ .17.9
Halifax........................4000......44........ .12.92
OH Barclays....................3500......80.........24 .9
OH HSBC........................5900......150.........18
Total unsecured debts..........25000.....503.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,125
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,279
Available for debt repayments........... 516
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 503
Amount left after debt repayments....... 13

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -250,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -25,000
Net Assets.............................. -39,900

netwinkle

Any more help anyone?

Damita

I would just say your food bill and your mobile phone bill... go on PAYG costs me and my partner just £30 a month for unlimited calls and texts to 02

If you are with sky could you not go with their package deal you know phone, internet and sky all for 16.50 a month?

netwinkle

Thank you - i will look into the sky package today.
I will check when our mobile contracts end - I rarely use mine so really should be on pay as you go.

Huge thanks for the help

OliveOyl_2

Welcome netwinkle;
Here are my suggestions

Have a read around the various boards.
You can trim your food bill - but don't rush at it, trim a little off each week until you reach a level you can manage. There are plenty of menus, recipes and challenges on the Old-Style board. People there do AMAZING meals with very little money.
There are ways of increasing your income too. With cashback sites, clicks and surveys and mystery shopping. - see the "Up your income" board
Keep a "spending diary" where you note down everything you spend, and can then review it and see where money could be being wasted.
Another helpful tool is the snowball calculator at whatsthecost.com (I think ) which will put your debts in priority order and show you how soon you can be debt free.

There's masses here, take your time and trim a bit each week. If you try and do everything first week you can easily burn out and "console" yourself with a spending splurge (We've all done it to a certain extent )
It has probably taken you some time to get into this position, there probably isn't an overnight solution - however much we wish there was!

chevalier

my comments are in blue

netwinkle wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2400
Benefits................................ 125
Other income............................ 500 can you up your income from this, and are you registered for this and putting aside the tax for it etc?
Total monthly income.................... 4125 can either of you do mystery shopping, extra clicks, do free scratchcard everyday, and online surveys, get your head around matched betting, do overtime, sell everything you haven't used in the last 6 months on ebay (or amazon,etc)? Have a look at the up your income forum for more ideas.

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1590 is this repayment of interest only. Can you get a mortgage break, or go interest only for a while so you can use the money save to pay off other debts?
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 525 (for 2xcars) oh dear, can you hand the car back to the dealer (the one your are trying to sell. Would this save you the hassle of trying to sell it? Would the value of the car pay of the remaining debt. And please tell me you didn't secure car purchase on your house did you?:eek:
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 140 you can ask them to pay this over 12 months not 10 and then you can save a bit each month.
Electricity............................. 85 i am assuming that you only have electric in the house (winces in sympathy). So check for draughts around windows and doors, make a draft sausage for outside door to stop heat escaping.
If you can get some strong curtain tape post on www.freecycle.org for extra curtains, and then hang a second set off the first. It will make a big difference to how much heat you lose at night. And check that you have the correct amount of lagging in your roof I think it should be 7in thick?

If your heating thermostat is over 21 degrees centigrade then turn it down and use jumpers, and yes this if fine for the baby too. Get aunties and grannies knitting cute little jumpers/ cardigans etc....lol.

And if the water comes out of the tap so hot you have to add cold to it, then turn your water thermostat down too. Make sure the everything gets turned off at night. I was shocked to find that a tv left on stand by uses almost the same electricity as one that is fully turned on:eek: . And of course that you are on the best tariff for the electric you do use.
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 55even if you are in contract you can ask them to drop to the lowest tarif they will let you go to. And then stick within the limits
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17 i would agree with others this is a luxury at the moment
Internet Services....................... 18 unless you can get this bundled with your tv above?
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 you are on the right track with doing an inventory of the cupboards/freezer! Then you can do two things 1) meal plan just using those things, plus veggies/fruit for as long as possible. If you could do this for a couple of weeks that is £150 saved 2) get over the the money saving oldstyle board. they have really good recipes over there that taste fab but cost pennies a portion.

Also when you do a meal try and cook double so that you save on electric and also have another meal ready for later in the month. Can also start down grading a brand. So if you by Heinz then go down to Tesco brand, or even their blue and white tins. For example (and i will be a bit out because i am not in the uk currently) Branded chopped tomatoes are what 50p a tin, and Tesco blue and white chopped tomatoes are 17p. So a difference of 33p a tin. As you will be now doing more batch cooking of chilli, bolgnese, stew etc etc, (so lots of chopped tomatoes) even this change would save you £3.30 (if you use 10 tins a month).

Also if you have an Aldi or Lidl near you then shopping there will also save you money. Just don't forget your own carrier bags.

Shopping lists are essential but also a small amount of budget to take advantage of reduced meat eg.

And also shop for fruit and vegetables at a local market if you can, as it will be cheaper than a supermarket.
Clothing................................ 10 (babies clothes not ours) put a want on www.freecycle.org for baby clothes, you may get lucky and get some clothes for free.
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 122 (high due to husbands crashes in the last year but hopefully will go down if he is more careful!) ok so his is carp, but you can still check your insurance is as competitive as it can be eg via moneysupermarket.com. But then check on eg www.quidco.com, or www.topcashback.co.uk to see if you can get cashback if you do swap to a new supplier.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8 not sure if it would be cheaper, but you could get a prepayment certificate.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 11
Contents insurance...................... 11
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym..................................... 42so if you can't get out of it, then make sure you use it. Debt busting is very stressful, use the gym to destress!
Total monthly expenses.................. 3279


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 195000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 19000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 214000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 225000...(1590).....5.25
Hire Purchase (HP)my car debt ...... 22000....(525)......0<
HP 2nd car(OHs).....................3900......-.........10.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 250900....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Virgin.........................5800......83........ .14.88
HSBC...........................5800......146........ .17.9
Halifax........................4000......44........ .12.92
OH Barclays....................3500......80.........24 .9
OH HSBC........................5900......150.........18
Total unsecured debts..........25000.....503.........-

you need to check your credit reports to see how good your score is. You can do what are called superbalance transfers on some credit cards, which means you could potentially put that horrendous barclays overdraft on and get rid of that horrendous interest rate. If not then you need to order your priorities such that you pay the minimum on all debts, but pay any spare off the most expensive debt, as this will save you the most interest.


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,125
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,279
Available for debt repayments........... 516
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 503
Amount left after debt repayments....... 13

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 214,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -250,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -25,000
Net Assets.............................. -39,900

Good luck
chev

Lewby

What great advice Chev! I can't really add much more but to say well done for getting your SOA done. I have found that the spending disary is amazing as I don't want to spend money if I have to write it on my spending diary. I also find that drawing cash out for my monthly groceries has been a real eye opener and it definately stops me spending when I can make a store cupboard meal.

Although you only have £13 at least you can just meet you outgoings and any small savings you can make will just be a bonus. As the debt repayments get made the extra will go out to 'snowball' the debts. Go to whatsthecost.com and see what your debt free date is. It's a real motivator to see how much more quickly you can be debt free by even slightly overpaying your cards!

Welcome, good luck and keep posting.

Lewby xx

looktothefuture

I certainly can't add anything over and above what Chev has suggested but I can give you some hope, I hope... :rolleyes:

When I first started staring my debt full on in the face, I too had a shocking SOA with a surplus of just £3.00 after all my debt , current bills and groceries had been accounted for :eek:- and there was not 1 luxury, want or savings in sight! I've now been here for just a mere 3 months and after all the advice I was given and have been followed to the letter since, I have just re-done my SOA for February and I now have a surplus of £280.00 ish after EVERYTHING has been paid!

You CAN do this and do it well! Stick around and keep a diary!