Finally feeling a little more positive

Moomin30

Finally I am feeling a little better after finally sitting down last night and going through my finances, even though it took me at least 4hrs, I know we have no money but I feel I can see a little very little light at the end of my finances situation.

I have already done a SOA, but I felt that I needed to do this also in order for me to see exactly what our Finance situation is like, so I individual went through each all our accounts to see what is coming in and what is going out and I have totaled them all together to the get figures below, also I have listed what I am paying each month on house bills to try and reduce these, my goal is to tackle one at a time and tick them of my to do list, I know this takes time and we may not see the benefit for some time, but hopefully my hard work will start to pay of eventually.

Monthly;
Joint Income £2339.39
Outgoings £1,940.39
Balance left over £399 (We have 3 main accounts and each account has and overdraft of £850 in total for the 3 accounts (which we constantly live in our overdraft) the 399 balance is what left of our overdraft.

My list Plan to reduce;
Gas currently at 27 pcm (Atlantic gas)
Electric currently at 27pcm(Atlantic Electric)
Boiler cover currently at 17pcm (British Gas)
Home & Contents Insurance currently paying £38.39 pcm (Payment Shield)
Health Insurance currently at £59.12 pcm (Norwich Union, which I believe this is very high according to some people, so will investigate this maybe we are on some kind of full cover or something)
Mobiles currently have 4 running at a cost £130 pcm (which 2 are due to cease next month so will be saving at least £70 pcm all are contracts)
Mortgage currently paying £615 pcm (with the interest rate reduction current interest rate now at 4% with Halifax, can anyone tell me what my our new monthly payments are going to be).

Credit cards;
Also my own credit card current balance owing of £6100 (Virgin I am paying at least £90pcm of interest alone then and only paying a small amount of £30 on my actual balance, I can only make min payments at the moment). Any ideas about what I should do with this situation, I have made applications to try and do long term balance transfer, but I keep getting rejected.

Also my husband does have a credit card currently owing £7000 with Virgin, but with him not missing any payments like me he his paying out his actual balance but only the min of £80pcm), which I am currently looking at new long term balance transfer for him as his deal is due to run out soon.

My to do list to chase;
I recently went to check I was receiving the right amounts of benefits I was entitled to and my child benefits and my CTC are correct although it did say we are entitled to Council Tax benefit which I have never heard of before and we are entitled to this, we currently pay 96 on council tax each month, would anyone anything about this and what I need to do to enquire about this we have been living at our property for 3 years in May 09, and we have always paid full amounts on our council tax, not sure if this right though can anyone help on this.

I have recently requested 6 years Bank stats from my Bank, also I am going to sort out my stats for my Credit card charges and going to request refund for them, I am using the helpful templates on this site to help me and I have found this such a good incentive for me to get up of my bum and sort myself out.


My plan of action;
My plan is once I have played catch up with my bank charges and my daughters nursery fees which In total for both I owe at £500.(hopefully will be paid of in a few months that my goal)

My goal is to try and reduce as much of the above as possible, pay out of overdrafts within 3months, although not really sure how I am going to do that really as I say we are always in our overdrafts each month.

We do have 2 cars, but we are going to sell one hopefully should get around £4000, which we intend to pay of least £1000 on each credit card, pay of our overdrafts and put the rest away as an emergency fund/saving but all this does depend on us selling the car which to be honest is not the best time to sell given the current climate, but hey ho of to sale we go.

Please if any does have any advice on how to reduce please give me some feedback, it as taken me sometime to head my around this but I am honestly already starting to feel a more happier knowing that I have now made a start and I think that is one of the hardest things to do in this kind of situation and I am giving my self a pat on the back lol.


Thanks

kimdegsidash

Hi Moomin
Well done for your efforts so far. Have read your earlier posts and you are sounding much more positive today! :kisses: (couldn't find a hug so a kiss will have to do!!)

I personally have always thought the British Gas boiler cover to be a bit of a rip off. They will only cover you if you have a newish boiler anyway that is less likely to go faulty - so why not put, say, £6 per month into a separate account to pay for an annual service instead? Local reputable Corgi registered repairers will do an annual service for about £40 plus VAT. Takes a bit more effort and trust on your part, but will save you £100 per year that could go to the debt instead?

Not sure about the council tax benefit - I always thought people on income support were the only qualifyers?

Yes, you must get rid of the costly mobiles. As two are coming up to the end of their contract, why not try getting a really good deal on renewal with them and stop using the other more expensive ones? There is a lot of help in negotiating with mobile companies on the MSE boards - no-one needs to be paying more than £10-20 per month these days, and that includes a new handset and inclusive calls and texts! It's all to do with going about it the right way - threaten to cancel, actually write to them cancelling and they will call you back offering a great deal in order to keep you. As you've been paying so much as well they are more likely to offer you a good deal - simply because they've made super profits out of you so far! Get some free PAYG sim cards as well then you can sell the old handsets on Ebay and make some money back - I got £60 for my old phone.

I know it feels horrible only being able to afford the minimum payments on CCs. But do ensure that as you continue paying that you top up the minimum payment so that you are paying the same each month. For example, as your balance goes down the CC will take less and less each month as the mimimum (it's based on a % not a fixed amount) so you'll never pay off the balance. Keep topping it up or ask to pay a fixed monthly amount instead - that way you'll snowball the debt and it will be repaid much earlier!

Anyway, advice over, keep up the good work. And good luck with selling the car. :T