Help!! New Statement of Affairs!

poppy217

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have started this year with every intention of getting out of the terrible debt that we are in. We are 32 years old and I have vowed to get us out of this by the time we are 40 so thats 8 years but ideally I'd like it to be alot sooner!!

Please have a look over the below statement of affairs. I have been as honest as possible with it but am happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Also, you will find things like xmas/birthdays/car maintenance/holidays/entertainment left empty and thats simply because we have no money to budget for these things and dread the car going wrong. We have no holidays or entertainment so I excuse the £57.00 to Sky as its our only entertainment as we dont go down the pub or anywhere else for that matter. At birthdays and christmas, we normally get behind with our bills to do that bit extra at xmas or birthdays and recover a few months after. As you can see, its no way to live and we want better.

Please feel free to have a look and see if there is any hope for us.....
[
font=courier new]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.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 296
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2700
Benefits................................ 169
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3165
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 499
Secured loan repayments................. 264.63
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 37.19
Gas..................................... 37.19
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57
Internet Services....................... 14.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 28
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.14
Contents insurance...................... 9.14
Life assurance ......................... 63.32
Other insurance......................... 30.19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lunch money............................. 120
Child trust fund........................ 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2209.74

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 153000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 124126...(499)......4.54
Secured Debt.................. 28000....(264.63)...9.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 152126....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC credit card...............1500......38........19.9
Virgin card....................49........25........0
Zopa Loan......................4000......111.......0
Black Horse....................7500......195.......22.9
HSBC Loan......................5000......42.81.....0
Mum............................8000......220.......0
HSBC plus acc charge...........0.........12.95.....0
HSBC overdraft.................500.......5.........0
Abbey Overdraft................800.......9.........0
Capital one credit.............1000......38........0
Littlewoods....................900.......122.......0
Classic Confidence.............350.......17.65.....0
JD Williams....................350.......24.25.....0
Vertbaudet.....................150.......8.........0
Next...........................1100......106.......0
Asda credit card...............730.......22........0
Capital one credit.............780.......38........0
Old debt on red payme..........5000......105.6.....0


Also, I can confirm that I am starting study this year and trying to set up a website with a view of bringing in extra income but i cannot predict this as this time. I cannot do extra hours at work due to my children being so young and my husband is already doing 12-14 hr days so theres not much more he can do. Thats as much as I can think of so please let me know if anyone is interested in offering any advise on how to start a plan to get out of this. We are desperate!!

Many thanks

Pinky15

poppy217 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have started this year with every intention of getting out of the terrible debt that we are in. We are 32 years old and I have vowed to get us out of this by the time we are 40 so thats 8 years but ideally I'd like it to be alot sooner!!

Please have a look over the below statement of affairs. I have been as honest as possible with it but am happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Also, you will find things like xmas/birthdays/car maintenance/holidays/entertainment left empty and thats simply because we have no money to budget for these things and dread the car going wrong. We have no holidays or entertainment so I excuse the £57.00 to Sky as its our only entertainment as we dont go down the pub or anywhere else for that matter. At birthdays and christmas, we normally get behind with our bills to do that bit extra at xmas or birthdays and recover a few months after. As you can see, its no way to live and we want better.

Please feel free to have a look and see if there is any hope for us.....
[
font=courier new]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.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 296
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2700
Benefits................................ 169
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3165
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 499
Secured loan repayments................. 264.63
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 37.19
Gas..................................... 37.19
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 60 - Could you switch to PAYG?
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57
Internet Services....................... 14.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 - You could strip this to £280 ish
Clothing................................ 25 - Stick old stuff on ebay
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 28
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.14
Contents insurance...................... 9.14
Life assurance ......................... 63.32- This seems really high?
Other insurance......................... 30.19 - what is this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lunch money............................. 120 - Can this be cut - is it school dinners - switch to packed lunches?
Child trust fund........................ 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2209.74

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 153000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 124126...(499)......4.54
Secured Debt.................. 28000....(264.63)...9.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 152126....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC credit card...............1500......38........19.9
Virgin card....................49........25........0
Zopa Loan......................4000......111.......0
Black Horse....................7500......195.......22.9
HSBC Loan......................5000......42.81.....0
Mum............................8000......220.......0
HSBC plus acc charge...........0.........12.95.....0
HSBC overdraft.................500.......5.........0
Abbey Overdraft................800.......9.........0
Capital one credit.............1000......38........0
Littlewoods....................900.......122.......0
Classic Confidence.............350.......17.65.....0
JD Williams....................350.......24.25.....0
Vertbaudet.....................150.......8.........0
Next...........................1100......106.......0 - this is around 27%
Asda credit card...............730.......22........0
Capital one credit.............780.......38........0
Old debt on red payme..........5000......105.6.....0


Also, I can confirm that I am starting study this year and trying to set up a website with a view of bringing in extra income but i cannot predict this as this time. I cannot do extra hours at work due to my children being so young and my husband is already doing 12-14 hr days so theres not much more he can do. Thats as much as I can think of so please let me know if anyone is interested in offering any advise on how to start a plan to get out of this. We are desperate!!

Many thanks

Do you think your mum would let you off paying the loan for a while so you can concentrate on your debts? You could switch mortgage to interest only for a year and put the payments towards debt?
Hope this helps. My DH and I are trying to pay off our debts also and have come up with lots of ways to make extra. If I think of anything else will let you know.
For now keep positive you have taken a great step in trying to sort out your debt - well done!! x

~Beanie~

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.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 296
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2700
Benefits................................ 169
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3165
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 499
Secured loan repayments................. 264.63
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 37.19
Gas..................................... 37.19
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57 - you should be able to get it cheaper - you are currently paying £107 for phone / internet / TV. You could get a package for less than half.
Internet Services....................... 14.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 300 - every month :eek:
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 28
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.14
Contents insurance...................... 9.14
Life assurance ......................... 63.32
Other insurance......................... 30.19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lunch money............................. 120 - can't they take sandwiches?
Child trust fund........................ 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2209.74

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 153000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 124126...(499)......4.54
Secured Debt.................. 28000....(264.63)...9.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 152126....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC credit card...............1500......38........19.9
Virgin card....................49........25........0
Zopa Loan......................4000......111.......0
Black Horse....................7500......195.......22.9
HSBC Loan......................5000......42.81.....0
Mum............................8000......220.......0
HSBC plus acc charge...........0.........12.95.....0
HSBC overdraft.................500.......5.........0
Abbey Overdraft................800.......9.........0
Capital one credit.............1000......38........0
Littlewoods....................900.......122.......0
Classic Confidence.............350.......17.65.....0
JD Williams....................350.......24.25.....0
Vertbaudet.....................150.......8.........0
Next...........................1100......106.......0
Asda credit card...............730.......22........0
Capital one credit.............780.......38........0
Old debt on red payme..........5000......105.6.....0

The bottom seems to have been cut off so I'm not sure how much you owe in total or what your minimum payments add uyp to, about £1100?

There are other things that you could do to raise a bit of extra cash - have you got any thing you can sell on EBay? Can you sign up for mystery shopping? Do online surveys?

Have you thought about speaking to one of the debt charities to see what they advise?

poppy217

Thanks very much for looking at my S.O.A Pinky15 and Beannie.

I can confirm that the phones are already on payg - mine costs £15 per month on O2 and as the only people I use it to speak to are also on O2 it, I get free calls and texts providing I put £15 per month on. My husband has the same and his costs have gone down from over £100 pm (on virgin payg) to £45 but he has to use his phone for work sometimes and they arent all O2 so I dont see how I can improve on this now.

With the groceries showing £350, I try every month to reduce this but with the added pressure of making sure my children eat their 5 a day and my son has special dietary requirements which makes his food really expensive - I struggle.

I have tried many times to sell all our old stuff and childrens clothes on ebay but the good stuff has gone and people just dont buy it even though Im practically giving it away so listing items on ebay ends up costing me money so I have given that up now.

The life Insurance is split as follows:

My husband - Norwich Union Life Ins - £28.83
Mine - Standard life - £24.54
My husband - Accidental Death plan - £9.95 = £63.32

The other insurance is split as follows:

TV Insurance £12.50
TV Insurance £4.49
Sky Repair Plan £8.25
Accident Plan £4.95 = £30.19

As for the lunch money, this is a big issue is our house and I wish I could do away with it altogether. It is not for my children, it is for my husband who takes sandwiches and 3 cans of coke with him to work each day but says he also needs to take £6 a day for coffee and snacks! I strongly dissaprove of this as I dont have this luxury and neither do our children but he insists. This used to be £10 so I have made some improvement but not enough!

Beannie says I can get my tv/internet and phone for cheaper than I am now, do you know who with? Its not Virgin is it cos my mum had a terrible experience with them and I couldnt bring myself to deal with them.

And lastly, the petrol is so high as my husband works 35 miles away so that is petrol for his work 5 days a week and covers a little use of the car at the weekend. My husbands mum also lives 35 miles away and we visit her once a month as we cant afford any more than that.

You mentioned mystery shopping and online surveys, does this actually work and raise any money at all as I would be really interested if there is any return in it? Please let me know if anyone has an idea about this???

Still desperate!!!

Naomim

poppy217 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have started this year with every intention of getting out of the terrible debt that we are in. We are 32 years old and I have vowed to get us out of this by the time we are 40 so thats 8 years but ideally I'd like it to be alot sooner!!

Please have a look over the below statement of affairs. I have been as honest as possible with it but am happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. Also, you will find things like xmas/birthdays/car maintenance/holidays/entertainment left empty and thats simply because we have no money to budget for these things and dread the car going wrong. We have no holidays or entertainment so I excuse the £57.00 to Sky as its our only entertainment as we dont go down the pub or anywhere else for that matter. At birthdays and christmas, we normally get behind with our bills to do that bit extra at xmas or birthdays and recover a few months after. As you can see, its no way to live and we want better.

Please feel free to have a look and see if there is any hope for us.....
[
font=courier new]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.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 296
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2700
Benefits................................ 169
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3165
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 499
Secured loan repayments................. 264.63 How much longer to go on this?
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 37.19Have you checked you are on the best deal. Check with U-switch and use a cashback site.
Gas..................................... 37.19Ditto above
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 35I have phone and broadband with Talk Talk. Free daytime/evening and international calls + broadband & line rental for £21.74 a month. Look into changine suppliers. You can save £28 a month straight away! Use a cahsback site like Quidco too.
Mobile phone............................ 60 DH and I pay £45 on contract I actually think PayG is more expensive. There are some great deals out there.
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57Are you utilising all the channels, is there anything you can get rid of? News mix or movies?
Internet Services....................... 14.99See notes on landline phone. This could be got rid of
Groceries etc. ......................... 350I know you say you have a child with special dietary requirements but please check the OLD STYLE forum as I bet there's people there in the same position and will be able to help.
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 300Does your DH do 35 miles a day or each way? I do about 35 a day and my DH rides a motorbike and our petrol is £180 a month between us.
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48What's this. Would a bus pass/travelcard make it any cheaper
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 28Have you looked into getting a pre-paid certificate?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 9.14
Contents insurance...................... 9.14
Life assurance ......................... 63.32Do you both NEED life insurance. Is this linked to your mortgage? Are you both smokers as it's quite high. DH and I pay £23.71 between us and I was listed as a smoker.
Other insurance......................... 30.19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lunch money............................. 120Obviously need to get DH to cut this out.. £6 a day!!!
Child trust fund........................ 10This might have to be given up for a while
Total monthly expenses.................. 2209.74

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 150000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 153000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 124126...(499)......4.54
Secured Debt.................. 28000....(264.63)...9.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 152126....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC credit card...............1500......38........19.9
Virgin card....................49........25........0
Zopa Loan......................4000......111.......0
Black Horse....................7500......195.......22.9
HSBC Loan......................5000......42.81.....0
Mum............................8000......220.......0
HSBC plus acc charge...........0.........12.95.....0
HSBC overdraft.................500.......5.........0
Abbey Overdraft................800.......9.........0
Capital one credit.............1000......38........0
Littlewoods....................900.......122.......0
Classic Confidence.............350.......17.65.....0
JD Williams....................350.......24.25.....0
Vertbaudet.....................150.......8.........0
Next...........................1100......106.......0
Asda credit card...............730.......22........0
Capital one credit.............780.......38........0
Old debt on red payme..........5000......105.6.....0


Also, I can confirm that I am starting study this year and trying to set up a website with a view of bringing in extra income but i cannot predict this as this time. I cannot do extra hours at work due to my children being so young and my husband is already doing 12-14 hr days so theres not much more he can do. Thats as much as I can think of so please let me know if anyone is interested in offering any advise on how to start a plan to get out of this. We are desperate!!

Many thanks

You seem to have missed a bit off the bottom of your SOA telling us what's available (or not) to put against your debts.

I have put some notes in red against your SOA. It looks like there are a few places you can trim up here. Have you put your credit card debts into a snowball calculator to see what order you should pay them in and how long it will take?

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Fill it in, print it off and show your DH that £6 a day is luxury you cannot afford!

Naomi x

Pinky15

Hey there again! With regards to you hubbies needs for packed lunches - have you tried buying the coke etc in somewhere like Makro. If he really needs that much buy in bulk it works out much cheaper (price extortianate in shops). Your insurances seem really high the only one we pay for is mortgage cover in case anything happens to either of us. (oh and car and house of course lol)
How old are your children/? Ours are at primary and get fruit each day. xx

[Deleted User]

Hi Poppy
With regards to your mobile phone costs - O2 do a simplicity tariff which allows you to keep your current mobile phone and the contrct is per month and can be cancelled at a months notice. Dependant on the amount of minutes your OH uses this could be an option for you. The online tariffs on the O2 website are pretty good some of them even give extra anytime minutes.
I hope this is of some help.

poppy217

We buy him the asda's own cans of coke (6 pack) so they are quite cheap. I dont know what else he buys whilst he's at work with the £6 but I do know he is a secret (or not as secret as he thinks) smoker and every other day he is buying 10 cigarettes with his £6 food allowance as I have said I will not create a budget for cigarettes as we cant afford it.

Would the life insurance work out cheaper if we made it a joint policy? They are both currently worth £300,000 each as Im worried what would happen to the children if either one of us were not here. Should I go to a price comparison site and check out joint life Insurance?

Thanks again

xnatalie81x

5 cigs a day isn't too bad but a 10 box is costing him about £3.... He could buy a pack of tobacco for that £3 which would prob last him a week! With rizzla and filters perhaps 3.50 a week. Give him £5 week lol and that will save you £25 if only on work days

I would love to know what he is buying if he has £12 every 2 days and cigs is £3 that is £9 deficit. I could feed my kids and me for 3 -4 days on that lol

Forris

poppy217 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

We have no holidays or entertainment so I excuse the £57.00 to Sky as its our only entertainment...

Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 11.95
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57
Internet Services....................... 14.99

Many thanks

If you are on Sky TV, you can save money by getting broadband and phone with Sky.

Broadband - 2mb = £0, 8mb = £8, 16mb = £10

Phone - Skytalk Eve/Wends = £0, Anytime = £5

You can also get your line rental with Sky, but IMO you're better off sticking with BT for line rental, just forthe extra piece of mind.

One more thought - is the Sky insurance actually worth it? I've yet to encounter a Sky problem that couldn't be solved with a quick search on Google.

Good luck!

poppy217

Thats very funny, you sound just like me, that is what im saying to him all the time, wondering what he needs to spend that on each day but he is very greedy! I have told him people are agreeing with me about his controversial £6 a day and he's getting scared!!!