Cn anyone advise on this muddle?

'B'

Hi there
This is embarrasing but it is time to see if I can get any help from you guy's?

Here is the predicament.

I currently have a mortagage for £114.000 with Nationwide at a fixed til June rate of 4.99% I am also on a payment break until then. My house is valued at £176.000 so there is £62.000 equity. My mortgage is for another 16 yrs 2 months

I owe currently £13.200 on Credit Cards (all have been cut up)

And a further £18,000 Bank loan with Nationwide and £18,900 with a car hire loan with a bubble payment to be paid Oct '07
That being some £50.100 in debt which scares me to death.

To summarise,

Sky Card £7.000 0% til Jul
MBNA £2600 APR 18%
VIRGIN £2200 APR 10.9%
AMAZON £1400 APR 0% til Oct

don't know what the minimum repayment for these are a month my husband sorts it out.

Bank loan of £18.000 is £297.18 per month for another 72 months
Car Finance is £404.00 for another 31 months

My outgoings per month are

Utilities £441.55
Mortgage £863.00 (not paying yet until July)
Food £320.00
Petrol £100 (for Van and Car but we are careful with the diesel)

OUR incomings are

ME: £1040
HUSBAND: £1200
FRIEND (he bought our last car we let him pay £200 he owes £5,ooo now
CHILD TAX CREDITS £44.00
CHILD BENEFIT £66.10

TOTAL: £2550

We have the option of doing 6 hours overtime at weekend for both days at a rate of Sat £70.00 and Sun £90.00 after tax so this can be put into consideration.

My main problem is; is although we are just about managing at the moment i am going to be part-time in July and this will mean i only take home £493.00 a month so I am worried at where we can go next.
We have cancelled Sky etc and cut back on all utilities and have thanks to Martin saved there considerably.

I tried to borrow an extra £32,155 on the house but as we were late (only ever happended once) on our Nationwide Loan by one day it was enough for us to be refused,although we have superb history with our mortgage company and our credit rating is good,I have just got all reports back for me and husband and they are good,but too many searches are ultimately affecting our rating which I knew would happen so am so stupid.


I feel so embarrassed so hope you all go easy on me
thanks Bon

bank_of_slate

Hi, welcome to MSE

There's no need to feel embarassed! We're here to help, not judge you.

We're all on here for a variety of reasons, none of us planned it. The problem with credit is...by the time you recognise you're struggling..it's often too late.

You've made a great start by cutting back on utilities!

Is there a payment plan set up for your friend to repay the £5000 for the car?
doing 'deals' with friends can be a big problem....It's hard to be forceful without ruining the friendship!
...Linda xx

'B'

Hi
We are really lucky with him he is so good,well we have the log book of the car still and a spare set of keys also he pays by standing order direct to our bank every month,he is very good in the past (when we were affulent,lol) we lent him 10k and he paid it religiously,he cannot pay us any other way as he cannot get credit due to bankruptcy some years back but he earns a good regular wage so I know he will be ok.
Thanks for the super quick response
B

bank_of_slate

You're welcome!

You'll find lots of friendly advice and support on here.

We found that we saved quite a bit on our food shopping by meal planning and sticking to a shopping list.

Also check out the forums entitled.'Freebies no spend required' and 'Discount codes and vouchers'
there are loads of goodies to be had on there.

..Linda xx

'B'

Yes have been so good since joining this site,I used to spend £130 a week shopping and we used to go cinima once a week plus meals out at least once as couple and once on Sunday as Family,so believe me to us we have mega cut back,and I am planning on cutting back even further.
Thanks B

in*the*red_6

Hi B & welcome!

It might help people if you break down your utililties spend further just to see if you can make any savings. I guess you have one child from your child benefit amount?

As Bank of S&N has said, you can definitely make savings on your food shopping.

One obvious question though, that must be some car you have! Can you truly justify having a car worth that much in your current predicament?

ITR

'B'

Hi I bought a Renault Scenic brand new for £23k (I know was stupid) and have thought about taking it back but reading the small print we have to pay 11K back even with returning the car,which sucks,but as that is running for another 2years and few months I am going to try and muddle through the repayments on it.
The utitlies are
Council Tax £98
Water £31
Electric £30
Gas £30
They are combined with BG
BG insurance £13
Life cover £37 Hubby and
Life cover £36 me
Home ins £30 (looking onto that one coz I know I can get cheaper) this exp March
TV LICENSE £10.00
Baby bond £17.50
T-Mobile £25.00 Exp March going PayG
Hope this coveres it
Thanks B

moo842

if you're not paying the mortgage could you pay this amount off your credit cards each month as this will help lower your outgoings when you go part time!

'B'

Hi that is what we are doing we paid off £5k in CC's since last June,if we hadn't have bought the car then by now we would have been able to manage a bit better,I feel so stupid/greedy etc etc.
I feel like going back to the bank and borrowing the money on the mortgage because i know by then we should be able but part of me wants to suffer in the sense that we will never get into debt again if that makes sense?
thanks B

barbie_babe

for all your insurances try https://www.esure.com they also do boiler cover with your contents insurance .
so you might be able to get rid of bg insurance .hope this helps a bit.

fairylights_2

Hi B!

My knee jerk reaction would be cut your grocery bill. We are a family of four (two littlies, but currently eating their way through the house) and spend about £200 a month on food. Try to cut down your grocery spending and pay that on to your cards.

I would seriously consider speaking to your friend and asking if they can pay you back a bit more each month. I know they've been good to you, and that you trust them, but its not about that. If you're in debt by as much as you are, then EVERY penny of your money should be working on clearing your debts. I'd suggest you simply ask if they can find another £25 a month. Not a lot in the short term, but stick that on your debts and that's £300 (plus interest) in the year.

Your electric and gas seem very high too - don't know if you can cut them down any more? Perhaps the baby bond thing should stop too - again right now it might not seem much, but it all adds up. Baby will appreciate you in twenty years from now with or without a trust fund. When you sort your home insurance, pay in one lump sum (if you don't know this already?!) because you're taking out a credit agreement with them so paying more if you pay monthly.

Finally, see if you can balance transfer that MBNA balance onto a lower rate (or even 0%) card. The interest on that is silly amounts - if you can't get cracking on this debt over every other card.

Good luck! :beer: