DFW noob

BluePumpkin

I've just joined the site after hours of reading everyone's posts. As a bit of background, this is my first year out of uni and also my first year living with my boyfriend. I was lucky to find a job very soon after graduating and my bf is also working, but with little to no experience of budgeting and living costs we seem to live beyong our means. We've set up a joint account to pay rent/bills etc which we split 50/50. The only issue there is that I earn a little more than him, and so I find it a bit easier to keep up with paying into the account for bills etc.

To move out I borrowed a fair bit of money off my parents, and we both maxed out our credit cards. I took out a loan just before Christmas to be able to pay my parents off, and to pay off both my credit cards. I also fell for the insurance on the loan, which adds to the total. I borrowed £4200, but the total cost of the loan will be £7733.88 :eek: If only I'd known about this site back then! I realise that I shouldn't have taken the loan or at least not taken the insurance! In addition to that I currently owe £1996.24 on two overdrafts. My partner has his own debt (about £3000 on a credit card and £2000 on a loan), so the totals above really are mine alone. I want to pay off the overdrafts and the loan as soon as possible. I want to be able to save and work towards a mortgage.

Any advice/help anyone can give is much appreciated! I really don't know where to begin.

perkisc

Hi Pumpkin you've made a good start by posting on this site. Your right you've made a poor decision with the loan protection, how long ago was it taken out? does it satisfy you need or was it miss-sold. I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you some advice. I would start to put together your SOA there will bw lots of people along with good advise
:T

good luck .............

BluePumpkin

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1100
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 300
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 75
Electricity............................. 10
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 12.5
Telephone (land line)................... 5
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 8
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 7
Groceries etc. ......................... 60
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 632.5

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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................4200......215.......22
Overdraft 1....................567.09....0.........0
Overdraft 2....................1429.15...0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........6196.24...215.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,100
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 632.5
Available for debt repayments........... 467.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 215
Amount left after debt repayments....... 252.5
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,196.24
Net Assets.............................. -6,196.24
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.



Thanks for the advice, I'm hoping the SOA will appear above this... I've put my costs down- my partner pays half of the bills etc (not included). I'm not really sure if it was miss sold or not. The lady on the phone talked me into it, originally I had no interest in the insurance. I think my job is as safe as anyone's can be, and that is the real thing that she sold it on. I might try researching that. I took the loan out in November (I think).

ghostmadlittlemiss

Don't worry, you're in good hands and you'll get some great advice here.

My person advice would be to have a look around in here, check out some of the different diaries maybe and just generally get a feel for the site and for how things work. Then, if you want to, you could start your own diary detailing things as you get yourself debt free. If you fancy sticking around and doing so, I'd also recommend joining the weekly spend challenge. Basically, it's a challenge in which you agree a set amount you're going to spend in a week (it's meant to be for non-budgeted things, not food and stuff, but I use it for everything), keep all your receipts and note down every time you spend something. Then, at the end of the week, you see if you're still within your total. Here's the link to this week's challenge: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1540909&highlight=weekly+spend This is my first week doing it but it's really helped me get my spending under control.

Sorry about the marathon post, I do them a lot. You'll probably have another 10 replies before mine. Anyway, welcome to the boards and I hope to see you around soon.
Kayleigh
PS Wow, you managed a SOA before I even finished typing! That was my first bit of advice, btw, but since you've done one, I've cut it.

ghostmadlittlemiss

That's got to be the most well budgeted SOA I've seen in a while, there's not much I can pick up on at all. The groceries are quite high though, if that's what you pay just for you per month. Have a look on the OS board for meal planning and cooking advice, see if you can get that down a bit. But you look like you've got a fair bit free after you've paid your debts. Can you overpay on your loan? Also, how long do those overdrafts stay interest free for? You might want to put something towards those each month and try to get back in the black again before you have to pay interest on them.
Kayleigh

BluePumpkin

Thanks, I think the extra usually gets spent on magasines/take aways/dvds and other random junk! I couldn't actually say for sure where the money goes. I'm going to have to stop all that though, so I didn't want to include it on the SOA. That might not be right, but it made sense to me! I'll have a look at the grocery side of things as well, I think we waste a lot of money there. I've had a look at the loan and it does look like I can overpay, but they charge interest if I do so. I had thought about paying off the overdrafts first and then save up to pay it off in a lump sum. I'm not sure what the best way is.

One of the overdrafts (little one) is on my main bank account, and that one appears to be interest free indefinitely. The other one is on my old student account, and I pay a fee (£7 a month) to keep the overdraft interest free. I'd really like to get rid of that one, as I want to close the account to try to tidy things up a bit.

No worries about the marathon posts- I do exactly the same thing

perkisc

I agree there doesent seem to be a lot of waste on you SOA,
what is the APR on you loan 22% ? does'nt sound right

Good Luck

BluePumpkin

I've checked the paperwork, and the loan and the insurance are on 22.9% APR. It does seem to allow early repayment, but I can't find anything about cancelling the insurance.

I joined experian a little while ago, and it still shows my two credit cards which I paid off and closed. Do those things take a while to update? I'm trying to organise all my finances, and I want to get rid of all the old accounts hanging around...

Keeping_Positive

Hello and welcome to the board.

I would read Martins article on PPI charges he lists all the reasons why you could cancel and reclaim. Also I suspect you could cancel the PPI bit anyway. 22% seems very high it may be worthwhile looking for a lower rate.

Ref budget the grocery challenge and other challenges on here are great. Read through some and decide which you like. Also a spending diary is great for tracking those little spends on mage etc that all add up. The is an online one just search spending diary online.

Good luck.

BluePumpkin

I might try to cancel even if I can't get a refund, as I doubt I have paid very much anyway to date, and I'd rather not keep paying it. To be honest, the 22.9% just shows how bad I am with money- I applied for a Sainsbury's loan and was refused, but another company said that they could offer me one instead. I was just eager to get the loan by that point, I thought I'd probably get refused elsewhere.

So does:
1) Cancel insurance on loan
2) Save up to try and pay it off/look for cheaper rate
Sound like a plan?

I also found that they had created a preference account for me, which was basically a massive (and expensive) overdraft with a random bank. I definitely didn't request this Anyway, I phoned the bank last night and asked for it to be closed. I'll hopefully get conformation in the next few days.

Forris

As previously said, your SoA seems pretty good (apart from the debts, that is!).

You said that your boyfriend also has is own debt and sometimes struggles to pay into the bills account. Would he be open to tackling this together? If, as you say, you earn a little more than him then maybe you could pay a bit more into the joint account on a pro-rata basis (eg. if you earn 1200, and he earns 800, then the bills should be split 60/40). Any extra money earned can go towards clearing your debt. This way he could be up for joining you in your attempt to be debt-free.