What to do?

illmonkey

I sit here with a mortgage of £142,000, a loan of £10,880, an overdraft of £1150 and a credit card of £1750.

I am sharing my flat with my girlfriend (joint mortgage). The rest is all my debt.

I earn £1383 after tax a month. Outgoings are as follows:

£1000 to the joint account for the mortgage and upkeep etc.
£187.75 to my loan (7.9% apr over 6 1/2 years)
£50 minimum payment for the Credit card (17% I think)

The £1000 covers everything, so my travel (train) food etc....

So im left with about £150 a month. We have only just moved into the flat, so the bills etc aren’t level (3 months upfront council tax etc!!) but getting there, so every so often I have to put in a bit more.

There might be a bit of flexibility in what my girlfriend can put in (maybe up to £100), it would at least stop topping up every month.

So say I have £100 a month left! That needs to cover everything else personal. Clothes, going out, everything like that.

I see no where to cut corners, im stuck like this until I earn more money and the debt is cleared!

I was going to consolidate the CC and the overdraft into a low rate loan over 2 years. But would properly cost me more that the overdraft and CC. So I would be with even less money!

What is the best way to sort this out? I have a good credit rating according o Equifax, my score is 453 apparently (22 from "excellent").

So, where do I go from here?

All help and advice very appreciated!

toontastic

You need to really post a SOA (statement of Affairs) showing everything you spend each month, tv licence, food, social, petrol etc then people will be able to help a little more. If you have a good credit rating could you not open a new 0% credit card and balance transfer over to save you paying interest ? Also do you have any payment protection ?

illmonkey

hi, thanks for the fast reply.

Got no PP on anything, it just costs me more!

I also have my phone bill comming out of my own money that costs £40 a month.

out of the "joint account" i have the following:-

mortage £585
Council tax £110
TV Licence £25.30
Gas £27 (a quater)
BT £12
Car £240
Sky £36
Water £51 (quater)
£120-150 food
£100 petrol
£80 for minimum CC's (joint cards) were used for decorating etc.

We also have running repairs of the flat, new door, etc... to come out of that cost.
The DD's arnt every month, some are monthly, hence why its a struggle to start with, but hopfully it will level out.

My girlfriend puts in £500 (she earns alot less than me), so we have £1500 in total.

I didnt relise my credit raiting was good until i just checked it, i've been looking at the cards for 0%, and it would be good even if its to get the barclay card on 0%, but that doesnt sort out the over draft.

lynzpower

Is your GF working ? 1000 seems a hell of a lot to be putting in for joint bills etc - I only put in 570 fiance puts in 400 and that *just* covers everything, and our payments 750 pcm for mortgage& rent & Sc (shared ownership here)

We need an SOA and to see whats going out of the joint acocunt as well

Give us your SOA and watch us go! Bit intimidating but since joining this site me & OH have probably saved in excess of a grand!

lynzpower

sorry- overlap in posts there!! You were quick!

CLAPTON

as already said best to post a Statement of Affairs (SoA) here. Its best if you involve your OH and do a joint SoA showing everything spent including a full breakdown of the £1000. That way people here may spot ways of reducing bills etc that you have missed


If you browse the bulletin board you will see examples but the general format is

: statement of income:

: statement of expenditure
this should be quite detailed but excluding debt repayment
: a subtotal to save us all having to add it up

: statement of all debts including
outstanding amount, monthly repayment , APR
a subtotal of the total debt and of the total repayments, to save us having to add it up

also add a brief details of you situation, partner, any children, rent or own property, value of house and mortgage, any special circumstances that are relevant

lynzpower

Sorry, can I just ask, why does your car cost 280 a month? I dont drive so.... is that petrol? Parking? Insurance? Or are you paying on finance?

Also do you not have buildings & contents or life assurances coming out of that too?

can I be the first to say- GET RID OF YOUR SKY! just thought id say that before someone else did!

x

toontastic

How long have you been with Sky? If more than 12 months then cancel !!! Get freeview in if you need to but this will save you another £36 a month to throw at your CC.

If you havn't already cut the credit cards up. If they are there then it will just encourage more spending on them as the debt disappears.

What sort of tariff are you on with the mobile might be able to find you a cheaper one in fact should defs get you a cheaper one if you can't go pay as you go.

rchddap1

The entry for 'car' can't be fuel as that is further down the list. And that is a lot of money for insurance. All I can assume is that its either finance, or the car is hired. If its the first then this classifies as a debt and the guys here will need the details of that one as well.

Sky has already been mentioned....its a luxury and can save a lot of money in a year that can be thrown at debts. Get a freeview box instead.

You mention that you spend £40 a month on 'the phone' if this is a mobile bill then this is another area where you can cut down. If you can move to the cheapest tarrif and then don't use the phone until the contract is over...at which point you can cancel it completely.

Another area is food....visit the Old Style forums and get some tips on reducing your shopping budget. I spend a maximum of £100 a month for 2 adults, and there are a lot of people who spend a lot less than this too.

As previously stated a full SOA is needed in one post, not just the main bills. The bills you've listed work out to around £1416.30 (assuming you spend the maximum of £150 per month on food) ...so if £1500 is going into the account each month where is the rest going?

illmonkey

Thanks for fast replies.

Car is £240 a month, its on a loan. Its my girlfriends, but i use it sometimes and it gets me to station and back as well, so we made it joint. This covers insurnace also, im 20 so is my partner, so its not cheap!

Phone i could lower, but i cant see myself using it any less!

Sky is proberly 5 months in, and its our only luxery, we never go out, never have take aways etc.

Let me draw up a detailed list of money in/out.

CLAPTON

another overlap in posts.
i would suggest you and GF draw up a detailed budget (if you page up to the top of this board you will see a Budget Planner that i'm told is very good although i prefer my own spreadsheet personally) and also start spending diaries to see where everything really goes (basically a little notebook where you write absolutely everything you spend ). This will show all the things we dont think about like snacks, coffee, lunches, haircuts, optical /dentist ,takeaways, newspapers,magazines etc. etc.


i would stop spending anything on the flat until you have sorted out a realistic budget and started to repay the debts

some specific things
car costs seem very high 240 plus 100 for petrol? should be some scope to reduce here
by phone bill do you mean mobile...get a PAYG and use very sparingly
could replace SKY by preview

I wont try to consolidate any of the loans but if you can move debt to lower rate cards that can't be bad