Help me

Tixy

If, after you have done your SOA and we have seen it and made recommendations but still can't make the figures balance then you may need to consider other options such as a debt management plan - if so we'll advise you to seek advice from a free debt advice service such as Citizens Advice or CCCS.

If you do end up on a DMP some of the payday companies seem to be suprisingly ok at accepting reduced repayments and freezing interest & charges. So whatever the financial position you are in there will be some way out of it for you. It might not be quick or easy but there is no debt problem that can't be solved.

little_miss_T

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 765
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1625
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2390
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 339
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 75
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 35
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 90
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 48
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 15
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 7
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1781
Assets
i have no assets as my car is on finance and the finance dont run out for another 3 yrs
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 15000....(339)dont know exact amount outstanding or apr but this is what i pay per mth
Total secured & HP debts...... 15000.
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly
CTP............................1900......246
other debts....................8000......60again approx.
Total unsecured debts..........3600......306
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,390
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,781
Available for debt repayments........... 609
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 306
Amount left after debt repayments....... 303

little_miss_T

Little_Maya wrote: »

How much would the bank charges be? Might be cheaper to let the cheques go to the bank and incur the charges rather than pay the £274 :eek: :eek: :eek: to extend them?

bank charges would be £28 for going overdrawn per cheque total £532 plus the £1900 for the cheques so £2432 in total would be paid to bank. only way this would work is to change bank accounts. but as my hubby has bad credit he cant get another current account

Tixy

Hi

Is the 15k the original amount of the HP or the current amount? Is this just for your car? Thats an expensive amount to have spent on a car considering your incomes. How long have you had the car for? It might be worth looking at the HP agreement and seeing whether it would make sense to hand the car back and you could then get a much cheaper car for only a few hundred pounds.

With regard to your other debts of £8,000. The monthly repayment looks really low at £60, unless there are some debts that you are not repaying at all at the moment. Otherwise I'd expect it to be double that amount at least. If you provided a breakdown of this we may be able to advise better.

Your figures show you have £303 spare each month - is that the case and do you know what you are spending it on? If not you really need to both start a spending diary where you write down every thing you spend (even just 50p on a bar of choccy) for a couple of months, so you can identify where this goes and where it should appear on your budget.

Lookin at your expenses - you elec looks high - is this including arrears? IS it based on actual readings or estimates?

Can you reduce your mobile packages - if in contract ask to drop to a lower tariff (tell them you are in financial difficulties and they should let you) if not in contract you could look out for a PAYG deal, there are some really good deals around for around £20pm.

You could drop to a lower sky package, or consider moving to freeview. If you phone up SKY and say you are thinking of leaving or dropping to basic they will often give a discounted price for 6m.

What does the other travel relate to? Do you not both have cars? Is car insurance £90 for both of you? Have you tried looking to see if you can get this cheaper on the comparison sites and if you switch look if you can earn cashback from quidco or similar.


If you have £300 surplus you could afford to let 2cheques repay each month which would start to bring down your balance and the amount you have to pay each month.

Good luck.

Tixy

little_miss_T wrote: »

bank charges would be £28 for going overdrawn per cheque total £532 plus the £1900 for the cheques so £2432 in total would be paid to bank. only way this would work is to change bank accounts. but as my hubby has bad credit he cant get another current account

It might be worth you setting up a new basic current account anyway (particularly if you have an overdraft on the exisiting account). Basic accounts are available to anyone no matter there credit rating (even bankrupts can get them) as they do not have an overdraft but you do need to specify that you want a basic account in your application.
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/bank_accounts.pdf

little_miss_T

it all looks like it works on paper when i look at a budget like that, i think i could buy back some cheques and it will be fine, but it never ever happens like that. where am i going wrong? i forgot to add into that the amount we spend on cigs each month. about £200. but trying to quit. except with all this stress its the only thing keeping me sane.

travel expenses are for my bus pass, i dont drive and we work same shifts on opposite ends of town so we cant car share.

i am paying £1 pr mth to 4 of my debt companies and £5 one, £40 to one and £10 to 2 more. think the amount owingf on car is only £13000 and we will be able to downgrade in june next year.

dunno why gas and electricity are so high, but they should be going down after next months payment

only 4 mths into contracts with mobiles so cant get out of them

sky package is on lowest it can be, but that is bumped up by calls made from landline

and car insurance is cheapest he can get.

euronorris

little_miss_T wrote: »

it all looks like it works on paper when i look at a budget like that, i think i could buy back some cheques and it will be fine, but it never ever happens like that. where am i going wrong? i forgot to add into that the amount we spend on cigs each month. about £200. but trying to quit. except with all this stress its the only thing keeping me sane.

It's great that you are trying to quit, but I understand that it is very difficult! Especially when you are feeling really stressed out!

Therefore, in order to cut costs, you should try rolling your own. It works out far, far, far cheaper than normal cigarettes and it will also help you to quit (you'll smoke less often as you won't want to have to roll one up all the time!).

I think a spending diary, as suggested by others, would be really beneficial to you. It really will help you to identify why your 'surplus' income is going so you can cut back and budget a small amount for it.

I would recommend that you add the spending on cigs/rollies into your budget, otherwise you simply don't have a realistic package.

And, you really need to look at your gas and electricity. Find out why it's so high and then set about reducing it. I believe there is a whole thread somewhere on reducing your energy consumption.

Also, is you OH checking the petrol prices online so that he can fill up as cheap as possible. Are the tyres fully inflated, does he drive smoothly and consistantly? All of those little changes can make a huge difference and reduce the petrol cost. Also, does he NEED to use the car? Can he use public transport, bike there, walk there etc?

Just a few things to think about.

Also, it is well worth digging out all of those exact figures and APR's. Then you can see the full picture, take a step back and decide which needs to be tackled first. Although, I believe the answer to that is most definitely the payday loans.

Have you spoken to this company yet about arranging a repayment plan instead of just extending?

euronorris

little_miss_T wrote: »

sky package is on lowest it can be, but that is bumped up by calls made from landline

I think you should ditch the Sky and invest in a freeview box. It will work out much cheaper.

The mobile phones - is your usage within the free mins/texts etc each month? If not, then you need to start reducing your usage now to at least bring this down a little.

You could bring the groceries bill down also with some meal planning and savving shopping. There is a thread about all that on the Old Style board with lots of hints, tips and recipes!

Council Tax - is this over 10 months or 12? If 10, ask if you spread over 12 instead. It will help a little.

OK, that's all of my ideas at the moment, but I'm sure plenty of others have some more to offer too.

little_miss_T

i would also like to know, my husband has an overdraft on his account, which he cant get rid of because it is taken out of his wages then put back in as overdraft. how would we go about reducing that bit by bit as and when we can?

BeautyandtheBeast_3

little_miss_T wrote: »

i would also like to know, my husband has an overdraft on his account, which he cant get rid of because it is taken out of his wages then put back in as overdraft. how would we go about reducing that bit by bit as and when we can?

speak to the bank and ask them to reduce overdraft limit by aprox £50 (or whatever you think is comfortable for you) per month. im with HSBC and they have been great with me.