My SOA - Help!!!

Katie73

Hi, I posted ages and ages ago about our debt problem and was advised to post our SOA for advice, so here it (finally) is. Hope someone - anyone - can give us advice on where to go from here as we're really struggling each and every day to get by.

Not sure what's needed, so I'll just list things according to our weekly 'budget' (ha!):

INCOMING:
£400 (wages) per week
£26.77 (Child Benefit) per week

OUTGOINGS (weekly):
Mortgage (incl. arrears) - £200.00
Council Tax (incl. arrears) - £43.50
Water Rates - £4.00
Gas (incl. arrears) - £20.00
Electricity (incl. arrears) - £20.00
Housekeeping (2 adults + 2 children) - £100.00
TV License - £3.00
Travelling Expenses (petrol/bus fares) - £50.00
Phone/mobile - £16.00
Car insurance/tax - £30.00
CCJ - £20.00
TOTAL OUTGOINGS = £506.50

So, as you can see we have more outgoings than incoming each week. This is without taking into account four other creditors we have that are waiting for money and sending threatening letters. My daughter starts school in September and I don't have a penny to spend on her uniform. We have no social life, can't afford to go anywhere or do anything and the whole thing is getting on top of us now.

We'd like to move the mortgage, but we're tied in until March 2007 (or pay a £5,000 fee) and no one will touch us with a barge pole, plus our current company are taking us to court on June 5 to get a suspended possession order because we're £2,000 in arrears. We're paying that off at £20 a week, but I don't think we'll ever clear it because of the interest.

If it were down to me, we'd sell the bloody house - it's falling down around our ears and I hate the place, but my partner (who I know in my heart is right) says that's not the right way - it's an investment for our kids and our future.

I don't know how to start turning things around. My partner has asked me to 'ring around' some mortgage companies to see if anyone will take us - where the hell do I start? There are thousands of companies out there and he thinks I should just pluck numbers from the air!

Please someone give me a starting point - and I've already been to the CCCS who were very sympathetic and sent me lots of info, but we have no spare money for their Debt Management Plan so they can't really help us.

Thanks for reading

jesster_2

Hi Katie, well done for posting! Can see you're in a bit of a pickle, but I'm sure there'll be loads of advice for you here.

First off from your SOA:
*£50 a week for travel seems a lot - what does this include? Can it be cut back anywhere?
*£100 a week for housekeeping can definitely be reduced. There are people on here who spend £25 a week for a couple, so you can def cut back there. Check out OldStyle board for ideas - the biggest difference comes with planning your meals for the week, shopping with a list, and cutting out convenience foods, crisps, snacks etc, and definitely taking packed lunches to work or when out for the day.
**Do you know how much of your weekly gas and leccy bills are for your actual usage and how much for arrears? Because they're pretty high per week, so it'd be useful to know how much is for what you're actually using. And does your car insurance / tax really cost £30 a week? Tax on small cars is £10 a month, or £2.50 a week, and insurance shouldn't be costing you £28.50 a week. I'm assuming that's for two cars? So £2.50 a week for tax, £14 a week for insurance each? Either way, that's still high. Any chance you could go down to one car, and certainly shop around for cheaper car insurance deals...

**£16 a week for phone / mobile also is high... what cuts could be made here?

All these may seem like small things, but they really do make a difference. Small overspends snowball into big debts, but it also works in the other direction. Every pound counts... Good luck, and keep posting

lynzpower

Hi there

two things from me really

1) any chance of upping your income? Is only one of you working., could you get an evening job if your not working, anything like that?
2) from my own perspective ( started thread earlier on it) the only way your property will be an investment is if you can actually afford to pay for it, and you wont lose it in the meantime. Sometimes you just hafve to be ruthless. Are you also paying insurances, life covers etc on the mortgage, you should be, and these could be costing you even more...

Just my 2ps worth, but things look very tight for you xx hugs xx

Emmzi

Katie,

Well done for posting.

fighting to keep the house may not make sense if what you're teaching your kids is how to be stressed... all over the rest of europe people rent their whole lives very happily.

Is there any equity in it, and how does mortgage compare to rent where you are?

Do you both work? What can be done in way of weekend work/ second jobs? It's either get the costs down or the income up.. or hopefully both.

Keep posting.

Katie73

I travel by bus five days a week, with the kids, so we get a bus pass at £12.50 (cheaper than individual fares). Partner has to drive to and from work, and he works all over, so £38.00 on petrol is probably about what he uses. Can't cut back there really.

I've put £100 for housekeeping because that's what the National Debtline think is right for a family of 4 - not sure we really spend that to be honest. I do use vouchers/points cards etc for money off - it goes up because of baby stuff and food for my son (16mths and VERY fussy).

Gas usage should go right down when we every get some warm weather - central heating is off a lot now, so it's probably only £5-10 usage, plus £5 off the arrears. Having the electricity meter fitted next week so not sure what that will take yet - £20 is an estimate, £5 of which is towards the arrears.

Partner's car insurance is pretty steep (£117 per month) because he has points plus was banned for a year so hardly anyone will touch him - should come down in August but we're stuck until then. Car tax is nothing next to that!

Phone bill is including his mobile bill - he has a contract which is very high because of our credit rating. I think he should get rid because he sends too many unecessary texts and makes too many pointless calls. Housephone is quite low.

I try very hard to cut back, but my partner smokes and drinks - it's very difficult to be in control when he won't play ball. Maybe HE's the problem!!

Emmzi

Hmm..need to get him on rollies and home brew then... and PAYG...

all_hours

how much of that council tax bill is arrears? could you ask them to accept a smaller payment and submit details of your income and outgoings to them? the same with the electricity and gas arrears.

without including your other debts you have a deficit of about £80 per week. if you can halve the food bill and cut back on the arrears and phone bill you could be just at break even point.

Katie73

I HATE not working. I was made redundant last year and with two kids under school age haven't been able to find anything that fits in with childcare (i.e., I have none). There is no one to take my kids and I'd need to earn serious cash to pay for 2 kids in childcare.

I'm looking into working from home at the moment (and have done a little), but it's hard to find work that doesn't involve either a scam (I've been stung for £25 already) or delivering catalogues (Kleeneze). Can't get anything local for evenings or weekends - God knows I've tried.

As far as the house goes, there's about £25,000 in equity in it, but the places we've spoken to will only do about 85-90% so no go there and our current mortgage company (who are happy to bleed us dry and are so nasty on the phone - so much for the Mortgage Code) won't even let us pay interest only for awhile.

Renting is definitely cheaper around here - our mortgage payment is around £700 per month (without arrears) and we could rent a fully furnished 3-bed in a nicer area for less than that! Partner's having none of it though. My parents have always rented and it's never bothered them - I wish we'd never got on the property ladder to begin with. It's been nothing but stress and upset to be honest.

all_hours

have you applied for any tax credits. you should get something on £20,000 with two children.

Katie73

Our tax credits were stopped sometime last year. Apparently we were grossly overpaid, despite keeping them informed of every change within our family, and we are not entitled to anything now until April 2007. How they work things out I do not know, but I've been told to appeal on the grounds that I kept them informed continuously and it's therefore their mistake.

Don't understand how we were overpaid when we only ever received the minimum and no childcare payments, but there you go.

Emmzi

Ohh Katie... some days this board turns into 'my partner's not on board'...

It doesn't sound like you're getting much support. What does hubby say to all this? Does he think there's a problem?

How about child minding as a little side business?