Out of ideas - SOA

Amatheya81

I've got in a bit of a pickle with my finances again I've been here off and on for a few years now. At one point I had my finances completely under control but after two nasty breakups in which I've ended up worse for wear financially speaking.
Now they've slowly slipped so that a unexpected hike in my ground rent has left really struggling and having to sell my possetions to make ends meet. I've cancelled nearly every bill that I could think of but I'm now stuck unable to ballance my finances without augmenting my income which so far I've been just managing but I'm not sure how long I can keep it up
Any advice you could give would be very much appreciated.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary.........................£1,425
Partners salary..................N/A
Benefits...........................N/A

Total...............................£1,425

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent..................£437.88
Ground Rent......................£110.50
Council Tax.......................£48.00
Gas/Electric......................£51.00
TV License.......................£11.00
Sky.................................£20.00
BT Line Rental...................£12.12
Food...............................£100.00
Car Insurance...................£36.48
Loan...............................£352.68
TV Loan...........................£14.28
CC 1...............................£75.00
CC 2...............................£110.00
Bank Charges ..................£25.00
Gym Membership...............£29.00
MPPI..............................£19.53
Contents Insurance...........£12.12
Mobile Phone...................£10.00

Total..............................£1,474.57

I had thought about trying one of the debt managment plans but I'm not sure how it would effect me. I own 50% of a part buy flat and have a car and I would rather struggly like hell than lose those. Oh and my flat is a 1 bed so no chance of getting a lodger (Unless we were very friendly lol)

My aprox debts as they stand at the moment are:-

Loan...........£11,400
CC1............£2,900
CC2............£4,300
TV Loan.......£400 (didn't get the TV by choice it's a leftover debt from an ex :mad:)

Total..........£19,000

Oh and I don't smoke, bearly drink, I don't go out much other than to the gym and I haven't been on a real holiday in 3 years... No I don't know how I got into this much debt either Oh and my credit was screwed up a few months back when I went overdrawn a few months in a row (Bother) so I can't switch my credit cards about as I usually do when the 0% runs out

Horace

Hi and welcome..what are the APRs on your credit cards and the loan?

A few things leap out at me..ditch the sky, reduce your grocery bill as £100 is a lot per month for one person, you should be able to halve this quite easily and still be able to eat well. Look at the moneysaving oldstyle board for tips on meal planning. Drop a brand in the supermarket, buy meat from a butcher and veg from the greengrocer as this will be cheaper than the supermarket.

Ditch the gym membership too - you can use council gyms for less and take up walking as its free.

What is the MPPI? And why are you paying bank charges at £25 a month?

gizmo111

Horace wrote: »

Hi and welcome..what are the APRs on your credit cards and the loan?

A few things leap out at me..ditch the sky, reduce your grocery bill as £100 is a lot per month for one person, you should be able to halve this quite easily and still be able to eat well. Look at the moneysaving oldstyle board for tips on meal planning. Drop a brand in the supermarket, buy meat from a butcher and veg from the greengrocer as this will be cheaper than the supermarket.

Ditch the gym membership too - you can use council gyms for less and take up walking as its free.

What is the MPPI? And why are you paying bank charges at £25 a month?

I'd be amazed if 1 adult could live on £50 per month and still eat fresh meat, veg etc.

pink_numbers

Some managed really well to get their food bill down to £50 per person, it's a lot easier when there's more than one person (we do £100 per month for the two of us), but the OP can at least cut it down to maybe £75?

Ditch gym and sky.

obviously, try & avoid the bank charges.

property.advert

Amatheya81 wrote: »

Monthly Incomings:

My salary.........................£1,425
Partners salary..................N/A
Benefits...........................N/A

Total...............................£1,425

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent..................£437.88
Ground Rent......................£110.50 This cannot be every month. Ground rent might be £125 a year. I'm guessing that it is rent on the 50% of the property you don't own.
Council Tax.......................£48.00
Gas/Electric......................£51.00
TV License.......................£11.00
Sky.................................£20.00 others will tell you to reduce this but you'd go potty. Internet ?
BT Line Rental...................£12.12 Internet ?
Food...............................£100.00 some will say you can live on £5 a month - you cannot ! this is very low as it is
Car Insurance...................£36.48 obviously look around at renewal time and look for cashbacks
Loan...............................£352.68
TV Loan...........................£14.28
CC 1...............................£75.00
CC 2...............................£110.00
Bank Charges ..................£25.00 not sure about this
Gym Membership...............£29.00 people will say ditch this but if you go a lot (not 1 or 2 times a month but rather like 3+ times a week, then it is cheap entertainment and mental stimulation. You'd spend more not doing it but if you only go sporadically, it has to go.
MPPI..............................£19.53 is this protection insurance for your mortgage ?
Contents Insurance...........£12.12 annual is the best way. Effective internal interest rates are up to 30%
Mobile Phone...................£10.00 can't really do without this

Total..............................£1,474.57

I had thought about trying one of the debt managment plans but I'm not sure how it would effect me. I own 50% of a part buy flat and have a car and I would rather struggly like hell than lose those. Oh and my flat is a 1 bed so no chance of getting a lodger (Unless we were very friendly lol)

My aprox debts as they stand at the moment are:-

Loan...........£11,400
CC1............£2,900
CC2............£4,300
TV Loan.......£400 (didn't get the TV by choice it's a leftover debt from an ex :mad:)

Total..........£19,000

Oh and I don't smoke, bearly drink, I don't go out much other than to the gym and I haven't been on a real holiday in 3 years... No I don't know how I got into this much debt either Oh and my credit was screwed up a few months back when I went overdrawn a few months in a row (Bother) so I can't switch my credit cards about as I usually do when the 0% runs out

The fact is that you should never have been given credit of about 111% of your net income at your income level (because certain bills are fixed whether you earn 20k or 500k).

It is going to get worse as your 0% rates cannot be continued as you say.

Simply you have too many bills and not enough income and not enough fat to trim.

The true situation is actually worse than the above as you have not included anything for cash in the pocket, for lunch or bus fares etc.

You can trim a little but can you post up some accurate details of your debts, particularly the loan as to duration and interest rates as well as the CC interest rates and the end of any 0% offers.

fatbelly

I think you're going to have to default on the two loans (assuming that's not a secured loan) and the two credit cards.

Try CCCS debt remedy and then give them a ring about a debt management plan

katsu

I live without a TV, so I'm afraid I'm going to advise you to drop the sky if you want to keep the gym.

Drop the bank charges if possible. Cut your food bill a bit.

If you really haven't missed other things in your SOA then you should be able to break even this way. However, if you are wrong, then you need a more honest assessment.

I agree with other posters, you may need to go into a DMP. Look hard at all your expenses so you have the full picture, as I'm wondering how you meet the costs of, for example, your car MOT, servicing and repairs?

I am also wondering whether things like your MOT explain how you got into this debt, as I'm worried for you that you don't know where the money went - that might suggest lots is missing in your SOA.

pointypenguin

I agree there is lots missing from your SOA hence why you are probably adding to your debt but not seeing where it is going. You have a car but no petrol, repairs/servicing or road tax. Have you had a look at your bank statements / credit card statements to see where the money has gone that might give you a better idea what might be draining your cash.

Is there any chance you can get a part-time job?

RAS

You might find it better to do a full SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html?

And to keep a spending diary for a while.

is this a one or two bed flat? Could you take a lodger?

Amatheya81

Thank you for all your responses, I’ll try to answer all your questions so you have a better idea of where I’m coming from. Firstly as to where the money went I do know but it’s kinda personal so I would rather not get into it on this forum. The only debt that I have that’s recent that I have accrued through fault of my own is £3,000 for a car which I need due to family issues which require me to have transport and £200 due to some muppet hitting said car which hopefully I’ll get back if he’s found at fault as he should be as he was on the phone when he hit me!

Also I should add that I have a side line as a freelance illustrator. I’m just starting up at the moment but I do make a few quid every month from that. It’s not regular though and as I haven’t been doing it long enough to work our an average I didn’t like to add it to my SOA.

Right on to your questions;

“what are the APRs on your credit cards and the loan?”
The loan is 14.3%, CC1 is 0% until Feb and 16.9% there after, CC2 19.9%. I usually switch my CC’s to a 0% when one runs out but my credit it’s great right now so I can’t get another card. I have no payment protection on any of these.

“ditch the sky”
I have tried this before but I have sky for the internet mainly and as all of my business is done over the internet I need a reliable alternative and so far I have not been able to find one that serves my area, is significantly cheaper to run and gives me a good service. The last “cheap” service I tried moving to dropped out every 10 minutes which when you’re trying update your website or add stock makes life impossible. If anyone can suggest a reliable alternative I’ll be more than happy to look into it.

“reduce your grocery bill as £100 is a lot per month for one person”
Sorry this was an error on my part £100 covers my food, pet food, essentials like shampoo etc. and petrol money. So actually I don’t think I do too bad.

“Ditch the gym membership”
My gym membership is the one decadence I really don’t want to lose. It’s a council membership and I use is at least every other day as it covers every leisure facility in the town… This is how I manage to not go mad even though I can’t go to the pubbing or clubbing with my friends. I don’t drink, smoke, I’ve dropped all my clubs, I don’t even nip to the shop at work for a sandwich. This is all I do.

“What is the MPPI?”
This is my mortgage protection payment.

“why are you paying bank charges at £25 a month?”
I forgot to mention that I also have a maxed overdraft of £2000.

“Ground Rent......................£110.50 This cannot be every month. Ground rent might be £125 a year.I'm guessing that it is rent on the 50% of the property you don't own.”
No this isn't the rent which I have added into Mortgage/Rent and I wish this wasn’t every month but it is… at least for 8 months out of the year it works out at £884 per year but the housing association like us to pay over 8 months. It wasn’t this high last year and tbh this is the bill which has made me overstretched.

“Car Insurance...................£36.48 obviously look around at renewal time and look for cashbacks”
This is high at the moment because until they have resolved my accident claim they treat it as if the accident was your fault and charge you accordingly. Hopefully I will get a refund and it will go back to £25 in a couple of months if not I will search around when it’s next due.

“Contents Insurance...........£12.12 annual is the best way. Effective internal interest rates are up to 30%”
I searched around last renewal time and couldn’t find anything more than a couple of £ cheaper. Was I looking in the wrong place? Some of the guys on one of the other boards seemed to think this was ok.

“The true situation is actually worse than the above as you have not included anything for cash in the pocket, for lunch or bus fares etc.”
I try to take spending money out of the £100 if I need anything although I don’t buy much and what I so is usually second hand.

“Try CCCS debt remedy and then give them a ring about a debt management plan”
Thank you for pointing me at this. I’ve looked into it and spoken to a couple of people however I’ve decided to struggle on for a couple more months and if it doesn’t improve to try DMP in the new year.

“I am also wondering whether things like your MOT explain how you got into this debt, as I'm worried for you that you don't know where the money went - that might suggest lots is missing in your SOA.”
As I’ve said most of my debt is old debt that I have been chipping away at but haven’t been able to get rid of. I do keep a monthly PAL sheet which I update every month by going through everything on my bank statement and separating it into different headings. I have used this already since my ridicules Ground Rent came into effect to cut out anything which I think is unessential even things like contact lenses have gone out the window, it’s good old fashioned glasses for me for a while.

“Is there any chance you can get a part-time job?”
This is something I’ve been toying with but I’m doing my best to avoid it as I work long hours as it is and also run my own illustration business and I’m a part time carer. I’m pretty stretched as it is.

“is this a one or two bed flat? Could you take a lodger?”
It’s a one bed unfortunately.

Looking back at my PAL sheet I can see that I’m augmenting my salary by an average of £100 per month so a more accurate income would be £1,525.

lou756

Hi

Just to wish you luck with finding a solution to your situation that suits you, and wondered if you had considered at least talking to CCCS, National Debtline etc for some advice and opinions about what may be useful for you now rather than leaving it for a few months. You could talk to them now, see what you think of their advice and still carry on for a few months if you decide this best for you. I'm just thinking, based on my experiences, that it can take the non commercial profit advice organisations a while to act to help you if that's what you decide you want so the earlier you get their advice the better it seems to me. It might make you feel better looking at a range of options too?