Lightbulb Moment

Speedys

Its been a while coming so recently decided to do something about it.

The SOA is how we stand at the moment, just going through debts and working out where to move debts to as we have a couple of cards that have a zero balance.


My Monthly Income £3,897.61
Wifes Monthly Income £1,292.00
Benefits (Including Child Benefit, Child Tax Credits & Income Support) £201.00
Design Income £350.00
INCOME TOTAL £5,740.61


Mortgage/Rent: £1,954.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance: £87.43
Council Tax: Article £161.88
Water Rates/Meter: £52.31
Gas/Elec £320.00
Home Phone £64.00
TV Licence £12.04
Mobile Phone £30.00
Food and Household Shopping £324.75
Eating Out £26.00
Drinks for Home £25.98
Drinking Out £43.30
Breakdown Cover/Roadside Recovery £14.95
Car Maintenance £37.50
Car Insurance £27.92
Car Tax £17.08
Parking £5.00
Petrol/Diesel £70.00
Comp Car Payment £300.00
Credit Card Repayments £1,500.00 (Snowball debt payment)
Childcare/Play Schemes£98.50
Baby Sitting £5.00
Nappies/Baby Extras £20.00
Pocket Money £4.33
School Meals £53.33
School Trips £2.50
IT/Computing £1.67
Hobbies £10.00
Shopping for Fun £10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computer Games £10.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips £2.50
Family Days Out £8.33
Satellite/Digital TV Subscription £47.50
Fitness/Sports/Gym £51.96
Haircuts £34.67
New Clothes £20.00
New Children's Clothes £20.00
Work Clothes £20.00

Total income £5,740.61
Total spend £5,578.41



Card Balance Int Rate
Santander 8,913.93 21.90%
Barclay Plat MC 12,500.00 19.90%
Virgin Money 7,259.85 19.90%
Capital One 5,711.98 19.50%
Halifax 6,076.89 19.00%
Select 14,900.00 11.90%
Barclay Plat Visa 8,889.00 6.90% life of balance
Barclaycard 5,128.69 6.90% life of balance

Card Debts £69,308ish


House Value - £550000
Mortgage - £390000

So the plan is to clear the £70k by May 2015 sustaining the £1500 per month payments off cards using a snowball. Any extra income will also be going towards the cards.

There are a couple of things in the SOA that will be going soon, ie Sky.

Anyway, thats me, will keep you guys updated as we go along.

tallyhoh

Wow, your monthly income is my annual one, although I dont have a mortgage. Is your life insurance through work or have yu missed it?

Good luck & keep us posted.

Speedys

tallyhoh wrote: »

Wow, your monthly income is my annual one, although I dont have a mortgage. Is your life insurance through work or have yu missed it?

Good luck & keep us posted.

Yes, I get life insurance through work, part of the package.

My monthly income is good, but I am still crap with money.

pink_numbers

same here, your monthly income is what I live on for a year (no mortgage and no children though, so please don't take it the wrong way)

You can definately cut down on the following without too much effort:
Buildings & Contents Insurance: £87.43
Gas/Elec £320.00
Home Phone £64.00
Eating Out £26.00
Drinks for Home £25.98
Drinking Out £43.30
Car Maintenance £37.50
Shopping for Fun £10.00
Books/Music/Films/Computer Games £10.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips £2.50
Family Days Out £8.33
Satellite/Digital TV Subscription £47.50
Fitness/Sports/Gym £51.96
Haircuts £34.67
New Clothes £20.00
New Children's Clothes £20.00
Work Clothes £20.00

these are all WANTS rather than NEEDS, so it will be easier for you to cut down on these first. (The insurance you can shop around to reduce)

Speedys

Forgot to add on my SOA...

Adults: 2
Children: 3

Speedys

pink_numbers wrote: »

same here, your monthly income is what I live on for a year (no mortgage and no children though, so please don't take it the wrong way)

You can definately cut down on the following without too much effort:

these are all WANTS rather than NEEDS, so it will be easier for you to cut down on these first. (The insurance you can shop around to reduce)

Yes, those are things that we will be looking at over the next couple of weeks to pare back on our spend a bit.

KellyGT

Sorry if its something i shouldn't say but i never would imagine that a household with such an income would be in financial difficulty, i guess it goes to show that no matter what the incomings are we sometimes always live beyond our means.

As above you have lots of spending on some 'luxeries' as such which could be cut back on alot.
So your minimum credit card repayments are included in your monthly outgoings list? if so then you have under £200ish to put towards debt repayments plus any extra you can save from cut backs.
How does your snowball breakdown look to you? Play around with the figures that you can repay on debt each month and watch that debt free date get closer and closer its a great incentive

Good luck

Speedys

KellyGT wrote: »

Sorry if its something i shouldn't say but i never would imagine that a household with such an income would be in financial difficulty, i guess it goes to show that no matter what the incomings are we sometimes always live beyond our means.

As above you have lots of spending on some 'luxeries' as such which could be cut back on alot.
So your minimum credit card repayments are included in your monthly outgoings list? if so then you have under £200ish to put towards debt repayments plus any extra you can save from cut backs.
How does your snowball breakdown look to you? Play around with the figures that you can repay on debt each month and watch that debt free date get closer and closer its a great incentive

Good luck

Well, I had some expenses from a company I used to own, plus the house needed a LOT of work doing to it, hence where we are plus there has been an element of living beyond our means. It has got a lot easier since my wife started working again.

The outgoings include £1500 per month to service the CC debts.

Snowball looks good, looks to be around 67 months of £1500 a month, plus anything else I can put on top.

Will also have a couple of pay reviews in the interim or I may look for a better job and increase payments. Time will tell but we will get there.

ramblingtree

Hi,
I'm not wise enough to give advice, but I did want to reply and say I totally understand how someone with a high income can have financial difficulty. Everything is relative, and it is far too easy and too common to live just beyond your means. And the bigger the income the bigger the fall!
If you can learn to live frugally, because of your income, you should be able to clear the debt a lot quicker than 2015 if you wished to.
Good luck with your journey!
x

Speedys

ramblingtree wrote: »

Hi,
I'm not wise enough to give advice, but I did want to reply and say I totally understand how someone with a high income can have financial difficulty. Everything is relative, and it is far too easy and too common to live just beyond your means. And the bigger the income the bigger the fall!
If you can learn to live frugally, because of your income, you should be able to clear the debt a lot quicker than 2015 if you wished to.
Good luck with your journey!
x

Thanks, probably will get there quicker, but not going to bank on that yet, every month I can reduce it will be a bonus to put on the mortgage.:p

pammyj74

Wow your income is amazing but also your outgoings are too! I guess having that much money coming in, as people have said, you live to that amount. And you are probably used to just buying something whenever you want without any thought. well now maybe you and your family should think, do you really need new clothes? do you really need to go out for lunch? Do you really need to buy a new book/game/cd?
Obviously you still have to live but I am sure you can live without getting new clothes every month?
If I had that much debt there is no way I would be buying stuff I didnt need.
It will be really hard to stop buying things when you want them but after a while you will see the results and how much better things will be.
Just think of all the extra interest you are paying because you bought a new top for £50 instead of paying it off the debt.

Good luck hun
x

(obviously you know all this as you have typed it all out and can see what is a neccessity and what isnt)