Advice neeeded on debts and next steps please

mkk2682

Hi,

I have run through the SOA which is attached below and this shows that we have a monthly deficit after all our non loans/CC expenses have come out. It would be great if I could get some feedback on this and advice as to where I could potentially cut costs. I know that our electric is huge, however we live in rented accomodation which has no central heating or double glazing and only night storage heaters. We have monitored the usage and switched everything off that we arent using as well as changing everything to energy efficient items (lightbulds etc) and yet we still end up having a huge monthly bill.....
We are considering getting in touch with CCCS and seeing what they recommend, as from looking through these threads the common solution is the DMP. If we were to go down this route could you recommend the best bank account provider to use, we are currently with Natwest and would need to open up a new account.

All advice is greatly appreciated, thanks

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 300
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 150
Total monthly income.................... 2250

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 575
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 156
Electricity............................. 150
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 180
Road tax................................ 28
Car Insurance........................... 75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 27
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1795


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 800

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Natwest Loan...................17300.....316.......8.58
AA Loan........................29000.....265.......9.95
Natwest Credit Card............3200......80........18.16
Natwest Overdraft..............1400......0.........16.83
AA Loan........................1580......55........24
AA Credit Card.................7400......105.......18.9
Total unsecured debts..........59880.....821.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,795
Available for debt repayments........... 455
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 821
Amount short for making debt repayments. -366

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -59,880
Net Assets.............................. -59,080

bargainbetty

Sorry to start by being personal, but does your partner only work part-time? Could they increase their hours to bring in more money?

Could you think about getting rid of one of the two cars? Cutting spending on them would help a bit.

Head over to the Old Style boards for advice on how to redcue your grocery spend. If your partner is at home and can't work more, then meal planning and cooking from scratch can really bring down the food costs. Doing a grocery inventory and eating up the contents of your stock cupboards could bring an instant saving too - also look at things like shampoo, cleaning stuff etc, you might have lots in your cupboards that need to be used up before you spend more. I found myself with 6 bottles of bleach once, just by buying it automatically, rather than seeing what I needed!

Good luck x

mkk2682

Thanks for the advice, my partner has just started up a business with my son to try and bring in some additional income, unfortunatley he was off for a yr with severe back pain due to an injury sustained many yrs ago and is only just coping with the work they have managed to bring in so far. It doesn't help that he is a mechanic so everything involves movement which causes him pain.

I think the inventory is a really good idea and I will look to draw up a meal planner to make sure we use all this up and to try and save some expenditure here...

My son also took voluntary redundancy from BT in Sept 09 and is ploughing a lot of time into getting the business working, but is also considering getting a part time job to help bring in some more money to help.

Tixy

Hi and welcome to DFW. Well done for posting your SoA.

Is the £150 other income a contribution from your son? Would your OH be entitled to working tax credits? Is the £300 money from the new self-employment venture?

Your council tax looks quite high - have you ever done the quick check to make sure you are in the correct band?

Is groceries for 2 or 3 of you? You should be able to make some savings if for 3 and quite a lot if only for 2.

I do think seeking advice from someone like CCCS would be a good idea - and it does seem like a DMP might work well for you.

Good luck

La_escocesa

Hi Mkk2682, I've added a couple of comments, mainly the things I've started doing, which have made a big difference. I hope they give you some ideas. It would really help if you could sell your cars, or one of them. I sold mine and it's helped me the most. I didn't think I could live without it (I can't for some journeys) so I took the money I was going to have to spend on insurance that year and put it into a car hire fund. I now hire cars whenever I need one and so the only other cost is petrol.

mkk2682 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2 is having 1 doable?

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 300
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 150
Total monthly income.................... 2250

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 575 can you move to a cheaper property? You could then save on rent and hopefully electricity.
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 156 can you pay over 12 months instead of 10? If paying over 10, do you have the next 2 months off? That'll give you a bit of a break.
Electricity............................. 150 eek. Have you tried a comparison site/changed suppliers? You could get cashback via Quidco etc too for switching.
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38 freeview?
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 your son getting a p/t job to help contribute to this would help.
Clothing................................ 30 every month? Do you really need new things? Can you sell any of your old stuff?
Petrol/diesel........................... 180
Road tax................................ 28 possible to sell a car to reduce this?
Car Insurance........................... 75 ditto
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40 ditto
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 27
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 Can you put these on hold for now at least?
Haircuts................................ 15 What about trying to hold out for longer between haircuts? Getting it done every 3 months instead of 2 etc.
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30 How much have you already saved? Use it towards this emergency.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1795


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 800 is this for both cars? Would selling one bring in £400?
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 800

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Natwest Loan...................17300.....316.......8.58
AA Loan........................29000.....265.......9.95
Natwest Credit Card............3200......80........18.16
Natwest Overdraft..............1400......0.........16.83
AA Loan........................1580......55........24
AA Credit Card.................7400......105.......18.9
Total unsecured debts..........59880.....821.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,250
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,795
Available for debt repayments........... 455
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 821
Amount short for making debt repayments. -366

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -59,880
Net Assets.............................. -59,080

Good luck!

miss_missy

hi
well done on asking for help
now ive only quickly looked through your soa and will get back with some suggestions
but first the aa loan of 29000? is this a secured loan? if so what is it secured against?

mkk2682

Hi, thanks for all the comments so far. All of the loans that we have are unsecured.
Unfortunatley we need the two cars as my job involves a lot of travelling and the other one is for my partner to get to work etc.
With regards to groceries this is for 3 of us and we are looking at what we can do to cut this down as much as possible. It will help with some additional money coming in from the business and my son getting a part time job.
With regards to our electric we have switched from Scottish Power to EDF and we are in the same situation. No matter what we do we seem to use huge amounts of electric every month, we are considering turning off the night storage heaters to see if this makes a difference!!!!

miss_missy

you need to stop spending on clothing for now cut groceries by at least 50 and i would stop all presents that would claw back £100 per month straight away
next i would look at sky cable either get rid of all together or at least reduce to the min package

is your partners income from the business? if so could they really need to try and get a part time job to bring in alittle extra

where does the other 150 income come from?

and i agree with op do you really need 2 cars? it would reduce alot of costs if you only had 1

also look into anything you can sell to bring in some money

it might help you to do cccs online debt remedy to see what the outcome from that is