Looking for advice from fellow MSE users

prunesquallor

Reality hit me at the end of 2009 and thankfully since then I've put my foot down financially and with my wife and have taken 2k off of my credit card debt. I end up thinking about my debt several times a day and it tends to rule my life. That said, things are better than they were a few months ago. I was just looking for some advice on my SOA. I was paying much higher mobile and travel bills until this month (was also paying for my partner). Any money left over goes straight to the credit card and after that I'll be saving so until there's enough to settle the loan. Target DFD August 2011

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned....................
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2420
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 470
Total monthly income.................... 2890
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 305
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 380
Management charge (leasehold property).. 120
Council tax............................. 123
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 24
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 17
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 170
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 160
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1623

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 55000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 55000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 55000....(305)......4
Total secured & HP debts...... 55000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit card....................3000......97........0
Family Loan....................8000......0.........0
Bank Loan......................11700.....300.......7.3
Total unsecured debts..........22700.....397.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,890
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,623
Available for debt repayments........... 1,267
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 397
Amount left after debt repayments....... 870
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 55,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -55,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -22,700
Net Assets.............................. -22,700

WASHER

Welcome to MSE. The only thing I can find to reduce is the mobile phone. You should have a surplus of £918 per month, excellent, you could overpay your credit card or your loan if you are allowed.

A very tidy SOA.

WASHER.x.

naughtymittens

Is this a true reflection of your expenditure?

I only ask because we were the same to start - nothing for clothes, presents, entertainment. Is this why you are in debt? i.e. you are paying for all fo these but not factoring them in.

Why rent and mortgage - is that a mistake?

Can your partner work to earn more?

If you really have that surplus then it's just a case of payiing off the most costly debts as soon as you can.

As washer said, your mobile bill is enourmous!

Frozenace

Also, your council tax seems high compared to the value of the property.

and check if your wife is entitled for benefits...

prunesquallor

Sorry it's taken a while for me to reply. Debts have all been going down steadily (just created a signature for all to see). My flat is actually worth around 200k, however I only own 30% of it as it's shared ownership. Hence only putting down 60k with a council tax of 123 a month and rent as well.

Thankfully the wife's started working so although she's not helping out with bills or debt, she's at least covering her own costs. That said, I'm still paying for her mobile bill. Total mobile bill was down to 80 last month and should be down to 50 this month but to be honest I'd prefer it if she took on her mobile bill.

Quite relieved to be on a 0% credit card now, before that I had been paying around 100 a month just on interest! I'd also withdrawn lots of cash on both previous cards so interest was obscene. Once my credit card's cleared I'll be reducing the credit limit to the minimum and any spending will be paid off every month. But for now, that card is locked in my desk drawer at work.

Yes, it's true that I'm not spending anything on clothes or entertainment just because it's become a priority to clear any debt. One thing I've just added to the SOA is 160 a month for therapy. Now I know that I could easily cut this out, but I feel there are issues that are important to deal with. Where do you draw the line?

prunesquallor

I've been feeling low and trapped about my debt but considering in mid 2009 it was at its highest level at 29300 and is now 23900. And in 3 months it should come down to 19300. Assuming all goes well, I will have taken 10k off my debt in about a year which I guess isn't too bad going. And if I stay on track, I should be down to 15700 by the end of this year.

Because my loan is fixed term, I'm actually planning to start building up savings after paying of the credit card so that, as the loan reduces and the savings increase, they'll eventually meet in the middle and I can hopefully settle the loan early. Having talked to the lenders, the charge for that is a month's payment which is do-able, although I hope I haven't missed anything...

LeeSouthEast

You're doing pretty much what I did, and it worked, so keep at it.

Threw every last penny at the credit cards in APR order, then saved up the lump sum to pay off the loan.

prunesquallor

Think I'm still coming to terms with the fact that, even if I'm paying as much as I can every month, it'll take over two years before I'm close to being debt free. Perhaps in the bigger picture that's not much but it's still a long time to be sacrificing everything in favour of debts.

I believe what's making it even more difficult is since about two years before my lightbulb moment (12/2009) I was sending every spare penny I had to my then girlfriend (now wife) who at the time lived in another country. So essentially by the time I've paid off the debt I will have undergone 6 years of sacrifice. Just feels like I'm getting a pounding and not seeing the light at the end.

Btw, I've started keeping a personal diary here, just in case anyone's interested:
julian-snapple.blogspot.com

shaven-monkey

Management charge (leasehold property).. 120
Per month?
What exactly do they manage for £120 per month?
£50 per month on a mobile seems wildly extravagant to me, £80 is just rediculous. Switch to some sort of pay as you go plan asap and then the wife can top it up when she needs to. Having to actively deal with the cost directly may reduce the expenditure a bit.

Congratulations on your progress. There is light at the end of the tunnel and it's probably not a train.

prunesquallor

Ah, the service charge last year was 85 a month which was still high but I've made a complaint about this year's increase. To be honest, I'm really not clear on what it's being spent on exactly. Nothing that's visible to me though.

If I were only paying for my mobile bill it would be just over 20 pounds a month which is reasonable. Problem is, the wife is often communicating with family overseas. She's now using fishtext (which I discovered via this site) and unfortunately I've had to block international calls as she kept running up massive bills.

Last year there were a couple of bills that ran up to 200 and 300 pounds! So it's actually not as bad as it was, I just need to sort out getting her mobile number moved to her own account. She also has the option of using the low cost land line numbers for international calls so it's not like I'm removing her ability to be in touch with her family abroad.

My mobile contract expires in a year but as soon as it's up I'm planning on going for one of those rolling monthly sim only contracts. For 20 a month you get plenty of minutes and texts and I know I won't exceed them.

shaven-monkey

If her family have a computer and an internet connection, you can use msn voicechat for free.