A Brand New DFW-My lightbulb moment arrived this afternoon!!!

conspicuousabsence

Hello all,

Not sure this is the right place to post this, but here is my statement of affairs. I'm really just fed up of being miserable month after month because of worrying about where I am going to find the money to pay my bills. I just want to know where to start in terms of paying off debts, and whether debt consolidation is really a viable option. Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. I don't know where my money goes at the end of every week and month......Anyway, here is my SOA

My Monthly salary - £1800

Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £325
Phone - £52.00
Food - £200.00
Car Insurance - £55.00
Petrol - £80
Fixed Loan Repayment- £214
Socialising-£200


Total: £1126

Barclays CC – Balance £2,900 (limit £3,000) 14.9 % fixed Rate

Egg CC – Balance £275.00 (limit £500) 26.9% variable

Barclays CDL LOAN- £5603 (12.9% Fixed Rate) £214 payable monthly-End Date-August 2012

Barclays overdraft - Balance £-2993(currently) (Limit £3,000) APR 20%


:eek:

gonzo127

Hi and welcome you have come to the right place for help

one think i would ask is if you could fill in the statement of affairs from this link as it is a easy to read format (which can be copy and pasted in a MSE format to put up here) it also helps add in thing you might not think about such as hair cuts etc http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

please try and be honest with things and such as the birthday presents just use 1/12th of your yearly cost

redsquirrel80

I think the important part of your post is that you don't know where your money goes.. you could really do with keeping a spending diary to find out - write down EVERYTHING for a month so you can see where it's going.

Is £200 for food for one person? That's quite a lot, you could easily half that and still eat really well. £200 on socialising is quite a lot for a luxury too when you're in debt.

At the moment you have (or should have) £674 to put towards the two cards and the overdraft. You could have £100-200 more if you cut down the food and socialising spending. It's worth having a play with the snowball calculator here - http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx - to see how you could divide your payments to pay everything back quickest and with least interest.

Do you have a good enough credit rating to transfer either or both of the cards to a 0% deal? This would save you on interest but you'd need to be disciplined at paying it off before the end of the interest free period. Other than that I don't think consolidation is a good idea, or really necessary when you can have enough (with a few changes) to pay your existing debts.

Finally - are electricity/gas/water/ council tax included in your rent?

Good luck!

niccatw

If you stopped going out for 1 month, you could pretty much have that horrible Egg card with the scary interest rate almost cleared!

I think you definitely need to keep a spending diary to track what it is you are spending your money on. This link might help http://www.spendingdiary.com/

Also, if you haven't already done so, get all your bank statements, credit card statements for the last year and see exactly where your money is going! I found that a real eye-opener! The amount I was spending on clothes (I didn't even necessarily wear!) was ridiculous, as was the amount of money I was taking from the cashline and not knowing where I'd spent it!

Your grocery budget for one person is also extortionate - I spend £80 per month and it's generally fine. The OS thread will give you loads of ideas on cutting this down!

Your mobile phone bill is also huge. Search about for a better - cheaper - deal.

If you can do these things, you will be making a bl**dy good start to tackling your debt. Before anything else though, you need to get that spending under control.

This takes quite a shift in your thinking and often a firm (in my case, sarcastic!) tongue with friends who are either richer or better in control of their money that. That was actually the hardest part for me but my friends now realise I'm serious, and no longer try to persuade me to do things I can't afford - though I did ask them to keep asking otherwise they might make me cry .

It's a tough slog, but there's lots of encouragement on here. Have a look at some of the diaries for inspiration too (I bravely started one of my own - if nothing else it shames me into following through on the things I say I'm going to do!) Good luck!

Stephy13

Socialising £200.00:eek: This could be cut back drastically.
Money saved on one month could pay most of you Egg card!

How many people are you feeding on £200 for food.

Is the phone mobile landline or both?

x

conspicuousabsence

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

I think the important part of your post is that you don't know where your money goes.. you could really do with keeping a spending diary to find out - write down EVERYTHING for a month so you can see where it's going.

Is £200 for food for one person? That's quite a lot, you could easily half that and still eat really well. £200 on socialising is quite a lot for a luxury too when you're in debt.

At the moment you have (or should have) £674 to put towards the two cards and the overdraft. You could have £100-200 more if you cut down the food and socialising spending. It's worth having a play with the snowball calculator here - - to see how you could divide your payments to pay everything back quickest and with least interest.

Do you have a good enough credit rating to transfer either or both of the cards to a 0% deal? This would save you on interest but you'd need to be disciplined at paying it off before the end of the interest free period. Other than that I don't think consolidation is a good idea, or really necessary when you can have enough (with a few changes) to pay your existing debts.

Finally - are electricity/gas/water/ council tax included in your rent?

Good luck!

Thanks so much for that redsquirrel,

The amounts shown are all for one person. My rent is inclusive of everything as well. Thanks very much for the advice :j

conspicuousabsence

gonzo127 wrote: »

Hi and welcome you have come to the right place for help

one think i would ask is if you could fill in the statement of affairs from this link as it is a easy to read format (which can be copy and pasted in a MSE format to put up here) it also helps add in thing you might not think about such as hair cuts

please try and be honest with things and such as the birthday presents just use 1/12th of your yearly cost

Thanks Gonzo,

Hope this is better

Statement of Affairs & Personal Balance Sheet

Summary

Monthly Budget Summary

Amount(£)

Total monthly income

1,800

Monthly expenses (incl. HP & secured loans)

1,229

Available for debt repayments

571

UNsecured debt repayments

91

Amount left after debt repayments

480

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Amount(£)

Total Assets (things you own)

300

Total Secured & HP Debt

-5,600

Total Unsecured Debt

-3,270

Net Assets

-8,570

Household Information

Number of adults in household

1

Number of children in household

0

Number of cars owned

1

Income, Expense, Debt & Asset Details

Income

Amount(£)

Monthly income after tax

1800

Partners monthly income

0

Benefits

0

Other income

0

Total monthly income

1800

Expenses

Amount(£)

Mortgage

0

Secured/HP loan payments

214

Rent

325

Management charge (leasehold property)

0

Council tax

0

Electricity

0

Gas

0

Oil

0

Water Rates

0

Telephone (land line)

0

Mobile phone

52

TV Licence

0

Satellite/Cable TV

0

Internet services

0

Groceries etc.

250

Clothing

0

Petrol/diesel

80

Road tax

20

Car Insurance

60

Car maintenance (including MOT)

8

Car Parking

0

Other travel

0

Childcare/nursery

0

Other child related expenses

0

Medical (prescriptions, dentists, opticians etc.)

0

Pet Insurance/Vet bills

0

Buildings Insurance

0

Contents Insurance

0

Life Assurance

0

Other Insurance

0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc.)

0

Haircuts

20

Entertainment

200

Holiday

0

Emergency Fund

0

Total monthly expenses

1229

Secured & HP Debt Description

Debt(£)


Monthly(£)


APR(%)

Mortgage

0


(0)


0

Secured Debt

5600


(214)


12.9

Secured & HP Debt totals

5600


-


-

Unsecured Debt Description

Debt(£)


Monthly(£)


APR(%)

barclaycard

3000


80


14.9

egg card

270


11


26.9

Unsecured Debt totals

3270


91


-

Asset Description

Value (£)

Cash

100

House Value (Gross)

0

Shares and bonds

0

Car(s)

200

Other assets (e.g. endowments, jewellery etc)

0

Total Assets

300

niccatw

Ooh, that went a bit funny when it transferred, didn't it? Here's a link to my SOA, just to let you see what it usually looks like http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2245393&highlight=

Your debts are likely to all be unsecured. They are usually "secured" if you own or mortgsge your house and have enough equity in your house to take a loan out that uses the house as a guarantee of payment (and where you'd be at risk of losing your house if you couldn't keep up with payments).

Here's a link to my diary too http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2246329&highlight= I won't be offended if you're not interested (I won't know ) but I'm constantly moaning about my spending diary so it might help if you give a spending diary a go (just perhaps don't ask me for advice if you find it tough - I'll agree with you ).

conspicuousabsence

niccatw wrote: »

Ooh, that went a bit funny when it transferred, didn't it? Here's a link to my SOA, just to let you see what it usually looks

Your debts are likely to all be unsecured. They are usually "secured" if you own or mortgsge your house and have enough equity in your house to take a loan out that uses the house as a guarantee of payment (and where you'd be at risk of losing your house if you couldn't keep up with payments).

Here's a link to my diary too won't be offended if you're not interested (I won't know ) but I'm constantly moaning about my spending diary so it might help if you give a spending diary a go (just perhaps don't ask me for advice if you find it tough - I'll agree with you ).

Thanks very much niccatw, justhad a go at the snowball calculator and my debts look a lot more manageable,if I just stick to a budget!!! Easier said than done I think-but I'll keep on trying

Lovely stuff