Newbie wanting to be debt free!!

shell73_2

I am a newbie to this site altho have been a lurker for sometime! bit of background information

My partner and i bought house in 2005 with NR 110% funding we intended to clear his debt of 19k with the additional fee but by the time solicitors took there money etc we were 2k short n his loan company TSB would not let us pay off the lump sum so we banked it bought what we needed to set up home n prepare for new baby! As we had a shortfall in income of 500 per month it slowly frittered away making us in financial difficulties by crimbo 2006 then the kitchen roof fell in meaning we had to borrow more money to pay for that n new kitchen as were not coverd under our insurenace due to wear n tear!
We consulted with CCCS and they informed us to make token payments to every creditor which at the time was 19k tsb, 20k NR and a few more small ones ie cars etc
whcih is wot we did! we are now paying back debtors at £55 a month for all of it.
We also now have a catelogue at 1500, studio account at 300 and 2 od of 200 each.
We have managed to budget loads reducing our shopping bill to £50 a week n giving up smoking now have a surplus of 300 a month on paper for things we were never able to do ie going out, clothing, shopping etc.

My mortgage comes to the end of its fixed rate in august so i will be an extra £50 a month better off altho continuing to make that payment to mortgage unless needed

I was looking at the smaller debter and hoping to pay these off by the end of the year but i would personally like to be debt free byt the time my kids are 21 which is about 20 years.

Not really sure where to start with them.
This month i managed to jiggle about with bills n income so that my partners income, tax credits and child benefit covers all bills inc catelogue and phone bill n my wages are left to pay for shopping, fuel n any additional thigs needed!

My aim is to clear our catelogue bill next by paying the in payments of £115 a month and then im due an amount of £190 from hmrc for pregnancy grant and should be entitled to sure start maternity grant of £500 which i will recieve before baby arrived at end of june should leave a balance of no more than £500

Not really sure how else i can get rid of things!
Any great advice would be truelly grateful

Thanks
Shell

shell73_2

ment to mention by paying off my catelogue we will gain interest of 12.5% which will give us a total of £129 cash back to spend on anything in the catelogue

As i am expecting baby due in june i have had lots of things given to me so ive only really needed to buy a mattress, pram(saved overe 250) by buying off ebay n few babygros n started to stock on nappies

Horace

Hi Shell and welcome.

Firstly you need to post your statement of affairs and that way we can see what is coming in and what is going out and advise accordingly. https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html and follow the instructions on there to copy and paste it here.

Keeping a spending diary will help you with regard to where you are frittering money away, drop a brand in the supermarket, make a shopping list of what you need and not what your eyes tell you that you need when you go to the supermarket. Don't buy clothes stick with what you have and make use of freegle for other stuff especially baby clothes.

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi shell and welcome, congratulations on pregnancy x, as horace said an soa would be great maybe we cna advise on cutting back or which card is more benefical to pay off etc etc all the best with your journey x

shell73_2

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1+1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 818
Partners monthly income after tax....... 492
Benefits................................ 296
Other income............................ 80
Total monthly income.................... 1686
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 484
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 133
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 90
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19.66
Telephone (land line)................... 50
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 220
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 59
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 37.2
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 30
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 3.95
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1442.93

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 105000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 108000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 79000....(484)......5.99
Secured Debt.................. 22000....(20).......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 2500.....(113)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 103500....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
lloyds.........................20000.....15........0
barclays.......................5000......10........0
catelogue......................1500......113.......0
stagecoach.....................700.......1.........0
overdraft......................400.......5.........0
studio.........................300.......16........0
Total unsecured debts..........27900.....160.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,686
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,442.93
Available for debt repayments........... 243.07
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 160
Amount left after debt repayments....... 83.07
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 108,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -103,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -27,900
Net Assets.............................. -23,400

Happytogetdebtfree

Well done for posting an soa, is there any chance you can make more cash by doing extra hours, the good thing is at least you have excess available ...... maybe you could not have a presents fund, im stuck really at what to advise ... x

shell73_2

Here is my soa- i have done this based on my maternity pay as i only have one more wage til it starts

Thanks for your reply

Our expenses for baby is now lowered as we have bought everything needed for 1st 3 months so until Sept we do not need to buy anything as have stocked up on nappies

The only expenses i will have now is school uniforms as my lo starts school in sept but have already bought his uniform just need to get shoes, coat and jumpers.
Its my sons birthday next month but bought his presents in january sales so do not need to buy him anything, we are taking him to legoland too but paid for hotel rooms month after month which total £50 for 2 nights, exchanged clubcard vouchers for one free entry n got a bogof voucher so to go to legoland will cost us £38 on the day for us. All we need to find then is money for food(will be taking sandwich stuff n breakfast stuff so just need to find 2 evening meals), train fares n travel to get there

Once this first month is over with we will be ok as im trying to keep my bank in credit due to having all his wages taken off us for the bill changes.
Once it has been took over i will have a better understanding of what is going on with money

Happytogetdebtfree

it sounds like you know whats going on .... wow your super organaised re baby on the way arent you:D hopefully other people will be along soon to post ideas and recommendations x

shell73_2

I can not increase my hours due to going on maternity leave and to be honets if we did we would lose it on tax credits so a no win situation. I am self employed as a childminder too

If he has to do overtime if there is any his boss will pay him cash in hand or he will pay it off any bills we have for car maintenance. like this month we had to have 2 new tyres n service totalling £100 so he has done one day ot n his boss allocated it off

shell73_2

I have been so organised as i had to be due to being high risk of prem labour from anytime now n i thought if i start buying nappies now the expense of buying em again will not be a shock as will be used to that in the budget. I intend on breastfeeding so hopefully will not need to buy milk

Happytogetdebtfree

good good, its a shame money doesnt grow on trees, good luck x