Time to get sorted

VJ2010

Hi, have never posted here before but have been reading other posts and have decided I really need to get sorted. After doing the SOA below I REALLY need to get sorted!! I have just realised that if interest rates go up (which obv they will) and OH's sister asks for her money we are screwed, so while we are coping at the moment I can see things could go downhill very quickly.

Have added notes to the SOA to try and explain some things. As you can see currently we have 3 cars as my dad just gave us his old one. We will be selling our 2 cars and the proceeds put on the cc.

I do also do some self employed work but not regularly so haven't included this. Any money I get usually helps pay off the Asda CC.

Any thoughts will be most welcome.

Thanks for reading
I
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 3 (+m/bike) currently - OH's sister is having one just waiting for her loan to come through. Will be selling another as well so will be 1 car/1 bike
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1057
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1700
Benefits................................ 132 CB
Other income............................ 550 flat rent
Total monthly income.................... 3439

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 350
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 149
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 119
Council tax............................. 128
Electricity............................. 63
Gas..................................... 48
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60 Phone/TV/broadband
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 460
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 both drive quite a long way to work but will reduce once have less cars!
Road tax................................ 50
Car Insurance........................... 97
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 65
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 60 pay £30 pm each into children's savings a/cs (from CB money)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 30 and contents
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 113 ?! needs to be sorted - inc trusts for kids if we die but don't really understand!
Other insurance......................... 6
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 75 high I know - save £45 pm from CB into savings to be spent at xmas
Haircuts................................ 10 haven't actually had my haircut for a year but figure I should!
Entertainment........................... 14 OH cinema card
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Misc.................................... 150 couldn't decide where to put this - we take out £70 cash each week to be spent on whatever (me 20/OH 50 - see cigs below!)
Cigarettes.............................. 150 .....
Total monthly expenses.................. 2631

Assets
Cash.................................... 1221
House value (Gross)..................... 280000 conservative estimate I hope!
Shares and bonds........................ 500
Car(s).................................. 7700
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 289421

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 167990...(350)......2.5<
Flat mortgage..................85000....(149)......2.1
Total secured & HP debts...... 252990....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA CC........................6724......25........0 usually pay more
Tesco CC.......................3992.11...126.......0 usually pay more
Asda CC........................1229.01...36.87.....16.7 pay off every month
OH sister......................25000.....0.........0 not put anything aside but am sure she will ask for this in the near future
Mum............................36280.....200.......0.98
Total unsecured debts..........73225.12..387.87....- [/b]

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,439
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,631
Available for debt repayments........... 808
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 387.87
Amount left after debt repayments....... 420.13 This money pays off the Asda CC so we are right back where we started and have to use the CC to buy petrol etc.
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 289,421
Total HP & Secured debt................. -252,990
Total Unsecured debt.................... -73,225.12
Net Assets.............................. -36,794.12

Fang_3

How much is the flat worth?

Other things I can see are -

Sky - get rid, you can't afford it.
Groceries - you can cut this down by at least half
Clothing - charity shops and only replace what has been worn out
Child's savings account - you can't afford this. How much is in it now? Throw that at your debts.
Presents - you can't afford this amount
Misc - you can't afford this
Cigarettes - you definitely can't afford this. Stop.

Tixy

Hi
Just taken a quick look

VJ2010 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 3 (+m/bike) currently - OH's sister is having one just waiting for her loan to come through. Will be selling another as well so will be 1 car/1 bike
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1057
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1700
Benefits................................ 132 CB
Other income............................ 550 flat rent
Total monthly income.................... 3439

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 350
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 149
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 119
Council tax............................. 128
Electricity............................. 63 quite high, have you shopped around for the best supplier for this and gas? are you on the cheapest tariff (usually an online tariff)
Gas..................................... 48
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60 Phone/TV/broadband
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 460 try reducing to £300 (its doable on £200 but start slowly) try meal planning before you go shopping and try the drop a brand challenge.
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 both drive quite a long way to work but will reduce once have less cars! make sure you use the cheapest stations always and drive efficently (ie slowly/boringly!)
Road tax................................ 50 how much once just just have 1 car & bike?
Car Insurance........................... 97 wow, what will it come down to? (are you keeping the lowest ins group car?)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 65
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 60 pay £30 pm each into children's savings a/cs (from CB money)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 30 and contents
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 113 ?! needs to be sorted - inc trusts for kids if we die but don't really understand! look at this in detail, bound to be some savings, find out all the paperwork.
Other insurance......................... 6
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 75 high I know - save £45 pm from CB into savings to be spent at xmas could reduce if you need
Haircuts................................ 10 haven't actually had my haircut for a year but figure I should!
Entertainment........................... 14 OH cinema card
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Misc.................................... 150 couldn't decide where to put this - we take out £70 cash each week to be spent on whatever (me 20/OH 50 - see cigs below!) keep a spending diary to track this money down so you can break it down more (so you can then see if you can cut down) - will he give up smoking? switch to a cheaper brand? or cut down?
Cigarettes.............................. 150 .....you've double counted this if he spends this in the month then it shouldn't be in the figure above as well
Total monthly expenses.................. 2631

Assets
Cash.................................... 1221
House value (Gross)..................... 280000 conservative estimate I hope!
Shares and bonds........................ 500
Car(s).................................. 7700 what do you hope to make on the ones you will sell?
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 289421

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 167990...(350)......2.5<
Flat mortgage..................85000....(149)......2.1
Total secured & HP debts...... 252990....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
MBNA CC........................6724......25........0 usually pay more
Tesco CC.......................3992.11...126.......0 usually pay more
Asda CC........................1229.01...36.87.....16.7 pay off every month
OH sister......................25000.....0.........0 not put anything aside but am sure she will ask for this in the near future
Mum............................36280.....200.......0.98
Total unsecured debts..........73225.12..387.87....- [/b]

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,439
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,631
Available for debt repayments........... 808
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 387.87
Amount left after debt repayments....... 420.13 This money pays off the Asda CC so we are right back where we started and have to use the CC to buy petrol etc. if you are paying this off the cards thats good, but if you are also spending petrol or anything back on the cards then your SoA doesn't balance and you need to try to find out where else its going.
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 289,421
Total HP & Secured debt................. -252,990
Total Unsecured debt.................... -73,225.12
Net Assets.............................. -36,794.12

Hi - really think a spending diary for you both would be useful for a couple of months so you can track down where all your money is going, it looks like some isn't accounted for. Either a notebook, a spreadsheet or something like www.spendingdiary.com is a good way to keep track, make sure you note down every little thing you buy (even down to a newspaper or can of pop).

Aside from that there are some areas you could cut down to start paying off the debts quicker, groceries seems an obvious one that you could make some substantial savings.

For your incomes that is a high level of unsecured debt, what was it used for (partic the money from family?) Do you have any other assets you could sell off?
Are both mortgages interest only or repayment?

Whilst you are showing a surplus and therefore might think you are managing/able to afford luxuries this is only because the interest payments are low (or none at all on that £25k) - might be worth putting the figs into the snowball calc (same website) to see how long it would take to pay every thing off at current rates.


Thats just my initial thoughts/comments, hope some might help
Good luck

VJ2010

Tixy wrote: »

Hi
Just taken a quick look


Hi - really think a spending diary for you both would be useful for a couple of months so you can track down where all your money is going, it looks like some isn't accounted for. Either a notebook, a spreadsheet is a good way to keep track, make sure you note down every little thing you buy (even down to a newspaper or can of pop).

Aside from that there are some areas you could cut down to start paying off the debts quicker, groceries seems an obvious one that you could make some substantial savings.

For your incomes that is a high level of unsecured debt, what was it used for (partic the money from family?) Do you have any other assets you could sell off?
Are both mortgages interest only or repayment?

Whilst you are showing a surplus and therefore might think you are managing/able to afford luxuries this is only because the interest payments are low (or none at all on that £25k) - might be worth putting the figs into the snowball calc (same website) to see how long it would take to pay every thing off at current rates.


Thats just my initial thoughts/comments, hope some might help
Good luck

Thanks for your replies. Yes I think a spending diary is the way to go especially for my OH who is never happier than when spending money! I will also try cutting down on the grocery spend. Get quite fed up shopping cause I buy things for certain meals then everyone else moans :mad: however when OH went shopping a few weeks ago he spent an obscene amount of money and we had very little food to show for it!

The loan from my mum was for our extension last year. Our house is probably worth more than I put but unless we get someone round to value it I'm not sure. The money was from a mortgage she has on her own house (she didn't get it for me) and it is actually an offset mortgage. I am wondering whether to put any extra cash we have into the current account to reduce the interest payable?

The other loan was from OH's mum - he got into a lot of debt when he became self-employed a few years ago and she paid it all off when she moved however we owe half of what she paid for him to his sister. He's never put anything away for this and I think we'll have problems when she asks for it.

Both mortgages are interest only. It is not worth selling the flat at the moment cause apart from some problems with the freeholder it is not worth a lot more than the mortgage as the outside needs doing up a bit. The rent is useful at the moment to pay towards the loan.

That is exactly my problem - I look at the figures each month and think we're managing. It wasn't till I put it all down on the soa that I realised quite how bad it looks on paper!

Am off to look at the snowball calc. now

VJ

VJ2010

Fang wrote: »

How much is the flat worth?
Unfortunately at the moment the flat is not worth much more than the mortgage (the only reason we still have it is it wouldn't sell when we were trying to buy a house)

Other things I can see are -

Sky - get rid, you can't afford it. Still got 6 months on the contract but all we do is watch films now!
Groceries - you can cut this down by at least half am going to try
Clothing - charity shops and only replace what has been worn out Do this already. Only put in a figure cause have 2 small children that are growing quickly. Most of my son's clothes are from a friend with an older boy and my daughter gets asda/primark although has just had her birthday and has a lovely new wardrobe :T
Child's savings account - you can't afford this. How much is in it now? Throw that at your debts. Might stop these for now
Presents - you can't afford this amount
Misc - you can't afford this
Cigarettes - you definitely can't afford this. Stop. I don't smoke - you try telling my OH! He did try to give up earlier this year but started again...

Thank you for your comments I do appreciate them.

VJ

dancingfairy

If you can track down some of your surplus then you should be able to start making inroads quickly.
You should easily have 400 a month spare to chuck at the debts.
Also if your asda card is being used to pay food and petrol it should only be at 800 so how is it at 1200 if you pay it off each month?
Your situation is not dire but you do owe a lot of money and you need to get a grip on it now.
Good Luck
df

Fang_3

VJ2010 wrote: »

Thank you for your comments I do appreciate them.

VJ

I will tell him! Ha! Good luck.

I know you probably don't want to touch this - but how much is in the children's savings accounts? It makes no sense to have money sat in an account when they are so young, when you're paying a lot of interest on your credit. Once you're debt free you could then save more money for them, but I think it's misplaced to save the money now when in reality it's costing you a lot more.

I'd suggest that you phone Sky and try and drop down a package. You're in a lot of debt, and to get out of it you need to make significant sacrifices or it will go on for ever.

Considering that you're actually getting more rent for the flat than the mortgage, at the moment it seems wise to keep it, but if interest rates rise, this will shoot up, so you really do have to throw everything you have at your debts, or you could lose everything.

Does your OH understand the situation that you're in? Does he realise that his smoking habit could potentially cost you everything? That should make him stop. If it doesn't, then you could be in trouble.