Our SOA as requested

bottleofred

Hi Cheeselady,

I agree with pretty much everything Hannah and the others have said and would strongly recommend you investigate cheaper phone, broadband and tv packages etc. It's good you've already made progress on the shopping front.

Good luck

pelirocco

This will sound harsh you are £500 short each month before debt repayments ,I cannot see how you can claw this back ,it might be possible for the odd month in an emergancy ,but for its not sustainable ,you need professional advice

Cheeselady

bottleofred wrote: »

Hi Cheeselady,

I agree with pretty much everything Hannah and the others have said and would strongly recommend you investigate cheaper phone, broadband and tv packages etc. It's good you've already made progress on the shopping front.

Good luck

Thanks, yes we are going to go through them all one by one, and see if we can get them any cheaper, thanks for all the links and advice everyone. :T I will let you know how we get on. Oh and re the water meter, just spoke to DH, and there was £200 on the bill from our previous home, andwhen we moved house, and asked for a water meter, they said they could add the £200 into our new lower payments, so that's why it's high, but it will drop once that £200 is paid.

pelirocco wrote: »

This will sound harsh you are £500 short each month before debt repayments ,I cannot see how you can claw this back ,it might be possible for the odd month in an emergancy ,but for its not sustainable ,you need professional advice

As I say, we do actually have DH's pay at the moment, put into the business by one of his colleagues, as an investment, and we have just heard that it is guaranteed for anothr month and will last us until end of September, that is £2,500 per month, net. We have a CAP Advisor coming to see us in two weeks time, we booked that last week. We may also ring CCCS as well, for another option. We are doing all this now, so we are ready and prepared if the worst should happen, and DH's company doesn't work out, but even so, we are still going to follow any advice and get this sorted out, as it has gone on too long with our heads in the sand.

tallyhoh

I think you should consider cutting out the life assurance. Have you listed the reasons you have it?

You rent so it wont pay the mortgage off.
Who's names are the debts in, if its your OH's the life assurance will cover the debts, leaving little for the family. The debts will (excuse the words) die with OH if they are in his name & theres no estate left such as life assurance.

The 150 spent on life assurance may actually leave you as bad off. May be better to have one of those no medical ones that will cover funeral costs.

Sorry to be blunt, intentions are good

Ames

I agree about the life insurance, you don't have a mortgage to cover, and your kids are nearly adults now so you wont need to find money to support them growing up. Maybe you could put £50 of it into a separate account to cover expenses in case the worst happens, that'd still leave you with £100 extra a month. In fact, I'd go lower at putting away ten or twenty a month.

lindann_2

hope you get things sorted, best of luck

Cheeselady

tallyhoh wrote: »

I think you should consider cutting out the life assurance. Have you listed the reasons you have it?

You rent so it wont pay the mortgage off.
Who's names are the debts in, if its your OH's the life assurance will cover the debts, leaving little for the family. The debts will (excuse the words) die with OH if they are in his name & theres no estate left such as life assurance.

The 150 spent on life assurance may actually leave you as bad off. May be better to have one of those no medical ones that will cover funeral costs.

Sorry to be blunt, intentions are good

Ames wrote: »

I agree about the life insurance, you don't have a mortgage to cover, and your kids are nearly adults now so you wont need to find money to support them growing up. Maybe you could put £50 of it into a separate account to cover expenses in case the worst happens, that'd still leave you with £100 extra a month. In fact, I'd go lower at putting away ten or twenty a month.

Thanks both of you, I will talk to DH about that. Three of the credit cards are in joint names, totalling £27,000 owing at the moment, and the overdraft and personal loan are also joint, totalling £18,000, so quite a bit in both our names. Regarding the children, even though DD is 20, she is still in full time education, and hopefully my son will go to uni as well, so my son especially will still be needing support for a while yet. On those figures for the joint cards etc would you still recommend ending the life insurance? DH seems to think that debts wouldn't die with him, so not sure who is correct? Don't mind the bluntness, as faffing around won't get us anywhere!

Tuesday_Tenor

Being blunt (as you say, good to get the facts clear):

If you husband dies, his personal debts go into his 'estate', from which the executor would pay them off from his assets, before any of the estate can be paid to any beneficiaries of his will.

However, when there are NO assets left in the estate then the debts cannot be paid and have to be written off. In this situation the debts 'die with him' as no one else has to take them on.

Someone else can tell you more explicitly about joint debts, I've never dealt with these and don't want to tell you wrong.

HTH

SouthCoast

With £78k of unsecured debts speak to the free debt charities about bankruptcy

Ames

Joint debts would fall to you to pay. That's why the banks like joint debts, there's two people to chase for them. You're both individually liable for the whole amount.