Can I get out of debt quicker?

goodgirl80

Hello,

I have been posting here for a little while, and I think I'm doing quite well right now. Having seen the advice given on others SOA's, I am posting mine in the hope that I can use your knowledge and advice to work out how I can pay off my debt any quicker. At the moment I am looking at December 2011 to be completely clear. Thanks

ps. I imagine the SOA might need a bit of jiggling so open to suggestions.

Monthly Income (after tax) £1195.00
Partner's Monthly Income
Benefits
Other Income (e.g. maintenance payments)

Enter your monthly expenditure

Amount (£)
Mortgage payment (from secured debt table below)
Secured/HP loans (from secured debt table below) £173.30
Rent £297.50
Management Charge (e.g. on leasehold property)
Council Tax £69.00
Electricity £12.50
Gas £10.00
Oil
Water Rates £15.00
Telephone (land line) £6.25
Mobile Phone £10.00
TV Licence £12.50
Satellite/Cable TV
Internet Services £6.25
Groceries etc. £60.00
Clothing
Petrol/Diesel £50.00
Road Tax (car) £10.00
Car Insurance (including breakdown cover) £14.00
Car Maintenance (including MOT) £4.80
Car Parking
Other Travel
Childcare/Nursery
Other child related expenses
Medical (prescriptions, dentists, opticians etc.) £7.20
Pet Insurance/Vet bills
Building Insurance
Contents Insurance
Life Assurance
Other Insurance
Presents (birthday, christmas etc.) £20.00
Haircuts
Entertainment
Holiday
Household Emergency Fund (e.g. for repairs)

Secured debt
Hire Purchase (HP) £1095.97/Min:£173.3

Enter your UNsecured Debts e.g. credit cards

Capital One £123.65/Min:£4.50
Vanq £30.00/ Min £4.50
Loan from friend £4760/Min: £200


Summary of Monthly Income, expense and surplus
Total monthly income: £ 1195
Expenses (incl. HP & secured debts): £ 778.3
Available for debt repayments: £ 416.7
Unsecured debt repayments: £ 209
Surplus (shortfall if negative) £ 207.7

[Deleted User]

you haven't put in any figures, so people can't comment on your income and expenditure

podperson

wow that's pretty tight *is impressed* am guessing you share with someone as a lot of the bills looks like split amounts? Would maybe suggest putting an amount in for entertainment as no one expects you to never go out again and otherwise you tend to find it disappearing out of other areas
Your soa if showing you have a £200 surplus every month - is this actually happening in reality? If not need to start a spending diary to see where that money is going. If you do have this then get the cap1 and the vanquis paid off as imagine they have rather nasty interest rates. Then see if you can overpay on the hp, will assume your friend isn't charging you interest so can leave that until the end.

davidjwest

Your SOA is very tight, are those figures realistic?

If so then I'd forget trying to save a few extra quid there and try to increase your income instead - having said that still DO try to stick to your SOA and save where you can as any extra pennies you can save can go straight off the debt.

Consider taking on a part time job, work overtime if you can, reduce any pension payments you may have taken from your wage etc.

Mystery shopping can be a decent earner and you can choose when you work, use cashback sites where you can as this can generate an extra £50 or so a month and any extra can go straight off your debts.

If you look on the "Up my income" forum there are some other ideas there.

You don't mention interest rates - always pay the highest interest bearing debt first and if you are paying interest on your cards consider a 0% balance transfer.

Hannah_10

Yep cars are always down as assets and the HP/loan for them is always down as debt.

ms_london

Hey.

Well done on posting and making the first step. If you are unable to reduce your outgoings any more, then the only other option is to increase your incomings - 2nd job / topping up income with ebay / changing your job for a better paid one.

When I was in debt I had to take a 2nd job, I earnt around £350 a month from this which made a fair bit of difference - it was tiring though and looking back I don't know how I did it (I worked f/t and then an extra 12-16hours per week at my p/t job) but my logic was that I'd rather be doing something to repay my debt in my spare time than being confined to the house because I couldn't afford to do anything.

Please post back and let us know how you are getting on xx

ms_london

I meant to say that Vanquis and Capital One (esp if you have the same Cap One card I have!) will both have hideous APR's, so try and clear these as quick as you can. You would probably be better of having some other form of credit for an emergency, like an overdraft, which will have a much lower %. xx