okey dokey, where to begin?

CH27

Your buildings & contents insurance seems expensive.
Have you looked to see if you can get it cheaper?

dancingfairy

tenpence_shy wrote: »

£50 you say, what've i missed?

sorry I think it's nearer 30 like you say - I must have miscalculate earlier
df

katsu

tenpence_shy wrote: »

arrse!
was double entrying the childcare, i already get £150 in CV's a month so i shouldn't have included them in the SoA

redone that and here is anew

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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1325
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1375
Benefits................................ 135
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2835

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 853
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 149
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114 have you checked if you can get any benefits? There is an online website called entitledto
Electricity............................. 48
Gas..................................... 46 both of these seem a bit high to me - elec more so than gas I think. Check you are on the best tariff (use a comparison site and a cashback site if you then decide to switch). Check you are not on estimated bills, see if you can get a free meter from your provider/borrow from library in order to see what you are using elec on, then cut down. Hang and line curtains, turn thermostat down etc.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 42 probably no savings with a meter with 2 kids but you could check as you can go back to unmetered if it makes you worse off, as far as I understand. Look into this.
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 35 can you cut the usage a bit to reduce the bills?
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 21 get a freeview box and save this
Internet Services....................... 7.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 try the tips on the old style board. Even a £50 saving here could be very helpful
Clothing................................ 60 fress the kids from ebay and charity shops/supermarkets for a while and you and Mrs Money can shop from your wardrobes. £60pcm is still quite a bit.
Petrol/diesel........................... 130
Road tax................................ 10 are you saving this? set up a separate account to put this money in ready for next year. If not, you are probably spending the extra £10pcm IYSWIM
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 as tax
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 68
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20 was this a BUPA type subscription or just the glasses? You only need glasses every two years and so should be able to do that for £100 each (less if you go for bargain cheap specs from an online retailer or cheaper range)
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 21
Contents insurance...................... 25
Life assurance ......................... 24
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30 drop £10 off this and you have saved nearly £100 or so
Haircuts................................ 20 Use a haidressing college to get this a bit cheaper
Entertainment........................... 34 what exactly?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Child Trust Fund........................ 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 2270.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 where is the money for the MOT etc going?
House value (Gross)..................... 143000
Shares and bonds........................ 900
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 143900


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 121000...(853)......5.95
Secured Debt.................. 9000.....(149)......8.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 130000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Abbey..........................336.......9.........20.9
Barclaycard 1..................9565......210.......6.9
Barclaycard 2..................4900......105.......6.9
Tesco..........................1358......41........16.9
Natwest Overdraft..............2300......0.........20
Natwest 2......................6750......151.......14.9
Natwest 1......................1679......37........14.9
HSBC...........................2604......65........29.9
Halifax 2......................950.......10........23.9
Halifax 1......................5581......58........13.9
Egg............................17........5.........19.9
Total unsecured debts..........36040.....691.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,835
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,270.5
Available for debt repayments........... 564.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 691
Amount short for making debt repayments. -126.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 143,900
Total HP & Secured debt................. -130,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -36,040
Net Assets.............................. -22,140

Hi 10p. My suggestions are ways you could get a bit closer and really encouragement to do a spending diary as if you are not saving the road tax money etc each month, then you are probably spending it somehow, IYSWIM.

Not sure where the breakdown cover went, but look at the autonational for £66 for 18 months. Check Martin's motoring tab. Only a small saving but every little helps as they say

Good luck to you and all the pennies.

Tixy

dancingfairy wrote: »

sorry I think it's nearer 30 like you say - I must have miscalculate earlier
df

I got it as high as £42 saving if thats any help. By working just on the percentage of the debt you repay each month, if you focus on those that you pay the most on per month as a percentage of the balance you could reduce your outgoings by £42.

Though this cannot be done at the same time as ordering the debts so you pay the least amount in interest. Its a balancing act of the 2 when things are that tight, and if you did decide not to go for a DMP.

All that said I would agree with MrsPorridge - do think carefully before taking out a consolidation loan (instead of a DMP) as many people don't then manage to stick to their intended budgets etc and end up in more debt. Plus you will be leaving yourself with such a tight budget that one small thing could throw it out and force you down the DMP route in a year or 2. And in many ways if you are going to end up in a DMP then the sooner the better (as then the quicker your credit will start to repair).

tenpence_shy

got the DMP plan back from CCCS by email, £337 a month which seems low
i didn't save the pdf before clicking 'yes i wanna dmp' and i've forgotten how long it'll take to pay back, doh!

from reading other threads it appears that barclaycard don't tend to freeze interest on dmps and as they're the biggest chunk of the cc debt, it don't look too positive there

however i think we're going to go with it, mrs tenpence is on board and says she'd be prepared to have a trainee mechanic do her hair as long as he was better looking than me, cheek!

one question i still have is, once we tread down this path and we start getting angry letters from our creditors, do we respond to them or refer them to CCCS to deal with them?

and IIRC we get a log on on CCCS to check the debts as they fall, or was that some other org?

Two Shillings(feeling old this morning)

Tixy

Hi £337 does seem quite low based on your figures. Might be worth talking to them and seeing if you can increase it closer to £500?

Once you are going with the DMP either forward letters onto to CCCS, or if they are just standard boring threats just keep them on file. Only exception to this is in the unlikely event you receive court papers. If so never send those to CCCS, instead come here for advice on completing them yourself.

Good luck with it all

tenpence_shy

afternoon all,

heres an update of sorts...

posted off all the letters today

three cards for mrs 10p, six for me and our two joint overdrafts, oh and all the paperwork to CCCS!

to be honest i'm bricking it now as they've gone first/recorded and although they probably won't be processed till weds/thurs i didn't clear the accounts to our new bank and i'm worried that our old bank will 'freeze' the accounts!

i've got enough money in there to cover mortgage & DD's till they're transfered to our new bank account but does anyone know if they're likely to swipe the cash even though we've not actually defaulted on any payments yet?

mortgage wise, i somehow managed to get a new 5yr deal starting next month (same bank, so no credit searches, phew!) - had to pay an early release fee (thanks nan) but at least i know if rates rise through the roof i won't lose the house!

might also be due a small wage rise in may, so we can pay extra on the DMP and get rid of it quicker

all cards cut up, hatchs battened, guess we'll just sit back and wait for the lovely letters and phonecalls to start - though i did 'update' as many of them as i could with a 'new' home number (not an actual number, i checked 'cos i don't want some other poor sod getting the grief!)

tenpence