Really Worried

cymruben

Ok decided to post chrsitmas have a look at my finances and was absolutely shocked that I am in the situtaion I am, never done a budget before I came on those website. Just spent and spent and spent. Had no idea of the financial situation I was in. Now that i have totalled them all up I am really, really worried. Filled in the budget planner below. What do I do next, advice much appreciated

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,565.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 950.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . .Tesco+Barclay card . . . . . . 90
Egg 0% 90
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350.00
Store Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Child Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,565.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,285.00

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Could you use the Budget planner on the top of the forum?

You havent included a lot of things in your budget planner so our advice may not be accurate

Superbiatch

Are your debt repayments just minimum amounts? Could you possibly put balance outstanding and apr's? It would help to advise you which way best to focus your debt crunching

If you completed a full SOA, just post the whole thing as there may be suggestions for cutting living costs as well.

cymruben

Thats what I used, the mortgage repayment bit includes all household bills,and my partner pays food etc

cymruben

Ok balances, this really frightens me to write them down, I had absolutely no idea how bad things were. Just minimum payments paid.
Store Cards 2100
Three cards totalling Credit Cards 8500
Of the three credit cards, one is for 4400 at 0% which ends in May. The other two one has balance of 1600 @ 29.9% APR and the other has balance of 2500@ 19%

Superbiatch

Thats the worst bit over, you now know your starting point and can start to deal with things. There are so many helpful people on here who will advise you how best to pay off your debts and I'm sure they'll be along shortly

cymruben

Thank you! I feel so so stupid that i had no idea, i set up direct debits to pay minimum payments on all these accounts and took no notice of them.

Superbiatch

You're not the first and you won't be the last. At least you've now had what we call your 'Light Bulb Moment' or LBM

I'm in double the debt you are and earn half the salary, and I find it makes it much easier to see there are many people in the same boat. No one will judge you on here (that is unless you are unwilling to change) as we've all come here for a reason.

You seem to be in not too bad a position, you still have some £ left after all the bills are paid so I'm sure the wise people on here can advise you best. For me unfortunately it was too late and my outgoings were more than my incomings. Good luck

jonjamie1970

Wow, I pay £420 a month child maintenance and I dont take home much more than you.

cymruben

Just been online and shousl I just take out a consolidation loan to cover all debts?

dancingfairy

There is lots to consider on that question - say you owe 5k and you want to borrow 5k (for consolidation purposes), the bank will look at it like you will then owe 10k as they have no guarantee you will pay off the credit cards withthe loan and sadly they are right, so many people consolidate once, twice , 3 times and each time this/that or the other happens and they reach for the credit cards and up and up the balances go which leads to another consolidation. Sometimes they turn unsecured debt into a secured loan too - more problems - you start missing payments and the house is in trouble.
It is so easy to think right I don't have to worry about the debts any more and keep spending.
Also with a loan you generally end up paying the bank back over a longer period of time - all the while lining their back pockets.
At the moment hopefully if you were to come into any money you can make overpayments on the cards as well.
The only time consolidation is a good plan is if you really, really do stick to a budget and cut those cards up for good and get a good rate and save up to pay off that loan as quickly as possible. For 99% of people it doesn't work though.
df