help

Clarie_2

Hi Katie,

Lots of people far better than me will be able to give you good advice on bits of your SoA - well done for posting it, very brave!

Sounds like it would be really hard to tell your husband. What are the benefits/ downsides of telling him?

You are only a bit short for making your debt payments everymonth, so it's possible you could claw back the money on your budget and make it, without doing a DMP. Again, I recommend *not* getting a consolidation loan - my husband had 2 and neither stopped the spending. (telling me, however, and then us tackling the debt together most certainly did! For richer, for poorer, after all ;-))

But doing a DMP will get the creditors off your back, and give you a way out of the mess. No idea about your position at the bank - did they credit check you when you went for the job? Or do they credit check you regularly? (I can't imagine if they do, but they will tell you if so)

Clarie

katie0532

I think because im not regulated I will be ok with the bank after discussing with a colleague however really I dont want to tell him. He hates debts and would go mad even though he doesnt realise a lot of it has been spent on him.
I know I need to spend smarter but when im down I just spend.
Does a dmp really stop all the calls and letters cos that is one of the main reasons why i wanted to consolidate.
Your right though, i need to stop and prehaps a dmp will stop that and make me live within my means!

scary though

CH27

Your Gas & electic payments look high. Have you checked you are on the cheapest tariff?

Your grocery bill is sky high. You could cut loads of that.

Gym membership is a luxury.

Can you reduce your virgin media package or cancel it?

£65 for birthday/xmas is a lot. Can you reduce it?

MFWannabe

katie0532 wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 694
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1620
Benefits................................ 971
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3285

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 493
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 212
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 164
Electricity............................. 68 - check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Gas..................................... 58 - check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 650 - this is a HUGE amount to spend; you could cut this in half
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 - you need something here
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 281
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 0 - you should have this
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 65 - this is a huge amount to be spending; you could cut this in half
Haircuts................................ 50 - is this correct?! This again is a huge amount
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0
medical travel insurance................ 6
paper................................... 2.5
bank a/c fee............................ 12.5
union................................... 6
tv rental............................... 30
child maintainence...................... 86
virginmedia............................. 95 - change to lower tarriff
gym membership.......................... 65 - you need to cancel this; this is a lot each month that you could use to pay off more of your debts
Total monthly expenses.................. 2669


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 350000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 350000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 176000...(493)......3.2
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 11000....(212)......5.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 187000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
egg ...........................3500......80........28.9
virgin.........................5300......80........22.9
tesco..........................3500......80........25.9
ltsb...........................1035......40........NaN
overdraft......................3000......20........0
overdraft......................1000......8.........0
very...........................800.......0.........28.9
littlewoods....................700.......0.........28.9
hitachi........................700.......32........5.9
argos..........................625.......25........28.9
virgin.........................4500......120.......17.9
barclaycard....................5600......120.......13.9
next...........................1000......100.......32.9
Total unsecured debts..........31260.....705.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,285
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,669
Available for debt repayments........... 616
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 705
Amount short for making debt repayments. -89

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 350,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -187,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,260
Net Assets.............................. 131,740

hi
I've made some comments above where you could make some good cutbacks.
Start by tackling the highest APR debt first and pay as much as you can off this one while making minimum payments on the others; then move to the next highest apr and so on

BlueAngelCV

katie0532 wrote: »

Mobile phone............................ 25 Seems quite high, is this contract? Do you need it?
Groceries etc. ......................... 650 Wow! Definitely cut down here!
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 65 Do you really need to budget this much each month?
Haircuts................................ 50 How often do you all get haircuts? This seems high
Entertainment........................... 50 Again this seems high, what is it going on
Holiday................................. 50 If things are that bad do you really need a holiday?
paper................................... 2.5 Do you really spend this much?
bank a/c fee............................ 12.5 Downgrade
union................................... 6 What's this?
tv rental............................... 30 You can buy tvs for about £60 so this can't be cost effective
child maintainence...................... 86 Is this for the children that live with you? Are they spending time elsewhere? If so groceries can be cut down even more
virginmedia............................. 95 What's this? Phone/internet? Seems very high
gym membership.......................... 65 Cancel. You can go jogging for exercise

I think that you can cut down your outgoings by £500-£600 without too much difficulty.

This would mean that you could increase monthly payments on your credit cards etc to get them paid off shortly.

You seem to have a fairly good household income so I think you should be able to sort yourselves out.

Cross-posted from your other thread.

zagubov

BlueAngelCV wrote: »

I think that you can cut down your outgoings by £500-£600 without too much difficulty.
.....
You seem to have a fairly good household income so I think you should be able to sort yourselves out.
.

I'm backing BlueAngelCV with added detail!

Mobile Phone Check out Asda/Tesco/ Giffgaff PAYG for mobile phone

Entertainment - Join Applause Store and watch TV shows being made (QI/ Buzzcocks /Top Gear etc).

Paper: Use the bigproject.co.uk to find all the online newspapers and read them there.

TV rental - been on freecycle?

Union - In your job, I'm guessing you need the union.

Virginmedia- downgrade to about 1/3 the cost; phone them and tell you need to quit or downgrade. They'll make it easy for you

Gym membership -it's cold outside so get a cross-trainer and watch TV indoors!

Bank account fee - downgrade ( I'm assuming you can't switch).

I assume you've cut up most if not all of your cards- a great idea

Tell your husband - I'm afraid that is the best advice, and sooner's better than later. You're the best judge about how to go about it, so don't get rushed into it, but do bring him onboard.

All best wishes!

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi and welcome, you are in the right place for some good advice.

You really need to tell your husband. Whatever route you choose to sort out the debts its going to take some time and its going to be so hard to keep such a big secret for years.

As for your SOA, you can pull in the spending enough to start paying the debts off. I dont think you need a DMP or consolidation loan and neither of these are easy options.

I allow £300 in the budget for a family of four for food but usually spend less than this without too much effort. Your problem is that your OH is going to notice if you start changing your shopping habits and this is going to lead to more lies.

I really do feel for you, its so easy to get into credit card debt, but so hard to get out of it. Your OH must know something is wrong and I am sure he will be more understanding than you think once the initial shock has worn off.

Blitz01

1. As you can see by your SOA, you are living a lifestyle (things such as high groceries and Virgin Media), that you simply cannot afford. Your combined salaries are low to sustain this kind of spending, let alone CC debt.
2. There is no way any lender (certainly mainstream) would lend to you to consolidate as you have a very high level of debt vs income, and you also have late/default payments.
3. To keep this from your husband is THE biggest mistake of all. He will definitely find out, and when he does it will all point to you be dishonest. Come clean or it will all end in tears.

shopaholic2

Hi, as someone in a very similar position, can i please offer some advice?
I have (had) debts from 3 credit cards and 6 catalogues, amounting to about £7k.
I have hiddent his for about 18months, trying to get to the post EVERY day before my hubby, terrified he would find out. knowing he would be so annoyed, all the things you're feeling, i felt.
2 weeks ago he asked me outright about this. He thought i was having an affair because for so long i have been distant,moody, and although he works long hours and brings home a good wage, we were always skint....
So, he found my hidden paperwork, and asked me outright what was going on, and so I had to tell him.

There were tears, and i felt sooooooooooooooooooooooo bad, BUT he has said that he doesn't care about the money, he cares about me and him and the kids, being together.Yes he was cross, he actiually cant see where any of the moneys gone, neither can i, but he has helped me to take control.
I told my parents, too, who have helped alot, and hubby has got controil of the bank account now, and i use cash only.

He accepts that he " left me to get on with it" for too long, and i would hide things from him,basically not wanting to worry him, but he has been fantastic on this,and very supportive.
He was devastated when he saw the extent of the mess i made, but just 2 weeeks later we are making progress.

I URGE you to speak to your hubby, I swore mine would never find out,it was MY mess and I would deal with it, but we are a partnership, and my debts are now OUR debts.

You are where i have been, and i wouldn't wish it on anyone, but you will get heaps of support on here, and i send you hugs, and support, and say TELL HIM.

xx

Tracey2609

Hi

I agree with everything everyone has said here - I know that it must be really difficult to face talking to your husband, but I really feel that you should. I pay most of my bills by direct debit, and then I draw money out of my bank account once a month for groceries, petrol, electric (we are on a key meter), I divide this into weekly amounts and I also have a weekly allowance for OH & myself - all in cash. I find that this is much easier to control.

You are definitely in the right place for help and support.