Need help with our debt

Ditzy_Bird

Hi everyone. After much putting it off and not really facing up to things I am now pretty much at breaking point. I've done an SoA below, and made some comments on it to clarify some of the spending as I thought it may save some time and be easier for people to understand. We have been living beyond our means since we bought our house 9.5 years ago and suddenly were able to obtain credit. We started off with a £64,000 mortgage then and no other debt, now the mortgage is nearly £97,000 and we have over £30,000 in cards and loans. Things got worse a couple of years ago when my husband changed from being paid weekly to monthly and we can't seem to get through the month without having to rely on spending on the credit cards. I know it's our fault, we've been going out when we shouldn't have done and spending all the food budget and/or the savings budget (this is money put away to cover insurances, MOTs etc) then having to buy food on the cards. When I can't cope then the pub or junk food seem to let me switch off from it, but I know this isn't a solution and is only getting us more into debt. If I could rely on my hubby to be strong then the 'forgetting about it all by getting drunk' sessions wouldn't be so frequent, but we are both as incapable with money as each other and both easily lead each other on. I think in some ways it's harder for him as I'm the one that is supposed to deal with all the money so he is out of touch with the problem. I have a big spreadsheet with all our monthly expenditure on and do show him this, but he doesn't seem to grasp it. After having a bit of a minor breakdown the other night he now realises that I can't cope with it any more and we need some help; we have been at this point before with me telling him I can't cope, but telling him we have to post on here and get some help I think has made it sink in. So this is our SoA if anyone can help us. I've pretty much cut back as far as I can and always search around for the lowest price on utilities etc, so not sure we can save anything there. Also if anyone has any useful ideas for helping us get through the month using or food budget wisely I would really appreciate them. I'm not sure if £200 a month is enough as I've never stuck to it yet. I do plan all our meals in advance, which works well when we stick to it, and I make all our lunches. I know some of this will just involve will power, but I feel at such a low point at the moment that this is severely lacking.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1 car, 1 motorbike

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1119.86
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1184.62
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2304.48

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 793.8
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 31
Gas..................................... 31
Electricity and Gas are one combined payment of £62, but have split here equally as not sure what the split is
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44.52
Telephone (land line)................... 20
This includes our broadband as well
Mobile phone............................ 53.12
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
This is an ideal amount I think we should be able to spend, but as yet I've not managed it.
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
£40 for the car, £40 for the bike. The bike is for fun so if we don't have the money hubby can't go out. Hubby often takes us places in his works van to cut petrol costs, but he shouldn't do it and am concerned about him getting caught and getting into trouble at work.
Road tax................................ 10.42
Car Insurance........................... 28.42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14.5
This is a low figure as hubby used to be an auto-electrician and does most of the work. A good mate also runs a garage and we get mates rates on any parts or labour he can't do.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
We have a cat, but nothing put away in case she needs to go to the vets.
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Have one policy for buildings and contents, so not sure what the split is, but put aside £15 a month to cover both at renewal
Life assurance ......................... 34.44
Policies that cover both of us on both deaths for £200,000 each. At least if one of us croaks the other would be debt free!:p
Other insurance......................... 25.04
Two small NU policies for death or loss of limb in accident (total £5.96) not sure if these are worth pursing still? Also policy for me to cover sickness pay as I only get two weeks cover with work; having broken bones several times and been off for quite a while we feel this is essential. Hubby gets 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, so no need for a policy for him.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
This covers £10 per person (max) for birthdays. We don't give or receive presents at Christmas except for our nieces and nephews under 16 who get £10. Yeah, I know, I haven't budgeted for that and I need to.
Haircuts................................ 9
Entertainment........................... 160
This covers gym/swim memberships for us both at £20 each. We then have £60 each a month to spend on either some beer for home drinking or other bits we need. I pay £12 per month towards my pushbike on the cycle to work scheme, £18 for gymnastics classes and then save the rest for triathlon kit (am doing a stupidly long triathlon in September). Hubby buys some beer, bike magazines and bits he wants for his bike.
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Bike maintenance (including MOT)........ 14.17
As with the car, hubby does this himself.
Bike insurance ......................... 7.44
Road Tax (motorbike).................... 4.17
Total monthly expenses.................. 1703.41


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 115
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2915


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 95625....(793.8)....6.6
I know the APR is high, but we wanted the security of having a long term fixed mortgage and took the chance that the interest rates would rise in the long time. This is a 10 year mortgage and we have just under 9 years left. I realise we could reduce our monthly outgoings by changing it, but that would also incur costs and we then take the risk in 2 or 5 years that the rates will have gone up a lot from what we fix at.
Total secured & HP debts...... 95625.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Loan.....................14500.....299.......8.12
Sainsburys Loan................11500.....180.......7.8
Barclaycard....................4536.62...68.04.....0
Currently most of this is 0% transfer rate, but probably about £150 on purchase rate (not sure what that is)
Capital One....................1186.63...35.51.....0
Again, most of it on 0% transfer rate, although about £300 on purchase or cash withdrawn rate. I know, we shouldn't have taken the cash out.
Total unsecured debts..........31723.25..582.55....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,304.48
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,703.41
Available for debt repayments........... 601.07
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 582.55
Amount left after debt repayments....... 18.52

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,915
Total HP & Secured debt................. -95,625
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,723.25
Net Assets.............................. -124,433.25

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

NeverAgain_2

Ditzy,

Just to make you feel a little better, your house is one of the things you own, so its value should appear as an asset on your balance sheet summary.

If I read the SOA correctly, this would make your assets £118,000, which means your net assets are -£9,000.

Which is a lot happier reading than -£124,433.25, so you are better off already.

Ditzy_Bird

But we don't own the house? The mortgage company do? And are our net assets only -£9,000 if we sold our house? I see I didn't put enough 0s in the house value column though

No-one has any suggestions where I can save anything else then?

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1 car, 1 motorbike
(do you need both car and motorbike? Could you get by without one of them - not only would you be able to pay down one of the debts with the cash, but would also save you in running costs)

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1119.86 Any way to increase? Overtime? Second job?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1184.62 as above
Total monthly income.................... 2304.48

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 793.8
Council tax............................. 95 Are you paying this over the usual 10 months? If so you could ask your council if you can start paying it over 12 months.
Electricity............................. 31
Gas..................................... 31
Electricity and Gas are one combined payment of £62, but have split here equally as not sure what the split is Just regularly check you are on the cheapest tariffs for your area (maybe 6 monthly), and if switching is better check the cashback sites for incentives before switching (Quidco, topcashback, onepoll etc)
Water rates............................. 44.52 Would a meter be cheaper, if you are not already on one?
Telephone (land line)................... 20
This includes our broadband as well
Mobile phone............................ 53.12 Are either of you still in contract? If so see if you can drop a tariff. Is/when out of contract look at SIM only or PAYG options (some good £10pm deals to be had)
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
This is an ideal amount I think we should be able to spend, but as yet I've not managed it. (Try dropping brands, meal planning, batch cooking etc to try and stay in budget - perhapse if you get too tempted in store look at doing your shopping online), or try the cheaper supermarkets (Lidl/Aldi)
Clothing................................ 0 never?
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 This is quite low considering you have a car and a motorbike - consider weather you really need either or both.
£40 for the car, £40 for the bike. The bike is for fun so if we don't have the money hubby can't go out. Hubby often takes us places in his works van to cut petrol costs, but he shouldn't do it and am concerned about him getting caught and getting into trouble at work.
Road tax................................ 10.42
Car Insurance........................... 28.42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14.5
This is a low figure as hubby used to be an auto-electrician and does most of the work. A good mate also runs a garage and we get mates rates on any parts or labour he can't do.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0 perhapse saving a small amount here, even £5 pm to cover anual injections etc
We have a cat, but nothing put away in case she needs to go to the vets.
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Have one policy for buildings and contents, so not sure what the split is, but put aside £15 a month to cover both at renewal
Life assurance ......................... 34.44
Policies that cover both of us on both deaths for £200,000 each. At least if one of us croaks the other would be debt free!:p
Other insurance......................... 25.04
Two small NU policies for death or loss of limb in accident (total £5.96) not sure if these are worth pursing still? Also policy for me to cover sickness pay as I only get two weeks cover with work; having broken bones several times and been off for quite a while we feel this is essential. Hubby gets 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, so no need for a policy for him.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
This covers £10 per person (max) for birthdays. We don't give or receive presents at Christmas except for our nieces and nephews under 16 who get £10. Yeah, I know, I haven't budgeted for that and I need to.(you need to open a savings account and put this away - work out the anual expenditure here and divide by 12)
Haircuts................................ 9
Entertainment........................... 160
This covers gym/swim memberships for us both at £20 each. We then have £60 each a month to spend on either some beer for home drinking or other bits we need. I pay £12 per month towards my pushbike on the cycle to work scheme, £18 for gymnastics classes and then save the rest for triathlon kit (am doing a stupidly long triathlon in September). Hubby buys some beer, bike magazines and bits he wants for his bike.If you cycle to work, and your hubby has a van for work - do you really need a motorbike and a car as well? Do you actually use the gym memberships enough to justify the payment. - This seems like an area where savings could be made - the internet could replace the magazines etc
Bike maintenance (including MOT)........ 14.17
As with the car, hubby does this himself.
Bike insurance ......................... 7.44
Road Tax (motorbike).................... 4.17
Total monthly expenses.................. 1703.41


Assets
House value (Gross)..................... 115 don't you mean £115,000?
Car(s).................................. 2800
Total Assets............................ 2915


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 95625....(793.8)....6.6
I know the APR is high, but we wanted the security of having a long term fixed mortgage and took the chance that the interest rates would rise in the long time. This is a 10 year mortgage and we have just under 9 years left. I realise we could reduce our monthly outgoings by changing it, but that would also incur costs and we then take the risk in 2 or 5 years that the rates will have gone up a lot from what we fix at.
Total secured & HP debts...... 95625.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR For the loans, are you allowed to make penalty free overpayments
Tesco Loan.....................14500.....299.......8.12
Sainsburys Loan................11500.....180.......7.8
Barclaycard....................4536.62...68.04.....0
Currently most of this is 0% transfer rate, but probably about £150 on purchase rate (not sure what that is)When does the 0% end, and what will the outstanding balance be then? And what will the rate be then?
Capital One....................1186.63...35.51.....0
Again, most of it on 0% transfer rate, although about £300 on purchase or cash withdrawn rate. I know, we shouldn't have taken the cash out. When does the 0% end, and what will the outstanding balance be then? And what will the rate be then?
Total unsecured debts..........31723.25..582.55....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,304.48
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,703.41
Available for debt repayments........... 601.07
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 582.55
Amount left after debt repayments....... 18.52 Do you actually have this at the end of every month? If not keep a spending diary and see where it goes - it's not a massive amount left for any movement, but even this small amount as an overpayment towards the debt that's costing you the most every month, will reduce the amount you pay back, and bring your debt free date closer.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,915
Total HP & Secured debt................. -95,625
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,723.25
Net Assets.............................. -124,433.25

Hi,

I have made some comments above, I hope they'll be of some use to you.

To try and pay down your debts a bit, have a look on the "up your income" board for some hints and tips for increaseing your earnings. Have a clear out and see if you can e-bay, gumtree, amazon, or car boot things that you no longer use anymore. Also, maybe sign up for some of the survey sites (some pay cash and some pay in vouchers - it's not a fast way of making cash, but over the year the vouchers etc can be saved to cover Xmas presents and gifts etc - so could give a little extra)

Also, you really need to have a think about the car/bike/motorbike situation, as you are paying out a lot for something that seems like it doesn't get much use.

HTH

D9

Hannah_10

According to the road tax his bike is between 401 and 600 cc. There's not a lot in that class. It'll mostly be "600's" which scrape in under the limit at 598cc-ish and a few older commuters like the GS500. (Unless he's got a Burgman in which case shame on him for calling it a bike. ) Back to the point... to get through a tenner of fuel a week for fun you'd have to be riding 80-120 miles a time. That's a fair distance on a medium sized bike. He's gonna be out half the day by the time he has a cafe stop or two.

Then there's the indoor beer thing, £60 a month each is huge. And of course you already know that eating out and going to the pub aren't cheap.

Then presumably you're making enough of the gym membership to continue to justify it to yourselves, and you may well be training on top of that. And there's gymnastics.

He's got to make time to read BiKE too and get his spanners out whenever required (for hours at a time I expect).

I could be wrong and I appologise if I'm totally up the wrong tree here, but is your marriage alright? I don't mean to be rude, but do you ever just sit together in each others company and talk? You seem to be forever busy, and spending a lot to be so.

DebtfreeBY40_2

I think merely by how tidy your budget looks suggests to me you have worked hard to get everything as low as it can go and you budget well for things. My main observations would be your mobile phone bills are high, is there any way to reduce them. Your fuel costs for your vehicles are very low, do you therefore need them? Don't use the work vehicle for social trips - too may potential problems re insurance etc. Upping your income seems to have been a fairly sensible suggestion from another poster, selling stuff, doing surveys, cashback on purchases - a number of offers around online supermarket shopping etc.
Good luck with your journey xx

Ditzy_Bird

Domino9 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1 car, 1 motorbike
(do you need both car and motorbike? Could you get by without one of them - not only would you be able to pay down one of the debts with the cash, but would also save you in running costs) My hubby has had the bike for about 5 years, for the last 4 it has been our only form of transport as we were able to use his works van out of work with their permission. We had to buy the car just over a year ago when they stopped that. The bike is hubby's pride and joy, it's the only thing he has ever asked for and it would break his heart to sell it. If we could sell the car we would, but that would mean we are unable to shop or travel too far. The insurance on the bike doesn't cover me at the moment and to increase it to include me would pretty much treble it. I'm not prepared to force him to sell the bike unless we really have to.

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1119.86 Any way to increase? Overtime? Second job?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1184.62 as above
Total monthly income.................... 2304.48

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 793.8
Council tax............................. 95 Are you paying this over the usual 10 months? If so you could ask your council if you can start paying it over 12 months. We are already paying this over 12 months.
Electricity............................. 31
Gas..................................... 31
Electricity and Gas are one combined payment of £62, but have split here equally as not sure what the split is Just regularly check you are on the cheapest tariffs for your area (maybe 6 monthly), and if switching is better check the cashback sites for incentives before switching (Quidco, topcashback, onepoll etc) I regularly search for the cheapest tariffs and we are currently on the cheapest one.
Water rates............................. 44.52 Would a meter be cheaper, if you are not already on one? We are looking into this, but I'm not convinced there would be much difference on a water meter. We have yet to find any of our friends who are in the same position as us go on to a meter and be better off.
Telephone (land line)................... 20
This includes our broadband as well
Mobile phone............................ 53.12 Are either of you still in contract? If so see if you can drop a tariff. Is/when out of contract look at SIM only or PAYG options (some good £10pm deals to be had) We are still in a contract and this is the monthly price for both of us. We can drop a tariff in July, I have already discussed this with Orange as we were miss-sold the tariff in the first place (we did get a refund from Phones 4 U about that when I complained). We are locked in to the contract until July 2012.
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
This is an ideal amount I think we should be able to spend, but as yet I've not managed it. (Try dropping brands, meal planning, batch cooking etc to try and stay in budget - perhapse if you get too tempted in store look at doing your shopping online), or try the cheaper supermarkets (Lidl/Aldi) We have already dropped brands, I plan the meals for a week in advance and we already cook main meals and soups in batches then freeze them. I shop with a list and rarely buy anything that's not on it unless it's in the reduced thing and I know we can use it. We shop in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi and Lidl as my hubby travels around and can get in the shops for the special offers. I also pick up the reduced stuff in the greengrocers for soup making.
Clothing................................ 0 never? At the moment no, I've not bought any clothes for a year. I'm going to have to soon as all my work blouses are starting to get holes in them. I will trek round the charity shops where I live though and get stuff from there.
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 This is quite low considering you have a car and a motorbike - consider weather you really need either or both. We try to use the car as little as possible and during the summer we try to cycle to the gym when we can (it's 7 miles away, so not always practical!). We use the car for shopping and journeys to see family, although if we can get away with using the works van because hubby has a call out then we do. Hubby doesn't use the bike much in the winter as the weather is bad, but that (in theory) gives him more money for petrol in the summer.
£40 for the car, £40 for the bike. The bike is for fun so if we don't have the money hubby can't go out. Hubby often takes us places in his works van to cut petrol costs, but he shouldn't do it and am concerned about him getting caught and getting into trouble at work.
Road tax................................ 10.42
Car Insurance........................... 28.42
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 14.5
This is a low figure as hubby used to be an auto-electrician and does most of the work. A good mate also runs a garage and we get mates rates on any parts or labour he can't do.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0 perhapse saving a small amount here, even £5 pm to cover anual injections etc You don't need to give your cat annual injections unless you put them in a cattery, which we don't, and I got that from a vet.
We have a cat, but nothing put away in case she needs to go to the vets.
Buildings insurance..................... 7.5
Contents insurance...................... 7.5
Have one policy for buildings and contents, so not sure what the split is, but put aside £15 a month to cover both at renewal
Life assurance ......................... 34.44
Policies that cover both of us on both deaths for £200,000 each. At least if one of us croaks the other would be debt free!:p
Other insurance......................... 25.04
Two small NU policies for death or loss of limb in accident (total £5.96) not sure if these are worth pursing still? Also policy for me to cover sickness pay as I only get two weeks cover with work; having broken bones several times and been off for quite a while we feel this is essential. Hubby gets 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, so no need for a policy for him.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
This covers £10 per person (max) for birthdays. We don't give or receive presents at Christmas except for our nieces and nephews under 16 who get £10. Yeah, I know, I haven't budgeted for that and I need to.(you need to open a savings account and put this away - work out the anual expenditure here and divide by 12) We already put this in a savings account, along with the monthly payments for all insurances, MOTs etc. It's in a joint signatory account so it's harder to get at, but when we're skint then it gets accessed.
Haircuts................................ 9
Entertainment........................... 160
This covers gym/swim memberships for us both at £20 each. We then have £60 each a month to spend on either some beer for home drinking or other bits we need. I pay £12 per month towards my pushbike on the cycle to work scheme, £18 for gymnastics classes and then save the rest for triathlon kit (am doing a stupidly long triathlon in September). Hubby buys some beer, bike magazines and bits he wants for his bike.If you cycle to work, and your hubby has a van for work - do you really need a motorbike and a car as well? Do you actually use the gym memberships enough to justify the payment. - This seems like an area where savings could be made - the internet could replace the magazines etc I walk to work, my boss has let me get the cycle on the scheme so that I can complete a half Ironman distance triathlon in September for charity and in memory of my father-in-law. We both use the gym membership a lot, we have to as hubby has arthritis and I have bone problems and we have to exercise to keep them from getting worse. We both swim 3 times a week there and I spin once a week and use the gym 3-4 times a week. We get a corporate membership because of where hubby works so this is actually £18 per month cheaper than we would pay normally. This is an essential, not a luxury. Hubby has a problem with retaining stuff when reading due to nearly dying in an accident when he was 17 so using the internet to read articles is not really an option for him as he can only read them for a limited time and has to re-read sections.
Bike maintenance (including MOT)........ 14.17
As with the car, hubby does this himself.
Bike insurance ......................... 7.44
Road Tax (motorbike).................... 4.17
Total monthly expenses.................. 1703.41


Assets
House value (Gross)..................... 115 don't you mean £115,000?
Car(s).................................. 2800
Total Assets............................ 2915


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 95625....(793.8)....6.6
I know the APR is high, but we wanted the security of having a long term fixed mortgage and took the chance that the interest rates would rise in the long time. This is a 10 year mortgage and we have just under 9 years left. I realise we could reduce our monthly outgoings by changing it, but that would also incur costs and we then take the risk in 2 or 5 years that the rates will have gone up a lot from what we fix at.
Total secured & HP debts...... 95625.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR For the loans, are you allowed to make penalty free overpayments
Tesco Loan.....................14500.....299.......8.12
Sainsburys Loan................11500.....180.......7.8
Barclaycard....................4536.62...68.04.....0
Currently most of this is 0% transfer rate, but probably about £150 on purchase rate (not sure what that is)When does the 0% end, and what will the outstanding balance be then? And what will the rate be then? Finishes in October I think, I have no idea what the rate or the balance will be then. We are paying the minimum payment so I don't suppose it will be much different. I will look at what we can do with the balance nearer the time the 0% rate finishes.
Capital One....................1186.63...35.51.....0
Again, most of it on 0% transfer rate, although about £300 on purchase or cash withdrawn rate. I know, we shouldn't have taken the cash out. When does the 0% end, and what will the outstanding balance be then? And what will the rate be then? As above
Total unsecured debts..........31723.25..582.55....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,304.48
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,703.41
Available for debt repayments........... 601.07
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 582.55
Amount left after debt repayments....... 18.52 Do you actually have this at the end of every month? If not keep a spending diary and see where it goes - it's not a massive amount left for any movement, but even this small amount as an overpayment towards the debt that's costing you the most every month, will reduce the amount you pay back, and bring your debt free date closer. No we don't have this left! There is no room for manoeuvre and we are about to get hit with this years council tax bill so I expect there will be even less left. I know where it goes; chocolate and wine when I'm stressed to hell.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,915
Total HP & Secured debt................. -95,625
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,723.25
Net Assets.............................. -124,433.25

Hi,

I have made some comments above, I hope they'll be of some use to you.

To try and pay down your debts a bit, have a look on the "up your income" board for some hints and tips for increaseing your earnings. Have a clear out and see if you can e-bay, gumtree, amazon, or car boot things that you no longer use anymore. Also, maybe sign up for some of the survey sites (some pay cash and some pay in vouchers - it's not a fast way of making cash, but over the year the vouchers etc can be saved to cover Xmas presents and gifts etc - so could give a little extra) We are already in the process of clearing out stuff to car boot/ebay. Have looked at some of the survey sites, but found the take forever and I don't have an hour a day to spend filling them in to get a few pence back. I already work full time, train and help run a sports club (for which I get free lessons in return), and I really didn't have the time to do it.

Also, you really need to have a think about the car/bike/motorbike situation, as you are paying out a lot for something that seems like it doesn't get much use. I don't see we are paying a lot for something that doesn't get used a lot. We need to have a car now that we can't really use the van and what hubby gets back from the bike on his weekly rides give him some meaning to life. He never asks for much, but this is his passion and love and to take it away from him would not make him a happy person. I'm not prepared to make him sell it unless we are absolutely forced to.

HTH

D9

Hannah_10 wrote: »

According to the road tax his bike is between 401 and 600 cc. There's not a lot in that class. It'll mostly be "600's" which scrape in under the limit at 598cc-ish and a few older commuters like the GS500. (Unless he's got a Burgman in which case shame on him for calling it a bike. ) Back to the point... to get through a tenner of fuel a week for fun you'd have to be riding 80-120 miles a time. That's a fair distance on a medium sized bike. He's gonna be out half the day by the time he has a cafe stop or two. He's got a CBR6, so it does come in that class. He doesn't need some fancy pants loony bike and he loves his 'baby'. Not sure when you last filled a bike up, but it costs him around £20 to fill it up and he'll get around 150 miles out of that depending on where he's riding. He doesn't do cafe stops, he just goes out and rides. He generally goes out on a Saturday morning when I am teaching at the sports club or on a Sunday when I do my long cycle training ride, so he's out at the same time as me

Then there's the indoor beer thing, £60 a month each is huge. And of course you already know that eating out and going to the pub aren't cheap. We don't spend £60 a month on beer! As I said, mine goes on my bike, gymnastics and sports kit I might need (essential stuff only and from Lidl and Aldi), and hubby spends his on his bike mags, a bit on beer and other things he might need. We also have to get our general clothes out of this money.

Then presumably you're making enough of the gym membership to continue to justify it to yourselves, and you may well be training on top of that. And there's gymnastics. See above for gym membership. I do the gymnastics as it helps with keeping my joints flexible after all times I've broken bones. I do notice the difference if I don't go, not only with the movement of the affected joints, but with increased pain as well.

He's got to make time to read BiKE too and get his spanners out whenever required (for hours at a time I expect). He's not a tinker type biker, he just fixes her when she needs it and he reads his bike mags on the loo (or when he's in the library as he refers to it!)

I could be wrong and I appologise if I'm totally up the wrong tree here, but is your marriage alright? I don't mean to be rude, but do you ever just sit together in each others company and talk? You seem to be forever busy, and spending a lot to be so. Yes, I'm afraid I do think you are being bloody rude. You know nothing about me and to think that you can ask that kind of question just from looking at a list of stuff we spend money on is ridiculous. :mad:

DebtfreeBY40 wrote: »

I think merely by how tidy your budget looks suggests to me you have worked hard to get everything as low as it can go and you budget well for things. My main observations would be your mobile phone bills are high, is there any way to reduce them. Your fuel costs for your vehicles are very low, do you therefore need them? Don't use the work vehicle for social trips - too may potential problems re insurance etc. Upping your income seems to have been a fairly sensible suggestion from another poster, selling stuff, doing surveys, cashback on purchases - a number of offers around online supermarket shopping etc.
Good luck with your journey xx
Thanks DebfreeBY40. Yes, I've spent a long time sorting all this out and we are trying to sort ourselves out. We are dropping our tariff as soon as we can and getting things together to sell at a car boot etc. You are right about the work vehicle of course, and we are trying to keep away from using it. Unless hubby is on call and then we have permission to use it as he needs to have his tools with him at all times.

Thanks for your comments everyone and I'm sorry if I seem a bit negative about some of them; these are obviously my initial reactions. We have taken them all on board and will think about them more over the next few days where we may see them in a different light. I do tend to have a knee jerk reaction sometimes to criticism and need to mull things over. I do appreciate the time everyone has taken to comment.

Hannah_10

Wow. :eek: You have read hostility into everwhere it wasn't and gone for the name calling and personal digs on top of that.

How you interpretted a dig at small bikes in the first bit is beyond me, let alone the rest of the imagined hostility you've exploded about.

You can relax, I wont be troubling myself to read, think about, calculate figures on, or respond to anything you write again. I should imagine a few others will be having second thoughts after that outburst too.

Good luck with that ever growing mortgage and £32k of unsecured debt without making any reflection on your leisure spending whatsoever.

rustybucket

Ditzy_Bird wrote: »

£40 for the car, £40 for the bike. The bike is for fun so if we don't have the money hubby can't go out. Hubby often takes us places in his works van to cut petrol costs, but he shouldn't do it and am concerned about him getting caught and getting into trouble at work.

Fair play on your SOA. Not much to offer but I would exercise caution with your hubby using the work van if it is not on business.

You may find if he has an accident his not covered, so it really should stop. You don't need the stress of a what if hanging over you both.

CH27

Hannah_10 wrote: »

Wow. :eek: You have read hostility into everwhere it wasn't and gone for the name calling and personal digs on top of that.

How you interpretted a dig at small bikes in the first bit is beyond me, let alone the rest of the imagined hostility you've exploded about.

You can relax, I wont be troubling myself to read, think about, calculate figures on, or respond to anything you write again. I should imagine a few others will be having second thoughts after that outburst too.

Good luck with that ever growing mortgage and £32k of unsecured debt without making any reflection on your leisure spending whatsoever.

Actually Hannah I thought your post was a bit rude.
We all know what it feels like to be at a low ebb & we all react in different ways.
Ditzy is obviously under enormous pressure.

Hannah_10

There was zero hostility in it, how are you going to address a debt that has grown by £33k in secured and £32k in unsecured debt over 10 years (£6.5k a year) without addressing the £3k a year leisure spending? This figure represents between a fifth and a sixth of all money spent after the mortgage and council tax! Their leisure spending is higher than all utilities put together, even including phones. Thread after thread after thread links unneccessary spends to distraction from unhappy life events (shopaholics with alcoholic husbands, depression following loss of a job etc). With a distraction bill weighing in at half the entire debt problem on it's own why would it not be right to reflect on any potential causes of that? And how would anyone address the root of emotional/comfort spending without looking for what that root was?