Need some advice to clear debts

Mike_Watts

Hello everyone. (This is my 1st post)
I have lived for the last 2 years with my partner and her 14 yrd old boy in a rented house.
I work as a contractor for the NHS in Service Management (Take home pay usually £500 per week every Wednesday) and the missus works in Debenhams part time where she has been for 25 years!
She takes home £408 pcm.
We would desperately like to clear our debts and need some good advice on the best way to tackle things.

We have the following outgoings:-
Regular Monthlies:-
Water:- £36
Gas:- £32
Electric:- £31
Virgin Media :- £110
TV Licence:- £12.37
Home Insurance:- £13.36
Pet Insurance:- £8.26
Life Insurance:- £1.99
Rent:- £82.84
Council Tax:- £37
Loan Insurance:-£11
Mobile Phone Bills:- £45
Car Insurance:- £80
Bank Loan:-£99.37
Local Paper £10.84
Pocket Money:-£80
Lotto:-£20
Zumba/Football subs:-£40
Total:-751.03
Plus approximate Petrol:- £250
Plus approximate Food:- £350
Equals a new total of :-£1350.03

(Approx total joint take home pay £2408

Debt:-
Halifax Loan:- £3046.35
Halifax Credit Card:- £4384.61
Nationwide Credit Card:-2811.73
Look Again:£148
Great Universal:-£38.02
Debenhams store card:-£426

Total:-10854.71

I have a horrific past credit record, so getting more money to try and lump the debt together is a no-no.

Looking for any good advice regarding lowering our monthlies and clearing our debt quicker as right now we are just randomly throwing lumps of money at it but it doesn’t seem to be going down.

Thanks for any advice.
Mike

curlytop12

hello and welcome.
you could really do with filling out the statement of affairs(sticky is 6 lines down from top)to give us a better idea of your situation,you will need APR,credit limits etc for your cards too.
good luck

bottleofred

Hi Mike,

You appear to have approx £1100 left before making the credit card and catalogue payments. You should always concentrate on the credit thats costing the most (you didn't list the interest rates, but go with the highest ones). As well as this though, you are paying lots of money to virginmedia, mobile phone bills, car insurance and on gas and electric. You could shop around for a better media package, reduce the phone to payg, shop around for car insurance and combine the gas and electric with one company to get a better price.

MrsTinks

HOW much for Virgin?? What on earth is this for?

MrsTinks

Oh and £80 pocket money? Seriously??? at 14 he should be EARNING his pocket money so either that is one huge and well kept lawn and shiney car you got - or that amount needs to be dropped to about £5 a week!

MrsTinks

OK there are loads of things missing from your list - and you need to start setting a food budget and work out how much petrol you actually use...
Fill in the SOA calculator and it will be a lot easier to work out where you can cut back and make sure you find the aprs for your debts.
I don't see things like haircuts or clothes... yet a majority of the debts are catalogs and store cards... Get the accounts closed so it's not possible to spend any more on them - the APRs will be enormous!

ghostmadlittlemiss

MrsTine wrote: »

Oh and £80 pocket money? Seriously??? at 14 he should be EARNING his pocket money so either that is one huge and well kept lawn and shiney car you got - or that amount needs to be dropped to about £5 a week!

Maybe I'm mis-reading it, but I took the £80 pocket money as being the couple's personal entertainment money, £80 to spend on treats throughout the month, not money for the OP's OH's son. But I could be wrong there.
Kayleigh

Triggles

A few things missing...

MOT?
Roadside assistance?
Vehicle maintenance?
Car tax?
Parking?
Haircuts?
Dental?
Medical/Optical (prescriptions, glasses, etc)?
Clothing?
School expenses?
Presents (christmas, birthdays, etc)?


As far as what's listed...

virgin media - can that be cut back?
rent - is that accurate? £82 per month??
council tax - again, that seems low - just verifying, is that accurate?
loan insurance - PPI? is it needed? or can you get it cheaper elsewhere?
mobiles - PAYG or contract? can you drop it a tariff?
car insurance - seems a bit high. is this for one car??
local paper - is this a necessity?
pocket money - can this be cut at all?
lotto - this could be cut out
zumba - possibly cut, depending on if it's needed for physical fitness or simply social reasons, I suppose
football subs - what is this - is it fees for child to play football?
petrol - one car or two ? necessary trips? can it be cut back some?
food - for a family of 3, you could reasonably cut this down to £200 per month, check old style board for tips and ideas on how

Need a bit more accurate view of outgoings before people can really comment too much on debts and repayment, as we don't accurately know how much is actually going on other priority bills

Mike_Watts

Thanks for the replies everyone. The post was a bit of a brain dump to start me off. I shall fill in the form tomorrow and provide some answers to the questions as well.

curlytop12

that'll be a big help,i know its a bit overwhelming to begin with!:)