Pulling my finger out to get out of debt

Cookiee

Hi lovely MSE forum

My husband unfortunately is unable to work due to a back injury. He is undergoing treatment and is looking at being out of work for the next year or so. After some advice from the benefits board, I have posted my SOA below so hopefully you lovely people can give me some tips:

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
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 270
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1570
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 65
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 15
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 13
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 30
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1129

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 135000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 141500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 118500...(500)......3.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 118500....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclays.......................4000......100.......0
capital one....................180.......15........29.9
car loan.......................6500......186.......9.9
black horse....................5000......140.......19.9
Total unsecured debts..........15680.....441.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,570
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,129
Available for debt repayments........... 441
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 441
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 141,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -118,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,680
Net Assets.............................. 7,320
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

WASHER

Welcome to the board Cookie.

Your Soa needs to be completed, you have made no provision for groceries, car insurance, mot, tax etc.

Have you been onto turn2us.com for benefit calculator?

Your water is high £65.00 per month, is this metered?

Once you have factored in Groceries, car etc, you will have very little left to repay your debts, have you contacted CCCS. Have you considered bankruptcy?

WASHER.x.

WASHER

have you considered selling your home, you have approx £16K equity, you could repay your debts and then rent privately. Just a thought.

Cookiee

Hi Washer

Thanks for your replies. No we do not want to sell our home. We have never missed a payment and it took us 5 years to be able to get to where we are with our house. Our mortgage is fairly low for where we live and for a 3 bed semi it was a bargain lol but we will be in real difficulty should the interest from the BoE goes up:eek:

The SOA is almost correct, I have not missed anything but my boiler insurance which is £30 a month, which leaves me about £5 left. My husband at the moment is getting ESA but we dont know for how long. With this we cover our food (approx £50 a week which covered his tobacco, our food for the week and cat food). I will have to use our credit card to cover the car tax but will be getting 12 months to save a bit of money and help save enough for next year.

The £17.50 left a week from ESA helps (or not helps at the moment) cover my husbands medication which is approximately £25 a month with leaves £15 a month to use for petrol etc etc.

I walk to work and sold my car as there was no need ... also helping me keep fit :rotfl:

The water is high unfortunately due to debt whilst my husband has been off work and from last year. After looking through this post I have now arranged to have a water meter so this should hopefully cut this in half next year.

Clothes are a luxury we cant afford so repairing or coming up with new ways to revamp the clothes I have.

Any suggestions from anyone on what else I can do? Unfortunately because of the type of job I do and the hours I work, I am unable to get another job. I have spoken to my boss and he advised it is not possible

I did wonder if i would be able to get another 0% credit card and transfer the highest loan to it? Anyone have more than one 0% card? I have £6k on my 0% barclaycard but have used nearly £4k to combine my highest debts into this. Would it affect my score further??

WASHER

Cookiee,

It would be helpful if you could edit your SOA and post the benefits your husband receives, and put in your grocery figure, tobacco etc . It gives the peeps on here a fuller picture, and no doubt more peeps will say you have not put in a figure for groceries if they do not read post 3.

You can have another 0% card, be careful not to apply for too many though, your rating will take a hit.

I assume this is your husbands car on the SOA, do you have unemployment cover or any insurance you can call upon?

Is your boiler old? If not, £30 per month is an awful lot of money, particularly as you only have a few pounds left at the end of the month and have to pop the car tax onto credit cards. How will you pay for car servicing? Tyres etc. The £30 per month saved could go towards this.

If I was in your financial situation, I would be contacting the CCCS to look into a DMP, you need to enjoy life a little and your spare cash, all £5 per month, will not enable you to have a wee treat, otherwise you could end up spending on cards to give yourself a treat. Repaying debt is never easy, it can be stressful and everyone needs a little treat now and then.

WASHER.x.

Cookiee

Hi all

I have now amended my SOA to show my husbands ESA monthly payments and have broken it down to show how much we put aside each month for groceries etc etc

So hopefully this gives you all a better pic of our position. I am hoping to maybe get another 0% interest card to move the biggest loan to but will depend on credit limit etc ...

Any help would be appreciated

WASHER

Tesco credit card, I can recommend. 0% for 9 months, otherwise take a look at Martins advice, look at card/loan tab (blue) top left hand corner, and he generally pops up a list of good 0% cards etc.

Although your SOA looks good, and you seem to have balanced the books, in reality, it isn't the case, you have no allowance for gifts/clothes (we all need something at some point, even me and I hate shopping!)tyres etc.

Please consider looking at the CCCS website, or phone them. You need to lower your debts repayments a wee bit in order to live a little.

You have acknowledged the fact you need to control your debts before they got totally out of hand and well done for that, its never easy posting an SOA or looking through statements etc.

WASHER.x.

origami.steve

Hi All

have you thought about taking in a lodger?
If you have a three bed house and there are just the two of you could you manage to take in a student perhaps (if there is a nearby university) or maybe someone who works in the area but lives away. That way you would have the weekends to yourself. You could stipulate a set length of time so you would have some control.

A car boot should be a good earner too!
Many years ago I was very strapped for cash so decided to take all the things I did not use anymore to a car boot. Most of it was junk and would have gone straight in the bin but I was amazed at what people bought. I made around £200 on the day and it help towards my money trouble.

A friend of mine raised some money by making sandwiches for her workmates. They loved it as they could have anything they wanted and it was cheaper than the going to the bakers some distance away. She did this for six months by getting up an hour earlier to make them for that day. She sometimes got the bread at a knockdown price if she timed the visit to the supermarket just right.

Hope this helps

Regards
Stephen

katsu

Cookiee wrote: »

Hi lovely MSE forum

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 do you still need this car? You said you got rid of your car so if OH is not working can you take his car off the road for now?
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 270
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1570
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 35 This is high for two. See if you can borrow an OWL from your library, turn things off, no standby, no lights in empty rooms, check immersion not left on etc. Look at comparison sites to see if you can get a better tarrif
Gas..................................... 30 as elec
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 65 how much longer do you need to pay this much?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 15
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 cancel this and get a freeview box or just watch the main 5 channels.
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 200Look at the menu info on the old style forums and get hubby cooking to reduce this.
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 15
Road tax................................ 10 are you really putting this by at the moment? If not, where is the extra money currently going.
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 need to look at what you spent last year and see if you can start putting money aside for this.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 25 get a pre-payment certificate and save money here.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 13
Contents insurance...................... 13 both look OK but use comparison sites at renewal times and go through a cashback site too
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 30 does your boiler really need this? I pay £65 a year for an annual service and spent a couple of hundred pounds getting my boiler sorted one year - this was only around the same as your your £30 a month, and paying £65 a year for a gas engineer to come and do a service is very much cheaper than the £360 you are paying.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 start thinking who you need to gift to and look at the special occasions board for tips on making gifts etc
Haircuts................................ 0 never? Try a hairdressing college for this on the cheap.
Entertainment........................... 0 look at joining the library for free books and the occasional cheap DVD
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1129

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 135000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6500 may be worth finding out if this can be sold and you can get a cheap runaround and pay the rest of the money off the debts?
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 141500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 118500...(500)......3.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 118500....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclays.......................4000......100.......0 Is £100 your minimum payment? If not then drop to the minimum and pay any extra off cap 1. Is this car at it's limit?
capital one....................180.......15........29.9
car loan.......................6500......186.......9.9
black horse....................5000......140.......19.9
Total unsecured debts..........15680.....441.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,570
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,129
Available for debt repayments........... 441
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 441
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 141,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -118,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,680
Net Assets.............................. 7,320
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Start thinking about what you can ebay or car boot to knock a bit more off the debts. Hope some of the above gives you ideas.

All the best.

Cookiee

Hi Katsu

Thanks for your advice

We need to keep hubbies car as I still need to use it for work now an then depending if I need to go onto site and the work car is not available. Also with hubbies physio and hospital treatments. The car is very reliable and is under warranty so if anything goes wrong we wont be hit with an expensive bill for something we need to keep on the road.

Elect/gas is the best we have it at the moment. On the advice from here I went on the comparison sites and this was the very cheapest. It was last year £50/55 respectivly:eek:

Water I have to pay this till next year the bill just was so much more than we ever expected and its not like we have a swimming pool (I wish :rotfl:) but again with the lovely advice on this site we now have a water meter which will help reduce this by half.

We are on a 12 month contract with virgin so once this is up in Nov will deff look into this.

The road tax/food/haircuts/clothes etc etc all come out of my hubbies esa. It is £135 a fortnight so we strech this as far as we can. We have been putting £10 a month a side to help with the tax & mot due end of july so I dont have to use alot of my CCard to cover this / we have enough now for the mot and the rest will have to be my card. Also my colleague at work is a trained hairdresser so she gives me free haircuts ...:j


Our boiler is very old and we cant afford the £2/3k for a new one. The previous owners conned us slightly and this is the outcome of a dodgy boiler. I wonder if its worth it though? I might cancel this and either look for a cheaper cover or put half of it in an emergency account? that way if anything goes wrong we have some money :A

Presents/ entertaining are ok. We try to do a bootsale once a month to get extra money but now we are running out on things to sell!! our family understand the position we are in and only ask for a card and they are happy. Once our position is better - hopefully this time next year - then we will buy them all a pressent to say thank you and make up for those we have missed.

Barclays is the minimum payment. I have just under £4k on it at 0% for 18 months which runs out Aug next year. I am going to wait till then and then get another 0% (hopefully) or might consider a life balance interest card. If I can then hopsefully transfer a loan and the Barclays card to that. I do have £2.5k left on this but I really dont want to touch this. If I do a balance transfer from capital to barclays then they will charge me as its been more than 3 months

Please keep any good suggestions coming as I really need it xx

Cookiee

origami.steve wrote: »

Hi All

have you thought about taking in a lodger?
If you have a three bed house and there are just the two of you could you manage to take in a student perhaps (if there is a nearby university) or maybe someone who works in the area but lives away. That way you would have the weekends to yourself. You could stipulate a set length of time so you would have some control.

A car boot should be a good earner too!
Many years ago I was very strapped for cash so decided to take all the things I did not use anymore to a car boot. Most of it was junk and would have gone straight in the bin but I was amazed at what people bought. I made around £200 on the day and it help towards my money trouble.

A friend of mine raised some money by making sandwiches for her workmates. They loved it as they could have anything they wanted and it was cheaper than the going to the bakers some distance away. She did this for six months by getting up an hour earlier to make them for that day. She sometimes got the bread at a knockdown price if she timed the visit to the supermarket just right.

Hope this helps

Regards
Stephen

Hi Stephen - Thanks for your advice hun
Taking in a lodger is not really an option. I would not be comfortable with a stranger in the house and at the moment with my hubbie in pain would not be fair to the person as he is up all night and does shout out in pain when it is bad. But it was a good suggestion thou thank you x

Bootsales are great. We are hoping to do another one on the B/H monday but its just getting stuff together as we have been bootsaling scince March. Need more stuff :rotfl:

My work are very snobbie so handmade stuff would not go down. I dont really want to public knowledge I am having financial difficulties. My boss and my close friend know and thats it. Its not their business and dont want the hassle from them.

Thanks for your advice :beer: