Debt Free?? I doubt it.....

Lou.T_2

Here's our SOA, we have drastically changed our way of life to get to only (!) overspending 404 a month - although bear in mind that the self employment figure is the rock bottom take home for my OH and can be more so the 404 overspend is not that every month. Although the way the building trade is going i cant see the next few years getting much better.

We have mortgage and rent as we moved from our mortgaged property closer to work and family and rent it out, unfortunately with the additional cost of having to change to one of the wonderful Halifax's 'consent to let' mortgages which saw our monthly payments rise from 452 to 626 per month. although this rise in 175 is slightly compensated by the saving in fuel/ferry expenses from our old home (approx 300/mth)

Debts o/s
Credit cards 18,500
LoanA 1,306 (paid off Dec 2011)
LoanB 13620 (paid off June 2016)
LoanCar 6875 (paid off June 2013)
Overdraft A 1800
Overdraft B 3800

House Value 115000
Mortgage o/s 110000



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,521.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,395.42
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 791.92
Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.55
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.17
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350.00
rent paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.58
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276.00

Savings & Investments ....................0.00


Family

School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,037.00


Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00


Clothes, Health & Beauty

Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67


Big One Offs

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Odds & Sods

Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,163.33


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,567.46


My question is where do we go from here - I have looked at CCCS it suggests IVA or DMP - we havent missed any payments YET, so am I deluding myself into thinking that we can keep muddling through every month not knowing where or if the money is coming from. We are really just existing at the moment and with 2 young children (4&2) we really feel that they arent getting the best of us as we are both working full time and still not getting anywhere. I want to be able to live again and sleep again and enjoy life again - but short of a lottery win I cant see a way out....

Thanks for reading this outpouring of information - i hope someone can help!

DarnIt_3

Lou.T wrote: »

Here's our SOA, we have drastically changed our way of life to get to only (!) overspending 404 a month - although bear in mind that the self employment figure is the rock bottom take home for my OH and can be more so the 404 overspend is not that every month. Although the way the building trade is going i cant see the next few years getting much better.

We have mortgage and rent as we moved from our mortgaged property closer to work and family and rent it out, unfortunately with the additional cost of having to change to one of the wonderful Halifax's 'consent to let' mortgages which saw our monthly payments rise from 452 to 626 per month. although this rise in 175 is slightly compensated by the saving in fuel/ferry expenses from our old home (approx 300/mth)

Debts o/s
Credit cards 18,500
LoanA 1,306 (paid off Dec 2011)
LoanB 13620 (paid off June 2016)
LoanCar 6875 (paid off June 2013)
Overdraft A 1800
Overdraft B 3800

House Value 115000
Mortgage o/s 110000



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,521.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,395.42
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 791.92
Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.55
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.00
Seems quite high in comparison to some peoples, are you in arrears?
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.17
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
Wow! Anything you can do with this? How big is your OD?
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.33
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350.00
Aldi's here I come!
rent paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00
Rent paid plus mortgage? I assume you rent out your home you have mortgaged? You are making a loss based on your income, you need to get back into your home ASAP.

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.58
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276.00

Savings & Investments ....................0.00


Family

School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,037.00
Would it be cheaper for you NOT to work? You need seriously look at that.


Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00


Clothes, Health & Beauty

Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67


Big One Offs

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
I think you should reassess this! Stop saving to pleasure someone else when you cant pleasure yourself! Children at 2 and 4 would rather make a collage with you than get a new barbie.
Odds & Sods

Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,163.33


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,567.46


My question is where do we go from here - I have looked at CCCS it suggests IVA or DMP - we havent missed any payments YET, so am I deluding myself into thinking that we can keep muddling through every month not knowing where or if the money is coming from. We are really just existing at the moment and with 2 young children (4&2) we really feel that they arent getting the best of us as we are both working full time and still not getting anywhere. I want to be able to live again and sleep again and enjoy life again - but short of a lottery win I cant see a way out....

Thanks for reading this outpouring of information - i hope someone can help!

Your childcare fees are going to be halved very soon as your 4 year old will be going into school in sept this year or next?

Car payments.....can you not just sell your car and pay off the HP then when your eldest is in school look at getting a better car?

If you have any space on your CC transfer your OD across to save yourself £90 a month!

There are lots of things you could do to avoid DMP, you have managed until now

a_brand_new_me

Hi there,
I am sure there are lots of people out there that can give you good advice on money saving tips/cut backs etc. I just wanted to say that we were in a similar position as you and kidded ourselves for years that we could struggle through and eventually muddle our way out. Had our LBM a few months ago and finally signed up to a DMP (again like you CCCS advised DMP or IVA). Best thing we have done because even though it will possibly take 6 years, at least our debts WILL be paid off eventually, instead of just servicing them at min levels and overspending each month. Funny thing is that we have had more money left over this month then we have ever had!!! Good luck on whatever you decide.

Lou.T_2

DarnIt wrote: »

Your childcare fees are going to be halved very soon as your 4 year old will be going into school in sept this year or next?

Car payments.....can you not just sell your car and pay off the HP then when your eldest is in school look at getting a better car?

If you have any space on your CC transfer your OD across to save yourself £90 a month!

There are lots of things you could do to avoid DMP, you have managed until now

Thanks for your reply, by renting out our property we are cutting our travel costs by £300, so actually a gain of 125 after paying increased mortgage payment! childcare is due to drop by approx 200 in september (still have to pay for after schools as we both work full time) and although on the face of it it looks like i would be better off not working, unfortunately with OH being selfemployed we need to know that there is at least my 1500 coming in every month. we can go for up to 6 weeks sometimes with no income from OH.
Ubfortunately we dont have Aldi here (NI) but only shop at lidl & asda and really cant cut much more.
Re the car we only have one vehicle so getting rid is not an option, we live in country 35 miles from my work and 8 miles from schools, talk about location dictating lifestyle....

I think i will have to bite the bullet and talk to CCCS or the like, we need to start having a life again (ps the 50 saving for christmas is food drink presents and covering oh being off work for 1 week - SE sucks...