New To Forum-would Appreciate Any Help

SHEARERBOBS

HI

I'm 25 and my hubby is 29, we have a two year old son. I'm constantly worried sick over our spiralling debt and am taking the first step to sorting this damn mess out. We owe:

Overdraft: £1250 limit - currently £1200
HSBC loan: £5000 - £134 a month, 3 years left
Car HP: not sure but £185 a month, 4 years left
Homeowner loan: £168 a month, 15 years left @ 12.5%
HSBC card: £2700 - limit £6,000 @ 15.9%
Virgin card: £2700 - limit £5,000 @ 20%
Mint card: £2000 - liimit £2000 @ 0% six months
Sainsburys: £1000 - limit £1100 @ 3.9% life of balance

So feeling very frightened and worried. I was off work after the baby for a while and that's where it started, plus we paid for our wedding. Every month I find myself transfering money from my credit card into my account to stop hitting my overdraft limit.
I don't know what else to say except where do i start??? :eek:

magicmaria

Hi

You have taken the first steps a lot of people will come along who can offer you some great advice, firstly I would suggest posting a SOA Staement of Affairs listing all you incomings & outgoings then we will be able to have a look if there can be any savings to be made.

Bellie_2

Hi there, Welcome and well done. I know it can be very scary posting all your debts for all to see for the first time, but soon there will be lots of people along to advise you and try not to feel worried or frightened, from what I have seen there is nothing that the people on this board have not been able to help out on, Try and post your SOA as soon as you feel able to as that really helps everyone work out how to help you best. x

Maximillion

You've come to the right place - best thing is you recognise the siuation and are ready to deal with it, well done! Lots of people here are in the same position or still recovering. As magicmaria says first need to look at your budget or SOA. Sort your money asap to halt the downslide. then you can look at reducing the cost of the debt.
good luck

SHEARERBOBS

HERE IT IS.............
Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £769.00
Partners salary - £1410.00
Benefits - £687.00

Total - £2866.00

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £360 (£50,000 mortgage, 23 years)
Council Tax - £80
Gas - £21
Electric - £40.00
TV License - £10.99
Sky £45.99
Phone - £70.00 (partner's inc)
Food - £300
Car Insurance - £68.00
Petrol - £40.00
Nursery Fees - £550.00
Inland rev - £50.00
Pet Insurance - £20.00
Water - £21.00

Total excluding debts = £1680

debt repayments:

Ocean finance - 168.00
HSBC loan - 134
HSBC card - 80.00
Virgin - 35.00
Mint - 45.00
Sainsburys - 30.00
Car - 185.00
Debt management (husbands) - £100

total = £777.00

Extras:

Car tax - 15.00
caravan - 15.00
Savings - 120.00
entertainment - 170.00

Grand total going out = £2777

Think that's everything??? But never ever have any money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Why oh why???

Can anyone help, any suggestions?:rolleyes:

emzig123

SHEARERBOBS wrote:

HERE IT IS.............
Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £769.00
Partners salary - £1410.00
Benefits - £687.00

Total - £2866.00

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £360 (£50,000 mortgage, 23 years)
Council Tax - £80
Gas - £21
Electric - £40.00
TV License - £10.99
Sky £45.99 Get rid of this, I bet most of the stuff you watch is on freeview!
Phone - £70.00 (partner's inc)Is this the right package for you? Reanalyse your bills and see if you can either change your package or go PAYG
Food - £300This is really high, I'm assuming that it is you, your partner and one child? Head over to old style and get some ideas of cheap and easy recipes to try.
Car Insurance - £68.00This is really high, I pay roughly £40 a month and I am 21 with no No Claims discount. See if you can switch
Petrol - £40.00
Nursery Fees - £550.00Can you get any vouchers etc through work? some companies do offer help with nursery fees
Inland rev - £50.00
Pet Insurance - £20.00Can you get a better quote? This is quite high
Water - £21.00

Total excluding debts = £1680

debt repayments:

Ocean finance - 168.00
HSBC loan - 134
HSBC card - 80.00
Virgin - 35.00
Mint - 45.00
Sainsburys - 30.00
Car - 185.00
Debt management (husbands) - £100

total = £777.00

Extras:

Car tax - 15.00
caravan - 15.00What is this cost for? Is it a charge for where you keep it?
Savings - 120.00Most people would say it's pointless to save whilst you are in debt as you are paying more interest than you are earning. How much do you already have put aside and what is it for?
entertainment - 170.00What kind of entertainment? Is this for both of you? Can you do different things? Meet friends for a drink not a meal and eat at home, have people round and have a night in instead.

Grand total going out = £2777

Think that's everything??? But never ever have any money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Why oh why???

Can anyone help, any suggestions?:rolleyes:

Well done on posting, good luck on making changes, best thing you can do xx

bananakinz

Hi!
I would start a spending diary to see exactly where your money is going.

Food seems to be high, do you have much in savings? this £120 would be better off going towards debt until debt has cleared?

I'm sure someone else will be along with some other points to mull over x

vivaladiva

Keep a spending diary - you will be amazed at where your money goes. It's all those £1 and £2 here and there that do the damage!
And emzig123 seems to have covered the rest.
Good Luck.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

welcome aboard :beer:

sky need to go or cut down to the basic package.

sky is a luxery not an essential.

Arguably the same applies to pets, but I can understand once you have one you are emotionally committed to it.

SHEARERBOBS

HI

in my defence (only joking!) the tax credits pay for the nursery,therefore my wage is my own (well my debts).
Sky we have for the football, if we didn't have it hubby would go out and watch it. Car ins is high due to fact first time hubby has had insurance as always been on company insurance. Caravan is for where we keep it.
Entertainment is very high i agree....my husband tends to go out at weekends, not me...
Shopping is main problem, i internet shop then end up doing top up shops all the time.
Our savings are for emergencies. As my hubby is self employed and i work through an agency if either of us off we don't get paid. But i can see where youre coming from.

Any more ideas?

anniestar

Welcome and good luck with your efforts to become debt free. A few things stand out. Sky can you ditch this? Savings of £120 if you threw the money at the debt you would be debt free even sooner. Your food bill is VERY high as the OP said the OS board is a Godsend and can't fail to help. Anyway hope this helps, good luck and keep posting.Also your entertainment costs are very high, could you decide to either get rid of sky or your entertainment?