Hello *waves* Could i have some advice please :-)

katelovescakes

Hello everyone im Kate

I have faced up to my debts this week and have spoken to someone last week at the free debt place - we discussed iva's and decided that it wouldnt be the best road to go down for us.

I have done my SOA (posted below)

I run WW meetings and bake cakes on the side lol, my husband works for his parents (groan) We fritter money so i have set up an easycash acct with halifax and we will transfer £ in there when he gets paid on a friday and that has to do our shopping, spends, deisel etc. I just want to be debt free - we are in a small terrace house with 2 kids and no space - i want a garden for the kids to play in and somewhere for my family to sleep when they visit. We are in neg equity due to us borrowing money on our mortgage - grr northern rock lol.

I would like some advice on clearing our debt - as you can see from our sov we seem to have loads extra every month - i just dont know where its going!!! (wine prob!)

I recon we have about 17k of debt and have been looking at a loan for 15 over 7 yrs - then i know we are debt free from there and we will be about £40 per month better off.

Our 8k loan os with NR and is over 22 yrs so will be paying bk about 20k!!!!!!!

Im worried we wont get a loan,
Virgin card will give me 0% for 10mths on bal trans but only have abour 2900 that will go on.

can anyone help!!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1473
Benefits................................ 300
Other income............................ 728
Total monthly income.................... 3301
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 455
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 96
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 65
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 180
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 1
Contents insurance...................... 1
Life assurance ......................... 17
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 25
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1802

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 60000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5500
Other assets............................ 1000
Total Assets............................ 66500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 69500....(455)......5.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 69500.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Northern rock loan.............8500......100.......15.9
Virgin CC .....................1500......20........16.9
Egg............................1000......20........17.9
Halifax overdraft .............1650......30........0
Car loan ......................5500......145.......5
Halifax cc.....................5000......100.......15.9
Total unsecured debts..........23150.....415.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,301
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,802
Available for debt repayments........... 1,499
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 415
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,084
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 66,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -69,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -23,150
Net Assets.............................. -26,150
Created using the SOA calculator at Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.


hope this makes sense :j
Also how do i get the countdown thingy so it tells me when we are debt free????
Kate xx

DS4215

Kate,

Others will be along in a bit and most will advise you to cut down on some areas of your spendings - your groceries does look really high and you can probably half it for a month. If you stick to your SOA budget above you have £1000 per month to put towards your debts. Start by paying off the Egg debt in full next month. Put as much of the 16.9% CC debt onto the Virgin 0% balance transfer and throw as much as you can as the remaining debts.

With £1 a month to put towards it you can completely clear all of your unsecured debts within 2 years. It might be a struggle, but think how much better you will all feel if you can get there!

If you do not really have £1k a month free then you need to look at a spending diary to work out where it is going.

jade-evie

You must be missing something off your SOA- that's a massive amount of money each month to not know where it's going...!

Do you really spend nothing on entertainment? Not the odd DVD from tesco, odd takeaway?

katelovescakes

Thanks for replying guys, my husband smokes so thats why groceries so high and still buying nappies ect. Trying to cut shopping down, we are taking about 100 pw out for entertainment £25 each for during the week - kids play (i have a circle of friends i see every week with the kids) swallows loads! And steve plays football t3 times a week. and 50 for the weekend. Im hoping to save some of this tho. We were having a couple of takeaways per week too which now has to come out our weekly 'allowance'

TBH this is the 1st month we are doing this and i think it will really open our eyes as to where our money goes im hoping to have monly left over at the end of the month to pay somthing off. Like i said we fritter on things like Steve will go to the shop and buy ciggerettes and then a bottle of coke and a mars bar so that all adds up everyday! (i do too)

we also go up to Glasgow (where im from) every 6 weeks so thats £100 extra on deisel....

I know we are not in as bad a situation as others but think we can get ourselfs out of this if we do somthing now.

Thanks guys

katelovescakes

Just had another look at my SOV and the OTHER INCOME says £728 - thats per year its only £60 per month lol so minus £668 off our amount left - now its £416...... i must admit i was really surprised at the £1k per month thing!!!!

jade-evie

katelovescakes wrote: »

Just had another look at my SOV and the OTHER INCOME says £728 - thats per year its only £60 per month lol so minus £668 off our amount left - now its £416...... i must admit i was really surprised at the £1k per month thing!!!!

That explains it!

It's amazing how easily £400 can be eaten up with £20 here and there... best of luck with your spending diary- my partner and I are in a similar situation whereby we don't have much extra cash but we are lucky enough to be in a situation where we can still afford to make payments and avoid an IVA or DMP. GOOD LUCK!

katelovescakes

Thanks Jade-evie, we always make sure we dont miss payments but just feel like we are stuck and will never get out of it and be paying forever. Think i'll transfer some £ onto my virgin card 0% prob my overdraft as we are paying £30 per month just to have it!! that will free up an extra £30 - roll on January - i always make lots of money then!!

DizzyDizzy

Hi Kate, I reckon with a bit of focus you could probably clear this without taking out another loan or an IVA etc.

You need to keep a spending diary - make sure you know where every penny is going! Stop popping to the shops for extras - we live 5 mins walk away from a sainsburys so I know the temptation!

You can also plan all your meals in advance so you only shop for what you need. check your storecupboards so you can eek out supplies. We are a family of 4 with a baby in nappies still and we spend about £250 per month. I buy Wilkinsons value nappies and they are great.

Have you tried downshifting your food shopping (I think that's what it's called lol!). Try buying the value brands, often they are just as good.

Then, as the first reply stated above, look at your debts and work out which one to focus on clearing first. Then you will have more money when that one's cleared to start on the next one.

Best of luck x

Debt_free_by_2012

Organisation is key! Spending diaries are great and will help control a lot of your spending. I always carry a notebook with me it includes all my expenses for the month and then what i have spare. Everything spent gets written down, you know exactly what is in your account. Good luck with your journey, I'm sure you'll get through it!

dobs

Hi, not much to add but this month we have knocked a hundred pounds off our shopping bill by more careful, using up freezer contents and meal planning, hoping to cut it down agin nxt month, think its easier doing it in stages lol. Ds3 now in nappies bedtimes only but have found asda smartprice nappies are fine for this.
With regards to entertainment, have you thought about cutting down on the weekly kids play? Maybe go every other wk and suggest to ur friends all meeting up in the park and having a picnic or take turns to come round to each others houses? Would save some money and they would have different toys to play with.
Also maybe limit takaways to one a wk or buying one of the ready put together packs you can get from Asda etc? All the best x

katelovescakes

Thanks for your advice guys!! right i calle NR today re out loan - we pay the minimum at the minute over 22 years (i know!!) we are paying 95 per month of which 87 is interest - any advice as to what i should do about it? the loan is 8300 at the moment.
thanks kx