Help...is this the way to go???

turbo.jet

I'm SOOOOOOO glad to be of help and that you are on board with one of my suggestions!

The people who lived in my flat before me had Sky - 2 and a half years ago - and the dish is still up and the cable still runs to the back of my TV. I've never gone down the freesat road though as we get fine freeview reception with an indoor set-top aerial.

I've also thought about Sky but just cannot justify the expense while I'm in debt.

chevalier

Hi there my comments are in blue

s-l-h wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 0 why don't you get child benefit? No working families tax credit?
Other income............................ 81 What is this and can you up it anymore?
Total monthly income.................... 2581
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 650 is this repayment or interest only. If repayment can you go interest only for a few years to pay down the other debt? Or can you ask for a payment holiday, so you can pay off some of the small credit cards with the eyewatering interest rates?
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 10
Council tax............................. 137 You can ask to pay this over 12 months not 10 to spread the load a little.
Electricity............................. 85 This is really high even allowing for the price rises recently. Do you switch everything off at the wall at night (well except the fridge and freezer). How often do you line dry clothes rather than use a tumble dryer. Recharge mobile phones at work rather than at home. Don't leave things on standby. If you still have any of the old type bulbs, you can often get free ones from energy companies, just check it out on the web.
Gas..................................... 70 Again what temperature do you have your thermostat set at. Anymore than 19 degrees is a luxury sorry. Warm jumpers, cheap fleeces for over the knees in the evening can all cut this down. Also check the temp of your water as well. If it comes out the tap so scalding you have to add cold to it for it to be usable, your water heater is set to high. As other have said check that you are with the cheapest provider. If you haven't switched providers in the last couple of years then you are almost certainly on a more expensive tarriff. You might even want to look at a capped rate, so that you know what you are paying whilst you are paying off debt.

Other ways to save on fuel, is to make double use of the oven, ie do cakes when you do a roast or a casserole, make sure curtains are drawn before it gets dark. You can line them again with fleece from a charity shop just by pinning up an extra lining and this will help with heat loss from the windows. Also check that you don't have draughts coming under the doors and through the letter box too. 'Sausauge dog' draft excluders for the bottom of doors can make a real difference too.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 27
Telephone (land line)................... 15 do you need a landline if you spend so much on a mobile phone each month.
Mobile phone............................ 55 Can you go PAYG or else phone and ask to drop a tariff? They will often do this if you say you are having trouble paying. Also if you have any old handsets knocking around you can sell them to Envirophone, and get cashback via Quidco as well.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 You spend nearly £100 a month on telephone, internet and cable tv. What about bundling these all together would that be cheaper? I think you have been spun a line about the cable company owning all satelite dishes.
Internet Services....................... 20 See above.
Groceries etc. ......................... 480 Here is a challenge for you. First inventory all of your cupboards, the fridge and the freezer. Then work a meal plan from what you have in the house now. See how long you can go before you have to shop again doing this. A stockpile of food is no good if it never gets used. Also monitor how much food gets thrown out. Once you have done the storecupboard challenge above, go shopping with a list and stick to it. If little people make the bill larger via pester power either leave them at home or learn to say no:D:rotfl:! I leave mine at home for just this reason.

There are several threads on the OLD STYLE forum of this site which have healthy recipes that cost pennies. Well done on doing some batch cooking, but don't forget you can make savings on things like household cleaning products too. And do you have a toiletry stash? If you do now is the time to start using it!
Clothing................................ 50 I know it is hard to not spend on clothes with a small person, but ebay and charity shops can be your friends for cutting this back.
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 100 Is there any way you can vary your hours so that you don't have to pay this?
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 18 Do you have a prepayment certificate for this? I think it works out cheaper per 3 months or year if you have more than 3 items prescribed for you a month.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15 Are these all the cheapest?
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30 How about a money neutral christmas. Do you have to buy for lots of people or is this just for your child?
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 100 You need to cut this back,
Holiday................................. 125 You need to rethink this. Have you already paid a deposit for something. If not then maybe holiday in the UK this coming year, or have staycation at home instead.
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2234

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 186000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 175000...(650)......3.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 175000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
loan...........................12000.....273.......8.9
c/card.........................800.......40........38
c/c............................700.......35........38
c/c............................2000......60........18
c/c............................3000......95........18
c/c............................5700......120.......6.9
c/c............................6500......125.......18.1
Total unsecured debts..........30700.....748.......- .

Ouch to those APR's there is a snowball calculator on here which shows you which debt to pay off first so that you minimise the amount of interest you pay. However as I mentioned above if you could get a 3 month mortgage repayment holiday, you would be able to pay off the two smallest cards now, which would free up £75 to throw at the £2000 credit card and so on.

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,581
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,234
Available for debt repayments........... 347
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 748
Amount short for making debt repayments. -401 No holiday fund saves £125. Say £20 a month each of gas and electric for being more frugal. £50 for PAYG mobiles £80 save on entertainment and £100 save on food is £395 so very close to being in balance again. If you both can do surveys online maybe you could make up this shortfall. However you would have to be very difficult. If you factored in paying off the 2 smallest debts via mortgage repayment holiday, then you would just about be in balance after a couple of months. I am not saying you could do all these straight away but I am saying there is wiggle room in your budget.
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 186,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -175,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,700
Net Assets.............................. -19,700
Created using the SOA calculator at

You total debt is just short of 31k. Without making any cutbacks you are indeed getting further into debt each month. However I think it is doable that you can make some changes to get your budget to balance. However longer term you may want to think about a DMP.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't go with a fee charging company. Let's just say they say it will take 10 years to clear your debt. But they are taking a fee out of your debt repayment. A non fee taking firm/charity eg Payplan or CCCS (the link for these is on the forum, don't go with the CCCS that comes up first from google as they do charge), then all of your debt repayment goes to your creditors so you WILL pay off the debt faster. No brainer really isn't it!:D

Good luck with your journey. You didn't get into this much debt overnight, and you won't lose it again overnight either, but the situation isn't impossible to sort out.

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