Just in need of help if possible!!

Elementalist

Hi there.

We've been struggling with money for some time, and thanks to my missus, she sort of pushed me onto here. I'm glad she did.

Northern Rock (bless them) have decided to reinstate our normal monthly terms, after an 18 month interest only gap. This has then gone onto what we can and can't afford.

The back end of last year, we went through our local CAB, who kindly negotiated payment terms with people like Black Horse, Barclays, CK Edrupt, Littlewood and Great Universal.

Anyway. I would like to see if any further advice could be given for us to comfortably afford things.

Below's my SOE -

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1140
Partners monthly income after tax....... 961
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2101

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 521.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 85.29999999999995
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 190 (this has a debt repayment attached of £100)
Electricity............................. 50 (paid with key)
Gas..................................... 50 (paid with key)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 50 (inc £25 debt per month)
Telephone (land line)................... 50
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160 (including pet food/stuff)
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 140 (£70 a fortnight, commute 1000 miles a month)
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 65
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 40 (wife's bus travel)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Court order for NR...................... 50 (Repo order as defaulted after loss of job)
CSA..................................... 310
Total monthly expenses.................. 1871.7


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0 (-ve equity)
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 80194.9..(521.4)....4.78
Secured Debt.................. 12770....(85.3).....4.78
Total secured & HP debts...... 92964.9...-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
various Catalogues.............1800......27........0 (this includes Barclays, Great universal, Littlewoods, CK Edrupt and Black Horse. CAB helped us with these)
Unsecured Loan (m).............20139.....89.6......0 (This was part of the mortgage deal we took)
FLM Loan.......................2400......110.......0 (This is a loan to buy the car with last year and house repairs. It's a guarantor loan, which I'd rather not default on)
Total unsecured debts..........24339.....226.6.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,101
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,871.7
Available for debt repayments........... 229.3
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 226.6
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2.7

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -92,964.9
Total Unsecured debt.................... -24,339
Net Assets.............................. -117,303.9



Thank you for any help

Jim

1666hby

Well done for posting. The experts will be along with advice, but didn't want your post to drop off the front page.

DVardysShadow

This is tight! £2.70/month surplus. And not a lot of obvious places to trim. You need to look at increasing household income if you can. Other than that, it is sit tight until the council tax and water arrears are paid off then get on top of the catalogs

njk1012

Hi I'm fairly new at this debt busting thing myself, but hope you don't mind me making a few suggestions.

Your land line seems a little high for a monthly amount have you considered paying for an unlimited or after 6 and weekends package for the calls to reduce this a little.

Groceries could be cut by £10 or £20 a month at least, take look at the grocery challenge on the old style thread, it has helped me loads. (edit to add: I notice you have CSA payments and the above comment is based on 2 Adults)

Also your car insurance and petrol costs are huge! I know you commute a long way by your SOA, but do you also sometimes use your car for journeys you could walk? Have you checked all the comparison sites and cash back sites to see if you can get your insurance cheaper?

Is your wife buying weekly or daily tickets as looking into longer term bus tickets can often save money.

Another thing that has really helped me is upping my income, if only by a few pounds a week by completing surveys, competitions, mystery shopping, printing off coupons and ebaying everything that isn't nailed down/cant be sneakily packed and posted without anyone noticing anytime soon. If you are both doing these it will make a huge difference.

Most important, keep logging in on here, it is a huge melting pot of motivation and support.

I wish you all the luck, I'm sure you will succeed in saying goodbye to the debts/ deficit soon. x

Mikazaru

Elementalist wrote: »

Hi there.

We've been struggling with money for some time, and thanks to my missus, she sort of pushed me onto here. I'm glad she did.

Northern Rock (bless them) have decided to reinstate our normal monthly terms, after an 18 month interest only gap. This has then gone onto what we can and can't afford.

The back end of last year, we went through our local CAB, who kindly negotiated payment terms with people like Black Horse, Barclays, CK Edrupt, Littlewood and Great Universal.

Anyway. I would like to see if any further advice could be given for us to comfortably afford things.

Below's my SOE -

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1140
Partners monthly income after tax....... 961
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2101

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 521.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 85.29999999999995
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 190 (this has a debt repayment attached of £100)
Electricity............................. 50 (paid with key) This and gas usage seem high, could use a monitor to see if you can reduce
Gas..................................... 50 (paid with key)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 50 (inc £25 debt per month)
Telephone (land line)................... 50 This is very high given there are mobiles as well.
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160 (including pet food/stuff) |This is good but have a look at the Old Style board for some ideas on lowering
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 140 (£70 a fortnight, commute 1000 miles a month)
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 65
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 40 (wife's bus travel)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Court order for NR...................... 50 (Repo order as defaulted after loss of job)
CSA..................................... 310
Total monthly expenses.................. 1871.7


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0 (-ve equity)
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 80194.9..(521.4)....4.78
Secured Debt.................. 12770....(85.3).....4.78
Total secured & HP debts...... 92964.9...-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
various Catalogues.............1800......27........0 (this includes Barclays, Great universal, Littlewoods, CK Edrupt and Black Horse. CAB helped us with these)
Unsecured Loan (m).............20139.....89.6......0 (This was part of the mortgage deal we took)
FLM Loan.......................2400......110.......0 (This is a loan to buy the car with last year and house repairs. It's a guarantor loan, which I'd rather not default on)
Total unsecured debts..........24339.....226.6.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,101
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,871.7
Available for debt repayments........... 229.3
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 226.6
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2.7

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -92,964.9
Total Unsecured debt.................... -24,339
Net Assets.............................. -117,303.9



Thank you for any help

Jim

How long till the council tax and water are paid off?
Is there any possibility of car sharing to work?

Elementalist

njk1012 wrote: »

Hi I'm fairly new at this debt busting thing myself, but hope you don't mind me making a few suggestions.

Your land line seems a little high for a monthly amount have you considered paying for an unlimited or after 6 and weekends package for the calls to reduce this a little.

Groceries could be cut by £10 or £20 a month at least, take look at the grocery challenge on the old style thread, it has helped me loads. (edit to add: I notice you have CSA payments and the above comment is based on 2 Adults)

Also your car insurance and petrol costs are huge! I know you commute a long way by your SOA, but do you also sometimes use your car for journeys you could walk? Have you checked all the comparison sites and cash back sites to see if you can get your insurance cheaper?

Is your wife buying weekly or daily tickets as looking into longer term bus tickets can often save money.

Another thing that has really helped me is upping my income, if only by a few pounds a week by completing surveys, competitions, mystery shopping, printing off coupons and ebaying everything that isn't nailed down/cant be sneakily packed and posted without anyone noticing anytime soon. If you are both doing these it will make a huge difference.

Most important, keep logging in on here, it is a huge melting pot of motivation and support.

I wish you all the luck, I'm sure you will succeed in saying goodbye to the debts/ deficit soon. x

Hia.

Thanks for the advice. HUGELY appreciated.

Our landline, also incorporates the good ole Interwobble and TV package. This is a friends and family package through Virgin, and already has a cost saving of about £70 a month. We were thinking about knocking it down.

Groceries, ATM, incorporate food for pets as well (which we are already trying to move to a new home) but £40 for us is a cheap shop!! But we will try harder.

True, I could use feet instead of car, and as for insurance, oh yes indeed. I went through almost every single one to get the best price possible to cover my needs for that.

Wife buys weekly.

ah. I wondered what the wife was doing last night!! haha!

Once again, thank you.

J

Elementalist

Mikazaru wrote: »

How long till the council tax and water are paid off?
Is there any possibility of car sharing to work?

Hia. :hello:

I believe they are both April next year. I will be finding out on Tuesday (got some time off from work) and I'll be doing a fair amount of investigation.

And I wish!! I may only work 9-5, and the people who I work with, who live locally work very different hours. It's one of the reasons I got a diesel, as my petrol car was costing me even more to run per month!!

Cheers

J

opinions4u

£50 for phone and add ons seems steep to me. Freeview. Phone. Tinternet. Why do you need more?

Would a prescription "season ticket" help at £104 a year? http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

Horrible one to suggest, but pet food? Could you give the pet away?

Survey sites to investigate include ipsos panels, Valued Opinions, Global Testmarket, Pureprofile. Dull as hell but a way to pay for the occasional treat.

Take a look at the Mystery Shopping section of this board too. Free food and a fiver for your troubles may be worth having!

RoseRed

I think your best bet is to try and bring in as much cash as possible to try and pay off things like Council Tax etc so you have some space in your budget.

Do you have anything you can sell on ebay/amazon to free up some cash? Look at paid surveys and the up your income board for ideas. I do paid surveys/mystery shopping, daily clicks and use cashback sites, every bit can help.

Also, check out the printable coupons and try me free threads to help reduce shopping bill further. When we go on an economy drive we eat a lot more vegetarian foods getting our protein from pulses, check Madhur Jaffreys 'World Vegetarian' out of the library for lots of nice recipes. Porridge for breakfast made with water and powdered milk may be boring but its healthy and super cheap!

Take stock of everything in the cupboards, fridge and freezer and what you have as the base of your meals. Ditto for toiletries and cleaning products, use up every last scrap before you need to buy anything new.

A couple of months at a real austerity drive may not be fun but it can give you the breathing space you need in your budget.

theoretica

The car is costing you a lot, and in effect lowering your wage.
You might find you would be better off looking for a local job where you could get rid of the car, even if it pays a bit less. Depends on how much you like your current job.

Elementalist

opinions4u wrote: »

£50 for phone and add ons seems steep to me. Freeview. Phone. Tinternet. Why do you need more?

Would a prescription "season ticket" help at £104 a year?

Horrible one to suggest, but pet food? Could you give the pet away?

Survey sites to investigate include ipsos panels, Valued Opinions, Global Testmarket, Pureprofile. Dull as hell but a way to pay for the occasional treat.

Take a look at the Mystery Shopping section of this board too. Free food and a fiver for your troubles may be worth having!

Hia :hello:

Cool! I'll look into the prescription thing. Cheers!

As for the pet, already there =( Looking into either re-home or pack off to a charity..

Will certainly look at the survey site. (could be a bit of fun!)

Cheers!

J