Help Help Help (and please be nice....!)

sugarcube84

i think the best way is a joint soa as others have suggested, you said in your first post that you afford you half of the bills with no problems so it might be that you need to contribute a bit more until OH is back on his feet. Dealing with debts jointly will save you money in the long run.

kelzbelz_04

Ok here it is ....


But before you read it, can I just say, i have put my income as £1100 p/month after tax etc, (17,000 per year) but i have a new job which i start in Feb, which will be a bit more - 1300 after tax. (19,621 per year) But ive kept my current figure for the purposes of this...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,100.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.66
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732.74
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.12
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.48

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.71
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Accountant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174.01
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284.20
Argos Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Nationwide Credit Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Dave Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.02
Halifax Credit Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Barclaycard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.36
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.50
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.50
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.50
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,400.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,695.92




Urgh I wish there was an easy way to sort all this out! :mad:

sueh6

kelzbelz_04 wrote: »

Ok here it is ....


But before you read it, can I just say, i have put my income as £1100 p/month after tax etc, (17,000 per year) but i have a new job which i start in Feb, which will be a bit more - 1300 after tax. (19,621 per year) But ive kept my current figure for the purposes of this...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,100.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.00 - perhaps look at paying over 12 months rather than 10?
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.66 - You should be able to get it for £15 dependant on area
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732.74
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.12
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00 - sorry to say but this could easily be cut to £150
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.48

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.71
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Accountant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174.01
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284.20
Argos Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Nationwide Credit Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Dave Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.02
Halifax Credit Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Barclaycard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.00 - Not affordable at the moment
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.36
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.50
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00 - buy off the internet in bulk and save
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 - you don't need to pay this
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 - too much - you don't 'need new clothes every month

Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.50 - you can't afford this
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.50
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 - not needed
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 - not needed

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,400.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,695.92




Urgh I wish there was an easy way to sort all this out! :mad:

This totally depends on what you are looking to get out of this exercise. If all you're doing is looking how you can save money then the ideas above will all add up. If you're looking to clear your debts quicker (which I think you are) if you add everything up, including your massive entertainment spend, you could eaily pay £150 - £200 per month extra off your debts.

That is of course if you are happy to share the burden. If you do it could be relatively quick although not painless; if you don't then it will be slow and painful as even though you may be OK, he won't and what fun is that?

P.S. If you're getting a salary increase that will make things easier and clear the debt quicker. Try using the snowball calculator to see just how much time it will take http://www.whatsthecost.com

sugarcube84

Also in addition to what sueh6 has said

cut the £60 shopping for fun and
the £100 eating out
swap pet food brands £50 is a lot.
cancel TV?

if you make some changes then you can easily bring you monthly expenses in at less than your income. Short term pain, clear the debts and start afresh and that doesnt take into account your increase in pay!

sulkisu

Urgh I wish there was an easy way to sort all this out! :mad:


There is.

Forget the summer holiday, eating out and shopping for fun and shave £100 off of your shopping bill. I make that £306.50 per month which easily covers your shortfall. Use this to pay off your overdraft and that saves you another £35 per month. It's easily achievable, just depends on how badly and how quickly you want to clear the debts. Remember it doesn't have to be forever, just until your debts are cleared.

horsechestnut

If you really do need the Hairdressers, do you have a College near you that offers Hairdressing? They usually charge just a few pounds.
Look on the old-style board for hints on how to reduce your Housekeeping bills. Keep a book beside you to write down suitable ideas.
Do you make maximum use of Tesco/Nectar points? With that amount of Petrol you should have lots of points.
Buy a Flask (or two) for hot drinks instead of buying them. This just drains away the money without anything to show for it, and make your own lunches.
Instead of eating out, could you make a picnic and visit a free museum or gallery? Or once a month make a special meal at home at a fraction of the price.
Cancel the T.V. and get Freeview or Freesat. If you can't do this can you get the company to reduce the cost.

sueh6

KelzBelz_04 -

We're not being harsh - just realistic as the one thing you can be certain of is that we've all been there. I still am there and won't be debt free for a couple of years yet although I make sure I do everything I can to save us money - I take a jar of coffee to work instead of having Latte from the delicious coffee maker and I also take my lunch.

You will find it tough cutting everything out and so you should always keep some money for a treat - maybe a takeaway once or twice a month and believe me a meal at home can be equally romantic as in a restaurant

It depends on how much both of you want this - neither can do it alone - your joint SOA has proven that but until youve reached your lightbulb moment it won't happen. When you've reached that point - with all the spare cash that you could have with a few cutbacks - it will be so much easier for you rather than if you were at the point of facing life with a DMP.

ceh209

Hi Kelzbelz_04,

No advice on the debt I'm afraid, but I would just say be aware of how much personal info you post on here - I live in your city and know someone who drives for that franchise. Now I don't think it's your OH because of what else you've said, but anyone else could be reading!

FireWyrm

kelzbelz_04 wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,100.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,300.00

OK, this is an excellent figure to be working from. You infact have far more than I do with two children.

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.00 Unless you are in contract, this has to go. I'm sorry, but it's the number one thing that kills people's finances. Why do you need a £30 a month contract anyway? I'm assuming this is for both phones? Someone could go PAYG and it would improve matters no end.

Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.00 Wow. I didnt pay this much in Oxford. Any chance of moving to a cheaper area? I know it's drastic, but that's a horrible amount to be paying.
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 Overdraft has to go. You should work on this very seriously.

Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00 You can shave at least £100 off this. Trust me and you're going to have to or you'll be in even more trouble this time next year.
Sofas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.48

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540.00 Wow. This is a very significant proportion of your income right there. Anything you can do to reduce this can only help you. By dropping just 10 miles an hour off the speedo, I've found I have increased my petrol consumption by a 100 miles!

Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.00 May I ask what you have that costs that much to insure? Are you young perhaps? That's awfully high. You could probably shop around and get something better.
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Every single month?

Accountant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Franchise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.00

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 I know the pets have 'alergies' but I was wondering if you could do somethng about this - have you tried all the brands to see which might suit better?

Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 OK, I'd live with this but I have a suspicion that this probably isnt true?
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 Do without for a few months.
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 Seriously? every month? You cant afford this. Unless it is necessary for life and while you are in debt, this sort of thing must stop or at least be scaled back.
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00 What costs £9 every month? Can you do without?
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 Sorry, but no.

Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Every month? Who for? You or him? Can you buy a pair of clippers and give him a buzz cut instead?

Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 This goes too. Sorry but you cant sustain this at the moment. When you are free and clear, then you can have fun, until then....

Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.50 Put it to debt repayments. There's £400+ a year right there.
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 Sandwiches
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 No. That's £300 a year you're spending that you dont need to.





Urgh I wish there was an easy way to sort all this out! :mad:

There are no quick fixes, I'm sorry, but with some effort and willpower, you could get yourself out in about a year.

kelzbelz_04

Thanks for all your lovely comments and helpfulness!

I have come home from work to a £250 cheque! (there was a !!!! up with our kitchen when we bought the house, and we got £250 compensation) ...the question is... what shall we do with it?!

To the Tax Man?

xx