Help needed please

Nicandan

Hi, hoping for a bit of help and which direction we need to go in, please be gentle.....we are fully aware we have lived beyond our means for the last 5 years since we bought our house and now have woke up and finally had our lbm

This is our situation, we have several c/c and a secured loan on top of our mortgage we are ok paying everything but never seem to have any money, last time we had a holiday was 2007 we just seem to go to work and nothing else, we don't have a social life at all as we know very few people where we live i have started paying more than the minimum on the c/c i.e £10 extra on each, i know it's not a massive amount but i thought it was a good start.

Our debt is £78,000 mortgage (18 years), £22,000 secured loan (15 years left :mad:) and c/c for both of us is approx £10,000. My latest credit search shows a ccj from 2009 (i was ill and off work for over 6 months and this is partly where a lot of debt stems from using the credit cards :mad: the odd late payment here and there over the last couple of years.

I just wonder how is it best to tackle the debt, i know our credit rating is shot or i would simply re-mortgage and pay everything off including the secured loan and close all the accounts and then start a fresh but i think it is highly unlikely anyone would entertain us.

Advice will gladly appreciated, thank you!

Tixy

Hi and welcome

With the CCJ its going to be near impossible to get any new credit as you know.

I'd start by completing the statement of affairs to see how much you should have left for debt repayments a month. Once you know that you can run the snowball calculator from it to see how long it will take to clear your debts and the best order to tackle your debts.

If the surplus for debt repayments isn't as much as you'd like then post the results of the statement of affairs up here and people should be able to make some suggestions how you can reduce outgoings by getting some things cheaper / perhaps switching suppliers for some things etc to free up more for debts and get them cleared quicker.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

blacksta

The Light bulb moment means you have achieved the 50% of your target. Welldone, the next step will be to re adjust your spending and put more emphasis on clearing your debt.

All the best.

Nicandan

1. Sorry as a new user you are not allowed to post with links. This is done to stop spammers clogging up the site. Please edit your message below to continue.

I have done my SOA and have received the message above and it will not allow me to post the SOA

bouncydog1

Don't worry - you will be able to post it - there is a way of doing that - unfortunately I don't know how, but somebody will be along to tell you.:)

Tixy

Hi

At the bottom of the SoA when you cut and paste there is a website address, if you remove that you can then post the rest of the SoA.

Nicandan

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.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 260
Total monthly income.................... 2841.2
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 508
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 286
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 44
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 43.56
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 47
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 80
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 81
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 25
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1828.56

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 12000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 142000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 78000....(508)......6.04
Secured Debt.................. 22000....(286)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 100000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
BARCLAYCARD....................1800......50........29.9
VANQUIS........................950.......42........0
CAPITAL ONE....................1420......55........34.08
CO-OP..........................1800......40........0
AQUA...........................1350......48........37.95
BARCLAYCARD....................2000......60........29.9
MINT...........................1807......41........19.16
OPUS...........................1430......55........36.94
AQUA...........................910.......32........37.95
Total unsecured debts..........13467.....423.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,841.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,828.56
Available for debt repayments........... 1,012.64
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 423
Amount left after debt repayments....... 589.64
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 142,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -100,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,467
Net Assets.............................. 28,533


Having looked at this i am shocked, we should have money left over, i am going to have to seriously look at our finances, there has to be something i've missed as we defo do not have any spare cash. My other half is paid monthly and i am paid weekly if this makes any difference to the situation?

Any help or advice would be appreciated, thank you in advance!

Tixy

Hi

You are right it does look as though you should have a lot left over each month.

You might want to try keeping a spending diary for a couple of months - where you write down every single spend to see what else you are spending (things that are often forgotten about are things like meals at work, newspapers, lottery tickets, picking up a coffe on the way to work etc).
You'll also need to try to budget for the costs that don't happen every month. Try to work out an annual cost for things and put 1/12 into the budget. Eg things like clothes, dentists / opticians etc.
Have a think about what your entertainment budget might need to be - do your children do any regular activities/clubs etc? do you go on family days out occasionally? do you or your OH have a meal out or night out once a month for example?
Do the kids get pocket money you need to account for?

Obviously if you did have the 'spare' £500 a month then the aim would be to target your most expensive debts , so those aqua cards first.

The £260 other income is presumably correct?

Nicandan

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

You are right it does look as though you should have a lot left over each month.

You might want to try keeping a spending diary for a couple of months - where you write down every single spend to see what else you are spending (things that are often forgotten about are things like meals at work, newspapers, lottery tickets, picking up a coffe on the way to work etc).
You'll also need to try to budget for the costs that don't happen every month. Try to work out an annual cost for things and put 1/12 into the budget. Eg things like clothes, dentists / opticians etc.
Have a think about what your entertainment budget might need to be - do your children do any regular activities/clubs etc? do you go on family days out occasionally? do you or your OH have a meal out or night out once a month for example?
Do the kids get pocket money you need to account for?

Obviously if you did have the 'spare' £500 a month then the aim would be to target your most expensive debts , so those aqua cards first.

The £260 other income is presumably correct?

Hi Tixy,

Many thanks for your help, yes it would be simple things like newspapers, lottery, milk (buy it daily), haven't accounted for allowance given to 17 year old son etc, we get to go out probably every couple of months for either a meal out or perhaps the pictures or bowling.

The £260 is money from my ex that is for my 17 year old which is agreed until he is 18 next Feb, this pays for all he needs (activities, travel to college, books etc, clothing etc).

So definitely need to heed your advice and look at getting rid of the aqua cards first and throw what we can at them.

bobthedambuilder

Are you sure your incomes are after tax? That could make a significant difference.

Are you sure there's no entertainment expenses? i.e. do you and OH pool both your salary cheques and only spend from that pool? A couple of drinks on the way home from work, or even once a week, soon mounts up.

0 on clothing, even for your child?

0 for landline and internet?

Edit: just seen your most recent post, you've got 260 as income for your son , but nothing for that on the outgoing side, yet you say it covers his needs, so it should be an outgoing as well.

Nicandan

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

Are you sure your incomes are after tax? That could make a significant difference.

Are you sure there's no entertainment expenses? i.e. do you and OH pool both your salary cheques and only spend from that pool? A couple of drinks on the way home from work, or even once a week, soon mounts up.

0 on clothing, even for your child?

0 for landline and internet?

Edit: just seen your most recent post, you've got 260 as income for your son , but nothing for that on the outgoing side, yet you say it covers his needs, so it should be an outgoing as well.

Yes the income is correct and is after tax, i have done the soa wrong as i do need to account for clothing etc for my son which does come out of the 260 income

We have sky which covers the landline, internet and sky which for everything i thought was quite good, we do not have virgin/cable available in our area or we would probably have that as it is cheaper

Will have another look at the SOA and i have just realised i have not accounted for my Next account :mad:.....will post back soon, thanks again