Scared to death - laid myself bare Please Help

ScottAnne

I am totally disgusted with myself and although I have been well aware of this problem for so long now, I have placed it to the back of my mind. To say I've had the LBM is an understatement. Please do not judge me for what you will see below, this is an accumulation of years of debt with little management, change of circumstances, loss of a business blah blah blah.

I need some constructive advise on areas you the 'good people' see as where I could save, right now I feel I'm scrimping on everything possible and still have a shortfall, I would welcome any ideas or experiences you can share with me to help me on my way to a Debt Free existance, securing the future for my two young boys.

Here is my SOA: I will elaborate on areas I struggled to complete correctly but I am as accurate as I can be with the overall figures.

I am currently on Maternity leave, returning to work next week.

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 921.27
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1553
Benefits................................ 534.. I'm being cautious here as I have been advised by Tax Credits that I will be entitled to recieve £180 a week CTC for a weekly Childcare bill of £204. I'm a bit dubious of this as I never recieved anything like that amount in CTC for my first child towards childcare. So this is made up of CB 134 and 4x 100 weekly payments.
Other income............................ 60 I have just got a part time weekend job consisting of 2 morning a weekend at £30 Each
Total monthly income.................... 3068.

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 796 Just fixed to a rate of 3.49 for 2 years.
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 26 balance £680
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 10 paid twice yearly at £60 a time
Council tax............................. 146
Electricity............................. 30 in credit
Gas..................................... 45 in credit
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 Didnt include this as it's charged with council tax so I left that as the total figure
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 17
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 this is my planned spend for the future, I have a freezer full of meat, bread etc but would usually spend 70+ depending on items such as nappies, formula, washing powder etc
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 20 a week on fuel, can save here with cyclying come next week
Road tax................................ 11
Car Insurance........................... 21
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 dont save monthly for this, just seem to find the cash at the end of the year when something needs done
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 816 consists of weekly costs of 204 x 4 weeks so some months will vary. This is for 2 children 3 full days a week at £8 per hour combined.
Other child related expenses............ 23 Swimming membership
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15 Dental plan - hardly used this past two years but feel nervous to cancel
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 30 probably a few coffee's when out with the kids at weekend etc probably unrealistic but I have started a spending diary.
Holiday................................. 0 I wish........
Emergency fund.......................... 80 currently save 20 a week, accumulated 600 until very recently when I had to use it for business fees for my husband and other ad hoc expenses.
Total monthly expenses.................. 2488


Assets
Cash.................................... 2000 childrens savings accounts plus 150 left in my savings
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500 .. seriously dont know what we'd do if it broke down, it's only worth 500 if lucky but gets me from A to B and thats all I care about. Had it for 6 years no finance.
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 202500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 162000...(796)......3.49
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 600......(26).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 162600....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Personal Loan..................13860.....312.......7.9
BarclayCard....................4000......112.......0 combined some cr card debt, this is 0% for probably 6 more months
Nationwide Cr Card.............250.......30........15
Current Acc O/D................250.......20........0
Business Acc O/D...............5000......100.......0 Husbands business, no longer self employed but this debt hasn't been touched unfortunately, I budget 100 a month to this sometimes it's not met but the monthly fees are prob 70 pounds, husband went into the bank for advice but left being told no help can be given.. Any ideas???
Bank Of Ireland Loan...........4500......120.......0 I have this debt for 8 years now and tbh make all the minimum repayments but pay 70 a month interest so in effect only 30 comes off my bill, it's debt from the ROI where I am from but have lived in the UK for 10 years.it's never fallen below 4 and gets me down as the figure never changes.
RBS Cr Card....................1200......50........18 Husbands, used to pay his tax bill !!!!!!!!! almost divorced over this
Next Store Card................350.......30........0
RBS Business Cr Card...........280.......50........27 I paid this off a few months ago, balance was prob 2500... it was by far the most expensive debt we had at the time. Dont even ask me what the 250 was spent on, i've since taken and destroyed the card.
Tesco Cr Card..................900.......40........18 mine, stupidly accrued trying to be clever and use it for shopping to accumulate points by paying off and I didn't surprise surprise.
Total unsecured debts..........30590.....864.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,068.27
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,488
Available for debt repayments........... 580.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 864
Amount short for making debt repayments. -283.73 OMG!!!!! I feel sick...

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 202,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -162,600
Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,590
Net Assets.............................. 9,310

If your still reading thank you, I feel utterly sick to my stomach about this situation, I need to get out of but cant see the wood for the trees. Please help me, I will try anything.

Thank you

Anne

Bean_Counter

Is your other income £60 per week? If so and the rest of the figures are for a month, this should be £260 per month, on average.

mrcow

Looking at the figures, they just are not going to add up even if you do tweak a couple of outgoings here and there.

You need to start thinking about a solution like a DMP. It's a big step, but it will bring all the repayments into the affordable bracket (plus you'll freeze interest on most stuff).

Have a read through about DMPs on this site and perhaps have a look at the CCCS - they are very straightforward to deal with. Your credit rating will take a knock, but perhaps that's not such a bad thing considering where it's got you so far!

RAS

What frightens me is that your assessment is based on the assumptions that a month consists of four weeks?

Unless you are paid every four weeks (both of you), you weekly income and expenditure needs to be multipled by 4.333 to calculate the monthly total.

ScottAnne

Thank you for replying so quickly.

To answer your Questions or comment on your response:

BeanCounter: it's 60 a month

MrCow: I dont even know what a DMP is, I will read up on it, will we loose our home? Couldnt care less about credit rating at this stage, just want to be free from all of this but dont want to loose my home? Thanks

RAS: wasn't even aware of that calculation for montly figures.. Thanks will be using that from now on.

mrcow

No it won't affect your home or your mortgage.

It's a debt management plan for unsecured debts. You work to a budget - similar to the one you have already done and work out how much is left to make repayments. THis is then prorata'd between each of your creditors. The CCCS will help you contac them. You ask them to freeze your interests and pay a set amount to the CCCS each month. It will take you some time to pay everything off, but it will stop any non payment letters etc.

You'd need to set up a new clean bank account with no OD as your current bank will count as a creditor as you have an overdraft.

Look here for more information:
http://www.cccs.co.uk/InfoCentre/EnglandandWales/Debtsolutions/Debtmanagementplan.aspx?WT.svl=lnk_ic_1

curlytop12

please don't panic about losing yor home,give CCCS a call,they can help,they don't charge.
they will give you some options,you choose which /if you want to take their help,
but please don't worry!

determined_new_ms

to work out monthly times the weekly figure (i.e. petrol) by 52 and then divide by 12

I agree I really think you need to call cccs and get this under control. Try to be strong this will get sorted out. Good luck x

ScottAnne

MrCow thanks again, the overdraft I am referring to is not with the bank we have our salaries paid into, it is an old joint account we had and kept open.

The account where our salaries are paid into has an overdraft of 1500 but were not in it.... yet. the debts like my husbands business debt etc is with the same bank, would we still need to open another elsewhere??

p.s were based in Scotland, dont know if that makes a difference for laws etc as I did see that IVA's arent available in Scotland.

Thanks
Anne

BlushingRose

ScottAnne wrote: »

MrCow: I dont even know what a DMP is, I will read up on it, will we loose our home? Couldnt care less about credit rating at this stage, just want to be free from all of this but dont want to loose my home? Thanks

A DMP is a Debt Management Plan. This is where you agree to a SOA with a debt charity (recommend CCCS) and after all your priority bills are taken care of, you give the DMP people a fixed amount each month which they then equally give to your creditors.
If you pop here http://www.cccs.co.uk you can do their 'debt remedy' thing and they'll advise you what will be best for you, then you can decide what to do x

mrcow

ScottAnne wrote: »

The account where our salaries are paid into has an overdraft of 1500 but were not in it.... yet. the debts like my husbands business debt etc is with the same bank, would we still need to open another elsewhere??

I'm not sure. You'd have to check with CCCS. It will depend on whether they are actual separate companies housing the accounts I would think.