Huge debts + Huge belly = NOT HAPPY...

fizzy702

Hello all

Not been on site for a while and to be honest I though oh wow yes Im in debt lets stick head in sand but pretend we are not... well that was a year ago..... and well I couldnt have been more daft.....

I went to my friends last week,she has agreed to be my shoulder and my !!!! kicker..... and we went through every thing and oh boy did I get a fright, yes I knew we had debts and yes I knew things where quite bad but nothing prepared me for that feeling when we added up all the card totals and over drafts .....
We as a family of 4 have managed to rack up over £40K in debt how did that happen..... have to admit that when I looked at figures last year I thought it was about £25K so what have I got to show for another £15k of debt well not a lot except may be my belly is a lot bigger !!!!

So here I am starting on my debt free and weight lose journey so any tips or advice would be great....

So far I have worked out all debts that we have and I have written them down on paper in black & white !!!!!
I have also done a budget for me & hubby that we will start to follow as of Tuesday (11/04/12).
I have written to all of the cards to see if we can freeze interest and make an minimal payment each month which would then be reviewed in 6 months, I will let you know if and what I hear back from them.

I have also gone over all bank statements from last 6yrs and I will see if I can get any of the bank charges back.... Bank charges over the last 6yrs just on my account total - £2880 !!!! Need to go over hubbys statements as well....

Im sorry if I am going on a bit , but I feel that I need to get this all down I can feel my-self get lighter as I write..... I am pretty much sorting out family's finances on my own, hubby is slowly and I mean very slowly coming round to the fact that things need sorting but as I said to my friend last week ..
We cant go on like this it has to be sorted out and if I become single in the process then so be it....
Not the nicest thing to think but that is how I feel, well apart from running far far away that is.....

I also need to lose approx 4st but having real trouble motivating my-self.....

I hope to try and post each day even if I just waffle, it may just be my life line.....

Thanks for listening/reading xx

chevalier

BEFORE you write to companies asking to freeze interest etc, could you have a go at doing a Statement of Affairs

see link here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

If you post it up on here, then we maybe able to make suggestions to trim your outgoings so that you have more to throw at your debts.

Once you ask them to freeze payments etc, you are breaking your contract with them, and starting the process of wrecking your credit score.. Better to avoid this if you can.

good luck
chev

PiggyBankShaker

Mornig Fizzy

Well done for facing up to the debt, it's an important first step on teh way to becoming debt free!

Chev, is right - as usual - we can help you a bit more if you post a list of your monthly income, outgoings etc It's suprising where some spare cash might be lurking.

Have you considered selling some of your belongings on ebay or amazon? There is good money to be made and it can help bring the debt down quicker. On that front, you might want to try a Snowball calculator too, (google it) to help you work out what to pay first.

Good luck :j

fizzy702

Hi Guys

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment , I have had a look at the site surgested and here it is....

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 68
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1326
Benefits................................ 518.18
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1912.18

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 453
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110
Electricity............................. 33
Gas..................................... 45
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 39.79
Mobile phone............................ 64.92
TV Licence.............................. 12.67
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 450
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 260
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 556
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 14.33
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 34.17
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 10
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2227.88


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 203000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 122000...(453)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 122000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card...........................4370......131.......0
Card...........................2005......40........0
Card...........................8220......190.......0
Overdraft......................1300......10........0
Over draft.....................1100......10........0
Card...........................11350.....195.......0
Card...........................7905......170.......0
Card...........................6780......230.......0
Total unsecured debts..........43030.....976.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,912.18
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,227.88
Available for debt repayments........... -315.7
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 976
Amount short for making debt repayments. -1,291.7

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 203,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -122,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -43,030
Net Assets.............................. 37,970

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.


As you can see... big short fall I have done a budget that we will start tomorrow and hopefully that will start to help.....
I have redone out mortgage so there will be a £50 a month saving starting in June and I have asked hubby to phone Orange to see if he can go on a cheaper plan which would save another £25 a month.
I do sell on ebay already and do earn about £30 a week but that's not always every week. The house phone includes phone, internet & tv and we are tied in.
I also make and decorate cakes and sweets but only started doing that recently so do not get regular money from that as yet.
I am working this month on getting shopping bill down, I am going to try shopping for the month in one shop and then have a cash float of £25 in the house for bread,milk etc.

Any thing else I can do.... ????

tiny_courageous

Well done for posting.

A couple of things immediately jumped out - is your car insurance really £556 a month? And groceries can be reduced as well. That could make a massive difference

walby1993

Hi fizzy,

I am by no means an expert but the things that jump out at me are:
Petrol/diesel - £260 this seems quite high, both DH and I travel a fair distance for work and only spend this.
Car insurance - £556 this seems ludriciously high, is this a mistake? Could you give us more of an idea what this figure is for?
Mobile phone - £64.92 Seems high but have already mentioned DH is looking to reduce this by possibly £25 per month.
Groceries - £450 Again, this seems quite high. DH and I spend about £175 per month for the two of us so I would guess around £350 per month for a family of four would not be unreasonable.

HTH,

Walby

fizzy702

Ok well yes there was a mistake on above post so I have re done form as below....

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 68
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1326
Benefits................................ 518.18
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1912.18

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 453
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110
Electricity............................. 33
Gas..................................... 45
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 39.79
Mobile phone............................ 64.92
TV Licence.............................. 12.67
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 450
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 260
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 46.33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 14.33
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 34.17
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 10
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1808.21


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 203000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 122000...(453)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 122000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card...........................4370......131.......0
Card...........................2005......40........0
Card...........................8220......190.......0
Overdraft......................1300......10........0
Over draft.....................1100......10........0
Card...........................11350.....195.......0
Card...........................7905......170.......0
Card...........................6780......230.......0
Total unsecured debts..........43030.....976.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,912.18
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,808.21
Available for debt repayments........... 103.97
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 976
Amount short for making debt repayments. -872.03

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 203,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -122,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -43,030
Net Assets.............................. 37,970

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.


Yeah hubbys work is about a 45min drive away so most of the petrol is for his car, I only tend to put £10 a week in my car sometime not even that.

walby1993

That looks a lot better now the car insurance has been sorted!

Is there anyway your DH could reduce his fuel consumption like lift share, public transport (I know this is not always possible, for me it more than doubles my journey time and cost), just generally driving better (by not speeding and accelerating more smoothly I save about 10% on my fuel consumption) to help reduce costs there?

Any ideas on what your budget will be for groceries? I think the thing that makes the biggest difference here is planning e.g. writing menu plans and then generating a shopping list from that. Also, try to work out what value/basics range things you don't mind as they can be miles cheaper.

HTH

Walby

fizzy702

Glad it looks better..... That's the least amount of fuel hubby can get to work on (He use to teach DIA) so hes pretty good with fuel consumption, it may change as that was his guesstamate when I asked him how much he put in I dont think he has ever really paid any attention to it before well not in coat anyway, he starts work at 6am so leaves home at 5amish so NO public transport and none of his work collegues are out our way which is a shame.

I have got hubby to go to cash point tonight and he got out £130 which is for the following this week -
H Petrol -£50 / Me Petrol - £10
£20 each as cash in the week
£25 as shopping extras such as bread, milk if needed
£5 for kids pocket money

This week I am going to use up food I have in the house, I have done some shopping which cost £6.89 after I used my vouchers, then I will next week try and do shopping for whole month, so yes I will do some menus out......

I want to say thank you to all who have commented so far as I do feel like I am in quick sand at the moment and my hubby can be very negative at times so I have been finding it hard to stay positive....

charlyze2

Hi Fizzy.

well done for facing up to your debts. Its a really hard step to take.

the thing that most jumped out at me on your SOA was presents. Do you really spend £100 per month or is that a typo?

Also is there anyway you could up your income at all? maybe getting a part time evening job?

Could you also try selling your current car and getting a smaller car? this could provide some funds to throw at debts but it could also reduce the fuel costs each month as well as the insurance costs.

Good luck

fizzy702

charlyze2 wrote: »

Hi Fizzy.

well done for facing up to your debts. Its a really hard step to take.

the thing that most jumped out at me on your SOA was presents. Do you really spend £100 per month or is that a typo?

Also is there anyway you could up your income at all? maybe getting a part time evening job?

Could you also try selling your current car and getting a smaller car? this could provide some funds to throw at debts but it could also reduce the fuel costs each month as well as the insurance costs.

Good luck

Hi and thank you... I have put £100 in as my daughters dance and swim once a week so it cover that more than presents, as for cars we only have a small car each and mine is pretty much on its last legs its done 109000 miles !!! and once it dies thats it we will be a 1 car family......
Tricky getting another job as we have the 2 kids and not really any one on hand to look after them and hubby is a musician but that has been quite at the moment but will pick up but not until may/june time so there will be a lot more income then, I work part time at school normally doing 3hrs a week but I have been covering for the last 7 weeks doing 16hrs but once we are back to school after easter I think I will be back to just 3 how ever I am looking for something work wise at the weekend then at least it works ok with school hols, and I will check at school to see if they have any thing coming up....