Advice needed thanks.

January20

oliel wrote: »

yes i think you are right, i am here today going through everything in my house that doesnt get used to sell, clothes, furniture, oil painting etc, i presume my next step would be to clear the credit card which has the highest interest rate? then start chipping away at everything else?

Ive been and done an soa today - need to point out the soa does not include the 3k non guaranteed earnings from my husband. Also isnt really an option to sell the car, we live in a rural area and need a reliable car.
SOA below
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................ 1320
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1058
Benefits................................ 139
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2517

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 760
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 75
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 189
Electricity............................. 78 Electricity and gas seem a lot, any way you could reduce them? do you turn every appliance off, turn lights off, turn the heating down?
Gas..................................... 78 See above
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 50 seems really high
Mobile phone............................ 45 Seems high. How many phones is that for?
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 8
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400Could your reduce this a bit?
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 125
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 45 could you reduce this a bit when you renew it? Are you young drivers?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
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..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 25That seem really high! Could you shop around at renewal time. Use comparison sites, Quidco or other for cashback?
Life assurance ......................... 25
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 45 That's £540 a year on present! Can you reduce? Buy in sales/ on offer etc?
Haircuts................................ 31 Is it really necessary every month?
Entertainment........................... 150 You can't afford this. Not until you have paid off your debts.
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0You should really put something in here... just in case.
Total monthly expenses.................. 2206.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 275000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 13000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 288000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 139000...(760)......3.25
Secured Debt.................. 11200....(75).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 150200....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
loan...........................12000.....233.......0
cc.............................3300......75........0
Total unsecured debts..........15300.....308.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,517
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,206.5
Available for debt repayments........... 310.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 308
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 288,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -150,200
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,300
Net Assets.............................. 122,500

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

I see you already have some secured debt. Was that debt consolidation?

What is the apr on your credit card? Do you pay more than the minimum each month?

How long have you got left on the loan?

Selling stuff on ebay, music magpie, amazon etc is a good idea.

BFM

i assume your phone includes broadband.

on phones and mobile phones simply getting 18185.co.uk up and sorted can save you a packet on actual phone calls while you decide next steps. only takes a couple of minutes to do.

also if your mobile phones are out of contract you can get really cheap sim only deals - for instance my wife and i pay something like £10 per month in total including 200 texts, 200 minutes and free calls to each other, and there's probably other / better options out there.

we took similar monthly phone and cell costs to yours (over £100 pm) down to £25 or so in total pretty easily.

oliel

Telephone is bt landline and includes internet and bt vision - which will be cancelled at £7 per month contract runs out next jan. our water rates are included in our council tax figure, entertainment is leisure membership so that our kids can have swimming lessons and my daughter does gymnastics also. I shopped around for house insurance last time i renewed, our house is in a conservation area and the windows are sash and case - no key locks as such. the car that we have would probably last about 10 years and is very reliable it has a service plan for the next 3 years so have only budgeted for the mot and tyres. the secure debt of £11k is the reserve on our mortgage. Most of the debt relates to the renovation of the house, flooring boilers, bathrooms kitchens etc. Hope that clarifies a bit.

oliel

thanks for the comments on phones our contracts run out later this year i will look into them then.

oliel

January 20 just out of interest what would you do in our circumstance?

oliel

sorry also say we sold car and got another one for say 5 or 6k (it would need to last us a few years, would paying off 7-8k of debt be just a short term soloution? I guess what im saying is the mortgage etc just too much for our salaries?

BFM

if you are on BT then you should def sign up for 18185

http://www.18185.co.uk/index2.php

any time you use the phone for a call that isn't free in your package just dial 18185 first and your usage goes right down.

oliel

Ha thats funny they are actually only 8 and 5. Could be a bit dangerous at least with the 5 year old anyway. I do actually cook everything from scratch.

BFM

oliel wrote: »

Ha thats funny they are actually only 8 and 5. Could be a bit dangerous at least with the 5 year old anyway. I do actually cook everything from scratch.

yeah, was confusing you with a different diary so deleted it already