Newbie here! Advice/support greatly received!

rlongson

Hi everyone!

Okay so our little man is 17 weeks old and we've sat down and worked out how much we owe to various companies and have got to the figure of £25,958.

I'm a student nurse on maternity leave, my partner is a web developer on 25k per year.

A lot of our debt is currently art 0% as we've managed to do a balance transfer for 22 months. Also at 0% is sofa, engagement ring and my student overdraft.

The stuff that isn't 0% is our cars, and his overdraft and Very.co.uk.

I don't know how we've managed to get here but I can't bury our head in the sand anymore! We have no savings and a baby boy who we wan't to be able to secure a decent future for. Anyway...

We've started selling lots of our things using Facebook and eBay. Anyone else got any good ideas or advice? XXX

[Deleted User]

Well you have made the first very good decision by joining this forum and asking for advice.

I find what works best for one, does not always work for another.

The best thing for me has been my signature, it allowed me to track my progress and always made me want to reduce reduce reduce, now I have even taken some items off as I have paid them completely off.

You will find lots of tips by just reading the forums and finding out what other people have been doing.

Lots of people will say that you need to complete your SOA. I didn't find this helpful as I knew my budget and I knew what I could and could not do without. If I had included everything that people had advised, I'd have still been in that debt right now (But it's now much less). So do what suits you best and try to save a little on everything that you spend, I review my budget monthly and see if there is anything I can cut back on.

There is no quick way to get things sorted, however you can try your best and see how fast you can go. I aim for Christmas this year, I think I can do it

midnight_express

Please post a SOA

ms_london

Hello.

Welcome to MSE, it s a great forum and hopefully we'll be able to help.

If you could post a SOA (statement of affairs) listing your incomings, outgoings an debts we can give some more detailed help.

Xx

rlongson

Okay guys! Here's my attempt at an SOA.

Might not be 100% accurate but just to give you all an idea of what we're dealing with. I think it's totally manageable but we are just crap with money and spend it unnecessarily and need to get into a new routine with how we manage our finances..

Statement of Affairs & Personal Balance Sheet

Summary

Monthly Budget Summary Amount(£)
Total monthly income 2,393
Monthly expenses (incl. HP & secured loans) 1,945.5
Available for debt repayments 447.5
UNsecured debt repayments 212
Amount left after debt repayments 235.5
Personal Balance Sheet Summary Amount(£)
Total Assets (things you own) 0
Total Secured & HP Debt -15,836
Total Unsecured Debt -10,302
Net Assets -26,138
Household Information

Number of adults in household 2
Number of children in household 1
Number of cars owned 2
Income, Expense, Debt & Asset Details

Income Amount(£)
Monthly income after tax 558
Partners monthly income 1600
Benefits 235
Other income 0
Total monthly income 2393
Expenses Amount(£)
Mortgage 0
Secured/HP loan payments 300
Rent 650
Management charge (leasehold property) 0
Council tax 85
Electricity 44
Gas 44
Oil 0
Water Rates 35
Telephone (land line) 3.5
Mobile phone 70
TV Licence 12
Satellite/Cable TV 12
Internet services 30
Groceries etc. 400
Clothing 30
Petrol/diesel 100
Road tax 0
Car Insurance 90
Car maintenance (including MOT) 0
Car Parking 0
Other travel 0
Childcare/nursery 0
Other child related expenses 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentists, opticians etc.) 0
Pet Insurance/Vet bills 0
Buildings Insurance 0
Contents Insurance 0
Life Assurance 0
Other Insurance 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc.) 0
Haircuts 0
Entertainment 40
Holiday 0
Emergency Fund 0
Total monthly expenses 1945.5
Secured & HP Debt Description Debt(£) Monthly(£) APR(%)
Mortgage 0 (0) 0
Hire Purchase (HP) Debt 6524 (140) 0
HP (partners car) 9312 (160) 0
Secured & HP Debt totals 15836 - -
Unsecured Debt Description Debt(£) Monthly(£) APR(%)
Very.co.uk 640 10 0
Credit Card 3000 60 0
Student Overdraft 1600 0 0
Sofas 1556 55 0
Engagement Ring 1506 52 0
Partners overdraft 2000 35 5.5
Unsecured Debt totals 10302 212 -
Asset Description Value (£)
Cash 0
House Value (Gross) 0
Shares and bonds 0
Car(s) 0
Other assets (e.g. endowments, jewellery etc) 0
Total Assets 0
Comments on the results

You have sufficient monthly income to meet your expenses and your minimum monthly debt repayments with £235.5 left over. You can use this to pay off your debts more quickly or to build/top-up an emergency fund. Your total secured debt is greater than the value of your house. Is this correct? Whatever your results show, it always pays to seek advice or comments from others. Why not post your SOA details on our Debt Management discussion board or on your preferred discussion forum elsewhere. Thankyou for using the SOA Calculator

DCFC79

Your groceries @ £400 and mobile @ £70 are high, cut them down, for the mobile can you not ask your network operator if you can move down a package. Try the old style board for idea on batch cooking, take packed lunches for work. Try shopping at aldi/lidl.

rlongson

Yeah the £70 is for both my partner and I as our phone contracts are £35 each. We did try to cut our phone contracts down but 3 wouldn't let us

Groceries are also covering nappies for our 17 week old, and formula which costs around £10 a box and lasts 3-4 days.

I'll deffo try and start cooking in batches! We are rubbish with what we eat and very lazy so I think this would more than likely help

awayinchina

are your landline/tv/internet a 3-1 bundle? if not that could save you some also your gas and electricity might be worth a look at?

I assume you are 3/4 council tax as you are a student? if not chase it up.....

DCFC79

rlongson wrote: »

Yeah the £70 is for both my partner and I as our phone contracts are £35 each. We did try to cut our phone contracts down but 3 wouldn't let us

Groceries are also covering nappies for our 17 week old, and formula which costs around £10 a box and lasts 3-4 days.

I'll deffo try and start cooking in batches! We are rubbish with what we eat and very lazy so I think this would more than likely help

Do the phone contracts end anytime soon ? Maybe move to cheaper plan or sim only deal

Your internet is high at £30, who is the provider ?

Yes i understand the groceries cover baby stuff btu you can buy nappies from aldi/lidl, not sure about formula though.

rlongson

DCFC79 wrote: »

Do the phone contracts end anytime soon ? MAybe move to cheaper plan or sim only deal

Your internet is high at £30, who is the provider ?

Nah they don't end soon unfortunately they have almost another year left.

Internet is 100 meg with Virgin. My partner is a web developer so we tend to make use of that and he says he needs 100M broadband for his work X

DCFC79

rlongson wrote: »

Nah they don't end soon unfortunately they have almost another year left.

Internet is 100 meg with Virgin. My partner is a web developer so we tend to make use of that and he says he needs 100M broadband for his work X

I take it you have a package with virgin for the net, phone and tv ?

Can you not ask for a better deal, maybe say your wanting to leave or thinking of leaving.