Opinions on situation....

AmnestyJon

Now, me and my partner aren't the most social creatures and nor do we share all our financial information with our family, so it's hard to get a comparison on if we're considered in a 'bad' position or not.

I'll cut the story short and just get to figures.

Our income at the moment is around minimum 1600 PM to a possible 1800PM ( as my hours vary )
Our outgoings stand at 1350 PM, with 230 of that being loans from littlewoods, and a car and a reliable motorbike we bought as I needed transport for work, and our car broke down.
The 1350 also includes 100 pm we're paying for electricity bill as we owed them £300 and they upped our monthly.

So it leaves us around £250 for food and petrol per month for 2 of us, Is this a normal amount of 'borrowed' or 'financed' money to have out for an income of this size?


Sorry if this is a irrelevant post or in the wrong section, I've just never had the chance to share my position with anyone before.

cats2012

I'm suggest doing a full statement of affairs (link on the sticky at top of this board) as that will make it much easier to properly compare

mrsb83_2

Agree with posting a SOA. Without knowing how much you owe it's impossible to judge your situation.

AmnestyJon

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1 and ( 1 Bike )

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1600

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 100
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 15
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 110
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
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..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1432


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3500
Other assets............................ 200
Total Assets............................ 3700

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Motorbike......................6000......140.......0
Littlewoods....................170.......35........0
Car............................1000......55........0
Total unsecured debts..........7170......230.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,600
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,432
Available for debt repayments........... 168
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 230
Amount short for making debt repayments. -62

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,170
Net Assets.............................. -3,470

This is based on our MINIMUM income, which hasn't happened yet as my hours nor my partners ( touch wood ) have never been on our minimum.

quintwins

Do you not have any form of heating? if so you will need to add something in there.

For 2 of you i would say £150 would be easy for food, head over the the oldsystle board if you need help. That would atleast mean you weren't mounting up more debt. It could also be possible to live off less if you wanted to make a pushed effort to pay your debts off? it would only take you 2 months living off £100 to pay your littlewoods account and you could find you have loads of food in anyway (theres a feed a family of 4 for £20 thread in old style, or feed a couple for £7 so it is doable, by comparision we're a family of 5 and we spend £200 a month on food)

Are you debts really interest free?

Only other thing to go would be sky but your not spending an awful lot and if your debts are interest free i wouldn't get rid of your only luxury right now if it's not going to save you any money.

mildred1978

AmnestyJon wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1 and ( 1 Bike )

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1600

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 100
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 55
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 15
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 110
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
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..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1432


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3500
Other assets............................ 200
Total Assets............................ 3700

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Motorbike......................6000......140.......0
Littlewoods....................170.......35........0
Car............................1000......55........0
Total unsecured debts..........7170......230.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,600
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,432
Available for debt repayments........... 168
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 230
Amount short for making debt repayments. -62

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,170
Net Assets.............................. -3,470

This is based on our MINIMUM income, which hasn't happened yet as my hours nor my partners ( touch wood ) have never been on our minimum.

Is this actually accurate? I don't believe any of your debts are on 0% finance. Are the loan amounts the amounts outstanding or what you borrowed in the first place? (in other words do you really still have £7000 to pay on vehicles that are worth £3500?)

mildred1978

Can you reduce tariffs on your mobiles?

Cheaper bike and car insurance?

You don't ever buy presents or haircuts?

You need contents insurance - it shouldn't cost more than £12-15 a month, so of you can find that it would be of benefit.

Any chance of extra hours or making extra money with Avon/eBay etc?

rosiesposies

have you double checked your benefit entitlement?

Standingtall

I think your outgoings are of the 'average' level, which was your original query. I am only basing that on what I have witnessed on this forum over the last year or so.

The one thing I would say, is try to ditch the catalogue. I had Littlewoods and they really do charge the odds for everything. They are also far to tempting. Once you have paid off what you owe, then continue these payments but to your own savings account - the use this money in the future to pay cash for what you would previously have bought from them.

Good luck:)

dancingfairy

Well it's a hard question to answer. On this board I've seen a lot worse. Owing just over 7k on your income doesn't seem too bad, espcially as some of the debt appears to have gone on getting transport to get you to work. On the other hand if you were on the savings board or the mortgage wannabe board then I would think the posters on there have a much better situation. Frankly what matters is how comfortable you are with the situation and whether you can make the minimum payments or not. It appears from your SOA that you can't afford to make the minimum payments (and you have missed a lot out from your SOA such as clothes, haircuts, entertainment etc) but you have only put in a minimum salary so it's hard to tell. Obviously if you had to rely on the minimum salary you have quoted you could quite quickly get into a pickle so I would keep an eye on things and take action to pay off the debt as much as possible while you can.
100 a month on electric does seem rather high for 2 of you, unless you're renting a massive farm house or something. Do check you're on a good deal and switch if necessary. I appreciate you owe arrears but I think our electric (for 2 people in a smallish flat is about 45 a month and that is more than enough). How soon will you get those arrears paid off and what do you think you should be paying a month to stay on top of things?
Mobiles also looks quite high, my tariff is 10.50 a month I think so for 2 you should be able to knock that down quite bit.
You should be alright if you keep an eye on things, but like most of the population you don't have masses of cash to spend on extras.
Best of Luck
df

DCFC79

What about the MOT for the car ?
Yep definitely ditch littlewoods.
Is internet at £15 really needed ? If not haggle for a better deal for your tv, internet and landline