newbie introducing myself and brief explanation

zx9r

Hi there. New to all this do please bear with me. I have decided I no longer want to be living in debt and need to pay it off asap. I take home £1500 after tax and seem to have nothing left. I have a mortgage and a young daughter.I will do a proper statement of affairs, but its approx:
Halifax £8700
Halifax one £5400
Barclaycard £5500
Mbna £3200
Flybe £1800
And a £350 overdraught.
The Mbna is on 0% until next July and the Flybe is on 5% for life of balance. Some of Barclays an Halifax ate on life of balance promotional rates, and the one card is on 6% life of balance.I makes me feel physically sick looking at this nut I have to beat it.

Thanks for any input.

powellypowelly

Firstly well done for posting, there's lots of great people and advice on this site that can help you once you post your SOA.

Secondly a word of encouragement, when I first decided to face the problem I had over £50k and now I'm down to a whisker over £10k, so it can be done.

Finally, if I could make one suggestion, it would be to make an honest budget and stick to it. This is far easier said than done, but it's the only thing that really worked in the end for me.

Good luck, and ignore trolls!

[Deleted User]

Well done for posting!

Start with an SOA, as mentioned above.

As powellypowelly says make sure you set yourself a realistic and accurate budget.

If you're not sure where all of your income is going then keep a spending diary for a month or two - noting down all spends from the things that cost pennies to the bigger things like debts and mortgage, and everything in between.

D9

zx9r

Ok so here is my SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1503
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1503
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 31
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 11.25
Car Insurance........................... 62
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 20
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)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1059.25

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 204000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 165000...(500)......2
Total secured & HP debts...... 165000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
mbna...........................3200......32........0
halifax........................8666......86.66.....9.99
halifax one....................4600......46........5
barclays.......................5741......128.......19

The £500 mortgage payment goes into a joint account that all the bills come out of, that is why I havnt included them at the moment. I havnt included my partners income as I will be paying the debts myself.:eek:

I thin I should possibly use the £50 I currently save a month and use it to pay off cards. Though it meant I dont have to pay my car insurance monthly, I use the savings.

All comments welcome.

katy_ann

Welcome to MSE Everyone here is so supportive and you can never ask a silly question (as Ive found out!) as someone has usually gone through the same as you Good luck with your journey x

zx9r

Thanks for the kind words

R_P_W

If it was me I think I would find it easier to look at your income and your partners income together and treat the outgoings as joint. This assumes that you have shared your debt situation details with your partner.

Only by showing all your joint outgoings will people on here be able to give some useful advice on where you might be paying more than you really need to for something.

Also, some of your unsecured debts seem to be missing from your SOA?

zx9r

ah suger you are right I forgot to put on the Flybe card, that currently stands at £1550, minimum payment £36.00 so less than I thought. My partner knows about my debt but I have choden to pay it myself, she pay a bit more into the joint account to help cover this. We have been on u switsh and reduced our bills, and put them on a fixed rate unti 2014.

zx9r

listed some goods for sale on Amazon, hope to raise a few £'s and get rid of unwanted stuff, its not much but its a start Got an old Iphone to sell and some other older phones. Feels good to sctually do something, even if its not much :rotfl:

cottonhead

Have you tried to speak to your creditors to see if they will agree to a fixed sum each month ? With some of my debts I called to explain I couldnt meet my essential living costs and they agreed to stop the interest and allow me to pay a set figure each month for 6 months and then review it. It meant that the debts were still getitng paid but I had some money to live - it took the pressure off basically.

19lottie82

zx9r wrote: »

Ok so here is my SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1503
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1503

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 31
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 11.25
Car Insurance........................... 62
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 20
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)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 0 This isn't really realistic, you should have something in here. Do you never buy a newspaper, or a DVD, or a takeaway?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50 It doesn't make sense to save money when you are in debt, UNLESS the interest rate on your savings is higher than the APR of your debts.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1059.25

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 204000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 165000...(500)......2
Total secured & HP debts...... 165000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
mbna...........................3200......32........0
halifax........................8666......86.66.....9.99
halifax one....................4600......46........5
barclays.......................5741......128.......19

The £500 mortgage payment goes into a joint account that all the bills come out of, that is why I havnt included them at the moment. I havnt included my partners income as I will be paying the debts myself.:eek:

I thin I should possibly use the £50 I currently save a month and use it to pay off cards. Though it meant I dont have to pay my car insurance monthly, I use the savings. Yes, definitely (see above)

All comments welcome.

Does your OH know about your debts? TBH your SOA is kind of difficult to make detailed comments as one of you pays for one thing and one pays for another. Grocery shopping for example, does your OH contribute £200 too? If so £400 a month for 2 adults and a kid could prob be cut back a bit....