I finally admit it - I need help!

rachey18

Hi all,

I'm in a spiral of debt and really need help.
I'd like to say I don't know how I got here but I do really, I've basically been living on my credit cards. Food, fuel, clothes (not excessively) you name it if there wasn't cash in the Bank I just used to whack it on the card thinking i'd pay it off the next month or when I had extra cash.
Now my cards are maxed, my partner is hardly bringing in any wages as his company has been seriously been struggling recently.
Its all getting on top of me and now when we actually need the cards to help rather than before when I believe we could have made cuts elsewhere, they are all used up!

Here is my statement of affairs
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1628.17
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2128.17

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 121.9
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 493.4
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 118
Electricity............................. 37
Gas..................................... 37
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38
Telephone (land line)................... 75
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 69.04
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........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1548.34


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 135000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 2000
Total Assets............................ 140000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 35204.5..(121.9)....4.89
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 1643.....(156.2)....18.7<
...............................0........(0)........0<
motgage2.......................68973.2..(337.2)....2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 105820.7..-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclays.......................8635.32...210.......22.9
LLOYDS TSB.....................3621......75........17.16
TESCO..........................2654......110.......18
Total unsecured debts..........14910.32..395.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,128.17
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,548.34
Available for debt repayments........... 579.83
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 395
Amount left after debt repayments....... 184.83

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 140,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -105,820.7
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,910.32
Net Assets.............................. 19,268.98

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Comments and advice for where to start will be gratefully received

HeadAboveWater

Hi and well done for posting :T

Easy to spend on 'stuff' and end up in debt with very little to show for it unfortunately

I'm probably not the best to advise on your SOA, but few things stand out to me at a glance:

Telephone (land line)................... 75 Sounds like waaaaay too much. Especially when you've a mobile too. Does this include internet/tv or what?

Mobile phone............................ 25 Contract or PAYG? If contract are you near the end of it or could you switch to something cheaper?

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22 Is this needed?

Groceries etc. ......................... 200 For 2 people? We spend less than that on 2 adults and 3 teenagers. Can you shop about for bargains or try own brand stuff?

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 Do you budget for, say Christmas, through the year or just wing it in December?!

Entertainment........................... 200 Sounds like a lot! What does this include? Is there any way you could cut back or think on alternatives to what you usually do for social time?

Hopefully someone else along soon but that'll get you thinking!!

Good luck and I'm subscribing!

Loubell83

Hi there.

Congrats on admitting the problem and getting on here fore help

I agree with all the points made above regarding phone lines, TV, groceries and entertainment.

Also, your car insurance is really high - any chance of shopping around?

Is your council tax over 10 or 12 months? You could do it over 12 if it isn't already.

Also, where is your buildings contents insurance? This is essential! So you really have no life cover for the mortgage?

Do you spend nothing at all on clothes/haircuts/road tax/presents?

I think that you may have missed a few areas here.

If you do not have the £184 left at the end of the month and you do not know where it is going, keep a spending diary so that you can see where the money is going and make changes!

Good Luck and I hope all is well.

EJG1982

Hiya Rachey18, im a newbie aswell and can defo say you're in the right place!!

everyone on here works in different ways and like HeadOverWater says, i too am not the best for in depth breakdown of you SOA! Way i see it, i concentrate on the areas you CAN change. Set payments on loans/council tax etc are the basics, take all them away and your left with all areas H.O.Water suggested..

defo start here, have a good look at what your wasting and where, and yes it will be wasting!!! phone seems v.high, we have contract mobs with free mins, only reason BT exist is for broandband. Im £16 p/mth for landline with no sparkly extras..saved a few £'s cancelling caller display etc...

we personally decided to ditch sky, was costing £30-50 a mth and can 100% say i dont miss it.. box itself picks freeview up and you find plenty to watch, might be worth a try, worst case you dont like and sign back up.. on the back on this we signed up £10 p/mth for lovefilm, unlimited hire, instead of going out for 'entertainment' we have a 'date movie nights'!! its nice making posh cheap meal and settling down for a movie for next to nothing..

my fella switched his mob contract to sim only instead of upgrading phone, he's getting same deal as me on minutes etc for £13 p/mth, i pay £37!! i'll be doing the same when mine renews..

my budget is same as you on food for 2 ads BUT i havent yet managed to spent it! ive budgeted that amount for last 3 months but i'll be dropping to £150 a month and see how i get on.. give us an idea where and what your spending that on and you'll be pleasantly surprised how others will be able to trim it down

and what :eek: is £200 entertainment!! i have a fund allocated to 'misc cr$p' as i call it, our weekend spending if needed but again struggle to actually use it.. like your food where and what is this going on..

welcome aboard and enjoy your stay in DFW world :rotfl::beer:

rachey18

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all your replies it is good to get off my chest and start to move forward

The home phone includes broadband too. The main cost has been since my partners company had a major client go under, he had to lose his receptionist we had in our home office so its the cost of diverting the calls to his mobile whilst hes out. He claims it for business but still has to be paid out every month.

Mobile is contract and I have 9 months left, already reduced from £35/month

Sky as stupid as it sounds is needed, we live in rural area and just cannot get signal for freeview, it jumps and cuts out all the time - it was fine when analogue, we have cancelled and got it again so many times. We really need some sort of new aerial I think and in which case its better just to keep sky at its lowest package. because of where we live we cant get free broadband or calls with it which is a real downer

Entertainment - the £200 covers everything for us both, toll road, parking, presents, clothes, hair anything extra really. Is this really high? I didn't think so we live so basic nowadays this is what I class as entertainment lol!

Hear what you say about food, we don't buy a lot of branded stuff anyway and I always cook but I'm a coop junkie which is really expensive so I could cut down here. I like good food but I guess will just have to make lots of lasagnes and stews

My car insurance is uber cheap as I'm 24 and so is my partner, its with Aviva - all other quotes are at least £90 and above. £69 a good deal for our age.

I do have insurance for home, sorry must have missed this off its £18/month for Buildings and Contents.

Loubell83, I'm going to have to keep a spending diary as I truly don't know where its going.

HeadAboveWater

rachey18 wrote: »

Loubell83, I'm going to have to keep a spending diary as I truly don't know where its going.

Best thing Once you know exactly where the money is going it'll help you rethink your spending in certain areas and cut down.

With your entertainment including everything you've listed, it's not quite so high! Some people wouldn't think twice on spending that on a couple nights out drinking :eek:

RAS

Hi

if you want help, you need to take on board the suggestions rather than explain why you cannot do them.

rachey18 wrote: »

The home phone includes broadband too.

The main cost has been since my partners company had a major client go under, he had to lose his receptionist we had in our home office so its the cost of diverting the calls to his mobile whilst hes out. He claims it for business but still has to be paid out every month.

In which case the cost of this must be included in the business accounts not in your household expenditure.

rachey18 wrote: »

Mobile is contract and I have 9 months left, already reduced from £35/month

rachey18 wrote: »

Sky as stupid as it sounds is needed, we live in rural area and just cannot get signal for freeview, it jumps and cuts out all the time - it was fine when analogue, we have cancelled and got it again so many times. We really need some sort of new aerial I think and in which case its better just to keep sky at its lowest package. because of where we live we cant get free broadband or calls with it which is a real downer

You do not need it. You would very much like it. You do not even need freeview, just a nice extra. What you do need is money to sort out youyr debts. Have you considered sellign the house and paying off all your debts, then re-startign from a rental?

rachey18 wrote: »

Entertainment - the £200 covers everything for us both, toll road, parking, presents, clothes, hair anything extra really. Is this really high? I didn't think so we live so basic nowadays this is what I class as entertainment lol!

In which case you need to itemise all these under the correct headings, not as one lump sum.

Do you NEED any new clothes other than knickers and shoes? Think about charity shops if you do. Does the local coillege offer cheap haircuts?

rachey18 wrote: »

Hear what you say about food, we don't buy a lot of branded stuff anyway and I always cook but I'm a coop junkie which is really expensive so I could cut down here. I like good food but I guess will just have to make lots of lasagnes and stews

In you financial situation, lasagne and stews are living well.

rachey18 wrote: »

My car insurance is uber cheap as I'm 24 and so is my partner, its with Aviva - all other quotes are at least £90 and above. £69 a good deal for our age.

I do have insurance for home, sorry must have missed this off its £18/month for Buildings and Contents.

Loubell83, I'm going to have to keep a spending diary as I truly don't know where its going.

Buuildings and contents is good.

Has OH considered packing in the busienss and gettign a paid job?

Do you have any spare capacity on the two slightly cheaper credit cards?

What do you have that can be sold and used to pay down the barclaycard?

rock_queen

just a quickie regarding sky, we live in a very remote rural location so i can understand why you dont get the free calls/bb with the sky package, we also don't have an aeriel for the tv as we could't pick up a signal from it. However, we get freeview through the sky box, it works perfectly and its free. Also our landline and bb is £32 a month and has unlimited download and unlimited free calls. How about getting an answering machine for the phone so your not having to pay to get calls diverted to the mobile? or supplying clients with a mobile number to ring?

good luck with your journey!

jon1965

I was just about to suggest what rock queen has said. If you are out of contract with sky you can use the box to get the free channels.
I would also suggest putting a message on the phone with the mobile number.
You say you use the toll rd, I assume you mean the M6. To be honest I think that is a complete waste of money, the A5 is great and the normal M6 is normally quite usable, even when the signs say delays often there aren't.
Hope that helps.

41_and_i_know_it

rachey18 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm in a spiral of debt and really need help.
I'd like to say I don't know how I got here but I do really, I've basically been living on my credit cards. Food, fuel, clothes (not excessively) you name it if there wasn't cash in the Bank I just used to whack it on the card thinking i'd pay it off the next month or when I had extra cash.
Now my cards are maxed, my partner is hardly bringing in any wages as his company has been seriously been struggling recently.
Its all getting on top of me and now when we actually need the cards to help rather than before when I believe we could have made cuts elsewhere, they are all used up!

Here is my statement of affairs
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1628.17
Partners monthly income after tax....... 500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2128.17

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 121.9
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 493.4
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 118
Electricity............................. 37
Gas..................................... 37
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38
Telephone (land line)................... 75
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 69.04
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........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1548.34


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 135000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 2000
Total Assets............................ 140000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 35204.5..(121.9)....4.89
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 1643.....(156.2)....18.7<
...............................0........(0)........0<
motgage2.......................68973.2..(337.2)....2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 105820.7..-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclays.......................8635.32...210.......22.9
LLOYDS TSB.....................3621......75........17.16
TESCO..........................2654......110.......18
Total unsecured debts..........14910.32..395.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,128.17
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,548.34
Available for debt repayments........... 579.83
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 395
Amount left after debt repayments....... 184.83

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 140,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -105,820.7
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,910.32
Net Assets.............................. 19,268.98

Created using the SOA calculator at
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Comments and advice for where to start will be gratefully received

If you're a virgin customer you can prepay £120 for a year's line rental £10 a month instead of £13-£14.

EJG1982

hmmm gotta say RAS even though i can see your point & wont fault anyone offering guidance..it does come across a little harsh in places and a tad scary _pale_ :rotfl: but maybe that’s just me..

i dont see the responses as saying they 'cant do them' more an explanation as to where the moneys going or showing why its not as easy as just stopping.. infact just a reply to the questions we’ve already asked..as we all know debt reduction isnt a black n white situation is it?

kind of agree in places but in todays age yes, tv itself & a mobile i consider as bare essentials.. can clearly see rachey18 has tried reducing this & no i wouldn’t expect anyone to live without tv, to me mobs are 2nd nature & tools to keep you safe when out... reckon most would think this way, & suggest getting them cheap as poss rather than cutting out completely, do you live without them?

if freeview isnt an option then 2nd best has been achieved in lowest option currently available, the mob again has been reduced & could again be reduced even more in 9mths, will cost more to get out of it now than waiting till it ends.

clothes...yes we do need clothes & not sure what your charity shops are like but round my way they charge a lot more than cheap & cheerful like ‘primarnie’ (primark to those who may not know) & high street shops in sales..also this is only a snippet of a £200 budget that can be worked on reducing

with the house selling…its hard enough to get on the property ladder these days especially at such a young age… yes. .totally an option selling at last resort, but this is then only worthwhile if your property is worth more than what you paid & there’s enough in it to clear quite a chunk of debt.. at 24 I cant imagine they have had the property long & in past 5yrs market most are in negative equity or no movement on first time buyers.. Regardless what may have been paid off the mortgage, prices may have fallen in the same period.. Renting is also generally more expensive..again it is round my way..

like I say I do agree & see where your coming from but at the same time, breaking down the areas that can definitely be reduced such as groceries & this accumulated entertainment budget is a start… Stripping basic luxuries with clothes, tv, mobiles, and selling up is possibly a little way down the line..

can see you’re a wealth of knowledge so maybe you could use this is suggesting the cheaper alternatives on the food/entertainments budgets etc, theres £400 sitting there that can be used more wisely along……