Help needed please to stop me sinking

shipshape_2

Can anyone out there please help as I’m sinking so fast my head is spinning. I don’t want to lose my house but am scared silly that we might.

Our monthly income and outgoings, with some information, is as follows

Re-mortgaged November 06 Interest only repayments of £652.80
Secured loan (I know!) May 05 of £29,982.50 repayments of £239.03
Personal loan of £16,000 Jan 07 repayments of £239.39
Credit Card 1 balance of £2,348.66 (4.9% life of balance) repayments of £60.00
Credit Card 2 balance of £2,900.00 (0% to Nov 07) repayments of £100.00
Credit Card 3 balance of £1,074.62 (1.313%) repayments of £50.00
Council Tax £107.18
Electric £110.00
Water Rates £39.83
Car Insurance £99.77
BT £55.00
House & Contents insurance £36.60
TV Licence £11.40
Plumbing insurance £5.83
Life Insurance £77.02
Petrol £400.00
Shopping & other £1,000.00

Total outgoings per month = £3,283.85

Total income = £1,798.63

I think I need to enter into an IVA but not sure how that works and even with that, which would help with the personal loans, still can’t afford to eat or drive. We need both cars as jobs are 30 miles away in opposite directions, I am looking for better paid work in same area as my partner so that we can hopefully get rid of 1 car and all costs associated. Shopping to be cut by 60% and I do have access to other cards and loans up to about £40k not being used at the moment.

I calculate that we could afford things if we didn’t have secured loan or credit card debts, cut down on shopping to £400 per month, cut out 1 car, insurance & petrol & got rid of plumbing insurance.

So, as you can see I’m in a definite mess here and would be eternally grateful for any help and advice.

GirlRacer_2

Welcome aboard. Looking at your SOA there are quite a few areas (in my opinion) where you can cut down dramatically.
Life Insurance is extortionate
Shopping and other - what does this include - this is a massive amount
Car Insurance - is this the cheapest you can find?
BT - change your provider - I'm with Talk Talk £19.99 unlimited broadband and phone calls.

Also the cards that you have access to with limits of £40K - is there any reason that you are keeping them? If not cut them out (temptation).

Hopefully the other guys will be along soon and give you some more advice.

Tustastic

Hi Shipshape, you have come to the right place at last. I agree with girlracer - £75 on life insurance seems very high - check out the insurance area of the main website to see if you could get it a lot lower.
Electricity seems high too - look at the utilities advice on the main website to see if you could get it cheaper. Unless you are paying off arrears?
HTH

joeblack066

HI there.........can you break down shopping and other so it's easier to see where the money goes?

angelatgraceland

Keep a spending diary to actually see what you are spending on. Do not take cards out with you for anything. Cash or nothing. I found the diary very usefull. Keep all receipts also. I think you will find a few surprises in those. How many of you are there?

deltanineit

My immediate thought's are 'wow'...

are you talking about supporting a large family with those figues and one income?

the shopping bill is huge, surely no need to spend that for 2 or 3 peeps?

also, why is the insurance and fuel costs so high? are you running a high performance car unneccesarily?

i dont want to sound rude but my 1st impression is that you need to start leading an affordable life style. forgive me if i'm wrong!

a bit more info is needed on your family and size of it would be of great help

magentadreamer

The £1K a month you are spending on food and otherthings is the one area you have to seriously look at.Is this amount for only two people? Keep a spending diary to see where it goes.

Have you thought of speaking to the CCCS or Payplan?

brainfreeze

Not a lot to add to what others have already said but here are my thoughts

shipshape wrote: »

Can anyone out there please help as I’m sinking so fast my head is spinning. I don’t want to lose my house but am scared silly that we might.

Our monthly income and outgoings, with some information, is as follows

Council Tax £107.18 have you checked this is the right band - be careful though, if the house has been extended it may be higher so don't chase a banding check if this is likely
Electric £110.00 does this cover all energy, ie no gas bills and have you looked at switching supplier
Water Rates £39.83
Car Insurance £99.77 (same points made by previous posters - this seems extremely high at almost £1200pa even for two cars) - could you change to a cheaper car/insurance or even get rid of one or both cars and use public transport
BT £55.00 does this include internet access - can you change provider to a cheaper one
House & Contents insurance £36.60
TV Licence £11.40
Plumbing insurance £5.83
Life Insurance £77.02
Petrol £400.00 seems extremely high - if you have to use car for work purposes can you reclaim fuel costs from your employer
Shopping & other £1,000.00 you definitely need to clarify what this huge amount is for - it's more than 50% of your total income

Total outgoings per month = £3,283.85

Total income = £1,798.63



I calculate that we could afford things if we didn’t have secured loan or credit card debts, cut down on shopping to £400 per month, cut out 1 car, insurance & petrol & got rid of plumbing insurance.

Don't despair. I'm fairly new to this forum but in the short time I've been here people have been so helpful and non-judgemental. I know, from my own view point, just admitting the debt and talking to people about it (well talking here on the forums anyway;) ) has made the load on my shoulders so much lighter already. When you get a few spare moments I recommend reading other peoples diaries on this forum - they are so inspiring and it shows its not just talk....if you work at this you can be debt free at some point.

anniestar

Just a small bump. Also welcome and good luck to you. Could you please break down the shopping and say how many people you are buying for?

Snaggles

Just a couple of additional thoughts to add to the advice already given - credit card 2 is on 0% yet you are paying more than the minimum - even if this was affordable, you would be better paying more onto the cards with the higher rates. Credit card 3 - is this the monthly interest rate, as it sounds a very odd percentage for an APR?

I think shopping could definitely be cut, probably by more that 60% - we have a shopping budget of £250 for 3 (soon to be 4) of us, and that includes toiletries, cleaning products, even the odd bit of clothing etc).

If you have access to other credit cards & loans etc, you should possibly think about closing these, partly to remove temptation, and partly because if you do at some point want to shop around for a new credit card (for example when the 0% runs out), it will cut down on your 'available credit' which is something some banks take into consideration.