I am asking for help

DepressedDad

Hi All,

The time has come to ask for help. I am married with two children. We experienced a change of circumstances which led to us living off credit cards for a year and more. We've finally stopped spending on credit cards but now the debt just sits there.

I completed a SOF sheet for you to dissect and criticise. I don't know how much is left on my mortgage from the top of my head but we only have £5K equity because we received a grant for my deposit.

All the costs below are mine and the wife's combined so two people's debt and expenses.

I have a credit shuffle plan in place but haven't done it yet. Also, I've been toying with the idea of getting a DMP but have been put off to date after reading info on here. Thoughts anyone?

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1820.55
Partners monthly income after tax....... 247.6
Benefits................................ 188.25
Other income............................ 40
Total monthly income.................... 2296.4

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 672.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 126
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35.84
Telephone (land line)................... 13.9
Mobile phone............................ 67 (for 2 people)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 11.5
Internet Services....................... 10.6
Groceries etc. ......................... 280
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 28.3
Car Insurance........................... 99
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 16.6
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 22.75
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27.2
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 32.22
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 41.6
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1821.13


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 153000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 158000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(672.5)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 0.........-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................12000.....243.......9
Card ..........................5312......119.......21.9
Card2..........................4466......44........0
Overdraft .....................2800......28........18
Card3..........................1477......37........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........26055.....471.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,296.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,821.13
Available for debt repayments........... 475.27
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 471
Amount left after debt repayments....... 4.27

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 158,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -26,055
Net Assets.............................. 131,945

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

gracesophia

I didn't want to read and run. I'm sure people who are more expert than me will be along shortly, but one thing stuck out. Do you think you might have underestimated your entertainment budget? £20 doesn't seem a lot for 4 people for a month..

Cranny44

Others will be along shortly but they will probably suggest cutting your groceries by using the old style board, £30 a month for haircuts seems abit steep, do you really need 2 cars? can you cut the mobile phone bill go pay as you go for a while?

You could soon save quite a few quid a month and snowball the debt so a DMP wouldnt be needed especially if you can get any more on 0% BT offers.

HTH

Good Luck

DepressedDad

gracesophia wrote: »

I didn't want to read and run. I'm sure people who are more expert than me will be along shortly, but one thing stuck out. Do you think you might have underestimated your entertainment budget? £20 doesn't seem a lot for 4 people for a month..

No, in fact I think that's more than we normally spend. We have a fare few DVDs / Games which we play and we tend to do free things such as Museums, walks, parks etc.

Completely stopped paying to go out!

DepressedDad

Cranny44 wrote: »

Others will be along shortly but they will probably suggest cutting your groceries by using the old style board, £30 a month for haircuts seems abit steep, do you really need 2 cars? can you cut the mobile phone bill go pay as you go for a while?

You could soon save quite a few quid a month and snowball the debt so a DMP wouldnt be needed especially if you can get any more on 0% BT offers.

HTH

Good Luck

Thanks! What's the old style board?

Yes, haircuts have caused a few arguments and I think we've realised that we can't spend that much anymore.

The car point I have been debating. One might have to go

Mobile phones are fixed contracts so don't think they can change?

mummybearx

You could cut your grocery budget by a bit, check the Old Syle boards for some inspiration

Only thing that sticks out is the car insurance costs. Have you searched for a better deal, using a cash back site? I pay about£33 for me and dh to insure my car, and he has two driving convictions (:mad:)

X

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

fatbelly

I'm not going to suggest that you can shave a lot off the food budget if you are feeding 4 for less than £70 per week. On a dmp/IVA they would allow more than that.

On paper this doesn't need intervention as the contractual payments are covered but I suspect in practice the card balances and the overdraft are growing.

What is it that puts you off a dmp?

I'd recommend talking to CCCS (Step Change) or Payplan because actually an IVA might be suitable here and those 2 organisations shouldn't rip you off.

DepressedDad

fatbelly wrote: »

I'm not going to suggest that you can shave a lot off the food budget if you are feeding 4 for less than £70 per week. On a dmp/IVA they would allow more than that.

On paper this doesn't need intervention as the contractual payments are covered but I suspect in practice the card balances and the overdraft are growing.

What is it that puts you off a dmp?

I'd recommend talking to CCCS (Step Change) or Payplan because actually an IVA might be suitable here and those 2 organisations shouldn't rip you off.

The card balances are not growing and the overdraft is staying around the same but you're right, the debt isn't really going down.

I think the fact that my debt is unsecured and a DMP could let them secure the debt on our home. We don't want bailiffs taking our home / cars etc.

lizzy23

DepressedDad wrote: »

The card balances are not growing and the overdraft is staying around the same but you're right, the debt isn't really going down.

I think the fact that my debt is unsecured and a DMP could let them secure the debt on our home. We don't want bailiffs taking our home / cars etc.

A DMP doesn't secure any debt against your home, its a voluntary agreement between you and your creditors mediated through either CCCS or Payplan to pay an amount you can afford until the debt is clear, its likely but not guranteed that your creditors will freeze interest, the whole point of a DMP is that your priority debts mortgage etc are paid first, i don't think i've read anywhere on here about bailiffs turning up when someone is on a DMP, yes it does trash you're credit rating so it depends how much you value that, i have to say we are just starting this and we're both surprised how easy and stress free it's all been

Loubell83

DepressedDad wrote: »

Thanks! What's the old style board?

Yes, haircuts have caused a few arguments and I think we've realised that we can't spend that much anymore.

The car point I have been debating. One might have to go

Mobile phones are fixed contracts so don't think they can change?

Depends how long you have had the phone contracts - some companies let you downgrade your tariff after so many months. Give them a call and ask - cant do any harm!

Old Style boards are another section of the forum on here, that gives great tips on how to cut down grocery bills.

Also, maybe you want to keep a spending diary. Note down everything that is bought during the day - all the extra little things that you don't think about add up!

Any childrens clothes that they have grown out of that you can sell on eBay?

Loubell83

Link to Old Style boards -
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Also, can you or your partner do surveys to earn vouchers to help with food shopping/Xmas? I use Valued Opinions, My Survey and Swagbucks and have £90 of Amazon vouchers saved for my Christmas shopping - and I got that in about 6 months.