In it deeper then i thought....

Andyph

Evening all,

been struggling with money for a while now and suppose it has come to light at lot more since my partner left her job as it was stressing her so much ( however we were paying for childcare then and another £250 a month in petrol )

i have done an SOA form and i really cant see many places where i can save money.... Just looking for any advice / feedback as at the moment i feel like taking out a big loan and racking up my credit cards while my credit is good and then rolling over when its gone!

below is the SOA

i havent included cars bits as paid for insurance out right at the start.

i know i need to look at moving gas / electric on to dd but thats a further £110 the companies want just to remove the meters.

Please be a bit gentle!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 another one coming in july
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1117
Partners monthly income after tax....... 352 ( housing Benefit )
Benefits................................ 81.2 Child Benefit
Other income............................ 78.69 Working tax credit
Total monthly income.................... 1628.89

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 399
Rent.................................... 660
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110 (£20 CT benefit taken off )
Electricity............................. 40 ( PP Meter )
Gas..................................... 50 ( PP Meter )
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45 ( not meter at present )
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 45 2 x contracts
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
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...................... 8
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1867


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 7500.....(159)......7.1
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3400.....(240)......21.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 10900.....-.........-

Debt wise just took out a 7500 loan to pay off 2 other credit cards, my over draft and a next account. the 3400 is a loan that my partner has had for 6 years and is paid off next april. The halifax is 0% till dec 2013

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
halifax........................5500......70........0
Total unsecured debts..........5500......70........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,628.89
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,867
Available for debt repayments........... -238.11
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 70
Amount short for making debt repayments. -308.11

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,500
Net Assets.............................. -14,400

Andyph

Sorry about the spelling!

kerri_gt

I'm sure lots more folks will be along to help advise but I've made a couple of comments / thoughts on your SOA

Andyph wrote: »

Evening all,

Household Information[/B]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 another one coming in july
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1117
Partners monthly income after tax....... 352 ( housing Benefit )
Benefits................................ 81.2 Child Benefit
Other income............................ 78.69 Working tax credit
Total monthly income.................... 1628.89

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 399
Rent.................................... 660
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110 (£20 CT benefit taken off )
Electricity............................. 40 ( PP Meter )
Gas..................................... 50 ( PP Meter )
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45 ( not meter at present ) can you change this to a meter? Have you worked out if you'd be better off by doing this?
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 45 2 x contracts looks to reduce the contracts, consider going PAYG possibly?
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25 get rid of this and us Freeview
Internet Services....................... 0 Nothing or is this included in line rental?
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 check out the old style board for ideas to make things go further, batch cook and the like - could you grow some of your own fruit / veg?
Clothing................................ 50 really? evry month? that's £600 per year. Really need to reduce this while tackling debts - only buy essential items, mend where possible, check car boots / charity shops
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 is there any way to reduce this? Walking where possible, car sharing?
Road tax................................ 0 need to include an amount for this
Car Insurance........................... 0 need to include an amount for this to ensure you budget accurately going forward
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 need to include an amount for this - cars need maintenance whether we like it or not
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...................... 8
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0 nothing ever
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1867


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 7500.....(159)......7.1
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3400.....(240)......21.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 10900.....-.........-

Debt wise just took out a 7500 loan to pay off 2 other credit cards, my over draft and a next account. the 3400 is a loan that my partner has had for 6 years and is paid off next april. The halifax is 0% till dec 2013

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
halifax........................5500......70........0
Total unsecured debts..........5500......70........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,628.89
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,867
Available for debt repayments........... -238.11
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 70
Amount short for making debt repayments. -308.11

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,500
Net Assets.............................. -14,400

I know you have another baby on the way but could either of you possibly take on any additional hours / overtime to help bring in some extra cash? Is there anything you can sell either ebay / car boots etc?

I would also suggest keeping a spending diary, write down everything that you both spend, even a 30p paper at the local shop - it is likely there are areas on your SOA that are under or overestimated.

How were you managing before? I assume your partners income covered the additional childcare costs, petrol and meant there wasn't an expense deficit?

iclaudius_2

Hey Andy

Great start amigo. Sounds like you've had your Light Bulb Moment (LBM) and are rolling up your sleeves. I had this myself just over 2 years ago when we were expecting our second child. Nothing like it to get you fired up and take control.

We bought Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book for a tenner and this gives you all the detail you need to get on track .

Looking at your SOA:

- you could probably save money on the Sky (-25) Clothes (-40) and Groceries (-25) but I assume your petrol costs are work related?
- even after these short term sacrifices you've still got a short fall. So you need to address the income side of the equation. You should consider you or your partner taking on some weekend work but look at this as another temporary sacrifice until you're out of debt. You've done great to simplify your debts and buy yourself some time with the 0% but until you can break even every month it is treading water.
- Baby step 1 - do you have anything to sell? get together your baby emergency fund of 500-800 so you can cut those credit cards up and avoid getting further into debt.


Also, you'll see on my other posting I'm a big fan of cash envelope system to get general spending under control. We each have our allowance in cash every month which means a good control on expenditure.

Good luck and keep checking in! :T
VBW

Andyph

hey,

thanks for the replies so far, sorry we don't actually spend £50 a month on clothes, only really buy things for my son as and when he needs them and try to get them in the sale or 2nd hand from facebook sale groups. we have just moved so sky we are locked into for 12 months and my partners contract has another 18 months to run,.

she is having quite a bad pregnancy at the moment and so she cant work and i work shifts which makes it hard as its different each week, i'm going to try find another job with set hours so that i can then get another part time job a couple of days a week.

I like the cash envelope idea so will get that in place.... as for petrol costs i work out in the sticks with no other way of getting there so not much i can do with that one.

Nickyj

Hi Andy,
As your OH is not working at the moment could she eBay and sell some bits on the Facebook selling sites (I feel her pain, I'm pregnant too and have been so ill this time round) I'm on maternity leave now so have been selling everything we haven't used in ages and have made a nice profit. It's not huge amounts but every little helps as they say. Good luck

MiMi66

Hi Andy -
I just joined and posted my debt nightmare yesterday as well - I saw your title and thought - 'there's someone else in a similar boat'.

I don't have any huge words of wisdom except to say I believe it can be done, debt and can be managed and got rid of eventually - long haul rather than short haul.

There seems to be a lot of people on these threads who have an enormous amount of life experience with debt and how to address it - I hope that something clicks as the way forward for you and my little bit of experience tells me that even a small change feels like hope - I stuck £2 in a jar this morning to start saving for christmas stockings. And one piece of advice from another member yesterday was to pay off the smallest of my debts - Which was £9 - a tiny pea in the sea of debt I am in, but still it is debt I do not have anymore.

Best of luck and well done for joining here - I feel quite optimistic about the support of others, I hope that works for you too.

beth3735

Hi, just wanted to say you should also get Child Tax credits as well as Working tax? Or are they joint in the £78?

I just wanted to wish you luck, I have managed to nearly pay off £17k over 7 yrs in the end and thats on my part time working hours plus little help in child benefits. It is possible and you will get there. If i was you i would look at putting it all on a DMP, Yes it will mess up your credit score, but if it gets you debt free then its nothing to worry about

poppasmurf_bewdley

I agree with the posts above about cutting Sky and your mobile phone bills. You can reduce Sky to their smallest pack at £20 instead of paying the present £26 whilst in contract. Speak to the mobile phone company and explain the situation and see if they will do anything - getting £20 regularly from your wife is better for them than them not getting £45.

Have a car boot sale now the better weather is approaching. Now is the time to start collecting stuff from friends and family. Ask them to donate items they no longer use or want, and plan to have two or three sales. I've done exactly that when I was in your situation and each sale raised more than £100.

And you do need to start thinking about next years road tax and insurance now. It's no use leaving it until the 'due now' notices pop through your door.

Good luck. You will make it with some forward thinking and help and advice from this forum.