Drowning not Waving

Gerrymac

Harrys Dad,

I agree with you. The debts came about when my son was born and my wife stopped working.

I was doing OK for a while, but then the CC's started to creep up. The Barclays loan was taken out before this happened and is paying for the double glazing.

Partner has no income except Child Support and that doesn't go too far.

matttye

Gerrymac wrote: »

I left all of those at zero as I had paid them on a one off annual payment.

Clothing, don't buy new clothes very often,
Presents, yes, this month probably spend about £50 on a gift for someone, but won't next month.

These are my bills, the only thing to add over and above what I have included is impulse buys, these are usually small toys for my boy and rarely go over £5.00

You need to budget for yearly things too, just divide by 12.

For example, if you pay £120 a year for car insurance you'd put this down as £10 a month.

Gerrymac

OK, tried again,

If it is at zero then it is not a bill that I pay:

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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1716.44
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1716.44

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 326.1
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 101.64
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 25.5
Mobile phone............................ 31.6
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 26
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 160
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 14.58
Car Insurance........................... 15
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 15
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5
Buildings insurance..................... 4.5
Contents insurance...................... 4.5
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 60.85
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 25
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1130.27


Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross)..................... 54000
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 4300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 58900


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 36000....(326.1)....5
Total secured & HP debts...... 36000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................5116.19...92.18.....24.4
Credit Card....................3989.41...39........0
Loan...........................3544.84...102.2.....5.2
Loan...........................4720.82...110.6.....22.4
Total unsecured debts..........17371.26..343.98....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,716.44
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,130.27
Available for debt repayments........... 586.17
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 343.98
Amount left after debt repayments....... 242.19

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 58,900
Total HP & Secured debt................. -36,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,371.26
Net Assets.............................. 5,528.74

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

harrys_dad

I would suggest you do a new SOA, and include all income and expenditure, including your partner's. Include everything you spend in a year, and as suggested above divide annual payments by 12 to make monthly. Do not miss anything out. I also suggest you and your partner keep a spending diary for a month or so, in which you list everything you actually spend, so your SOA can then be amended. there are many on here then who will be able to advise you how to save money on expenditure and start to pay down your debt in an efficient manner.

Good luck!

Gerrymac

Hi harrys Dad, tried to do it again and list everything.

Ilona

Agree with Harry's Dad. As a couple you need to put down ALL income coming into the house, and ALL outgoings, regardless of who pays them. Sorting your finances out together is a must, otherwise your SOA won't make much sense and no one will be able to help you. Give it a try.
Ilona

Gerrymac

The only money my wife brings in pays for the utility bills,

Apart from that everything comes out of my account.

Possibly should have added earlier, I am a recovering alcoholic which is one of the main reasons for the financial mess.

I have applied for a zero percent CC to transfer my Barclaycard, I will then endeavor to get rid of some of the debt.

Would like to say thanks for the help, but it appears I only annoyed people by not filling out the SOA correctly. I'll try and remember this next time I ask for advice.

harrys_dad

You do not annoy me op, like others I am just trying to help, and an accurate SOA allows people to do that better. i am sure constructive advice will be along soon.

Mara_uk7

Hi gerrymac , well done on beating the booze addiction, good luck in beating the debts now. Lots of good advice on this forum, stick with it

dancingfairy

It's easy to get into debt but not quite so easy to get out of it.
Basically according to your SOA you should be able to meet all your monthly bills and your minimums on your debts and still have 242 a month left over. This is quite a hefty chunk to have 'spare' each month and should be thrown at the highest interest debt first.
If you find you don't have this much left over each month then a spending diary is essential. You will find out where you are leaking money and might identify areas on your SOA that need a bit of tweaking.
I would however also possibly think about an emergency fund as I'm sure at some point you will need clothes or money towards the car etc etc. Otherwise when these expenses crop up you will end up reachingfor the credit cards again and feel demoralised when you see the balances going back up.
It may be worth applying for a credit card with a low interest rate for balances or perhaps 0% (if you feel you can pay off a large amount of debt within the 0% period).
Best of Luck
df
Edit: a loan may not be the best option purely because you arelikely to end up paying it back over a prolonged period of time and it isn't very flexible. Also if you are accepted for a new credit card, transfer the balance over and then destroy all cards so you are not able to wrack up more debt.
Only you know whether you are on top of the gambling and whether you are on top of the spending. Only go for consolidation if you are really committed otherwise you are likely to get stuck in the cycle that many before you have fallen into of running up a debt, consolidating, running up more debt, consolidating, .... etc. If you are unsure or can't get more credit then the only option is to slowly but surely dig your way out, but your situation is definitely salvagable.