Confused and in debt

Show_me_da_money

Originally Posted by Show_me_da_money View Post
Partners monthly income after tax....... 250
Could this increase soon? For instance when does the youngest starts school? Wifey works as a dinner lady in my youngest's school. Tried for other roles within the school, nothing available just yet.
Council tax............................. 180
Electricity............................. 180
Gas..................................... 180
Do all three of these cover arrears? Can you negotiate to pay off over a longer period or include the utilities in your debt management plan? How soon will they go down? Council Tax is what it is unfortunately. Gas and Electric includes £30 each for arrears
Mobile phone............................ 60 Are you near the end of contracts and could go PAYG? Each contract is on £10/month except for mine, its £20/month. Over 7 months before we can consider stopping the contract.
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 You can't really afford this. This is all part of a phone/internet TV deal. No frills option
Groceries etc. ......................... 450 This I can work on.
This is probably your biggest area of possible saving - try the old style board for ideas and aim to cut down - £300 is probably possible.
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Can you cut anything here with less driving or different driving style? If I take public transport due to the hours I work means I have to walk through very quiet roads, safety reasons I drive.
Car parking............................. 20
Can you park further away and walk If I am unlucky I get caught by the congestion charge, I could have 2 weeks of nothing but then last week cost me every day
Car Insurance........................... 55
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 20
Life assurance ......................... 50
Other insurance......................... 30
Have you shopped around for the best deal on all these insurances? Is the other insurance necessary? I will spend hours searching for the best deal on insurances before accepting them. They are the best deals unfortunately even with increased excesses.

theoretica

Show_me_da_money wrote: »

Electricity............................. 180
Gas..................................... 180
Gas and Electric includes £30 each for arrears

£300 a month for gas and electricity seems too much. Any idea why these are so high?

Show_me_da_money

I have no idea really... I guess we had a harsh winter and used the gas quite a bit, as for the electricity, when you have 3 school going kids who need to use the computers until late at night for homework etc it all adds up to the bill.

They actually wanted to increase it to 180 but I refused as I said it will even out over the summer, they were basing their figures on the useage and not estimates. Furthermore, I often shop around for the best deals and have just switched to Sainsbury's aka British Gas as my current provider was ripping me off.

Have considered the solar panels under the gov scheme, but not convinced of the returns.

I have changed what bulbs I can to LEDs and also removed bulbs where I think we can manage with less etc...

toothfairybuttkicker

You need to check your tariffs or do a utility comparison!!!!! £300 is ridiculous!!! We are a family of 5 with 2daily house visitors. Our electric is being consumed 24/7. My mom has a passion for boiling kettles with no water and DS1/OH have a gadget and charger addiction that we are working on and even our current bill is only £140 per month for both!!!!

Ps your groceries bill is triple ours, which shocks me slightly as your OH has time available to cook from scratch/batch cook


Please don't be offended. I'm just trying to give you a little perspective

chevalier

Welcome to the boards my comments are in blue.

Show_me_da_money wrote: »

Here is the Stoozing statement;

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2100 Can you increase your hours?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 250Can you wife do surveys, ebay old clothes, sell unworn gold, go mystery shopping to increase her income.What about evening bar work, or late nights, whilst you look after the kids?
Benefits................................ 180have you checked you are definitely getting the correct benefits.
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2530

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 826 ouch this is nearly a third of your income. Is it the best deal? Can you take a payment holiday/ go interest only to give you some breathing space? Could you even sell and downsize to free up some equity?
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 170 Assuming this isn't secured on the house, can you sell what this loan is for to free some money. When does this finish? As it it secured it can't be included in a DMP.
Rent.................................... 1
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 180 Are you sure you are in the correct band? Are you paying over 10 or 12 months, if 10 you can ask to pay over 12.
Electricity............................. 180 Even with arrears these are really really high. I have managed to train my kids who admittedly are 12 and 9 to at least turn tv's and consoles off when they leave a room. Lights on the other hand are a work in progress (sigh). But if you kids are older than this then there is not excuse. Also check that things are switched off at the wall. Chargers use energy if switched on (even without a phone attached) for example. Consoles and tvs are only in standby not off. They all draw power. If you cook with electric, then try to use the oven for more than one dish, or bake in the evenings to heat the kitchen (so less heating needed). Probably the biggest electric hog though is a tumble dryer if you have one. They cost about a pound a use! Obviously at the moment you will be using all the lovely sunshine you have had, but getting airers maybe will help in the winter.
Gas..................................... 180 I am going to assume that you heat with Gas. Can you turn your thermostat down? For every degree you turn it down, you save about 100 pounds a year, so not to be sniffed at! I appreciate that you will be sweltering at the moment, but you can think about what preparations you need to make for next winter. Examples would be keeping the temperature to 18 degrees (and look for winter layers in the summer when they are cheap), turning the temperature of the water down too. Anything more than 50 degrees centigrade is a waste as you have to add cold water to it to cool it down. Any higher than this is a scald risk as well, so good for it to be less for that reason too. Now is the time to check round your house for draughts. If you have them under the door, the trusty sausage dog can be made out of scrap material and put behind the door. Have you checked your insulation recently? Can you get a grant to top it up. And there is the water/heat saving one of showers rather than baths, and setting a timer. My boys would run the shower until the bath was full :eek:, which defeated the object of the shower. Now they have a timer for 5 minutes, and then they at least shut off the shower!!!
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 60 If you are more than half way through your contract, you can ask to go onto a cheaper plan.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20You mentioned that this is part of a bundle, have you checked that unbundling the landline and this wouldn't be cheaper. Or else rebundling the land line with the broadband may get you a cheaper deal.
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 450 This can be done cheaper, though it does depend on the age of your children. But if none of them are in nappies then I reckon a 100 off this would be fairly easy. Are your cupboards/freezer really full at the moment? If so then your challenge for the rest of the month is to only buy milk and veg and eat from what you have. If you have 'really' full cupboards like me:o, you maybe able to do this for longer.
Clothing................................ 20 Can this be made money neutral ie selling stuff on ebay to pay for it?
Petrol/diesel........................... 300 Any chance of a more economical car to save here
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 55 Ouch that is really expensive, are you under 25 or have points? My fully comp, protected no claims was 350 last year. If you find a cheaper provider check out whether any of the cash back sites are giving cash back. Some give back as much as a 100 pounds per insurance! Nice little earner. Same with utility changes too.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 20
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 60 If you get more than one prescription a month, then you will save money getting a medical prepayment certificate.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 20
Life assurance ......................... 50 Again this seems pretty high, did you have a preexisting condition?
Other insurance......................... 30
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 10
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 2803


Assets
Cash.................................... 1000
House value (Gross)..................... 360000
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 6000 can you sell this and get something cheaper, is this what the secured loan is for?
Other assets............................ 1200can you sell these?
Total Assets............................ 368300


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 248000...(826)......3.07
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5000.....(170)......4.32
Total secured & HP debts...... 253000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Loan.....................6501......135.......6.37
Barclays Loan..................5430......234.......14.9
MBNA Credit Card...............7236......120.......1.46
Bank O/D.......................2000......150.......0
Bank O/D.......................6000......200.......18.6
Total unsecured debts..........27167.....839.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,530
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,803
Available for debt repayments........... -273 If you made all of these cuts you 'might' balance the books, ie stop getting into more debt. But then you would still have the debt to service, which doesn't seem possible at the moment.
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 839
Amount short for making debt repayments. -1,112

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 368,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -253,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -27,167
Net Assets.............................. 88,133

You valued feedback would be appreciated...

Hope the above doesn't come across as to harsh, but I did want both you and your OH to think about this. I agree with other posters take the DMP. You will be able to get better paid work along the line. It relieves the stress now etc. BUT your budget is still doing to be very tight just because of the amount of secured debt that you have to service (it takes nearly half your income). So you will still need to think about the cuts mentioned my me and others IN ADDITION to going on the DMP.

Good luck
chev

Show_me_da_money

Hi Chev,

Thanks for your input, unfortunately, I cannot increase my hours and overtime is paid back in days off rather than money, as for eBay, I have items on there but no one is buying... If what I have on eBay sells, it will net me £500 easily!

Payment holiday on the mortgage is not an option as I am around 3k in arrears after being unemployed for the best part of 8 months. The gas and electric has now been sorted after BG admitted they made a mistake and are now charging me £75 for each as opposed to the whopping £180 for each.

Food cupboards are kept to a minimum and the freezer is empty right now after it broke down and we had to throw away a 1/3rd as it went off. So what frozen stuff we do have is at other peoples houses whilst we get some cash together to repair/replace the freezer! Sods law when you are struggling I guess.

Tried to sell the car earlier this year, being offered stupid money that would not leave us with anything after paying off a chunk of the debts so decided to put that idea on hold for the time being.

The medical is an insurance that I have been lumbered with and cannot get out of just yet, but hoping to within the next 30 days.

The Life Insurance is in joint names to cover the mortgage and has been static since we bought our first mortgage.

The biggest achievement was getting BG to rectify the 360 they were charging for gas and electric, so that should leave us with -65 for debt repayment instead of the -275, but I am sure we can make some cuts. But it is still a big challenge to move this into a positive where it will start to make an impact in the debts.

Many a times we have considered selling up and downsizing, but with my credit rating shot to bits after the lapse of CC and mortgage repayments, I am not going to get a mortgage from anyone right now.

theoretica

Show_me_da_money wrote: »

The gas and electric has now been sorted after BG admitted they made a mistake and are now charging me £75 for each as opposed to the whopping £180 for each.

Excellent news!

scottishspendaholic

I think the key thing here is for your wife to work more - if your youngest is at school, then there's no reason why your joint income couldn't increase by a few £hundred per month. You may have to shell out a small amount for after school club or travel, but you could still significantly increase your income.

[Deleted User]

Show_me_da_money wrote: »

The gas and electric has now been sorted after BG admitted they made a mistake and are now charging me £75 for each as opposed to the whopping £180 for each.

And what of the overpayments?

Will you be getting them back?

Show_me_da_money

@scottishspendaholic There are new opportunities coming up in the school where she works, she has expressed her interest in extra hours and responsibilities. She makes the most of the table top sales days and sells whatever she can get her hands on.

@Bedsit Bob Luckily the over payments were only for a couple of months, so expecting that back real soon! Still leaves me in negative equity on a monthly basis to put toward debts.

Considered cycling to work... Just can't trust other road users to be as careful and based on that have reluctantly stuck to the car. 1