Statement of Affairs

DIMMERS2013

:mad: new to the forum and need help!

I cant shift any of the credit card debts to new 0% deals, i cant release any equity in my property although i have loads :mad: to consolidate the loans ideas please.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,130.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 414.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.50
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.50
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.50
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.80
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.97
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
van insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.30
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.83
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
dance class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.40
swimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.00
football subs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,144.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,926.09

Just want to pay all the debts but but my OH doesnt know we have any other than the mortgage

Tixy

Hi and welcome to the forum.

How much are your debts? what aprs are you paying? on the cards is the £450 minimum payments?

How are you managing the £800ish overspend a month at the moment? are you falling further into debt each month?

Why does OH not know about the debts? were they run up on something specific or just general overspending?

Tixy

Because of the large overspend you really need to cut out all expenditure you can.

DIMMERS2013 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . 1,130.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax).. . . . . . . . 1,600.00

Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . 414.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . .. . . . . . . 85.00 how many phones? are you in contract? can you drop down a tariff or look for cheaper deals?
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.50
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.50
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.50 have you tried shopping around for gas & elec for the cheapest deal/supplier? are you in arrears? have you tried reducing your usage?
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.80
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 can you switch to a free account? are you using the perks of the account
Home insurance. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502.00 interest only or repayment? are you in a fixed deal? what APR are you paying

Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00 how many in the family? have you tried reducing your spending here? perhaps try the drop a brand challenge?
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 alcohol or soft drinks? if alcohol can you reduce or cut out for the time being?
sky . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.00 can you reduce the package to the basic one or stop altogether and use freeview
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00 how many cars? are these all essential journeys?

Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.97
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
van insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.30 is this a business expense?
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00 how much do you owe? what APRs on this and the other debts?
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments

Regular saving. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 20.00 how much do you have saved?
Family
School trips. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 46.83
Entertainment
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 is this right?
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 is this realistic?

Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs

Birthdays . . . . . .. . . . . . 0.00 do you not budget for this?
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416.67 you cannot afford to spend £5k on a holiday with the level of overspend you currently have
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
dance class . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.40
swimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.00
football subs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,144.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,926.09

Just want to pay all the debts but but my OH doesnt know we have any other than the mortgage

cottage_retreatist

Hey Dimmers2013!
first things first - welcome to the board! It's the first step to accept you do have debts and you want to tackle them!

Next thing - eek! Like Tixy said - what is the specifics of these debts and why does your OH not know about them?

OK - apart form that - a few other things on your SOA - I have added below:

DIMMERS2013 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . 1,130.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . 1,600.00

Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . 414.00

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.00 Guessing this is for 2 contracts? When do they run out so you can go down to lower contracts? Me and OH are now on 11 quid each p/m and we both have iphones so it is possible!
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.50
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50
Cleaning products/Cleaner .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50 Do you have a cleaner? If so they're cheap!! For 2.50 p/m you can add cleaning products to groceries I reckon!
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 83.50
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 83.50 Gas and elec are both high - are you in arrears with them? If not - look at MSE's energy club and try and swap down and also consider other ways to reduce costs - e.g. lower thermostat or not put heating on yet? It's so mild there's no need!
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.80 - are you on a meter? This seems like a lot per month - i pay only around 250 per year. If on a meter you might need to look into using less water with a brick in your cistern etc?
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.00 do you spread this across 10 or 12 months? If 10 you can ask to extend it to 12 months and get a little extra each month to spend on debts
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Bank account fee. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 - do you need to pay for your account? Are you using the perks it gives you?
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.00 is this home and contents?
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502.00
Food and household shopping . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00 is it just 2 of you? Deffo look at reducing this on the OS grocery challenge board
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00 You know what I'm going to say! Stop the drinks until you're debt free if not just reduce it down anyway!!!! 80 quid p/m? Nice! I'm coming round yours!!
sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.00 stratospheric costs!!! Call them right away and negotiate a deal - and throw in the broadband and phone line too!!!!!!!

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00 You drive A LOT - can any of this be claimed back from work or can you take public transport for short trips?
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.97
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00 cheaper to pay in 1 lump sum for insurance so you don't pay interest - could be worth starting to put money aside each month so you can do this next year to save money - ditto with the van insurance
van insurance . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 34.30
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606.00
we need to know aprs on these and whether you are maxing out on the cards each month to repay or paying off partially.

Savings & Investments
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Family
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.83 each month? Your kids must have great fun or really expensive trips?

You have no contingency money for outings or for your own clothing or haircuts or birthdays etc - I would take another look at this because it can't be true.
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 - do your kids need clothes every month? Can you go second hand for a while?

Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416.67 - I hope you don't put this amount away each month? Can you have a year without a summer holiday or a staycation?
Christmas . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33 you could cut back on this for a year or two - especially if you can't repay your debts

dance class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.40
swimming. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.00
football subs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Is this for the kids on top of their days out each month?!!!!!!!

Total monthly income. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,144.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . 3,926.09

You need to have a look again at this SOA - 800 is massive as a discrepancy. Also check your numbers are correct.

I'm sure others will be along with advice soon.
Good luck - my recommendation? Tell your OH for your sake and your relationship it'll be better in the long-run! There's too much of a shortfall if that's true not to have their buy-in to get rid of the debts.


edit - oops! Tixy got there before me!!!!! Thanks!!!!

nomunnofun

It would be more realistic if the self-employment income was declared 'after tax' which, unfortunately, does reduce your total income by around £400, making the shortfall £1200 per month.

Tixy

nomunnofun wrote: »

It would be more realistic if the self-employment income was declared 'after tax' which, unfortunately, does reduce your total income by around £400, making the shortfall £1200 per month.

Whilst I agree tax should be included in the budget it wouldn't be as much as £400 on an income of £1130 (especially considering that it appears as though some business expenses are included in the soa, it would likely be under £100pm for tax & self employed ni). That assumes that the self-employment person is not also earning the employed income of course.

nomunnofun

Tixy wrote: »

Whilst I agree tax should be included in the budget it wouldn't be as much as £400 on an income of £1130 (especially considering that it appears as though some business expenses are included in the soa, it would likely be under £100pm for tax & self employed ni). That assumes that the self-employment person is not also earning the employed income of course.

That is what I had assumed (no childcare payments), with personal allowance fully utilised at PAYE. Perhaps OP could clarify or declare profit from S/E.

Sorry Tixi - the income from self-employment is £1600, not £1130 - the lines in the op post can be confusing!

DIMMERS2013

Thank you all for your replies....lots of questions needing answers to, i need to explain lots of things....i perhaps filled things in slightly wrong.

At work at the moment so will be back later....will try and find the APR'S but what i can confirm is that i am robbing Peter to pay Paul ie paying minimum payments for the catalogue on the credit card

OH doesnt know because he lives in a bubble and thinks all the things he wants/has are able to be paid for by the money we earn which they could be if we didnt have the debt...vicious circle.:(

cynicalgit_2

You've done the hardest bit, just by coming to terms with the problem.
The advice on this/these forums is /are brilliant!!
Nothing is insurmountable.
Good Luck.

DIMMERS2013

loans first
Sainsburys Loan 306.21 per month APR14.15% 33 Months left
Tesco Loan 120.93 per month APR? 20 months left
Halifax Loan 192.80 per month APR? 18 Months left

I am quite happy and can manage all the above

Barclaycard £10k outstanding 18.9%APR
MBNA £2750 outstanding 0% APR
Santander £1200 outstanding 17.9%APR
Littlewoods £3000 outstanding

I make minimum payments on all of these, however this month i had to use santander card to pay littlewoods catalogue:(


The school trip total:- Both kids going on trips next year one at £202 and the other at £460. I know i may get criticised for this but why should they miss out?

Self Employed income is my OH it fluctates but i have put the average down but some months its a lot more and i have more money left at the end of the month to throw at the credit cards.

Fuel - 1 car £40 a week - commuting to work and to swimming club.
1 - van £50 a week-OH for work - yes we can claim this on the tax return.

Holiday - The tax return rebate pays for the holiday we dont put any money towards it, it takes care of its self, a bit over the top at £5k more lik £3.5k

Sky- The whole sky bill including the phone and internet is normally £106.50 a month. We phoned to to try and get a better deal but as we arent in a cable area and cant use that as a 'threat' they wouldnt knock any money off. We dont go out at all so the TV is all the luxury we have.

Gas and Electric - in debit by £1500 cant swap for a better deal until thats paid - however the tariff we are on is one of the cheapest

Food Shopping- Normally £90 a week and that is with own branded food and drink etc

Drinks for Home- maybe a bit extreme at £80 probably more £40 if the lager is on offer.

The debt would be more managable if i could consolidate all into one place instead of paying all these different places on different days of the month but cant consolidate the loan onto the mortgage, which incidentally only has 8 years to run and we have about 80k equity!!

cottage_retreatist

DIMMERS2013!

hello! thank you for the extra info - just a quick one right now - you are being told b*llocks about your tv/phone etc package!!!!

I used to live in the middle of a field where the farmers kept ploughing up the telephone line and I had to pay a bit more for the internet (e.g not the 2.99 per month package) but it was still no more than 60 quid in total - do you also get sports/movies etc? Could you get rid just for a while to tackle these debts and get back on a sure footing?

You'll find - sometimes we have to make sacrifices if we want to bust these debts - just remember its a temporary thing but it will feel so much better when you can chose what to spend your money on rather than being held ransom to your debts!!!

This will be a rocky road, there'll be highs and lows but you CAN do it!
I'll be back later - no battery!!!!
xx