Can't believe our SOA and our debt!!!!!!?

retepetsir

darcey1105 wrote: »

Thanks for the correction. His accountant deals with all expenses, income, tax bill etc and we are under the threshold for earnings as his expenses bring his yearly income down, I have gone on the last three months earnings- it does fluctuate and some months he can earn very little and I need to start putting something away for those months. His last years salary was £38000. Unfortunately it goes month by month and he may end up with no work at the end of the year. Just the joys of being self employed.
I will adjust tv license.

An income of ~£38k still doesn't seem to tie in overly well with an average take home pay of over £4k a month, or is this before any expenses?! Makes it quite confusing! I would have thought he would be in the 40% bracket even after these?

Seanymph

If last year his overall income was 38,000 you may be better using this as an income figure unless something has drastically changed - it may be more realistic and allow more for the ups and downs.

It will better explain how you got into your current situation as well.

xbethanyx

You had dog food at £11 per month but say you have 3 dogs? I only have one and it costs £70 a month including treats. Unless this is in your monthly food shop? Best ensuring you budget correctly for this as can't have them going hungry

AndyT678

Seanymph wrote: »

If last year his overall income was 38,000 you may be better using this as an income figure unless something has drastically changed - it may be more realistic and allow more for the ups and downs.

It will better explain how you got into your current situation as well.

This ^^^

Your last SOA has to be wrong somewhere. You have not historically had a spare £900 per month if you are racking up debt on high interest cards.

Either you've missed some spending off or the income should be lower. £38,000 / 12 = £3,167 which would fit better.

lizzy23

xbethanyx wrote: »

You had dog food at £11 per month but say you have 3 dogs? I only have one and it costs £70 a month including treats. Unless this is in your monthly food shop? Best ensuring you budget correctly for this as can't have them going hungry

sorry to Hijack what the heck are you feeding your dog i have 6 and pay nowhere near £70 a month and that's not feeding rubbish its feeding Raw

darcey1105

We feed 3 dogs on a 17kg bag of wagg that lasts a whole month, sorry they don't have treats? We feed any left over scrap meats and that's the only treats- they all are within weight range and happy healthy dogs- sorry I can't justify spending £70 a month on my dogs - if they required specialist diets it maybe different but they are all happy like the food so won't be changing anything on that front!

I will base it on last years earnings and go from there- we need to cut back and I will base his earnings on that basis
:0)

darcey1105

Sorry he has also been doing a lot more night work etc so hence the jump in income, I am going to put it towards our debt whilst the work is there, although he may end up with a 40% tax bill on extra that would be due by Jan 2016- if we can get debt free first we would be able to save for the extra, his expenses will be roughly the same so will work out his income on the last three months and find the average and calculate a prediction of earnings to calculate the tax which may be due in Jan 2016. His tax bill currently will be due in jan 2015 and that is well under with nothing owing so that's good- have also cancelled the child benefit- as better to not have it than have to pay it back.
I am looking for a supermarket job also as can so weekends whilst hubby here to have kids so I can earn some money :0) just need to put aside £260 in case we do end up having to pay back what we owe in child benefit this financial year :0) x thanks for all your help so far things seem more manageable and with us both heading in the right direction it's onwards and downwards with our debt )

jamess55

I can strongly recommend "Christians Against Poverty" because they spend their time looking at *why* you're spending money and not just come up with a repayment plan. The only thing is that they don't operate in all areas of the country and they don't have an office you can visit, so if they can't visit your home (because they don't operate in that area), they probably won't be able to help. Oh, and just to emphasise, despite the name they're not there to "push" Christianity or convert you!

However all is not lost. There are other organisations who can help, and the key thing is to remember that you mustn't pay for any monthly help because it's money for nothing when other companies will sort it out for free. The one I use is Payplan but the other is StepChange (who were previously known as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service). They can both be found easily through a Google search.

But whoever you use (or even if you do it yourself), the things to remember are: (a) your creditors are all on non-secured debt, which means you won't lose your home; and (b) even if the creditors keep pushing and it goes to court (worst case, because it's very expensive for them) you'll only be asked to repay what you can afford, which means that they are likely to accept a repayment offer if it's based on a realistic assessment of your income and expenditure; and (c) well done for recognising that you need some help.

I have been in debt for the last 5 years and spent the first 18 months in denial. When I phoned up Payplan I had about 20 creditors because of the number of payday loan comapnies I was dealing with. But now, I am 2 months away of being debt free and can hardly believe it. My only wish is that I had done something sooner and recognised that drastic actions (such as selling my home, going bankrupt, taking out another consolidation loan) were options I didn't need to consider.

In summary: you can only repay what you can afford. Please remember that and tell your creditors your honest situation. You may be surprised at how accommodating they are once they know they're going to be repaid.

racing_blue

I have not read all the posts but it seems that cars are costing you £7k per year just for fuel, insurance and tax. Add in depreciation, the total is possibly north of £10k.

That's over 25% of gross income, maybe a third of net income or more.

In your situation, this is an area I would probably focus on. It is a big slice of the pie.

nic_santorini

my 2 year 3 contract is up on my iphone and 3 do an all you can eat sim for just £15 a month, so looking forward to a drop in monthly phone bills for the same usage.