feeling more positive

midlander81

Hi Folks,


After a difficult week of feeling sorry for myself and getting myself stressed over our 40K debt, I am now feeling a lot better!!! Thanks for all of the supportive comments that I received on my previous posts.


managed to secure 0% deals for our non 0% card debt.This will really help.


Just done some number crunching and we should pay off 17K by this time next year which will make a big difference to my stress levels!! It will also mean that we will pay less interest even if we can't secure further 0% deals in 12 months.


I don't know why but owing under 20K will be such a relief for me. I reckon we will reach that stage by Christmas 2015 with all of out debt cleared by December 2016. For me being totally debt free has never really been the main focus. My immediate goal is to get it to a more 'normal' level - I know that 'normal' is relative but owing 40K worries me even though we can afford the repayments.


Think I might post a SOA later to see if anyone can make any suggestions about how we can cut back a bit more.

Tixy

Glad to hear you are feeling better and have a plan in place.

A SoA is often worthwhile to get some other people's opinions (even if they are not all always realistic or feasible).

midlander81

Here it is....Would welcome any opinions. In the unsecured debts section I have included the payments that we are actually making as opposed to the minimums. Also, The big £364 loan ends in 11 months and this money will then go towards the CC's




Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3050
Partners monthly income after tax....... 920
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4051.2
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 497
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 102
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 110
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 6
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 200
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 33
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 100
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1835

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 140000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 146000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 87000....(497)......1.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 87000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard (mine).............9400......180.......0
barclaycard (2nd)..............2400......55........6.9
creation.......................4000......75........0
creation card 2................3000......80........0
tesco CC.......................2600......300.......18.9
wife loan(hsbc)................4000......179.......4.8
Tesco loan.....................4000......364.......7.9
mbna (wife)....................2000......60........0
barclaycard (wife).............7000......180.......0
hsbc...........................2550......60........0
Total unsecured debts..........40950.....1533......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,051.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,835
Available for debt repayments........... 2,216.2
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,533
Amount left after debt repayments....... 683.2
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 146,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -87,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -40,950
Net Assets.............................. 18,050

Tixy

If those are the payments you are making then what are you doing with the surplus £680 a month?

You don't have car insurance or any car maintenancce (tyres, mot, servicing) costs - is this right? are they paid for by your employer or something?

You probably need to budget something for presents over a year?

Your outgoings don't look too bad overall. Perhaps consider seeing if you could get a cheaper combined package for telephone, tv & internet? gas and elec look a little high, have you tried shopping around for these recently to see if you could find cheaper?

Divingmad

Hi Midlander,

On your debt payments, are these the minimum amounts or what you are actually paying? If there are over the minimum amounts, would it be worthwhile reducing the 0% payments to the minimum amount and funnelling the rest to the debts with higher percentage rates?
You could try looking at a snowball calculator and see how this affects your repayments and also provides an estimated debt free day....here's the link....

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/snowball-calculator.php

hope this helps

DM