Keeping head above water - Almost

abby1234519

So I've done reasonablely well to get our debt down from 20k however it went up from 13k to 16k with the wedding as there were a couple of issues.

My husband has just started working on a new 24 hour contract, down from 39 and also has taken a pay cut of £1 per hour on top of that so that he can go to college and do an access course. That leaves me as the breadwinner.

We aren't entitled to housing benefit and universal credit doesn't kick in for a couple of months here ( we are one of the test areas) so until that kicks in we literally have no money.

Now if we had no debt it would be perfectly manageable.

But at the mo we are struggling. I've struggled to curb the unnecessary spending but I have no choice now. The only way I can see us being able to make it through is by focusing on the smallest debt each time because it is better for our morale to have less debt than less debts. I transfered some of the vanquis debt to a 0% deal with capital one (only lasts a few months) and will focus on paying the remainder off.

Then the only other thing I can think of is for example if our fuel is £120 a month, to put that £120 on a credit card and spend that on the fuel, then that would be the minimum payment and then prob need to put a bit more on for interest. However that would then leave some money that I could stick on another debt. So pay one debt off faster but the others might not move, does that make sense? We can't resort to a payment plan due to the market I work in. I'd lose my job if I defaulted


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................ 1318.8
Partners monthly income after tax....... 683
Benefits................................ 470
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2471.8
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 600
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 99
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 23
Telephone (land line)................... 34
Mobile phone............................ 108
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 80
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 566
Other child related expenses............ 8.05
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1996.05

Assets
Cash.................................... 3000
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis........................113.34....5.........59.99
Capital One....................1700......130.......34.9
Capital One....................1000......30........34.9
Natwest Student Overd..........1600......0.........0
DFS............................626.04....31.31.....0
Tesco Card.....................3940.6....99........21
Lloyds Loan....................1566.73...88.94.....19
Lloyds Card....................4850......110.......21.94
Very...........................621.61....0.........39.99
Total unsecured debts..........16018.32..494.25....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,471.8
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,996.05
Available for debt repayments........... 475.75
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 494.25
Amount short for making debt repayments. -18.5
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,018.32
Net Assets.............................. -13,018.32
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

abby1234519

Order ofwhich I shall repay debts.

Vanquis
CapitalOne (Balance of £1000 I would like to halve it)
Very
NatwestOverdraft
Remaining balances on Capital One cards

Lloyds Loan (as its a fixed payment so itwould be nice to clear it)
Lloyds Card
Tesco Card

DFS – we treat it like a bill as it’s a fixedamount at 0%

October_Starter

You can do it Abby! :j

October xx

abby1234519

I hope so! Been drowning for two long

twiggy86

Hi Abby. I'm new to this managing my debts malarkey so can't offer to much advice, but one thing I learnt today is that if you don't ask you don't get. I phoned Bcard today (over £6k on my CC) and asked if they would reduce the interest. And they did! From 19.9% to 6.9% on the balance (not purchases) for two years.

There's something on the main mse expert website which says which cards are likely to negotiate a deal so might be worth looking into. I know Bcard was one of the ones which said they were likely to negotiate a deal.

Good luck - seems like you've been doing really well so far!

beanielou

Do you really spend over a 100 quid a month on mobiles?
If so can you reduce this?

Anything you can car boot/sell locally to start getting rid of the dreaded Vanquis pretty damm quick?

abby1234519

beanielou wrote: »

Do you really spend over a 100 quid a month on mobiles?
If so can you reduce this?

Anything you can car boot/sell locally to start getting rid of the dreaded Vanquis pretty damm quick?

Unfortunately yes, however this should hopefully reduce soon. Its a long story but we have 3 contracts. We don't want 3 contracts....

I have been carbooting, it has been paying off vanquis, got more stuff upstairs from the wedding to sell ie big blackboard etc which I have interest in. Got 6 x full china sets to sell. But we've had so much stuff I've been working through it bit by bit. Honestly, I had a double room full of wedding stuff. Got boxes of glasses to sell and the rest of the chair sashes. Not much then.....

theemptypurse

Good luck abbey :kisses3: - just a thought.. Can you reduce nursery costs ? does your employer offer childcare vouchers ( might be worth asking?) or could your other half pick up child due to shorter working hours now? but probably not possible due to college
Stay positive, you seem to be very organised

p.s bloomin well done 21k to 13k is impressive

cocalls

hello


the only thing I can notice too is the mobiles-any chance you can ring them or pay to get out of contract?


As oh is working less hrs any chance they can take on some of the childcare to reduce costs?


Is this the money you're getting now or in a couple of months when universal credit kicks in?


Good luck you can do it!

abby1234519

Childcare has been reduced even though he is now actually full time as we get the 15 free hours. Whilst my partner is working less hours it doesn't work out that convenient. Essentially we both take child to nursery, his college is then opposite my work (very convenient). He finishes at 3, as a lift home and then does his college work. He then works 6 till 11 most nights, usually has one off. Sometimes works Saturdays and then for example this weekend he has Saturday off so we get a full weekend together. He handed his Sunday opt out in when he reduced his hours as I could t cope anymore being at home by myself with our son all weekend. We weren't seeing each other apart from weekday evenings so it now is better, even though I don't see him on the evenings it means we have a nice weekend.

If we had no debt I could have afforded for him to work even less but hey ho!

Mobiles, phone is being replaced by insurance then being sold to pay off the contract

abby1234519

Potential hurdle, cwnt transfer balance from vanquis card. Argh