A nervous hello

Lawa

My debt started when I was suffering with un diagnosed postnatel depression. I am a self-harmer and bought things to make myself feelgood.

I have had a bit of a rough time this month with my depressionwhich hasn’t helped and I have never looked at my debts just moved them around.I am now pout of these options as I have started to only be able to get highapr.



This month at work the tax man has messed up my tax and leftme 700 pounds shorter than normal in my pay packet.



So I have decided I need to sort my finances out and dealwith them. They are always paid but basically minimum payment.



Zopa Loans 1992K 6% Ire pay 56.00

Sainsburys Bank Loan 5553 7.5% I re pay 153.00

Bank Of Scotland CC 3000 0% I re pay 50

Halifax CC 3534 0% I re pay 50

CO OP CC 3000 5% I RE PAY 100



I stopped smoking last Monday and this should give me anextra 300 pounds a month Now what do I do!

Zerdi6

Hi :wave:

Well done for joining and posting, lots of great people here to advise.

To start you could fill out a statement of affairs and post it http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php so everyone can have a look at where best to help

What's happened with your tax for this month? Are you on emergency tax in a new job?

flukeas

Hello and welcome.
First well done on quitting smoking!
Second as posted above do you statement of affairs. It is helpful to know where and how your spending your money. The experts here can trim the fat from any budget and free up money.
Third have a play with a snowball calculator for the best way of paying your debts off .

Lawa

Zerdi6 wrote: »

Hi :wave:

Well done for joining and posting, lots of great people here to advise.

To start you could fill out a statement of affairs and post it so everyone can have a look at where best to help

What's happened with your tax for this month? Are you on emergency tax in a new job?

Not emergancy tax unfortunaltey last few jobs have not done p45 correctly i should be on a 100L Code and have been put on a D01 and apparently have been paying for a compnay car I have not had since april last year!

Lawa

[tt]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................ 1800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 80
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1880
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 35
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 58
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 70
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 360
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 13
Life assurance ......................... 35
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1141

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 400......(35).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 400.......-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Zopa Loan......................1992......53.84.....14
Sainsburys Loan ...............5553......153.6.....7.5
Bank Of Scotland ..............3000......50........0
Co operative ..................3000......25........4.8
Halifax........................3500......75........0
Total unsecured debts..........17045.....357.44....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,880
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,141
Available for debt repayments........... 739
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 357.44
Amount left after debt repayments....... 381.56
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -400
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,045
Net Assets.............................. -15,945
[/tt]

Lawa

The reason I have no bills or mortgage.

MY partner pays rent and bills I pay food and childcare.

Lawa

I have jyst done an online tax check and it saying i should be due a tax refund of 1500! in my next month salary!

Lawa

If this is the case 1666 would pay of my Zopa Loan!

flukeas

I notice you haven't put your partners incomes down in you soa. Are these your debts alone?

Lawa

Unfortunaltey yes

KirstyO

:wave:


Welcome,


well done for 1) quitting smoking and 2) facing your debts


everyone on here will help when then can!


Thanks for posting your SOA, people can now start to advise where you can reduce debt/boost income to free up more money to throw at your debts, and then you can get rid of them and hopefully this will help massively with your depression!


Firstly I would see if you'll be eligible for any rebate/refund on the tax that you seem to have been overpaying. It might seem daunting but HMRC are generally good at giving money back if they can see that it's been taken in error.


From your SOA the things that jump out to me immediately are groceries and your car insurance. Are you using discount retailers like Aldi/Lidl? Are you buying fruit and vegetables loose so that you can just buy what you need? Are you planning meals so that you're not throwing stuff away? Are you and OH taking packed lunches/home made meals to work? Are you making large batches of food and freezing half for another day? There are lots of things you can do to cut this down without 'missing out' on the odd treat. There are 2 of us (adults) in my flat and this month we'll have spent about £100-125 on food. I know you have an extra mouth to feed, but this wouldn't cost much more per week if meals are planned well.


Car insurance, I am no expert on but know that for myself on a 1.4 5 door car with modest mileage it costs about £48 and I probably could have got cheaper. When you are coming up to renewal definitely shop around (and not just on comparison sites) and see if you can get this closer to £50 (I know it depends on a lot of things that we don't see, it may be that your circumstances stop you getting the cheapest of deals)


I'm sure others will probably suggest even more!