Worse than we thought......

prosaver

ps how much is a packet ,these days?

KirstyO

let us know how you get on fool - hopefully it will make you feel more positive even if there is no immediate action at the time of the call

Lemonsqueezer78

prosaver wrote: »

ps how much is a packet ,these days?

£9-10 or so for a pack of 20 these days.

enthusiasticsaver

Your teenagers should be able to get weekend jobs if they are 16/17 so can you not at least decrease their pocket money? I know you also say you send £10 to your other child at uni for them to buy fresh food but the student grant should be sufficient for them to do that without you putting yourself further into debt. We stopped our daughters' pocket money at 16 to encourage them to get work weekends not because we could not afford to give it to them or we were in debt but because we both strongly believe in the work ethic being encouraged as young as possible and consequently they were earning their pocket money and it was a valuable lesson for them and they have both said looking back they were really pleased we made them do it and they worked through their A level courses and university. 3 of your children should be able to do that in particular if you live in a tourism area as we do.


I think a full and frank discussion with your OH is also needed as quite frankly £200 on going out to the pub and £100 for cigarettes each month is ridiculous when you are that much in debt and going further into it. Also £450 on groceries when one of your children is at uni is again too much. That can be cut down by you shopping at a discount supermarket and being frugal. That will be helpful for your children to learn as well. The cable tv should also go and presents be cut back along with charity donation and magazine subscription. All these are luxuries you cannot afford and even if your OHs wage goes up when the tourism season starts you will lose income as your children get older from tax credits, child benefit etc.


Your OH also needs to realise the extent of the seriousness of this and it does not seem as if he is that worried. You cannot do this alone. Who took out the debt in the first place - you from having to worry about paying bills or your OH? Can you sell anything? I have just managed to bag myself £60 from selling an old Nintendo Wii console and games etc.

Jon_B_2

What is ridiculous is that you're earning a fairly good combined wage, yet don't pay any rent/mortgage and are living the life of riley and crucially well beyond your means.

foolofbeans

So I've updated my SOA with more accurate figures and it doesn't look so bad (actually it looks really bad but not as bad as it did). Partners income is the minimum received and this will go up shortly. I believe I will definitely get a pay rise of at least £100/month from next month and I have applied for several weekend jobs to help bring in some extra income. I have adjusted figures for our future budget which I think is easily do-able. There are still things to tweak and I will continue to look for reductions in all areas.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1600
Benefits................................ 650
Other income............................ 130
Total monthly income.................... 2680

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 100
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 130
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 85
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 450
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 20
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 8
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Charity................................. 0
Magazine subscription................... 0
Pocket money............................ 60
Smoking................................. 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1414


Assets
Cash.................................... 1000
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Catalogue V....................6230......295.......19.9
Catalogue S....................1225......65........20
Catalogue N....................1885......95........20
Cat L BNPL Dec16...............640.......0.........0
CC GB..........................0.........25........20
Defaulted......................0.........30........0
CC EC..........................160.......25........20
CC EB..........................8500......190.......24
CC GM..........................800.......22........20
CC GC2.........................800.......65........20
CC GC1.........................800.......15........20
CC GN..........................1460......35........20
Loan G.........................4200......230.......10
Loan E.........................6857......160.......10
Catalogue L....................400.......25........20
Total unsecured debts..........33957.....1277......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,680
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,414
Available for debt repayments........... 1,266
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,277
Amount short for making debt repayments. -11

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -33,957
Net Assets.............................. -31,457

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.
So there's still a shortfall of £11 but I think we can cut that from petrol costs as I'm hoping it won't cost us £200/month.
I have reduced gas to nil as we have a full tank which should last us until summer. I am hoping we can pay off some of the debts by the end of summer and so we will be more prepared for winter and therefore not adding to the debt amount. A lot of planning will be happening but I am hopeful.
Partner is on board and (partly thanks to a recent health scare) is really going to try and cut the smoking. I have allowed an amount each month though just in case.

foolofbeans

getmore4less wrote: »

One measure it to look at how much debt you were in 1 Jan 2015 then look at 1 jan 2016.
If it has gone up thats how much you are overpsending in a year.

I don't even need to measure it up. I know the debt has gone up. I know we have lived way beyond our means for many years now and I know we either sort this out now or things will implode.
It is a useful tool though and I look forward to this time next year when we can hopefully say we have tackled some of the debts and most of the spending.

foolofbeans

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Your teenagers should be able to get weekend jobs if they are 16/17 so can you not at least decrease their pocket money? I have done this now. I know you also say you send £10 to your other child at uni for them to buy fresh food but the student grant should be sufficient for them to do that without you putting yourself further into debt. £10 a week in term-time is a lot less than the amount they lost from not getting the full grant due to our income level. W
I think a full and frank discussion with your OH is also needed as quite frankly £200 on going out to the pub and £100 for cigarettes each month is ridiculous when you are that much in debt and going further into it. This has been done now. Also £450 on groceries when one of your children is at uni is again too much. That can be cut down by you shopping at a discount supermarket and being frugal. There are still two teenagers and two younger children at home. I have an additional 2 older children who don't live at home (one is the uni student) and I did not include them in the calculations. I know £450 seems a lot to some but it is a LOT lower than I have previously spent and it will have to cover pet food for cats, dogs and chickens. I will be meal planning to keep costs low but there are 6 people's packed lunches each day, 6 peoples dinner and do you realise how much loo roll 6 people use?!
Your OH also needs to realise the extent of the seriousness of this and it does not seem as if he is that worried. You cannot do this alone. Who took out the debt in the first place - you from having to worry about paying bills or your OH? Can you sell anything? I have just managed to bag myself £60 from selling an old Nintendo Wii console and games etc.

I have always been the budget control and so have failed badly in that regard. I have tried to keep partner happy by allowing him most things he wanted which was silly of me. We are both equally to blame for the debt.
I am looking around the house at things we can sell and I have loads. The only issue is that we are very rural and people don't tend to want to collect and it's not yet car boot weather. I will get on it though.

foolofbeans

Jon_B wrote: »

What is ridiculous is that you're earning a fairly good combined wage, yet don't pay any rent/mortgage and are living the life of riley and crucially well beyond your means.

I have realised most of the above is true. Maybe not quite the life of Riley as we haven't had a holiday in years, our cars are old and we don't have surplus money to do whatever we want. I would think that in the past few years we have spent a majority of our income just paying back minimum payments. As you can see we spend over £1000 a month just on debt and we have not defaulted on it yet but also haven't paid any off.
Of course we may have left it too late to own up to our debt problems but I am hopeful we have caught it just before it is beyond the point of no return.
Your post came across as a little accusatory. I don't need anyone to tell me how embarrassing it is that we don't pay rent or mortgage and couldn't afford to if we had to. I know we have a decent income and it's heartbreaking that we spend most of it on debt repayments which only cover the interest costs. There are things I have done in recent years as I got desperate to stay treading water that I can't even admit to on here and putting it all down in black and white is REALLY scary. But I've done it....and I'm feeling positive about tackling it. Hopefully I can come back and say "I was stupid once but am now money smart".

Karonher

Council tax............................. 0


Is this right? It was £140 in the original. Sorry if I have missed a reason for this.