Help with debt

joannespoor

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone could offer me any help, i seem to be in a bit of a mess!!! I have starting to miss payments on all sorts of utility bills and a store card with i have defaulted for 2 months now and it seems the money i have coming in does not cover the money i have going out and i seem to left with no money at all!!!!!! Iam not in a huge amount of debt but i just donet seem able to afford the bills i have.......

My statement of affairs are as follows -

Income £950.00 approx monthly, also get family tax credit and child benefit which amounts to £110.00 per month

Car Insurance - £45.00 per month
Welcome Finance Loan - £172.00 per month £3000 outstanding
Egg Loan - £200.00 per month £1500 outstanding
Next Store Card - £50.00 per month £850.00 outstanding (This card is 2 months in arrears??!!!)
Capital One card - £40.00 per month £50.00 outstanding - Just within limit for the first time in ages
Mobile - £35.00 per month - Have been over spendning on this, my bill for this month is £75.00 and not sure how im going to pay this!!!!
Land line - £40.00 per month - Have missed last months payment so have one months arrears.
Water - £50.00 per month - This is because i failed to pay for a couple of months.
Electricity - £20.00 per month
Gas - £20.00 per month
Council Tax - £95.00 per month
Tv Licence - £15.00 per month

I have a speeding fine outstanding of £60.00 as well.....

PLEASE HELP.........

Lucy1982_2

Hi

Have a look at the post called First Time Posters which will explain how to do a statement of affairs (or a list of income and outgoings) which will give us a better idea of where things can be cut back.

You'll be able to sort this out.

Storm

As Lucy says, try to pull together a SoA & we'll be able to give better advice. In general though, this is the order you should prioritise debts if you can't afford to meet them all:

Rent or mortgage
Other debts secured on your home
Council tax
Utility bills

Credit cards, loans, catalogues etc - these are of least importance, though try to send them at least something each month, even if it's £1 token payment.

joannespoor

I have now added my statement of affairs to the original thread.....

rayday2

Storm wrote: »

As Lucy says, try to pull together a SoA & we'll be able to give better advice. In general though, this is the order you should prioritise debts if you can't afford to meet them all:

Rent or mortgage
Other debts secured on your home
Council tax
Utility bills

Credit cards, loans, catalogues etc - these are of least importance, though try to send them at least something each month, even if it's £1 token payment.

You will have to add to the list of priorities the £60 fine too.

joannespoor

Not too sure what you mean remember iam new to this!!

Verbatim

Hi and welcome to the site.

On a quick add up I make it that your list of outgoings is £857. This cld be wrong as my mental arithmetic has never been great! What do you make it?

Also you need to add in items like food, car tax, petrol, car maintenance, xmas and birthday savings, house insurance, medical/dental expenses and I can't see anything for rent or mortgage. Do you live with a partner and/or get maintenance for your child/ren?

joannespoor

Hello,

Thankyou for being so helpful, the answers to your questions are -

Mortgage is paid for by partner
House/Life Insurance paid for by partner
Food Partner pays
Petrol £20.00 a week
Car Tax every 6 months £65.00

I have nothing put aside for dental bills, xmas, birthdays etc.
I have 1 child and as i said in my soa i get approx £110.00.

Thankyou for taking the time to help me i just hope you can help x

thecornflake

EDIT: The adding the fine to the list of priorities means it needs to be accounted for, and listed as something you need to deal with as a high priority. When you can't pay everything, you pay the things that need to be paid the most, for example secured debt, etc as this is secured on your property. The fine will be a high priority because of the consequences for not paying it.

Have you checked your utility suppliers are the cheapest you can get by comparing online?

Have you called the companies you can't afford to pay to explain the situation (they may not be able to help you but if you don't speak to them they can assume you're just not bothering to pay them and ignoring them).

You need to stop using your phone so much as well!

I assume your store card is on some ridiculously high rate of interest - you may be able to get a card with a 0% balance transfer rate to move it onto, or possibly get a limit increase from cap one?

I was in a similar situation last year, just got back on our feet now. With the help from people here you will get it sorted out, they're great!

We had the same thing - not a huge amount of debt, but never seemed to be able to break even each month. One of the key things is making sure you allow for every single thing, including smoking, magazines, etc when budgeting.

Verbatim

As no one has suggested keeping a spending diary yet I will! Every penny gets written down and hopefully as you know you have to this stops a lot of unnecessary spending.

Also meal planning at least a week and preferably a month ahead, so that your budget can get you to the next pay day, and only buying exactly what is needed to make those meals will help bring down the costs. Check what's in the cupboard and freezer and plan meals to use these items first. The aim is to buy as little as possible! The old style board on this site has loads of ideas for healthy, nutritious meals at low cost. After a few months hopefully you'll come in on budget and will then be able to overpay on the debts with the highest interest rates while paying the minimum payments on everything else, (snowballing). This is the way to reduce your debts in the quickest and cheapest (for you) fashion.