Help paying off debt

young234

Hello, I'm a bit embarrassed about the state of our finances, we've been a bit rubbish with money and moved house last year plus I've been on maternity leave twice in the last 3 years. I'm back at work now and we have come to our senses and want to clear our debt. I'm not sure what to tackle first. We've paid £600 off so far on one of the overdrafts and reduced the limit. The credit card has another 12 months interest free. Thank you


Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 910
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1644
Benefits................................ 137
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2691

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 690
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 65
TV Licence.............................. 12.5
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 345
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 15
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 400
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2084.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 202000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 162000...(690)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 162000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts\
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................2140......260.......0
Overdraft......................3400......50........18.9
Overdraft .....................800.......30........18.9
Credit card ...................2700......30........0
Watch..........................486.......27........0
sofa...........................800.......50........0
Total unsecured debts..........10326.....447.......- [/b]\


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,691
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,084.5
Available for debt repayments........... 606.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 447
Amount left after debt repayments....... 159.5
\
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 202,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -162,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,326
Net Assets.............................. 29,674

heartbreak_star

Firstly, do you have that surplus left after bills and whatnot?

HBS x

twiggy86

Hi

I noted a couple of points on your SOA:-
* Groceries - this is the biggest area that I have been able to cut down with a small amount of thought. Do you write a meal plan? Write a shopping list? Actually check your cupboards before going shopping (recently found 3 packs of lasagne sheets lurking!)? Where do you shop? Could you drop down a brand?
* Entertainment seemed quite high but I don't have any children so this may be normal for entertaining little ones!
* Emergency fund - I would recommend trying to build up an emergency fund as this could prevent a situation in the future where you had to take on more debt (e.g. if your boiler breaks and you need to replace)

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Tjh1412

£400 a month on entertainment is that right?if so def needs come right down

young234

This is the first payday after my return to work from maternity, I haven't had my full pay yet as I only worked 3 weeks of January but this month I've worked out we have £137 not accounted for.
Maternity pay was only £550 a month so yeh I had nothing left

Tjh1412

Also bills groceries pet insurance and mobiles seem a bit high to me, although for mobiles without a landline you will pay more

young234

The shopping bill is £80 a week at aldi, it includeds 2 kids in nappies/wipes. 2 cats. All toiletries & wash powder. I do a meal plan & shopping list. Everything is made from scratch. We could cut down if we didn't eat as much fish/meat but it would be hard.
Entertainment budget is £200 each for our hair cuts/days out etc. we are both trying not to spend anything so I'm hoping not to spend it all but not sure what is realistic. Or if this is way over estimated

young234

I'm on contract until December but after then I will go sim only on my mobile. Husbands is £20

user1168934

£400 a month on entertainment (really?? what kind of entertainment are you into?? :cool:) should come down straight to 0. May be try cutting a little but on your mobile bill and groceries and the rest seems ok. Try not to spend on things like sofa and watch anymore.

enthusiasticsaver

A few things:


Your groceries bill is v high for Aldis even with cat food and nappies. Is there cigarettes or alcohol in there?


Can you cut your personal/entertainment budget by £100 and put that in an emergency fund instead so you don't have to rely on credit cards as I really think you should stop using these altogether.


Your life assurance and buildings and contents insurance is high. Have you checked comparison sites to see if you can get it cheaper?


You should put some money away for car maintenance every month depending on how old the car is. The mobiles could also come down in cost too once the contracts are up.


As you have realised you are overcommitted debt wise and this needs addressing urgently. Focus on the overdrafts first if the credit cards are on 0%. Make sure you keep the payments made on time to give you options to keep moving the credit cards on to 0% deals as they expire until the overdrafts are paid off. As you have very little spare this may take a while. Is there no childcare to pay for?

young234

Thanks for everyone's help.

We don't smoke, last month we bought 4 cans & 1 bottle of red with the shopping budget.

Childcare costs are covered with the pre tax childcare vouchers, our earnings are after this deduction.

I didn't realise the insurances were that high I will shop around as they are up soon.

Once the loan is up this September we can really try to clear the overdrafts .
Trust me we don't want anymore credit we want to live debt free.
I will talk to hubby about reducing the entertainment budget to £100 each so we can start a emergency fund