totally shell shocked and feeling sick

AntoMac

Jan,

I too have more than I thought outstanding, having recently decided to add everything up and actually do something about it. I became a bit obsessed with trying to reduce my mortgage and neglected other areas, letting credit card balance transfers build up to well over £20K. I feel better for finally getting my head out of the sand and also knowing that others have been in even worse positions and sorted it out is reassuring. There are plenty out there - a couple of cousins of mine and a good friend to name just a few - who left things and left things until it was way too late.

Good luck in sorting things out - Make the most of the lots of great advice people kindly give on here.

chevalier

Hope you had a good weekend, and were able to sort out your SOA. Was there anything obvious on it that could be cut?
chev

jan875

So, here we go!!!!

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 3000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1009
Benefits................................ 82
Other income............................ 300
Total monthly income.................... 4391

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 497
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 103
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 14
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 5
Car Insurance........................... 70
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 18
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 30
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1586


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 145000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 6000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 151000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 79000....(497)......1.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 79000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Bcard 1........................12000.....240.......NaN
Bcard 2........................6700......134.......NaN
creation1......................1900......55........NaN
very...........................490.......35........18
barclaycard 3..................1700......30........6.9
flybe (husband)................4500......0.........45
halifax........................3700......38........0
mbna 2.........................4000......0.........130
husband mbna...................2500......30........10.9
loan...........................2500......179.......4.9
Creation 3 (flybe).............4500......45........0
Creation 2.....................4500......45........0
Total unsecured debts..........48990.....831.......

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,391
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,586
Available for debt repayments........... 2,805
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 831
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,974

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 151,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -79,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -48,990
Net Assets.............................. 23,010

jfdi

Do you really have £1974 left every month after minimum payments made to debts?

MiMi66

Hi there Jan

Good to see your SOA. It took me an age to share mine - ridiculous fear of people being critical but all I found was good 'critical friend' type advice.

So, looking at yours, maybe you could start by paying off completely some of the lower balanced cards over the first few month. The Very, the loan, the barclaycard1 and mbna. Taken one at a time they'd all be gone by Sept which would be knocking your debt down towards £40K and a bit psychological win. Depending on how much the interest payments add on you'd then be in a position to pay the lot off in 2 years. A tough and tight two years but one worth it I imagine. You are fortunate to have that amount of spare income and it means your situation is very retrievable.

The site forum is a great way to keep you in track and getting advice. The best for those low moments too. Keep posting and I am sure you'll get the support you need.

jan875

jfdi wrote: »

Do you really have £1974 left every month after minimum payments made to debts?

It doesn't feel like we have although I am more than aware that we waste a huge amount of money. We have had quite a few repair costs for our house which has taken a lot of money recently. We do have 'spare' money left over and that just makes our 48K all the more unacceptable!

I plan to use the majority of this money to overpay and build up a small emergency.

Tuesday_Tenor

You are in an enviable position of having a low mortgage in relation to your house value.
You have a good household income which more than meets your basic NEEDS.
Another way of looking at this is that you are in the same position as someone else who has another £49k on their mortgage but no other debt.

Except that I DON'T think it is helpful for YOU to look at it like that.
'Consolidating' debt doesn't work unless you've tackled the overspending problem.

You have clearly, as a household and/or individuals spent an enormous amount of money over the last few years.
You clearly have a problem with financial understanding, planning and control.

I think it is really important for you to analyse and understand what that £48k of expenditure has been if you are to avoid continuing in the same pattern, and if you are to set budgets and contingency buffers appropriately for yourselves as a family.

So , is it, for example, in round terms:
£12k on household improvements that someone else would have extended their mortgage for? But you've chosen to use a different form of loan. Fair enough. Especially if 0%.
£8k on valuable possessions that you now own, can enjoy, could sell if necessary. So they're assets, even if reduced value for selling on.
£10k on holidays and experiences. So you have the experience and memories. Great. But you can't indulge in the same way for a few years now.
£12k on luxuries and technology when £3k would have been reasonable given you income (if no debt). For next few years you can only justify expenditure on NEED not everything you WANT.
£8 wasted/fripperies/general living/unaccounted for. Who does this; on what? You can't afford to do this with the debt you have. You need to understand this if you are to stop it happening.

Look at it and work it out, in rough terms.

Moving ahead, it looks like you need
- to each keep a spending diary for a month or so, so that you realise where you're wasting money.
- to keep an emergency buffer (£1000?) for unexpected crises so that you don't put such expenditure unthinkingly on credit cards. Keep the buffer topped up
- to improve your overall awareness of your regular monthly/quarterly/ irregular financial commitments
- devise a plan for using your surplus to pay off the debts, in whatever way suits you best. Others posters have made suggestions.

On your income you can do a lot. But you need to realise you still have to PRIORITISE. You can't have EVERYTHING you want all the time.

Good luck!

Tuesday_Tenor

jan875 wrote: »

I plan to .... build up a small emergency.

You have already done that very successfully over a few years.
Now you need a plan to address it!

Jon_B_2

This isn't meant to be harsh, but I simply do not believe that is a true SOA. If it is, I cannot understand how you are in the position you are in.

tori.k

Jon_B wrote: »

This isn't meant to be harsh, but I simply do not believe that is a true SOA. If it is, I cannot understand how you are in the position you are in.

Quite easy with things like depreciation my car cost 7.5K almost 2 years ago with the mileage i've put on her her it only worth 2.5K in trade 3k private yet more fool me as i've still got 4k to pay on the loan I used to purchase the car in the first place so it's easy done.