Think I've had a light bulb moment .... SOA just Added

12_month_challenge

kazza292 wrote: »

I think I have the worst debt than anyone

Hi Kazza

You certainly do not have the worse debt at all. ( I am not far behind you, honest)

There are lots of people on the 'Debt Free' pages that have paid back over £50,000 and more. Have a read they are so inspiring.

With lots of budgeting and hard work you can do this.

I have subscribed and will be right behind you cheering you along.

Good luck
x

kazza292_2

Your all ace .thanks for your help x

Wimbrel

Hello. Well done on your LBM. You can do this! I started with debts of £43,000 .I will be debt free in a couple more months and I have an emergency fund now too..

One thing that helped me hugely was following the advice here and checking if I'd ever had PPI . Turned out that I did and , as it had been missold, I got enough back to knock a big chunk of time off my journey.

Good luck!

kazza292_2

Thanks for suggestions,
I was going to balance transfer credit cards later today to 0% ,I take it this is wise..
Also I do have good" death in service" payments at work so don't have life insurance for this reason
The car maintaince is what I intend to do so I gave put this down wrong
I do have about 400 each month surplus ,is this good ?
The rest I am getting on to
Going to do car boot on Sunday
Really want to have some kind of budget planner online I can fiddle with,any suggestions ?
Bit worried about husbands response he thinks our debts are all "fine" and I'm blowing it all up.he is however happy to go along with changing our habits as realises they are a little high at the same time but not wanting to knuckle down to chuck every bit of spare cash at our debts... Don't want to fall out with him , this is essential I guess

cms-help

kazza292 wrote: »

Thanks for suggestions,
I was going to balance transfer credit cards later today to 0% ,I take it this is wise..
Also I do have good" death in service" payments at work so don't have life insurance for this reason
The car maintaince is what I intend to do so I gave put this down wrong
I do have about 400 each month surplus ,is this good ?
The rest I am getting on to
Going to do car boot on Sunday
Really want to have some kind of budget planner online I can fiddle with,any suggestions ?
Bit worried about husbands response he thinks our debts are all "fine" and I'm blowing it all up.he is however happy to go along with changing our habits as realises they are a little high at the same time but not wanting to knuckle down to chuck every bit of spare cash at our debts... Don't want to fall out with him , this is essential I guess

Any avoidance of interest on debt is wise. Then your repayments go directly towards the debt rather than interest payments.

Does your death in service benefit entirely cover your mortgage? Is there a survivor's or minor's pension attached to it? We both have excellent death in service benefits from our careers but have the mortgage insured separately. For the sake of £10 a month, we took the view that the less the survivor has to worry about the better.

Any surplus at the end of the month is good. You can use it to reduce your debts faster and establish an emergency fund.

Your grocery spend is quite high. We are a family of 4 with one still in nappies and we shop at Tesco with fresh meat and vegetables most of the time (my husband is also a "brand" only shopper) and we generally spend around £300 a month. This includes all cleaning products and most toiletries.

There are differences you can make if you choose to do so. We are on a water meter with two kids in the bath every night - we pay around £35 a month. Your mobile is very high. We have 2 on contract with unlimited calls and texts for about £30/£35 a month. £62 on TV/phone/internet is a lot. We have the entire lot with fibre for £38 a month. When you start looking at these things with a view to saving money then you can generally make some quick changes and save a fair chunk instantly.

Smodlet

You missed one, EH £10 for landline rental? The cheapest I have seen anywhere is about £16.90 and many providers charge nearer £18 pcm.

OP, your entertainment budget is way too high as are your mobile costs. Gas, electricity and certainly groceries could all be reduced, groceries considerably. I would reduce the present fund as well. People appreciate the thought that goes into presents over how much they cost; at least, the thoughtful ones are the ones they remember years later, not the designer-label tat which went "off trend" in a month, don't you think?

EH and I keep harping on about Eat Well For Less (bbc iPlayer): It is well worth watching and I would be surprised if you did not recognise at least some practices as being very similar to things you do yourselves, e.g. buying branded stuff all the time. The Old Style Money Saving thread on here also has many useful tips. HTH.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Hi kazza and thanks for posting up your SOA.

Looking through it, you've already had some good advice from all concerned. And I think it would be wise to follow it for several months while you trim back your lifestyle and get used to living within your means. But once that's done it looks to me like there's a relatively fast fix here if you're prepared for a fairly drastic change.

You're both working and you both have cars, which implies that you both commute. Plus you've put in your house value - was that the value of the house at purchase, or the value of the of the house based on similar properties nearby today?

Would it be worth considering selling the house, moving into rented housing closer to one of your jobs so that one of you could walk to work and selling one of the cars? The equity in your house, plus the value of one of your cars would eliminate 2/3 of your unsecured debt in one go. Once the remainder is dealt with, the amount you're spending on debt servicing, saved in a help-to-buy ISA would see you with a 20% deposit plus cash for fees on another £150,000 house inside of three years.

Just an idle thought on a stormy Wednesday afternoon...

EssexHebridean

Smodlet wrote: »

You missed one, EH £10 for landline rental? The cheapest I have seen anywhere is about £16.90 and many providers charge nearer £18 pcm.

OP, your entertainment budget is way too high as are your mobile costs. Gas, electricity and certainly groceries could all be reduced, groceries considerably. I would reduce the present fund as well. People appreciate the thought that goes into presents over how much they cost; at least, the thoughtful ones are the ones they remember years later, not the designer-label tat which went "off trend" in a month, don't you think?

EH and I keep harping on about Eat Well For Less (bbc iPlayer): It is well worth watching and I would be surprised if you did not recognise at least some practices as being very similar to things you do yourselves, e.g. buying branded stuff all the time. The Old Style Money Saving thread on here also has many useful tips. HTH.

:rotfl: I assumed it was lumped in with TV & broadband to be honest, and that was just a representative figure!

Kazza - nothing wrong with the way you've put the figure in for car maintenance at all, but you need to make sure that does actually get set aside otherwise it'll just disappear and then come tax/insurance/service time the money won't be there. This is the reason why I always suggest a separate savings account for such things, with automated transfers from the current account the day after payday - that way the money just quietly goes to where it needs to be with no effort on your part, and it's there waiting for you when needed.

Sanctioned Parts List I can see where you're coming from, but in the OP's position (earning well, with a good surplus and lots of savings available, and only paying the amount they currently are on mortgage) I can't begin to agree with you that they should sell a house and move, with all the expenses that would entail. If they were hand to mouth it might be a different matter, but as it is...


On the question of your OH's take on this thing - don't fret too much about him not being on board currently - I suspect that will come. In a re-think of your earlier question, I'd say actually yes, re-do the SOA with the correct (60k) figure for the total debt, print it out, and give it to him to look at. Ask him gently how he thinks you would cope with all this if something happened to him and left you on your own with the little one (Yes, definitely that way round as it will probably impact into his consciousness more) and whether he thinks that would be doable. In real terms that's where you need to be - in a position that you could survive on one income if needed. I suspect he'll actually join in remarkably fast, but in the meantime just quietly start doing stuff anyway - there's plenty there that you can make happen without him even noticing, and that will lend weight to the fact that you can deal with it without impacting on your standard of living that much.

chelseablue

The cost of your groceries jumps out at me. Where do you shop?


Since we started shopping at Aldi I've really noticed the difference, last month we spent £160 and that includes nappies (same size family as yours, 2 adults 1 child)


The debt figure, what did you spend the money on? Just wondering if there's anything you can sell?

enthusiasticsaver

I think you need to redo the soa correctly and show it to your oh as he does not seem to think there is a problem with more than £60k of unsecured debt. It has essentially wiped all the equity out of your house and if you continue to live beyond your means it only takes a job loss or illness to severely impact on you. Well done for recognising this but if your oh does not think 60k is a problem then you will have an issue reining your expenses in.

Good news is the loans are on reasonable rates, you are both in secure jobs, your monthly income is good, you have good death in service benefits and a public sector pension. If you can adjust your spending you could get the mbna card cleared this year. Always tackle highest charging debt first and pay minimum on others.

Good luck and I shall subscribe to see how you do.