Trying to decide...

stillsmiling_2

Tonight is my first visit to this forum and after living in denial for the best part of a year I have been inspired to "come clean" about my mess! Big thanks to everyone here for being so open and honest. I'm really hoping to get some feedback to help me move forward.
Quick summary of my situation:
I'm working, my hubby isn't. He left his job due to stress and was out of work for a while. We had to sell our house recently as we just weren't making ends meet. Anyway he's now at college and hopefully next june will be starting out in a fab new job. But I'm left trying to sort out what to do now. We're living with my parents which is not ideal and the debt we're in means we're stuck.

So here is my SOA (see I'm new but I catch on quick!)

Lloydstsb
o/s 8,485
apr 6.4%
years left 4.5
monthly payment 175.10

Car Loan
o/s 3,797
apr 7.9%
years left 3
monthly payment 121.29

Cahoot Flex
o/s 1,872
apr 15.9%
monthly payment 50.00

Credit Card
o/s 700
monthly payment 40.00

N Rock Mortgage Shortfall - now personal loan
o/s 5,893
apr 15.84%
years left 34
monthly payment 77.00

Total 20,747 (eek)

In 1128
Out
Loans 460
Charity 30
Car Ins 24
Pru 26
Sky 44
Mobile 10
Petrol 60
Pocket 40
Pocket 40
Train 65
Charge 7
Hair 18
Food 140
Birthdays 15
Contacts 10
Lunches 40
Football 12
Travel 45

Total 1086

Because we're living rent free just now I'm able to breathe again but the actual debt just seems such a mess. Esp the shortfall we're left with as we didn't make enough money on our house sale to cover our massive redemption penalty.
I would soooooo appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks for listening!

Gemmzie

stillsmiling wrote: »

Tonight is my first visit to this forum and after living in denial for the best part of a year I have been inspired to "come clean" about my mess! Big thanks to everyone here for being so open and honest. I'm really hoping to get some feedback to help me move forward.
Quick summary of my situation:
I'm working, my hubby isn't. He left his job due to stress and was out of work for a while. We had to sell our house recently as we just weren't making ends meet. Anyway he's now at college and hopefully next june will be starting out in a fab new job. But I'm left trying to sort out what to do now. We're living with my parents which is not ideal and the debt we're in means we're stuck.

So here is my SOA (see I'm new but I catch on quick!) one of the best laid out first SOA's I've seen

Lloydstsb
o/s 8,485
apr 6.4%
years left 4.5
monthly payment 175.10

Car Loan
o/s 3,797
apr 7.9%
years left 3
monthly payment 121.29

Cahoot Flex
o/s 1,872
apr 15.9%
monthly payment 50.00

Credit Card
o/s 700
monthly payment 40.00

N Rock Mortgage Shortfall - now personal loan
o/s 5,893
apr 15.84%
years left 34
monthly payment 77.00

Total 20,747 (eek)

In 1128

Out
Loans 460
Charity 30 cut for now, you can't afford this
Car Ins 24
Pru 26 what's this for?
Sky 44 cut down or cut out
Mobile 10
Petrol 60
Pocket 40 what's this?
Pocket 40 what's this?
Train 65
Charge 7 what is this charge for?
Hair 18
Food 140 how many is this feeding?
Birthdays 15 sign up to quidco.com, pigsback.com and survey sites to cut this down without looking cheap!
Contacts 10
Lunches 40
Football 12 what's this for?
Travel 45 what's this? you have petrol and "train" listed seperately

Total 1086

Because we're living rent free just now I'm able to breathe again but the actual debt just seems such a mess. Esp the shortfall we're left with as we didn't make enough money on our house sale to cover our massive redemption penalty.
I would soooooo appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks for listening!

Have you stuck your debts into the snowballer (https://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball) to work out a debt free date?

Floss

stillsmiling wrote: »

So here is my SOA (see I'm new but I catch on quick!)

Lloydstsb
o/s 8,485
apr 6.4%
years left 4.5
monthly payment 175.10

Car Loan
o/s 3,797
apr 7.9%
years left 3
monthly payment 121.29

Cahoot Flex
o/s 1,872
apr 15.9%
monthly payment 50.00

Credit Card
o/s 700
monthly payment 40.00

N Rock Mortgage Shortfall - now personal loan
o/s 5,893
apr 15.84%
years left 34
monthly payment 77.00

Total 20,747 (eek)

In 1128

Out
Loans 460
Charity 30 Sorry, but for the moment, you are the charity & this needs to go to repayments
Car Ins 24
Pru 26
Sky 44 can you cut this down? Setanta is cheaper if its for the footie
Mobile 10
Petrol 60
Pocket 40}
Pocket 40} Try & cut this down by at least £10 each - its another £20 repayment & I bet you won't miss it so much (I know I didn't when paying my debts)
Train 65
Charge 7 What for?
Hair 18 Try your local college
Food 140 you can cut this down - look on the Old Style board for help
Birthdays 15 that's £180 a year towards repaying your debts
Contacts 10
Lunches 40 take packed lunches (last night's leftovers!)
Football 12
Travel 45 to where? you can't afford to travel just yet

Total 1086

Because we're living rent free just now I'm able to breathe again but the actual debt just seems such a mess. Esp the shortfall we're left with as we didn't make enough money on our house sale to cover our massive redemption penalty.
I would soooooo appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks for listening!

OK, if you chop the travel, charity & birthdays, you have saved £90 a month, + any saving on your "pocket money" means you will break even. Any savings on food, haircuts, Sky etc can go towards repaying your debts.

Sorry if it's harsh, but you need to economise to capitalise on having low overheads by living with your parents. I know it's hard & no fun & no privacy, I went back to my mum's with 2 almost-teenage boys in tow (but no husband )

chevalier

stillsmiling wrote: »

my comments are in blue

So here is my SOA (see I'm new but I catch on quick!)

Lloydstsb
o/s 8,485
apr 6.4%
years left 4.5
monthly payment 175.10

Car Loan
o/s 3,797
apr 7.9%
years left 3
monthly payment 121.29

Cahoot Flex
o/s 1,872
apr 15.9%
monthly payment 50.00

Credit Card
o/s 700
monthly payment 40.00

N Rock Mortgage Shortfall - now personal loan
o/s 5,893
apr 15.84%
years left 34
monthly payment 77.00:eek: :eek: :eek: over 34 years! Wow have a look at www.whatsthecost.com and look at the snowball calculator. Put in the o/s apr and see how much interest this will cost you. It will surely be motivating. Edit In fact I was so horrified I went and did it myself! Sit down for this. £5893 at 15.84% APR over 34 will cost you £31,928 in interest if you just pay the £77.00 a month! How bad is that.

So let's see what we can trim

Total 20,747 (eek)

In 1128
Out
Loans 460
Charity 30 sorry but this has to go until you have at least paid off the Northern Rock loan
Car Ins 24what about car tax, MOT, servicing?
Pru 26what is this for?
Sky 44sorry another luxury, either go down to the basic package, or ring up and threaten to leave. You sometime get a discount if you agree to stay for x months.
Mobile 10
Petrol 60
Pocket 40what does this go on. Start a spending diary noting down everything you buy. This equates to £2080 a year. If you and your OH could cut this down to £10 each then this would save £3120 a year, meaning you could overpay that horrible northern rock loan. Cut back like this for 18 months, and it would be gone, never mind 34 years!
Pocket 40 as above
Train 65 and car costs?
Charge 7what is this for
Hair 18can you get it done at a college cheaper, or go every other month
Food 140 have a look on the old style board for tips to cook for less, including meal planning etc. I think that you could shave about £20 off this.
Birthdays 15think creative. presents don't have to cost. look in sales now for christmas etc
Contacts 10go back to glasses for a while?
Lunches 40is this a cost for packups? Or is this lunches bought out? If the latter then this needs to be replace with packs ups, left overs from home. This is £2000 a year. Again another big chunk of your debt gone if you could save this.
Football 12
Travel 45more travel? Do you need a car as well as this travel, and the other too?

Total 1086 Whilst I appreciate that studying has to come first, I think that to really get things moving, your OH needs to get a part time job. Even if it is just a Christmas job so that he can concentrate on work in the new year. It would really make a difference to your budget if you could overpay some of the debts.

Because we're living rent free just now I'm able to breathe again but the actual debt just seems such a mess. Esp the shortfall we're left with as we didn't make enough money on our house sale to cover our massive redemption penalty. Did you take advice before committing to this. Northern Rock have been pretty nasty with this (see my comments above). Have you thought about balance transferring it anywhere else than this pernicious deal.
I would soooooo appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks for listening!

Best of luck sorting it
chev

Kaz2904

I have to agree with the others.
At present you are paying £30 a month to a charity and you are having to live with your parents because you couldn't afford to keep your home. If you feel that you must continue to give money to charity then give them 1% of your left over money. Or get DH to volunteer for them while he isn't working.
You are effectively paying 15.9% to borrow the money for the charity whilst living on the charity of your parents. (that sounds really harsh and I don't mean to be).

Does DH work part time? He ought to be able to find a job that fits in with studying.
If you ditch the spending for a while (pocket money) you could clear the credit card within a year.
How are your credit ratings? Is there any possibility of opening a 0% cc to balance transfer from?
There are some around with no fees and if you and DH were able to get one after each other then you could clear your other cc in just over 8 months. Get rid of the sky and half your pocket money =£84*8=£672.
Set yourself a grocery challenge and use any spare grocery money for a little treat maybe?
If you join quidco.com then you can sign up for dvd rentals for free trials and get paid to do so.
You should have a surplus of £42 a month from your soa- where does this go? Keep a spending diary to find out.

Lastly, are you both in this together? If you are then you will beat it quicker but if it is only you who is focused then you will probably have a lot more heartache to come.

Good luck following your new path, ttfn, Kaz.

chevalier

Looks like we are all in agreement then!

Just to help out here are some survey sites etc, to get a bit of extra money
chev

www.lightspeedpanel.com - this is a survey site, where you get points which turn into vouchers (you choose). May not help with the cash flow, but the vouchers could be saved towards birthday/xmas or given as presents.

www.ciao.co.uk - survey site that gives money. A bit fits and starts ie no surveys for a couple of weeks, then three or four the same day.

www.yougov.com - again paid surveys. However takes a while to get to the minimum payout level

www.mytns.com - again this is a survey site, but it pays you in points that convert into Nectar points at Sainsbury’s.

www.pigsback.co.uk - this is a points site, ie they give you points for buying things via their site. BUT you also get points for signing up for news letters (some of which are even interesting!), and also for clicking on adverts with pink borders. I have spent NOTHING with them but got a £10 voucher through this week (only been registered since January). There is also a thread in the freebies section, of https://www.moneysavingexpert.com which gives you all the daily answers to the competitions so you can have a better chance of winning on them.

www.mutualpoints.com - another points for clicks site. You can also buy things via their site and get points too. For a long time, I just clicked the links in the emails they send you, and that gets you 5 points. At 3000 points you get £20 I think. You can do searches via their site and that gets you points too.

www.quidco.com - this is a cash back site, so very good, for checking if any potential new insurers (ie if you have checked your contents insurance say and found a new provider), are offering cash back. Eg Lloyds was offering £120 cashback on new policies at one point (the offers do change). You can also get small amounts of cash again for doing searches via their site. You can earn 52p a day by doing this. Every little helps.

www.greasypalm.co.uk - another cash back site, where you can do searches and get small amounts of money. But it all adds up. I think you can get about 50p a day on there for nothing. Minimum payout is £20 I think, but you can sign up to survey sites via there, and get extra money that way for nothing.

Again more medium term money might come from claiming back bank charges. Also if you had an endowment you can write to your provider suggesting you might have been misinformed about its performance. Many people have got money back on that. There are articles from Martin on the main site about how to go about doing this.
If you are going to do this, it is wise to set up another current account first, with a bank that you have no debt with. Just to be on the safe side.

Are you in the correct banding for your council tax? Again there is an article by Martin on the main website about how to go about checking this. If you are in the wrong band and due a rebate, it is for all the year you have been living in the house since 1991, so this can be several thousand pounds back.

TTMCMschine

stillsmiling wrote: »

Tonight is my first visit to this forum and after living in denial for the best part of a year I have been inspired to "come clean" about my mess! Big thanks to everyone here for being so open and honest. I'm really hoping to get some feedback to help me move forward.
Quick summary of my situation:
I'm working, my hubby isn't. He left his job due to stress and was out of work for a while. We had to sell our house recently as we just weren't making ends meet. Anyway he's now at college and hopefully next june will be starting out in a fab new job. But I'm left trying to sort out what to do now. We're living with my parents which is not ideal and the debt we're in means we're stuck.

So here is my SOA (see I'm new but I catch on quick!)

Lloydstsb
o/s 8,485
apr 6.4%
years left 4.5
monthly payment 175.10

Car Loan
o/s 3,797
apr 7.9%
years left 3
monthly payment 121.29

Cahoot Flex
o/s 1,872
apr 15.9%
monthly payment 50.00

Credit Card
o/s 700
monthly payment 40.00

N Rock Mortgage Shortfall - now personal loan
o/s 5,893
apr 15.84%
years left 34
monthly payment 77.00

Total 20,747 (eek)

In 1128
Out
Loans 460
Charity 30 Get rid of this
Car Ins 24
Pru 26 What is this?
Sky 44 Get rid of this
Mobile 10 Get rid of this
Petrol 60
Pocket 40 You can save at least half of this
Pocket 40 As above
Train 65 What is this for?
Charge 7 As above
Hair 18
Food 140 You can possibly cut this down a little
Birthdays 15 You can cut this by £10 by being creative, or totally by giving your time/skills as a present
Contacts 10 Can go
Lunches 40 Can go - packed lunches
Football 12 Can go
Travel 45 Whats this?

Total 1086 - That will save you £196 per month, or 18% of your wages. To think of this another way, you'd save £2352 per year, or MORE THAN 2 FULL MONTHS WAGES!!! On top of that, you still have potential to save more from the Pru (£26), the train & travel (combined £110), the charge (£7), & you should be able to trim at least £20 from the food, so potentially you *could* easily save another £100 per month, or another months wages in a year.

Because we're living rent free just now I'm able to breathe again but the actual debt just seems such a mess. Esp the shortfall we're left with as we didn't make enough money on our house sale to cover our massive redemption penalty.
I would soooooo appreciate any suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks for listening!

Good luck, I'm sure you can do it, there have been plenty of people on these boards in a far worse position who havemanaged to clear the debts.