living on bare minimum to pay off car loan

jenrm_2

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,677.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.50
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.70
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38.90
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.85
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344.32
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.07
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.62
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.17
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
holiday saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Union subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.25

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complementary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,677.00


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,678.50

ani*fan

How much is your car loan for and when are you trying to pay it off by?

Looks like an interesting challenge.

moneyfacts

If you can't afford the car payments can't you sell the car or give it back. It always looks slightly worrying when ones car payment is significantly more than rent/mortgage

tallyhoh

Do you really need a car, you don't spend much on petrol.

jenrm_2

I actually only took out the loan (£11,000) in January this year and it is over a five year period, but it is just one of a number of debts e.g.: 2 x credit cards with the 0% promotional rate expiring March 2018 and a mortgage. I figured that I would pay off the loan first in 1/5 the time then focus on getting rid of the credit cards on which I owe £11,500 then I can think about reducing my mortgage. I am 58 and still have £77,000 to pay off there . I am an essential car driver for work so need a reliable car.

I was considering taking out another 0% credit card to pay off as much of the loan as I can get credit for but this seems like just stacking debt which I've done for years.

fatbelly

There are some red lights flashing here.

You are 58, have 22k unsecured debt plus 77k owing on the mortgage.

The 11k car loan appears to be costing you 42k over the 60 months. That's an apr of over 100% so you might want to check that.

You have just put 11k into a depreciating asset - the car

On the positive side your budget allows you to save £200 per month (How much have you saved?) and £208 per month towards a summer holiday.

Is the mortgage on a repayment basis? When does it complete?

Fireflyaway

Can you negotiate to sell the car and pay back the difference or do anything at all to get out the agreement? Exchange with the dealer for a cheaper car ? An expensive / new car doesn't always equal reliability. My car is 12 years old. Has never given me one single issue in the 7 years I've had it and I have no repayments. Value is probably £500 but its worth a lot more to me.

jenrm_2

Thank you for your replies. If I were to pay off the car over the 5 years of the contract, my monthly repayments would be £219.48 and I would pay a total of £2,168 interest. It's because I need to pay it off much sooner, that I've pared back all my other living expenses so I can afford £700/mnth. As you can probably tell, I am new to budgeting so the £200/month saving is more of an aspiration at the moment although I really need to stick to it as I'll have no emergency fund without it.
You are right though, I do need to sell the car and get a much cheaper one, as hard as it is to admit it.
My mortgage is on a repayment basis but doesn't complete for almost 20 years. I need to pay it off within 10 years so I can retire before I expire.

Money_maker

Are you living on your own? Your food and household shopping seems very high for a single person.

jenrm_2

I am on my own. I do worry about my food bills but up to now, I've struggled to compromise on buying quality meat and veg. I do cook all meals from scratch and take lunch to work to cut down on costs.

How much do others spend on their weekly grocery shop?

determined_new_ms

To give you an idea I spend between £130-180 pm for 2 adults and an almost 4 year old. We eat well, but I do buy a lot of yellow sticker meat and freeze to keep the costs low (i know what times the sm's around here do their reductions). We typically will have a treat day - yesterday we made sushi and today we have steaks. There have been a lot of discussions on the old style board about budgets for 1 person and typically the range can be £80-120, obviously there are extremes at either end