Third-Life Crisis

MrsSave

Hi, good luck on your journey. I've started AAT this year as well. I was going to do the bookkeeping, but after completing level 2 bookkeeping I decided to go for it and am now working through level 3 accounting.

MrsSave

Oh, and you say you bought it ages ago, which version is it? 2013 or 2016. 2013 needs to be completed by the end of this year but you should be able to swap it over.

blue_eyed_girl123

You might find "piggybanking" helpful, I have different current accounts for different purposes, for example all the bills go in one: Sky, TV Licence, Council Tax, Gas/Electric and if that's £500 per month, £500 goes in there. If your grocery budget is £300 per month you put that in a separate account. So rather than seeing £1000 when you look in your account, you have more accurate figures, some people use YNAB too but I prefer my separate accounts.

If you like takeaways and eating out you could find recipes for your favourites and try making them at home - I have a sweet and sour sauce recipe that is bits of pork (sometimes roast leftovers) a pack of stir fry veg for £1 and the sauce is made from cupboard bits, and you can get prawn crackers and noodles etc if you want it to feel more takeaway-like .

Good luck on your journey .

Goingroundincircles

I save my extra rather than put it back into household budget and it paid for a Dominican Republic holiday for me and my sister in February of this year.

Wow! I hope you had an amazing time enthusiasticsaver. The new card is 0% for 18 months, so we'll have to keep an eye on it and do try to do another shift before ends. But at least all that money saved on interest will make a big dent in the actual debt.

You can't see where the problem overspends are with such a broad category, and if you can't see that you can't tackle it.

Unfortunately I know exactly where it's all gone Magpie100. Never bothering to have a budget and deciding to spend what we wanted when we wanted because you only live once. Now we have a budget, and I've started to log all spends on an excel sheet so we can see it written down. Because although I could probably account for every penny spent this year from memory - it actually looks real when we see it on paper.

Oh, and you say you bought it ages ago, which version is it? 2013 or 2016. 2013 needs to be completed by the end of this year but you should be able to swap it over.

Well done! How are you finding level 3 MrsSave? Yes, I made the costly mistake of not realising that my 2013 materials would expire! But I can sit the 2016 exams and have been sent all the qualification changes so I can still use my 2013 books. Phew!

You might find "piggybanking" helpful, I have different current accounts for different purposes, for example all the bills go in one: Sky, TV Licence, Council Tax, Gas/Electric and if that's £500 per month, £500 goes in there. If your grocery budget is £300 per month you put that in a separate account. So rather than seeing £1000 when you look in your account, you have more accurate figures, some people use YNAB too but I prefer my separate accounts.

I agree, I think I'd find piggybanking really useful. I've always wondered how many accounts you can have with one bank? My main account is natwest and I love the mobile app, so I've opened a savings and a spending. How many more could I get away with?!
Generally we end up with takeaways through laziness, so having something easy but tasty to make like stirfry sounds like a great idea blue_eyed_girl. Especially since most of the ingredients are store cupboard ones that you can always have incase of takeaway emergency!

Thanks for all the tips and support everyone :j

Goingroundincircles

Back with my tail between my legs... We're at a point where there is no room in the budget for any spending on clothing, haircuts, dentist, doing ANYTHING, paying more than the minimum on credit cards, saving for emergencies...
My husband is self employed so if he has a bad month we're in the...!
Little one on the way in July.
Recipe for growing debt.

So, any advice welcome!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1530
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2400
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3930

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 403
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 382
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 158
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 56
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 125
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................. 100
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 13
Other insurance......................... 30
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 35
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Car hire purchase fee................... 171
Bank charge............................. 20
Bin clean............................... 7.5
Window clean............................ 9
Appliance clean......................... 5
Total monthly expenses.................. 2194.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 126000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 12000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 85500....(403)......3.2
Total secured & HP debts...... 85500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds.........................3000......40........26
Halifax........................2405......32........25
Barclaycard 1..................6210......140.......18
Tesco Loan.....................9700......400.......7
Sainsburys Loan................8720......322.......11
Mum............................1795......100.......0
MBNA 5.........................3784......38........0
MBNA 4.........................2273......30........0
MBNA 3.........................3959......110.......27
MBNA 2.........................6316......130.......24
MBNA 1.........................3370......100.......26
Barclaycard 2..................9430......220.......18
Total unsecured debts..........60962.....1662......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,930
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,194.5
Available for debt repayments........... 1,735.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,662
Amount left after debt repayments....... 73.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -85,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -60,962
Net Assets.............................. -8,462

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

savingholmes

Goingroundincircles wrote: »

Little one on the way in July.
Recipe for growing debt.

So, any advice welcome!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 403 - Could you talk to a Financial Advisor and get advice about whether to make this interest only and prioritise your higher rate debts?
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 382
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 158
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 18
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 56 - this seems high - when can you get out of contract?
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29 - can you ditch this?
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300 - can you car share some of the time to reduce fuel?
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 125
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................. 100 this is very high - my cat is costing me £7 pcm with Tesco
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 13
Other insurance......................... 30
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 35
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Car hire purchase fee................... 171
Bank charge............................. 20
Bin clean............................... 7.5 Ditch?
Window clean............................ 9 Ditch?
Appliance clean......................... 5 Ditch?
Total monthly expenses.................. 2194.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 126000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 12000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 138000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 85500....(403)......3.2
Total secured & HP debts...... 85500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Lloyds.........................3000......40........26
Halifax........................2405......32........25
Barclaycard 1..................6210......140.......18
Tesco Loan.....................9700......400.......7
Sainsburys Loan................8720......322.......11
Mum............................1795......100.......0
MBNA 5.........................3784......38........0
MBNA 4.........................2273......30........0
MBNA 3.........................3959......110.......27
MBNA 2.........................6316......130.......24
MBNA 1.........................3370......100.......26
Barclaycard 2..................9430......220.......18
Total unsecured debts..........60962.....1662......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,930
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,194.5
Available for debt repayments........... 1,735.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,662
Amount left after debt repayments....... 73.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 138,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -85,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -60,962
Net Assets.............................. -8,462

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

The level of interest you are paying seems unsustainable. Is it worth talking to PayPlan or similar about options and see if you can get the interest frozen? Then you would have a realistic chance of repaying the debt...

Hugs

brizzledfw

Welcome back..

I would review as ES said back in July and keep slogging away at it. Nothing like an imminent arrival to focus the mind! Congratulations. Get this sorted so you can look ahead with pride and no fear

enthusiasticsaver

As you are paying interest on all of that debt now realistically it will never be paid off as your payments are probably barely covering the interest. If you are going off on maternity leave then your income will reduce further and as you say your OHs income is variable.

The debt seems to have come down a bit but that soa is not sustainable.

The mobile phones, vet bills, cable tv and bin clean, appliance clean and window clean should go. Your car is unaffordable. You have no savings for emergencies.

I think you should speak to stepchange about a DMP. That way at least the interest would be frozen and the monthly payment affordable. It means no more access to credit but for you that is a good thing.

enthusiasticsaver

Ditch the bank charge as well and get a normal bank account with no overdraft or charges. You will need one if you do a DMP unless your overdraft has gone.

Magpie100

Your car is costing you £600 a month, which is completely unsustainable. What type of car is it, and what sort of deal is it on? I know your OH is self-employed, but £300 a month in petrol suggests you might be living in the wrong place with regard to his work, and £125 a month on insurance is crazy. You really need to shop around for cheaper insurance, get a cheaper car if possible, and think about how many miles you are doing in a month.

It worries me that you still have the bin, window and appliance clean in there - these have to go. They are small amounts in the scheme of things (but still important) but them being there at all suggests you still need to work on your mindset. I know you have a lot on your plate with the baby arriving (Congratulations!) but you have to get serious about this. Clothing, haircuts ad dentist, which are the things you say you can no longer afford, are much much more important than having clean appliances and bins! And I agree the pet insurance is also way too high. Oh - why no buildings insurance? This is actually far more essential than pet insurance!

Enthusiastic saver is correct that you need to speak to Stepchange asap about a DMP. Do this now before you go off on maternity leave and have a newborn to look after.

I'n sure this seems daunting but well done on posting again. I don't want to scare you, but with this level of debt you need to act quickly and start ruthlessly cutting. And the car payments must be slashed.

Good luck, and keep posting!