New member. Lots of Debt. Help please

EssexHebridean

Comments below - will comment separately on the SOA

sun_city_girl wrote: »

Thanks everyone for replying :-)
I am trying to process all the information and it has made realise certain things I forget to take into account like car maintenance and the annual service charge thing we have with our housing association. I thought it was unusual not to have service charge with a S/O property! But yes, the annual things are often those that get overlooked and then come back and bite you on the behind!
I have just opened the link to complete the SOAs form but am stuck on the first question!
It asks about monthly income; now for both of us this is totally variable dependant on what shift enhancements we earn, so would it better to base our income and expenditure on our basic monthly income with no enhancements?? Always work out your base expenditure on your basic wage - that way any extra can go towards savings or debts,
depending on your situation.

Just having a look at some of the other things
- Food is for 2 adults and a toddler (she eats the same as us) I applaud you for this for a start - well done for looking to create a non-fussy child!
we don't buy meat for meals - maybe ham slices for work sandwiches but mostly we eat veggie food - I think the places where we come unstuck are being at work when we don't eat dinner together and then we don't plan meals. the food bill also includes nappies but they don't cost too much
We do both take food to work but we might buy food too if we get hungrier (I work 13 hours and my partner in a+e) so we are quite bad at buying like "pick me ups' to give us some extra energy Thing about buying things like trail mix or fruit and nut mixes that you can portion out into plastic pots and take one a day with yoiu to work to cover that gap.
If you eat crisps look to buy the larger multipacks rather than being tempted down the line of individual packets when temptation strikes -= we use 10p a packet as a "target price" for crisps and even these days can usually hit that level
- I have just applied for childcare vouchers...Im guessing I can't get a rebate for what I have missed out on haha!
-I have no idea whether our internet is the best deal - I have honestly just let it run on since we moved here 5 years ago :-/ Time to shop around then - have a look at the main MSE site for some ideas of deals out there currently
- the contact lens stuff is a bit of a bind; I have to wear rigid lenses so there is less choice solutions wise; its all under NHS ophthalmology my lenses are subsidised luckily but the solution and cases is always an expensive I forget to factor in Shop around online to see if you can get the solutions etc cheaper - you may be able to. Go through TopCashBack or Quidco too to get something back.

also I forgot about our TV license, I pay that quarterly I *think* they charge a premium for quarterly payments? Might be worth checking but if it's more than £36.36 a quarter assume that they do and look to change to monthly payments.
I think its bad that I can't even think what needs to come out
things I forget are - service charge
- tv license
- car tax and MOT
probably more - I just can't remember. Yes, this is exactly why the full SOA is a good idea!

I think it would be a good idea to add up the cost of all the coffees etc over 12 months...

EssexHebridean

Some of this will be repeated from previous posts but best to get it all in one place!

sun_city_girl wrote: »

Just realised its wrong as I did service charge wrong - its 160 a year
and I forgot Childcare which is our biggest outgoing!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1471.58
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1140
Benefits................................ 82.8
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2694.38

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 125
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 283.08
Management charge (leasehold property).. 13.5
Council tax............................. 131 Maybe look to pay this over 12 months rather than the standard 10.
Electricity............................. 31.47 You can probably tweak this a bit -
think about making sure things are turned off etc.
Gas..................................... 31.47
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35.5
Telephone (land line)................... 30.45 You're going to shop around for a better landline/internet deal aren't you.
Mobile phone............................ 67 shop around for SIM only deals as soon as contracts are up
TV Licence.............................. 12.54 Yes - you're being charged £1.50 a quarter for the privelege of paying in this way - look to change to monthly which doesn't carry any additional charges and will also help you budget better
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 555.15 Extortionate. reduce by 50%.
Clothing................................ 163 Tell me that this is a typo? At the moment you need to cut back to essentials - socks and pants for you & OH - and otherwise just what the little one absolutely HAS to have - look to the supermarket kids ranges for cheap underwear and everyday clothes for kids
Petrol/diesel........................... 185.22
Road tax................................ 5
Car Insurance........................... 65.49
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 6.25 You need to drastically step this up - you're not even budgeting for a service for each car annually here! More on this one and a suggestion below...
Car parking............................. 17.27 Can you reduce this? Park further away and walk?
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 399.67
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 17
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9.88
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 Not realistic - even if you don;t buy for anyone else you're going to spend something on Little One aren't you
Haircuts................................ 0 Not realistic - you need to account something unless you both have shaved heads that you deal with yourself - even if it's just an annual trim for you there must be a cost there.
Entertainment........................... 0 Again - budget something here - you are entitled to some form of entertainment and it doesn;'t need to be pricey!
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 You need to look to start building this -
aim to build to £1,000 as a starting point
Total monthly expenses.................. 2194.94


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000 Is this just your share? It's the value you actually own that needs to go here
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 190000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 29800....(125)......1.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 29800.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
loan...........................11600.....160.2.....8
credit card....................1883......51.02.....0
overdraft......................3000......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........16483.....211.22....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,694.38
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,194.94
Available for debt repayments........... 499.44
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 211.22
Amount left after debt repayments....... 288.22 Do you actually have this left in the bank each month? If not, spending diaries are the way forwards.

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 190,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -29,800
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,483
Net Assets.............................. 143,717

Created using the SOA calculator stoozing.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

OK - car expenses first. Suggestion: open up an "offshoot" savings account from your main bank account - then set an automated transfer each month for an amount directly to it, to be paid out straight after you've been paid. As a guideline we also run two smallish cars on relatively high mileages - we budget £165 a month currently but that covers insurance too. I worked our original figures by adding together:
- Insurance
- Tax
-MoT cost
-Annual service cost
- 75% of the cost of a full set of tyres
- 10% for contingencies
for each car obviously - and then splitting that out by 12 to get the monthly figure. You'll need to remove anything you're already paying monthly like insurance from that overall figure obviously. This way I know that when bills come due or a service has to be paid for the money is there ready and waiting. Once your debt is gone then look to add in your insurance costs to this to start paying those upfront as well as this saves paying the loading for monthly payments.

Bearing in mind what you've said about OH I'd be inclined to think a set monthly budget each for "entertainment" which can go into a separate bank account for each of you to spend from. Agree that all your personal spending comes from those budgets - that way you can keep control over your main budget and he gets to see how fast he tears through his money!

I'm going to (unusually) disagree with Fatbelly on order for paying things down - get the overdraft tackled first even if it IS fee free - the reason being the bank can pull an overdraft from you at any time - if they decide to do this then you are really in problems.

sun_city_girl

Thanks for all your replies and advice, have been on a long day tomorrow and haven't had a chance to read through them all yet.
Needed a little moan too
Emailed the SOAs to my parter
Saw my stepdad this evening who mentioned he had seen him in town (I was instantly suspicious cos he doesn't work in town) I said "was he holding a coffee by any chance?" He was!
Am I being unfair though the debt is mine although as he didn't work for the first 6 years of us being together I guess he inadvertently contributed to it. Anyway my point was going to be should I be expecting him to give most of his salary into my account when I'm the one in debt...

Arleen

sun_city_girl wrote: »

Am I being unfair though the debt is mine although as he didn't work for the first 6 years of us being together I guess he inadvertently contributed to it. Anyway my point was going to be should I be expecting him to give most of his salary into my account when I'm the one in debt...

You two need to sit down and talk abotu finances, and what are each other expectation. Either you want to run a shared pool, or each should run their own set of books and the two should be separated just like from a random person on the streets, with maybe option for easy loans. Anything in between leads to grief, as you've noticed.

Debtslayer

sun_city_girl wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies and advice, have been on a long day tomorrow and haven't had a chance to read through them all yet.
Needed a little moan too
Emailed the SOAs to my parter
Saw my stepdad this evening who mentioned he had seen him in town (I was instantly suspicious cos he doesn't work in town) I said "was he holding a coffee by any chance?" He was!
Am I being unfair though the debt is mine although as he didn't work for the first 6 years of us being together I guess he inadvertently contributed to it. Anyway my point was going to be should I be expecting him to give most of his salary into my account when I'm the one in debt...

What is the reason you have accumulated the debt? Has it been you've been buying things for yourself and having whatever you wanted or is it trying to keep the house going?
Debts may be in your name but not necessarily 'your' debts.
You are a couple and need to work together as a couple. What was his reaction to the SOA?

enthusiasticsaver

If the debt occurred through general household spending then they are joint debts and he needs to contribute. If he did not work for 6 years then he definitely needs to stop wasting money on lining costas pocket and focus on clearing the debt for both of you.

The food is high, no question about that. If you work shifts it must be difficult to meal plan but not impossible. Make large pots of chilli or casseroles and take leftovers to work. It just involves sitting down once a week and planning your meals and food shopping around your working hours.

According to the soa you have more than £200 spare each month to save in various pots. I would do one for cars, one for house and one for gifts and one for emergency savings. Allocate monthly spending allowances to you both for entertainment and clothing and yes £163 is extortionate too.

I would say your problem is a mix of not budgeting and overspending. You are not paying enough to get the debts down so that is not the problem. Your partner only earns a part time wage so can he increase hours?

heartbreak_star

£163 on clothes, yikes! I spend less than that a year I think

Good luck OP, sounds like you're taking everything on board

HBS x

sun_city_girl

Have had a proper chance to look at everything, Have been on long days over the weekend and house sitting (To be near work and not spend on petrol!) so haven't had my computer with me.
Our food shop is definitely too high, I had no idea we were spending so much - i added up all the grocery shops we did for jun, may and april and divided by 3
Most of the shops are down to not planning so like £9 here or there with the odd "big shop"
am definitely going to look at some cash back sites too to see if i can get money back on any of my spending
I did the same with clothes and one of the months (I don't remember which) we spent loads, we bought a couple of pairs of shoes for the toddler and I bought some new trainers which were like 'big' clothes buys and I bought andrew a pair of trousers
Will change my tv license to monthly as that would work out much better, I actually loathe paying any money to the BBC with their over inflated salaries and gender pay gap but my daughter loves cbeebies and my partner watches sports and stuff
Bills aren't too bad - we have solar panels which helps with electric but its just making sure we use most electricity - washing, hoovering etc when its still daylight!
No budgeting for car maintenance is true I haven't had my car serviced this year and andrew hasn't since he bought his 2 years ago :-(
I actually have no idea what to budget for presents or entertainment or even car maintenance probably why we have never done it :-/
We don't have haircuts at all haha I shave my partners head and the last time I paid for a haircut was in 2015, I buy henna and use that but I buy 1 block from lush which is about £10 and use half of it and do it about 3 times a year haha sometimes only twice!
the house value is 25% of 185000
but obviously I have a mortgage
Most of the debt is from general living whilst I was between jobs at least half of my recent loan £5 and my overdraft has accumulated as andrew hasn't worked previously so things have built up
nothing is from anything big for myself or any designer stuff haha

as for work
andrew has just taken on a second job but its further away so the extra fuel will probably just balance it out but its to get experience doing something else because his job now is so narrow
I actually have much better earning potential as I have signed up to a nursing agency so can earn basic rate of £36per hour but I never have child care unless he is off as obviously its shifts, so I keep thinking it probably would be better for him to do less days and me more! as I do long days so my hours are concentrated i could do an extra couple of days a week short shifts and probably take him more than his 3 days - although obviously on BR tax
we haven't been too bad over the last few days
I have been at work anyway
but I withdrew £100 last wednesday and have spent £20 on petrol £50 on food andrew spent £15 over the weekend So we have the same left until wednesday again which isn't too bad...but we have used the cars loads less than we usually would :-)
Need to start a little to do list book; does anyone else do that?
also I can't use excel so have been writing down spends in a book

zippygeorgeandben

Can you try and pay for everything on plastic? I find that when I'm drawing money out of the ATM, I've less an idea where the money actually goes. Looking at my statements two weeks later and seeing ATM WITHDRAWAL 23:26 £100 MRKT STREET doesn't actually tell me anything, because even if on a night out, I wouldn't be accounting £100 for entertainment because I might have about £40 in my wallet the next morning. Most places are contactless now so I can trace where every penny goes.
You do need to sit down with OH though and get to grips with this but be aware that just because you've had your LBM on 26th July, doesn't mean that he should have had it at the same time.

sun_city_girl

I think what I prefer about the cash is its 'real time' I hate that thing where you pay for stuff on card and it doesn't show up!!