DMP or Bankruptcy?

Arleen

Great to hear! But when budgeting it out make sure to leave some for entertainment/cheap vacations etc, there must be something to make the life worth living .

EssexHebridean

welcome aboard and well done for facing up to things - we often say that's the hardest step done, right there!

Comments on SOA in red...

Tommyx wrote: »

SOA below...

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2950
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1980
Benefits................................ 130
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 5060

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 494
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120 Is this paid over 10 months? If so either ask to change to 12 months or make a special point of taking the money for the two months you don't pay and throwing it against a debt. Otherwise it will get frittered!
Electricity............................. 40 Check you're on the best tariff for Gas &
Electric.
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 50 This is steep - if in contract then try to negotiate, if not then switch to SIM only
TV Licence.............................. 15 Why so much? It's normally £12.37 or thereabouts?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 27
Internet Services....................... 15 £67 a month for TV/LL/BB is fairly high -
you can possibly batter this down by calling your current provider if you don't want to change.
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 This is quite high - meal plan and shop to a list, cook from scratch, and think about trying to replace branded stuff with own brand or even value/Aldi/Lidl options.
Clothing................................ 100 This is very high!
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 20 If you're paying this out monthly then change to paying annually as they charge a premium on monthly/6 monthly payments these days!
Car Insurance........................... 65 Assume you've checked the comparison sites to see that this is as good as you can get?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50 where do you save this? You're not showing any cash assets?
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 160
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 25
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0 Definitely not planning any trips away/holidays?
Emergency fund.......................... 50 where do you save this? You're not showing any cash assets?
Total monthly expenses.................. 1986


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 188000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 96000....(494)......1.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 96000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Tesco Loan.....................12500.....335.......7.9
barclarcad platinum............12500.....330.......0 definitely 0%? When does that run out?
Barclaycard cashback...........7500......175.......0definitely 0%? When does that run out?
creation loan..................6000......165.......9.9
Tesco credit card..............4600......130.......19.9 Ouchy - get this gone ASAP
Barclaycard ( wife)............8000......200.......6.9 Is this a life of balance rate?
If so is there scope for transfers to it as that is a LOT better than 19.9%!
creation (asda)................6000......175.......19.9Ouchy - get this gone ASAP
Total unsecured debts..........57100.....1510......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 5,060
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,986
Available for debt repayments........... 3,074
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,510
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,564 where does this go currently?
Or is it totally new due to your OH's new job?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 188,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -96,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -57,100
Net Assets.............................. 34,900

If you genuinely have that £1500 left after everything is paid out then that's great, you're in a really good situation. You can also make some savings above on the SOA - notably on groceries and clothing, but also things like TV and mobile have scope for reductions too.

Target the highest rate cards too - and if that card of your wife's at 6.9% is life-of-balance see if you're allowed to balance transfer to it at the same interest rate - if so shift some from one of the high rate cards as that will make a significant difference.

Looking ahead think about setting aside money monthly for insurances etc as with your surplus you can afford to pay these annually - that reduces costs as you're not paying for further credit.

You can make a real difference here quite fast - personally I'd be trying to hit it as hard as I can while the first enthusiasm remains. Realistically you can get one of those high rate cards gone inside 3 months - you need to aim for this.

I take it you're not eligible for any further 0% cards that you could transfer to?

Tommyx

Apologies for not posting for a few days. Thanks for all of the posts. We are feeling much better about it all now.

I am going to look to see if we are eligible for any more 0% cards, however we have a couple of recent late payments so I am thinking that we may not be eligible right now. Hopefully this will pick up in a few months.

I went out with my colleagues for a Christmas drink yesterday and lots of them were talking about Christmas/money and debt. I actually think that many of my colleagues may be in a similar situation to me, even on much lower salaries. I have really started to appreciate that our situation is actually quite fortunate. Our debt level is ridiculous but we are in a position to make a real dent in it quickly.

We need to sit down this weekend and draw up a realistic budget that we can stick to. I don't want to attempt anything that is unrealistic. I would rather pay slightly less per month and achieve a DFD a few months later, than go hell for leather and burn out by summer!