New start to pay off my debts.

Mumoffourkids

Thanks taff. I have been in touch with payplan today and i am hoping to get a DMP set up from January or February at the latest. Unfortunately my old debts aren't that old and I really do want to pay them off. But on a brighter note payplan seemed to think that I should be clear in about two years which would be good and that is without any extra payments which is likely to happen as my childcare costs will first go down in April and then reduce again in September.

I will go through again and split out any extra bills. But I don't quite understand what you meant by your last comment about anything I pay weekly or monthly, to add an extra column.

-taff

If say you have one cup of coffee from Cost@ each week that costs 3 pounds, over the course of a year, you spend £156 on coffee. You could probably use that money elsewhere....That's what I meant.....

zippygeorgeandben

You spend far too much on your children for Xmas and birthdays. Reduce this and you'll be able to find your way out the mess.

[Deleted User]

Mumoffourkids wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 6
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 3527.64
Other income............................ 975
Total monthly income.................... 5402.64

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 1200
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 93
Electricity............................. 120 - This is £1,440 a year, which is :eek: Check comparison sites for a better deal, and ensure anything not being used is turned off, rather than left in standby.
Gas..................................... 10
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 63.54
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 51.81 - How many phones?
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 39.98 - I'm sure the kids won't suffer too much, if you get rid of this, which is £480 per year.
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 433.33
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 260
Road tax................................ 25.83 - This is £310 a year. Can you swap to a cheaper car to tax, and (given the cost of your next entry) insure?
Car Insurance........................... 120 - Is there a reason your car insurance is £1,440 a year?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 100
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 1000
Other child related expenses............ 140
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7.27
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 150
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 303.33 - This is over £3,600 a year. You need to cut back on this A LOT.
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - You need something in here.

Total monthly expenses.................. 4310.46


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Overdraft......................1000......30........0
Catalogue......................247.......60........0
Catalogue......................593.......35........0
Old debts......................20000.....0.........0
Tax credits....................410.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........22250.....125.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 5,402.64
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,310.46
Available for debt repayments........... 1,092.18
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 125
Amount left after debt repayments....... 967.18

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -22,250
Net Assets.............................. -21,750

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

My comments in red.

Do you realise that, if you cancelled the Satellite/Cable TV, and completely cut out the entertainment, then added the money from those two to your monthly surplus, you could pay off all your debts in 18 months?

If you cancelled the holiday too, you could be debt free in just 13 months.

It all depends on her desperate you are, to clear your debts.

Mumoffourkids

-taff wrote: »

If say you have one cup of coffee from Cost@ each week that costs 3 pounds, over the course of a year, you spend £156 on coffee. You could probably use that money elsewhere....That's what I meant.....

Ahh I see what you mean now. I will have a think because at the moment, nothing comes to mind straight away of things like this. But as I said I will go through my soa again and see if I can split anything else out.

Mumoffourkids

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

My comments in red.

Do you realise that, if you cancelled the Satellite/Cable TV, and completely cut out the entertainment, then added the money from those two to your monthly surplus, you could pay off all your debts in 18 months?

If you cancelled the holiday too, you could be debt free in just 13 months.

It all depends on her desperate you are, to clear your debts.

In reply to your queries, my electricity, i have a smart meter so can track how much I spend, but whatever I seem to do, my electricity is always high even with me going around turning everything off. I do have a tumble dryer which I do use a lot but without using this I would really struggle to cope with the washing. I have checked and my current deal runs out in march next year. According to my usage I could save a bit but not much.

The mobile is for three phones, one Vodafone and two giffgaff. My two eldest children have a phone each which is necessary as they are both at secondary school now, none of us have the latest phones, so for three phones, I don't think this cost is too high.

I am going to cut now TV subscription as we don't use this so that will save £10 from the TV costs. The sky I am still in contract and at £ 30 per month I don't think is too high a cost really.

Ok and now onto the car. I have a seven seater which is necessary due to the number of children I have. I have no savings which to buy a newer and therefore more economical car, and my credit rating is shot to pieces and so would not get a loan, not that I would want to take out more credit anyway. So I am unfortunately am stuck with my car at the moment. It is an older diesel so that's why the tax is high by the way. My car insurance is high because I have no no claims and have some points on my licence. Hopefully in January, when it is time to renew, I will have a years no claims and this figure will come down slightly.

Entertainment could be cut back I agree as this includes the occasional takeaway which could stop. I will track my spending in this area and see what I am spending on in order to cut back.

I agree something needs to go in emergency fund and maybe some of the entertainment figure could be reanalysed.

Yes this is the thing, I could live with absolutely nothing and cut right back and then I would be free of the debts a lot sooner. However, I don't believe that my kids should have to suffer because of my past mistakes and if I take another year to clear my debts and I take my kids camping for one week each year, because that is all our holiday is, then I think that's a price to pay.

In addition, I will some extra money from April this year to throw at the debts as my childcare costs will reduce due to my son getting 30 hours funded. Also from September, my youngest will get 15 hours a week funded, so again more money to go towards debts. This is therefore a worst case scenario and if I manage to save anything like in entertainment, then these savings can go towards my debts.

But thank you for taking the time to comment and you gave given me some things to think about.

-taff

When you say you don't think your kids should have to suffer foryour past mistakes, it woud probably be useful for them to see that there is a budget constraint, although I undertand that only applies to a certain age and over or they wouldn't understand.
Train them about money and budgeting now and it'll save them the problems that you had

Mumoffourkids

I do talk to them about money, and the oldest two do understand. I also spoke to the oldest four about me working verses me not working. The difference in money is incredible. But if I work, the kids understand that they have to help around the house and for this they get pocket money which they can then spend. My eldest also has a job and earns her own money part time so the only thing I really pay for her is her mobile phone bill. Anytime she wants to go out with her friends or buy clothes, she pays for it out of her wages.

I went through my budget with payplan yesterday and they have agreed on a figure if just over £800 a month to pay to my debts. This is less than on my soa so in theory I should be well within budget and be able to treat the kids occasionally. I just don't want to get into the position where I leave myself short and can't afford food, petrol or to pay my bills like rent and childcare.

Any extra I save goes to pay off my debts so hopefully I will be debt free sooner. I'm going to sort out January money today and work out how much I need to put away out of my weekly money as my money comes in at different frequencies throughout the month!

[Deleted User]

Are all your debts really on 0%?

Also, regarding the ones you're listing as "Old debts":-

How old are they?

Are they still showing on your credit file?

Are they Statute Barred?

Are they still with the original creditors, or have they been sold on?

System

Mumoffourkids wrote: »

The presents budget works out to £150 per child for Christmas, £100 per child for birthdays

WAY WAY WAY TOO MUCH. Cut Xmas by TWO THIRDS, cut birthdays IN HALF. There is no reason whatsoever to spend more than £50 per child on presents for these occasions. £1000 on Xmas presents just for the kids when you've that much debt is just insane. I reckon if you calculated how much you'd spent on Xmas and Birthday presents for them all over their lives it would come to a sizeable portion of your unsecured debt which kind of tells you something. My kids have never suffered because they've only had £50 spent on them. You're not the only person buying them presents so you've no need to feel guilty.

Also electricity bill is way too high. Make sure you've LED low energy bulbs everywhere, start educating the kids to turn off lights when they're no longer in their rooms. My mate has 5 kids and his house is lit up like a Xmas tree with every light on even though they're all in the living room watching TV together or having dinner