help needed

shez1987

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 720
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1264
Benefits................................ 464
Other income............................ 192
Total monthly income.................... 2640

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 432.1
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 93.75
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 88
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 100
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 24
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 65
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 480
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 39
Car Insurance........................... 103.5
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 36
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1771.72

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 92500....(432.1)....4.79
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5000.....(93.75)....
Total secured & HP debts...... 97500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
capital one....................2500......102.......0
vanquis........................3000......150.......0
marbles........................300.......25........0
littlewoods....................900.......65.75.....0
safestyle......................810.......82.78.....0
dfs............................1243......56.5......0
next...........................300.......11........0
Total unsecured debts..........9053......493.03....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,640
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,771.72
Available for debt repayments........... 868.28
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 493.03
Amount left after debt repayments....... 375.25

shez1987

we have been struggling for a few months now. i need to get back on track paying our credit cards ontime and reduce my outgoings as i am going to university in September

Fosterdog

Is your SOA accurate or where you would like it to be? Do you actually have £375 left over each month? I’ll put comment on your SOA in red and expand on them at the end.

shez1987 wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 720
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1264
Benefits................................ 464
Other income............................ 192
Total monthly income.................... 2640

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 432.1
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 93.75
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 88
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 100 this is high, shop around for a better tariff and be careful with your usage.
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 24
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 65 how many phones? This is high, try to lower current tariffs and change to sim only when out of contract
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 this is expensive, lower your package or change to Netflix/now tv.
Internet Services....................... 0 Iassume bundled with tv and/or phoneline
Groceries etc. ......................... 480 this is very high, could easily be halved.
Clothing................................ 0 never?
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 39
Car Insurance........................... 103.5
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0you need something here if running two cars
Car parking............................. 0 never?
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0 no clubs, activities, sports?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 15look into a pre pay certificate, it may work out a lot cheaper
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 36this is very high even if it includes contents
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0 you need something here if you have a mortgage
Other insurance......................... 5 whats this, is it really needed?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 never?
Haircuts................................ 0 never?
Entertainment........................... 0 never?
Holiday................................. 0 never?
Emergency fund.......................... 0 you need something here
Total monthly expenses.................. 1771.72

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 92500....(432.1)....4.79
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5000.....(93.75)....
Total secured & HP debts...... 97500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
capital one....................2500......102.......0are they all really 0%?
vanquis........................3000......150.......0
marbles........................300.......25........0
littlewoods....................900.......65.75.....0
safestyle......................810.......82.78.....0
dfs............................1243......56.5......0
next...........................300.......11........0
Total unsecured debts..........9053......493.03....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,640
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,771.72
Available for debt repayments........... 868.28
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 493.03
Amount left after debt repayments....... 375.25

There are definitely savings to be made, particularly with gas, groceries, tv package and house insurance but also other areas where you have nothing listed but should have something.

You need to keep a spending diary to see where every penny is going, that bar of chocolate when you pay for fuel, mark it down, the coffee you get while shopping, mark it down, lunches bought in work, Mark it down. Every penny needs to be accounted for.

Luckily your debts are not too bad considering your income and repayments, even decent overpayment should be manageable.

You really do need to start building an emergency fund, as a homeowner I’d say £1000 to start and then build it further once debts are cleared.

With the amount you could/ should have left over you could clear marble this month and next next month leaving you with £600 less and two fewer debts. You can get your debt to 0 in less than two years without compromising too much on lifestyle and then you’ll have a clan slate with £800ish a month disposable income.

foxgloves

Hi Shez1987,
New year soon, so a great time for a new start with your finances. There are a few areas on your SOA where you could make savings:
*Your energy spend is high....well, gas particularly. We are in a 3-bedroom house & our monthly payment for gas & electricity combined is £90. You might be able to find a cheaper tariff....though my own experience has been that the best way of reducing energy bills is reducing all wastage. For this, every little bit really does help......2 or 3 min showers instead of a 10 min wallow, only boiling the amount of water you need in the kettle, turning off lights at every opportunity, turning radiators down a notch on less freezy days, switching off TV if nobody properly watching it (properly as in without looking at other electronic gadgets at the same time)......so do a bit of an audit on energy wastage in your home & see if you can use less.
*Groceries - that looks high & if you ever eat out or order in a takeaway, it might be even higher. We have almost halved our grocery spend compared with what we spent 10 years ago. Meal planning is key here & cooking from scratch as much as possible.
*Our home insurance which includes buildings & contents is £16.59 per month, so you could maybe make a saving there.
Most important thing that helped us while we were debt-busting was finally realising that if we were putting it on a credit card, extending our overdraft or taking out a loan to pay for it, that wasn't our money, that's somebody else's money & so we probably couldn't afford it.
Wishing you all the best in your debt-busting journey.
F