What would you do?

versace1888

I've written down our expenses if someone wouldnt mind having a look for me please?

Rent 745
Car 270
CU 550
CU 70
Gas 40
Electric 40
Petrol 80
Loan 176
Insurance 70
Loan 110
Council Tax 130
Home Care 34
Sky 79
TV 15
Mortgage 440
Simply Be 25
Child Care 300
Factor Fee 70
Tax credit 40
Credit Cards 90
3374

versace1888

Here is our incomings;

Income 1 - £1,450

Income 2 - £1,700

Mortgage - £475

Child Benefit - £80

Total - £3,705

Fosterdog

You would be better off following the link onedaysomeday posted, it will give all of the figures in a more readable format and includes a number of things that you haven't. At the bottom you choose the option for format for MSE and you just copy and paste I as a reply here.

Although looking at just your brief SOA, do you reall need £34 a month on homecare? What does it cover exactly? £79 a month is an obscene amount to be spending on Sky, its a lot even if you are not in debt and have plenty of disposable income but when you are in debt I can't see how you can justify it at all. Council tax, try spreading it over 12 months instead of ten, it will bring it down to £108 a month. Do you really need the car? If you are only getting through £80 a month in petrol it is not being used an awful lot so is it needed when you consider the cost of insurance and maintenance costs on top?

Pixie5740

Does the rental property bring in enough income to wipe it's own face? Are you setting money aside to replace the boiler? Where is the money set aside to pay for the annual gas safety certificate? Do you have a contingency plan if the tenants are unable to pay the rent for some reason or decide to move out? Where is the money to pay the income tax or is your tax code adjusted to account for this already?

As said above, you really need to complete a full statement of affairs.

kindofagilr

versace1888 wrote: »

I've written down our expenses if someone wouldnt mind having a look for me please?

Rent 745
Car 270
CU 550 - What's this?
CU 70 - What's this?
Gas 40
Electric 40
Petrol 80
Loan 176
Insurance 70
Loan 110
Council Tax 130
Home Care 34
Sky 79
TV 15
Mortgage 440
Simply Be 25
Child Care 300 - How old is your child? cheaper childcare when they are 3
Factor Fee 70
Tax credit 40
Credit Cards 90
3374

No food? Mobiles? Clothes? Holidays? Entertainment?

I personally wouldn't sell the house if I could help it, can one of you look at increasing wages?

National_Debtline

sourcrates wrote: »

As homeowners your options are limited, but a debt management plan may be the best way to tackle your debt.

Dont sell the house, sounds like you have a good income, you just need creditors to stop interest and charges and repay your debts at an affordable rate.

Contact stepchange, they are a free to use debt charity, they can advise you on a DMP.

Versace1888 appears to live in Scotland - OP can you please confirm this? - so references to specific debt solutions may be premature.


Dennis
@natdebtline

National_Debtline

Hi Versace1888


I'd suggest that a chat with our colleagues at www.businessdebtline.org would be useful - I refer to them as I'm not clear so far from reading through previous posts whether any income tax liability on surplus revenue from the buy to let has already been factored into your budget. Best to clear that up first before attempting any more detailed assessment of your potential next steps.


Best wishes


Dennis
@natdebtline

ReadingTim

You don't say how you accumulated the £18k debt and what you're paying every month in interest charges, although I notice they don't feature much in you statement of affairs.

The problem doesn't seem to be that you're spending too much (although there's certainly some fat you can trim out of the budget, starting with the sky tv), but that you don't earn enough to live on. I would focus on making sure more comes in, rather than less goes out.

Selling the house is a one time only bail out. If you got into debt as a result of a few bits of bad luck, failed business, divorce, spell of unemployment etc, it can help. But if you got into debt by basically failing to cover the bills month in, month out, you may clear your debts in the short term, but will slowly fall back into debt, and this time won't have the house to bail you out.

Work out why you're in this position and take steps to address that, otherwise you'll simply end up back here again several years down the line, with nothing to bail you out.

Mnd

Get rid of sky..instant saving