How do I deal with these debts?

Niknak83

Having spent the last 5-10 years of my life spending more than I earn, I’m now in debt of £27,000 and need help with how to deal with it.

I earn a decent salary but the amount I’m paying towards my debts means I don’t have much left at the end of the month. My husband is on less than half my salary so I pay more towards the bills.

Some of my credit cards are reaching their interest free periods and I’ve been declined for new interest free cards so can’t transfer anything. How do I deal with these debts so that it is manageable?

Income £2,209 per month after tax and pension deductions

Payments
£550 rent
£58.58 Octopus energy
£30 sofa
£40 water
£25.53 dog insurance
£6.22 home insurance
£210 food
£10.59 - o2
£277.98 - loan
£260 - Barclaycard
£102.02 - Virgin
£58.72 - car insurance
£106 - Natwest
£24.67 - cat insurance
£120 - petrol
£70 - pet food
£15.99 - gym
£36 - dog walker

Any other bills you’d expect to see from a normal household are paid by my husband.

Debt
Barclaycard £10,102.17 - £260/mth - £5,998 interest free until 25 May and then goes up to 17.5%, the remainder is at 6.9% for the life of the balance. Barclaycard won’t do any deals for the balance of £5,998
Virgin £3,998.30 - £102/mth - interest free ends Dec 18
NatWest c/c £6,735.76 - £106/mth - 6.9% interest
Loan £6,190.20 - £277/mth - 5.9% interest
= £27,026.43

Is there anything anyone can suggest to help? Bankruptcy is not an option due to my job.

Dobbibill

Fill in this SOA first - let's have a look at the bigger picture and see if we can make tailored suggestions.

bytheseas

Honestly I can easily see huge savings there.

Virgin completely gone you're + £102.02
Dog walker, do you really need a dog walker? Can you not do it yourself? £36
Both the pet insurances seem super high, my dog insurance is only £6 a month. Something to look at?

£70 a month on pet food? They having a roast chicken per day each or something? I too have a cat and dog and maybe spend £20 maximum.

Potential saving of: £188.02

enjoyyourshoes

You need to do a couple of things:-

identify what your life goals are and get both of you onto the same page. Is is vicariously live my life through my pets ? or something else? (I would suggest eradicate all your debts as number one then move onto something else (House, fantastic experiential holidays etc)

Then live within your own financial envelope. Stop spinning on wants and focus on needs only, you can possibly work out what these are between the two of you?

System

I have a cat and only pay £7 with Tesco...we've claimed a couple of times too.

ReadingTim

If you can't go bankrupt then you simply need to cut out every single unnecessary spend and throw every spare penny you have at your debt. And by unnecessary, I mean anything that's not a strict need - for example, you need shelter, food, water, heat. You don't need a dog walker.

It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be fun. But you have little choice, and there's no magic bullet that's going to make it "manageable" without some (lots) of sacrifice.

Niknak83

Here’s my SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details[
Monthly income after tax................ 2209
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2209

Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 550
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 29
Gas..................................... 29
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 9
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 210
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 2
Car Insurance........................... 59
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 50
Contents insurance...................... 6
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Pet food................................ 70
Dog walker.............................. 36
Gym..................................... 16
Sofa.................................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1256

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
Car(s).................................. 2500
Total Assets............................ 2500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................5998......130.......17.5
Barclaycard....................4104......130.......6.9
Virgin C/C.......................3998.......40........0
Natwest loan...................6190.......277.......5.9
Natwest C/C....................6735......105.......6.9

Total unsecured debts....27025.....682.......

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,209
Expenses (including HP & secured debts) 1,256
Available for debt repayments........... 953
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 682
Amount left after debt repayments....... 271

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -27,025
Net Assets.............................. -24,525

Dog walker is essential as we both work all day and he can’t be left on his own all day. We had our dog in our previous house which had a dog flap. We then had to move as the landlord was selling the house and were only able to find a house that has no where for a dog flap.

Pet insurance is high as we’re with Petplan. Unfortunately our dog has hip dysplasia so if we changed insurance now, it wouldn’t be covered and in the future he will need a hip replacement. Better to keep our insurance up rather than have to find upwards of £6k later down the line. We also have 3 cats. My nan died last year and we took her cat in. It was only supposed to be temporary but now can’t bear to get rid of him.

Pet food - 3 cats and 1 medium sized dog. They’re on Butchers and a cheap biscuit food from Pets at Home.

Virgin is a credit card so until that balance is gone, I’ll need to keep the repayments up.

ViolaLass

You need to include your partner's salary and what they pay for otherwise we can't fully advise.

Niknak83

He brings in £1,040 a month.

His outgoings include:
- the rest of the rent £325
- tv licence £12
- council tax £110
- Sky £13
- mobile £30
- petrol £50
- own debts £300
- dog walker £36

We don!!!8217;t have a joint account so whatever money we have left after paying bills in our own accounts, is our own. So I don!!!8217;t take his earnings/outgoings into account when trying to pay my own debts off.

Suseka97

Hello,
I have to agree with the above post that says you need to do a full SOA which includes all income and expenses for the household. That way folks will be able to provide more informed options for you. You may well consider the £27k as your debt and thus only want to list your household contribution which is understandable, but the issue may be bigger from a household perspective if, for example, your partner also has debts. if he does not, then great - but it would help to see the whole picture.

A debt management plan could be a solution, but it will hit your credit worthiness (although that shouldn't matter seeing as you cannot afford your debts) or folks might be able to suggest the 'snowballing approach' whereby you whittle down your debts one by one.

So, there is a lot you can do - but first do the full SOA.

ViolaLass

You've got nothing between you for internet or entertainment, is that right?