Mentally Exhausted (newbie to forum)

Mnd

I agree with the spending diary, if your SOA suggests you have over £600 spare then you need to find what is happening to that cash.
Are all those debts at 0%..
I can understand that the sheer total of debts is overwhelming, there are a few relatively low ones that you can knock off when you find the missing cashwhich should be a physiological boost at least

Is your car insurance £1800..that seems a lot.

Mnd

Sorry, please clarify. .your SOA says 2 cars, but in your post you say 1 car?

Dobbibill

Well done hdr - this is the first step.

It's tiring when you have spreadsheet after spreadsheet and only make small dents in the debt but you are doing the right thing now. A little more detail and tweaks and you will be well on your way.

hdr wrote: »

Here is my SOA:

I'm not sure on some of the things in here so have guesstimated some of them such as clothing/xmas and birthday spending etc.

There is quite a bit of surplus left over so I really really need to look into why I am not seeing that money!!!

(Also, I cannot gain any other credit as my credit score is extremely poor.)


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1807
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1001
Benefits................................ 137
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2945

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 197
Rent.................................... 541.66
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 87
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 Why no water rates?
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 29.99 How many phones are in this deal? when does your contract expire?
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12.8
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 40 Does this include uniforms?
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 29.8
Car Insurance........................... 134.05 At renewal use sites like TCB/Quidco to reduce your net cost.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25 Is this realistic for 2 cars? I would up this depending on the age of the cars.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 11.36 As above, renewal date, cashback sites for a competitive quote - see if you current provider can then price match.
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 7.5
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 0You need something in here - as you are not a homeowner, £500 target should be OK to start with.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1853.53

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 10445....(197)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 10445.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Sofa...........................293.12....98........0
Credit Card #1.................218.......18........0
Credit Card #2.................229.22....16........0
Other (misc)...................6030.29...147.6.....0
Lowell #8......................1044......4.........0
Lowell #7......................152.......0.........0
Lowell #6......................125.......0.........0
Lowell #5......................182.22....4.........0
Curvissa.......................145.49....0.........0
SSL Capital....................243.63....20........0
Cabot Financial #2.............43.64.....0.........0
Cabot Finanical #1.............129.93....0.........0
Lowell #4......................310.88....4.........0
Lowell #3......................318.88....4.........0
Lowell #2......................777.82....4.........0
Lowell #1......................204.7.....4.........0
Fashion World..................1599.01...4.........0
Moorcroft #2...................753.14....10........0
Moorcroft #1...................1301......10........0
Freemans.......................100.......5.01......0
Curvissa.......................255.76....42.12.....0
Credit Card #3.................274.41....40........0
Total unsecured debts..........14732.14..434.73....- lots of small debts - you could finsh one per month if you can find where your surplus funds are doing.

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,945
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,853.53
Available for debt repayments........... 1,091.47
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 434.73
Amount left after debt repayments....... 656.74 This needs to be found!

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,445
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,732.14 Net Assets.............................. -20,177.14

My thougts in red above.

To get your totals near enough for birthdays etc, use the last 12 months as a guideline.

Dig out the APRs, it wil be worth it when you can prioritse which debts are costing the most money in interest.

A spending diary is a must to find out where your surplus is going.

All the best.

enthusiasticsaver

A spending diary is a must to find the missing £600 per month which ideally should be either used for repaying debts, making your life a bit more comfortable or building up savings so you can fix fences etc.

First of all I am going to take a guess that those debts are not all at 0% and you will never pay them off if you are only paying such small amounts to them. If they are catalogues they are a really expensive way of borrowing. If you have already defaulted though they may have frozen the interest which is good. The good news too is that they only come to £14700 which might sound a lot to you but really isn't. If you were to locate the spare £656 and add the amount you pay to debt currently of £434 you would be debt free in just over 13 months. I am not suggesting you do that but just to show you with some financial discipline this is fixable.

Have a look at bank statements to see where the missing money is going. Common culprits are groceries, eating out, coffee shops, pets, smoking and alcohol and school trips, uniforms and other children related expenses. Cash withdrawals also have a habit of disappearing.

Your spreadsheets are not working for you and with 22 debts, some of them really small I am not surprised you are sinking. Spending diary or app on your phone is an easy way of keeping track.

First of all locate the missing money you are losing from your budget every month and start to monitor where your money is going. Take control of the groceries budget and start up emergency savings.

If the debts are all at 0% (doubtful but as I say if you have defaulted they may have stopped the interest) then tackle them one by one starting with the smallest and repay them.

LOVEHB

Hi Hdr

I read your post and can totally relate with how you are feeling. In the end after feeling pretty low and helpless I contacted StepChange. I completed a budget form and they advised a Debt Management Plan was the way forward, they asked my creditors to freeze interest. Without this, it would have taken me years and years to pay back (high interest rates on loans and credit cards due to poor credit rating). I am actually paying the amounts back instead of keeping my head above water constantly.

I would seriously recommend you have a chat with them or at least another debt charity. I have been with them for 18 months now but they have been brilliant, ive never felt they were judging me. There is no pressure, they will investigate your finances, recommend a solution and help you move forward. I feel like an entirely different person now paying one amount every month to them and they deal with the payments.

I wish you lots of luck! You arent alone its tough being in this position!

hdr

LOVEHB wrote: »

Hi Hdr

I read your post and can totally relate with how you are feeling. In the end after feeling pretty low and helpless I contacted StepChange. I completed a budget form and they advised a Debt Management Plan was the way forward, they asked my creditors to freeze interest. Without this, it would have taken me years and years to pay back (high interest rates on loans and credit cards due to poor credit rating). I am actually paying the amounts back instead of keeping my head above water constantly.

I would seriously recommend you have a chat with them or at least another debt charity. I have been with them for 18 months now but they have been brilliant, ive never felt they were judging me. There is no pressure, they will investigate your finances, recommend a solution and help you move forward. I feel like an entirely different person now paying one amount every month to them and they deal with the payments.

I wish you lots of luck! You arent alone its tough being in this position!

I'd love to be able to pay one monthly payment for all my debts and be able to then have some money aside each week/month to actually 'do' stuff and save. Is this how it's worked out for you?

hdr

Dobbibill wrote: »

Well done hdr - this is the first step.

It's tiring when you have spreadsheet after spreadsheet and only make small dents in the debt but you are doing the right thing now. A little more detail and tweaks and you will be well on your way.



My thougts in red above.

To get your totals near enough for birthdays etc, use the last 12 months as a guideline.

Dig out the APRs, it wil be worth it when you can prioritse which debts are costing the most money in interest.

A spending diary is a must to find out where your surplus is going.

All the best.

Thanks.

Yes, I will go back through things and bank statements to figure out where all that surplus is actually going too.

To answer:
No water rates = included with rent.
Mobile Phone = is actually £105.88 as we have 4 in the household. (cant wait for 2x of the contracts to end soon)
Clothing - Need to try and work this out someone?!

I also need to find out all of the APR's and get them entered into my SOA asap.

One question: How would I correctly work out some of my monthly income / expenditures?
ie: I am paid weekly at £417 after tax. So would I do this: £417 x 52(weeks) / 12(months)? As some months can have 5x pay days instead of 4.

Thanks again

Dobbibill

hdr wrote: »

One question: How would I correctly work out some of my monthly income / expenditures?
ie: I am paid weekly at £417 after tax. So would I do this: £417 x 52(weeks) / 12(months)? As some months can have 5x pay days instead of 4.

Thanks again

Spot on

cwhiskey45

Try listening to Dave Ramsey's podcast, his method of sorting out debt and building towards a future seems to make a lot of sense, I realise its American so some is irrelevant, but with all your debts, a lot of them small little ones, I think you could get that sorted very quickly, it's all about the baby steps


1) Build a £1000 emergency fund (although like someone else said £500 would probably be enough)
2) List debts smallest to highest, put them all on minimum repayments and throw everything at the smallest debt then move on to the next (the idea being you get little motivational wins which help you to stick at it) this creates a snowball effect so by the time you get to the big ones you have a very large amount each month to pay


It then carries on, with retirement plans and kids uni funds etc, but google Dave Ramsey's baby steps, and like I say the podcasts are very motivational, good to listen to on the way to work.

kazwookie

What is the Hire Purchase of £10K + for? could that item be sold, and the HP paid off.

Go through your bank statements again, and see if you have forgotten any standing orders / direct debits.
Find your % rates, then you know which ones need paying first, so they are not add interest to interest, so in effect you are not paying anything off.

Good luck