Hello, I finally stopped burying my head in the sand!

okidoodle

Today was the day I stopped burying my head in the sand about my finances!
Basically I am in about 16k debt overall which I have been managing by shuffling about badly, paying minimum payments on direct debit and basically ignoring it.
Got into debt really because of some overspending when I was younger, then nearly paid it off when I got pregnant. I should have had enough money to cover being on maternity leave but beacause my husband was being a particularly knobbish !!!!!!!! he lost most of my quite sizeable inheritance which would have paid it off and took all of the equity from selling our old house and basically drank it and took his mistress on holiday. I don't need a lecture about why he's an !!!! but I can't do anything about it while my finances are a mess.
While I was pregnant I was the only person with an income which was a small amount from a rental proprerty and statutory maternity pay. It was not a huge amount. When I went back to work I was only part time and my husband refused to pay any childcare contribution, so I basically dipped in and out of my overdraft for most of the month until last january when I got a full time decent paying job. Now my current account is in the black by a modest amount (maybe a month's salary in ready cash) and I have a small surplus at the end of every month.
Because I have been living on the square root of naff all (I went down to 6 st 12lbs because I couldn't afford food) my spending is now under control. I am no longer a big spender and I can buy what I want at the supermarket without either being wasteful or being brutally frugal. I can afford the occasional modest treat for myself or the kid within my budget, which is great.
So now I need to get the debt down. As of this morning I had three credit cards, one with £120 which I have paid off in full because I could afford to, so that one is now 0. One card has about £4175 which I have balance transferred to a 0% for 23 months deal with a £6000 limit. I can't find the paperwork for the third but from memory it has about £1800 on it on various rates because I balanced transferred some of the bigger balance to that one. I'm planning to split that one into the remainder of the 0% deal I just took out, and another 0% deal which I have been offered and approved by the bank already on the card I just paid off.
I also have a loan of about 10k which I took out in December when I got my offer from my current job - this paid off the larger balance of what was on my credit card with £120ish on it and put some extra on (about £300) for what I told them were "home improvements" which was basically christmas presents as I knew I would have back pay coming in january. This loan is at 3.3% and I only got it as the bank would not temporarily extend my overdraft at the time - this was the best they could offer me, which was clear my overdraft and card, then reduce my available credit on the card. Apparently this was worked out on eligibility criteria so it wasn't a full on credit denial based on a hard credit search.
So now I'm wondering if it's worth it to keep the 0% deals on minimum for the meantime and pay off more of the loan which has an actual interest figure, or keep the 0% paying off on a fixed amount so they are gone quicker?
I haven't set myself a date for being out of debt - I just want to do this methodically and make sure it goes away as fast as possible!

Willing2Learn

Hello okidoodle and welcome to the forum.

This is an important first step and you should pat yourself on the back.

Please could you complete a Statement of Affairs (SOA) and post it up here. An soa will let people give you guidance and support specific to your needs.

Please click on the link below. It would be helpful to select the format for MSE button at the bottom of the soa
Stoozing.com SOA Calculator

okidoodle

Some caveats:
Husband works away during the week and only is at home on weekends. He pays the mortgage but no other expenses for the house or the kid.
I get childcare vouchers which come out of my salary before tax which cover all childcare costs not covered by the 30 free hours.
I don't get child benefit because basically it's not worth being made to feel like garbage when other half has to pay it back for earning too much so I stopped it. I'm not entirely sure of his income but I know it's over 50k.

My "other assets" is a rental house I own jointly with my mum which I currently don't get any income from because it had to be renovated and my mum fronted the money for that.

My fuel costs are low because I do a lot of travel for work and I find that my mileage expenses cover a lot of my petrol costs, even if you include personal use.



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1657
Partners monthly income after tax....... 3000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4657

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 678
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 28
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 14
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 95
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1497


Assets
Cash.................................... 2000
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 700
Other assets............................ 10000
Total Assets............................ 262700


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 150000...(678)......6.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 150000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HSBC loan......................7210......144.......3.3
Lloyds credit card.............5179......129.......0
HSBC credit card...............1370......38........0
Total unsecured debts..........13759.....311.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,657
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,497
Available for debt repayments........... 3,160
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 311

Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,849

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 262,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -150,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,759
Net Assets.............................. 98,941

Sncjw

Why isn!!!8217;t your husband contributing to the household which is the expenses for the child. Is this the same husband who drank your money away.

Surely he should help pay some of this debt off esp with a 3k surplus after monthly debt payments. Surely the debts you accrued was a partly his fault and b for the household.

I!!!8217;m sorry but I think he should pay more towards the house. Eap when you weren!!!8217;t working.

What does he do with his money?

Sncjw

Oh and please get some buildings and contents insurance. It would cost a lot to replace everything and to rebuild house if anything to happen

okidoodle

The house is uninsurable because it's being renovated so no insurer will cover us until the work is completed to a certain extent. We do have some contents cover that my husband pays for because it covers some specialist items of his. He doesn't pay anything else because he doesn't pay anything, it isn't an argument that's worth having. He also pays rent etc where he lives during the week where he works so he does have some extra outgoings but I don't think "some random person on the internet thinks you should pay more towards the house" would wash when he was pretty happy to let me starve at one point.

madvicker

In which case, redo the SOA excluding his income, and working out how much of the mortgage you contribute to. That way, we can get an accurate understanding of your personal financial position.

Edit: 100th post!! *selfishness over*

Clouds88

I don!!!8217;t have advice to add but just sympathy for you, your husband sounds vile.
Why are you even with someone like that? It sounds like you and your child deserve better.

okidoodle

It's ok, I don't need sympathy, and I'm really not here for that. The kid is fine and taken care of very well by me and the various constituents of my motley crew of relatives and family friends. I just explained the situation to explqain why the money is as it is.
Herein endeth all discussion on my marriage.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1657
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1657

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 70
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 19
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 28
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 14
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 95
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 819


Assets
Cash.................................... 2000
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 700
Other assets............................ 10000
Total Assets............................ 262700

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
hsbc loan......................7210......144.......0
lloyds credit card.............5179......129.......0
HSBC credit card...............2130......38........0
Total unsecured debts..........14519.....311.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,657
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 819
Available for debt repayments........... 838
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 311
Amount left after debt repayments....... 527

I've taken out the assets as it muddies it a bit.

madvicker

Ok in terms of expenditure, your only high ones appear to be electricity and your car insurance. When was the last time you did a check on the cheapest tariff/insurance?

As for debts: As long as your credit cards are at 0%, set your minimum payment manually. E.g. if the min payment on Lloyds is 129, manually set it for £130 and forget it. Then put your excess £527 into the loans. Do this for as long as the 0% deals are there. If you cannot transfer into fresh 0% deals, that £527 should then go into the highest APR card until it's paid off. Rinse and repeat. You should be debt free in a year and a half, depending on interest charges.

okidoodle

You think do that rather than throw everything extra at the loan? I have already added another £60 p/m standing order to that as I've amended the amount I was getting on childcare vouchers down by about £100 (obviously will now be paying 25% ish tax & NI on that £100) because I have about £500 built up in childcare vouchers already which is more than enough to cover any holidays when he doesn't get 30 hrs free.
Barring total economic collapse I should be able to get new deals as my credit score is pretty good as I have assets and I've not missed any payments in a very long time. My current cards have all been sending me 0% deals even with this amount of debt on them. With luck having more unused credit will go in my favour.
A year and a half sounds good. I would like to be debt free by September 2020 when I turn 35, then I can start building up some savings!