Long time lurker, time to tke control

Ianise

So,



I posted here, probably back in 2013 or 14 about debt and what to do.



Today I have decided it really is time to take control of the ever spiralling river that is my debt.


Well, "our" debt. My partner and I have £77K left on our mortgage with around £45K of equity.


We have around £35K of debt. I say around as I am doing this off my own back and can only account for definite the credit cards I have access to and I am guessing the back end of it.


I will get definite figures by the end of this month.


So, starting today I am aiming to have ano spend week and basically live out of the freezer.


I will be keeping a diary here to keep myself accountable and will possibly post on the main forum a statement of outgoings so I can get a little help with reducing them.


At the moment our joint income is £4438 per month and to say I am disgusted with how we currently spend is an understatement.


I am trying to be positive though, so I will say that I believe the frist step is the most important and in posting here and with the help of you all, I am sure I can get my families life back on track!

[Deleted User]

Hi,


good luck.


If you fill this in it'll give you an idea where the money is going.

Ianise

Thanks,



I will fill that in tonight when I am back from work.


I fear I know where it is going. We are living like every aday is our last. A stark wake up call was needed and I think I got that!


Thanks agian.

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,


good luck.


If you fill this in it'll give you an idea where the money is going.

Ianise

OK,


I decided to hit the SOA up roughly now.


Makes it so much worse when it shows how much we are wasting tbh.


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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2621.41
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1679.55
Benefits................................ 137.1
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4438.06

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 355.1
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 108
Electricity............................. 88
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 33.41
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 100
TV Licence.............................. 12.83
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 55
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 75
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 12.5
Car Insurance........................... 42.11
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8.5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 75.42
Buildings insurance..................... 22.11
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 33.11
Other insurance......................... 50
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Bank packs.............................. 31
School Dinners.......................... 120
Sponsor................................. 15
Spending................................ 260
Health Insurance........................ 113.88
Total monthly expenses.................. 2590.97


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 125000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 130500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 77000....(355.1)....1.74
Total secured & HP debts...... 77000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................8604......240.......19
Barclay Card 2.................6627......150.......6.9
VM 1...........................5500......55.12.....0
Overdraft......................3200......59........19
Lloyds.........................2887......29........0
MBNA2..........................3038......76.96.....0
MBNA...........................2279......25........19
VM2............................1666......42.7......19
Tesco..........................1600......25........19

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

savingholmes

Hi - Looking at your SOA - it looks like you are spending about £703 on your current CC plus 355 on your mortgage and £2590 on the rest which adds up to £3648. The first step would be either to do a) a spending diary to see where your money is going or b) preferably tell your money where to go and put that £800 you should have left towards debt.

You haven't said when your different rates expire. Assuming they are all similar - you could follow the D@ve R@msey method and list your debts smallest to largest and pay them off in turn. If you did that you could knock Tesco on the head within 2 months. You could also go on the MSE credit club and see if you qualify for any balance transfers to get your debts away from 19% as that's a ridiculous rate.

HTH

Yellow_mango

Hi - and welcome!

That looks like a pretty aspirational SOA. I assume you don’t actually have £800pm left over every month?

I am also trying to recover from high and uncontrolled spending. Do you do all your spending on a credit card by any chance? I’ve found it very helpful to go cold turkey on the credit card spending. Even though it means giving up the cashback. I opened a Starling account, and now put £250 pw in there to cover all casual spending, groceries, entertainment, meals out etc. It’s really helped me keep on top of what we are actually spending.

Good luck!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

You have a healthy surplus there (in theory)… I would throw repayments at the lowest balances, but highest interest rates - VM2, MBNA and Tesco. Worth doing a spending diary... your mortgage is tiny really, compared to your income so worth knowing how you've accumulated debt. Need to get OH on board and look at snowball calculator to get it all paid off asap... any chance of moving CC to 0%?

Ianise

Thanks for the replies all.


In theory it is a healthy surplus, however, more often than not we spend it on crap...


This is why I wanted to post here. I need accountability. My OH is up for this as well. I had my first NSD yesterday, ate from the freezer and drank water all day instead of costa coffee and fizzy pop.


I want so badly to get out of this whole and start saving for the kids futures.


With regards the CC's on higher APR's I can't swap them at the moment, but one MBNA card has 6K avaialble and 18 months interest free, so I will be loading that one up to get some of the higher debt on to 0% this week.


I just missed out on 36 months 0% on the tesco card as I had been burying my problems rather than facing them head on, but no more!


Here's to another no spend day today Dinner with my parents tonight at their house!

Ianise

NSD out of the window as needed greens for the rabbit, $4.65 spent. Still nowhere near stupid spending

Ianise

So I have started looking at the 0% transfer offers on the existing cards nad it is looking like I should be able to get most, if not all transferred to a 0% or at least liftime baalnce low %.


I am looking at the option of doing a money transfer at 0% to get rid of the overdraft that costs £55 a month in fees and then using this extra capitla to pay off cards starting with the lowest value.