Can someone who knows, help?

enthusiasticsaver

You can't afford the car so if you are half way through the contract hand that back and get a cheaper one.

Terminate the cable tv and mobile phone deals ASAP and move to sim only.

The contents insurance can be reduced as can haircuts or get them done less often.

Gas and electric could be made cheaper by shopping around.

The bottom line is you have been living a lifestyle you can't afford. As for the debt you cannot afford to repay it so it will have to be bankruptcy again or the equivalent in Scotland. You have no assets but the car will have to go.

Retireby40

Unfortunately the above poster is correct. I dont know if you have boys or girls as children but £65 for 3 haircuts is too much. Boys haircuts are £7-10 a month. Girls get their haircut what? 3 or 4 times a year max. If you personally are getting your hair done once a month stop. Grow it.

3 have some of the best sim only deals. My current one is £20 a month and has 12gb of internet. Unlimited calls and texts that I never use.

£100 a week on food is too much. That could easily be trimmed by half.

Just out of interest how old are your kids?

Retireby40

I know you have included activity money but that is separate. That you can do little about but the element that is food can be cut.

iolanthe07

£80 a month for a mobile phone is massive; could you negotiate something a bit more reasonable? I pay £4.50 a month for my Tesco deal after threatening to leave.

EssexHebridean

First off, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your ex-partner - that's an incredibly tough thing to go through and especially when you also have kids to think about who have lost their Dad, too.

I'll comment on the SOA in red, as usual

Coffeescone10 wrote: »

atement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b]

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1600 Any chance of boosting this at all? Even online surveys etc would give you a small amount extra every now and again, and to be honest, anything you can claw in is vital.l
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 140 as someone else has said - check whether there is anything else you qualify for, here.
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1740

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 291 OK - brutal I know but is this is the are are you in a position where you can hand it back and manage without as you REALLY can't afford this. You need to think here about whether a car is something that is absolutely vital for you, or whether it's something that you like to have.
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 126 look to spread the payments over 12 months rather than 10 assuming you are paying to the default pattern currently.
Electricity............................. 62 This and your gas are high in combination - check that you are on the best possible tariff for your needs and also look to reduce use. Take a look around this evening - is anyone sitting about in short sleeves? if so your heating is too high - turn it down and start wearing jumpers!
Gas..................................... 55
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 85 This is painful. How close to the end of the contract are you?
TV Licence.............................. 12 [COLOR="red] Check on this - there should be some pennies here too. It's not generally a good plan to round up on down on budgeting, but if you really must, then always round UP, and be mindful of the fact that there will be a few extra pounds surplus in the bank account to budget with.[/COLOR]
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55 I'd cut this back to a very basic package if I were you. You can't afford the frilly extras at the moment I'm afraid, no matter how nice they are.
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 Halve it. Stop buying pre-made stuff, start cooking everything from scratch. make your new rule to buy nothing branded - if you don't tell the kids that things are different they won't even notice, 99% of the time,. decant cheaper brands into branded packaging if needs be until everyone gets used to the switch.
Clothing................................ 0 You have to budget for at least essentials only here.
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 between this, the PCP for the car, the insurance plus the other oddments that aren't accounted for, you're losing around a third of your income every month to car-related costs. I'd say that was on the steep side for someone without debt - for you it is just too much.
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 Is everything here included in the PCP deal? Even depreciative things like tyres, wiper blades etc?
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 100
Other child related expenses............ 0 You need to factor for the children's activity money here rather than under groceries. It may also be that they need to do less activities for a while!
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 14
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 65 What the HECK??? How is it even possible to pay that much for contents insurance? Look into cancelling your policy (check you are able to do it without having to pay the full premium though) and then go through a comparison site for a sensibly priced policy - unless you have the crown jewels to look after you should be looking at around £10 a month maximum.
Life assurance ......................... 14
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 Are you definitely not intending to buy any Christmas or birthday presents even for the children?
Haircuts................................ 65 This is £780 a year on haircuts - that is utterly crazy. Others have already said what they think on this - I agree 100% - it just needs to stop.
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 This makes me very nervous. You really need something here even if you can only manage to stash £5 a month.
Total monthly expenses.................. 2029


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 22000....(291)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 22000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR Are these definitely at at 0% currently? I'm guessing not...
Bank of Scotland card..........3300......90........0
Marbles........................1600......180.......0
Vanquis........................3500......274.......0
Capital one....................750.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........9150......569.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,740
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,029
Available for debt repayments........... -289
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 569
Amount short for making debt repayments. -858

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -22,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,150
Net Assets.............................. -31,150

Fatbelly has given you some good advice - especially the bit about switching your bank to one that is not related to any of the debts you have and then stopping the standard DD's to the credit cards in favour of token payments. If you can then shave a bit off the utilities, reduce the food bill dramatically, cut the mileage down to essential travel only, stop the crazy haircut spending and reduce the TV package to basics you could be in a position where you are able to set aside any surplus you can create for a few months to create an emergency fund. that will also give you time to evaluate your options on the car - when thinking that one through bear in mind if you end up bankrupt then you will lose that in any event.

sourcrates

The car is a big problem here, i would look to terminate the contract, you can pick up perfectly good cars for under £1000, also your spending on food, contents insurance and mobile phone can be massivly reduced, i could quite easily reduce your outgoings by £650 per month, at least.

As with a lot of people, part of your problem lies with your budgeting, but your debt is still unaffordable, even with the savings above taken into account, however the £9150 of unsecured debt could easily be taken care of via a debt mangement plan, if the above changes were implemented.