best way to tackle credit card debt

enthusiasticsaver

If you really have £1000 spare each month then you should be able to  sort this easily but I suspect this is not the case and there are things missed off your soa.  Whilst I understand you wanting to pay the cards off the point of an emergency fund is that you do  not  resort to credit again so this should be a priority to get this to £1000 as soon as possible. You have nothing saved for car maintenance and as you have two cars this is unrealistic.  What ever you can spare initially should be thrown at Fluid then Santander  and I would look to move that 10 year loan as soon as possible as 9.9% is high for such a long term loan. 

jagger86

Hi, yes we haven't always had £1000 spare which is why i haven't been able to tackle it before. Just kept plodding on and paying minimum and spending still as always something came up. Now we have money spare i 100% want to get these down as much as possible. 

jagger86

Hi - yes i have missed off our gym from this actually which is 35 each. 

No you are right we do spend more at Christmas but what I have also left out is that my husbands salary of 2500 is a minimum, some months he gets a 5 week pay month which is an extra 600 so when he gets that before Christmas that pays for christmas if that makes sense?
What we are trying to do now is live off a set wage each month and everything extra goes into savings pots so its there ready. So the emergency fund should build up pretty quick actually, yes we defo need one as this is what has led us to use credit cards before.

Also we both have quite busy social lifes so this is where spare money has been going, especially so far this year. Husband is due to go to Dublin next month on my brothers stag do which is really pricey but looks like it may not happen now! We have France booked for July also. So in the current situation i can't see these holidays happening which will give us more chance to pay things off.

On the flip side, my job could be at risk. I work for a really small independent business and i dont know how they will afford to pay me if i can't come into work if the schools close / we have to self isolate! 

jagger86

My car payment includes MOT and service plan for the foreseeable. When it is coming to an end I will start a maintenance fund.

Husband bikes to work but has a car for the 2 days a week he takes smallest to nursery and if one of us is away for weekend in main car. His car cost £200 so not sure we would repair it if anything went wrong, that said we do need an emergency fund for when it does! 

Willing2Learn

@jagger86 - The SOA is wrong.  It has not been correctly completed.  The numbers are wrong.  (Although I appreciate you may have spent a while putting this one together).


Please could you try again using the link below.  When you are filling out the form, I suggest you use your partners minimum monthly wage when calculating your SOA (using average amounts could throw things out).  You can click on the 'calculate' button and then it will compute all the numbers for you.  Please remember to click on the 'format for MSE' button near the bottom of the form, before you copy & paste the whole lot over into this thread. 

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

enthusiasticsaver

Willing2Learn said:

@jagger86 - The SOA is wrong.  It has not been correctly completed.  The numbers are wrong.  (Although I appreciate you may have spent a while putting this one together).




https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

What is wrong with the numbers? I have just checked the total expenses and it looks ok to me. 

jagger86

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1010

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2300

Benefits................................ 137

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 3447[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 597

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 147

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 110

Electricity............................. 57.5

Gas..................................... 57.5

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 39

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 57

TV Licence.............................. 12

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 45

Internet Services....................... 0

Groceries etc. ......................... 350

Clothing................................ 20

Petrol/diesel........................... 150

Road tax................................ 15

Car Insurance........................... 68

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 80

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 3

Buildings insurance..................... 35

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30

Haircuts................................ 30

Entertainment........................... 200

Holiday................................. 200

Emergency fund.......................... 100

Gym..................................... 70[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2483[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 220000

Shares and bonds........................ 500

Car(s).................................. 7500

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 228000[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 121000...(597)......1.9

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8300.....(147)......0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 129300....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

HSBC credit card...............3400......85........0

Santander CC...................4300......110.......16

Fluid..........................634.......39........19[b]

Total unsecured debts..........8334......234.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,447

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,483

Available for debt repayments........... 964

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 234[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 730[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 228,000

Total HP & Secured debt................. -129,300

Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,334[b]

Net Assets.............................. 90,366[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]

jagger86

I have re-done the figures. Going to start an emergency fund next payday at £100 a month. I have lowered my husbands wages slightly to his minimum pay month.
Although some months can be 3k so with that big surplus (usually pay holidays) this will now go on CC or it will go onto house repairs which we need doing! 
Would love to be debt free by the end of this year but more than anything to cut the interest we are paying, it's all well and good when they are 0%!!

prb1984

jagger86 said:

I have re-done the figures. Going to start an emergency fund next payday at £100 a month. I have lowered my husbands wages slightly to his minimum pay month.
Although some months can be 3k so with that big surplus (usually pay holidays) this will now go on CC or it will go onto house repairs which we need doing! 
Would love to be debt free by the end of this year but more than anything to cut the interest we are paying, it's all well and good when they are 0%!!

Unless something is leaking, falling to bits in a dangerous way, or about to set on fire, I would suggest you can't afford house repairs at the moment. You are broke, you have debts that need addressing first. Just my perspective, others may be more allowing. Need to get after these debts if you want to be debt free.

MasterG83

You mention your husband taking your little one to Nursery but have no costs in the SOA for this ? 
At this point you shouldnt be putting money towards house repairs unless its literally leaking through the roof. Throw everything at the debt