Help!

Galloglass

Yup. It's time for beans and rice, rice and beans.

It's time for an Excel spreadsheet. Rough calculation is you will pay £8k towards the debt (that is from your taxed pay) but it will only reduce by £1K. 

You may be better off defaulting now and working on a DMP while trying to avoid CCJ's charged to your property. Gambling will likely have taken less of your cash than CC interest if you continue this way.

Mumoffourkids

Regarding your £80 a week general money, I have £70 a week general money but this is to cover myself and six kids. When I was paying off debt, this figure was much lower. And during lockdown I haven’t had to spend this much at all. This money normally covers anything the kids need at school, so school trips, school donations, cake sales etc, but it also covers random bits like new phone chargers when they break. 

I have just negotiated my sky bill down to £49 a month. This includes phone, broadband, tv including kids channels and box sets. This is more than enough for us as we also have Netflix and amazon prime for films. But I only got this when I was out of debt. Before that any extra I earn, or anything I saved from my budgets went towards my debt no matter how small the figure. 

zippygeorgeandben

Don't want the OP to feel ganged up upon but £80 a week general money?  That's a lot.  Need to shift your mindset really.  I managed to make tough decisions, reduce my debt from £20k to £0 and now started savings fund.  I watch where every penny goes.  Not getting all holier than thou but I thought I was doing well wanting to consolidate my debts but not dealing with it really. I'd struggle to spend £80 per week i think.

Kat78MFW

Well done for posting an honest SOA - often people post what they hope to be spending and not what they have actually been spending.
Have you checked to see whether you could be on a cheaper tariff for gas/electric? Do you use Topcashback to get money back when you spend online? You can get lots of money back that you could save up towards Christmas or just use to overpay on your cards.
We only spend £18 per month on three mobiles so once contracts are up, you need to try to get the best SIM only deals that you can. £50 a month on clothes is a lot when you are in so much debt. Can you and your wife manage with whatever you have got for the rest of this year?
Tesco clubcard vouchers are good for entertainment - you can get cinema vouchers and restaurant vouchers.
Have you managed to spend less during lockdown? Hopefully you may have had some surplus over the last few months that you can throw at the debt (highest interest card first). If not, you need to go back over your bank statement to see where the money has gone.
How old is your son? If he is old enough to understand then try to involve him in the process of budgeting and saving money. If he is off school currently, you could give him a project of trying to reduce your energy bills. 
Good luck. You can do this. 

sharpe106

People might sound harsh but they are only posting to help. It does not effect anybody here in anyway if you follow the advice or not, it is just suggestions. You need to prioritise cutting back and then looking at your situation again.

MisterBumble23

Thanks everyone, 
I appreciate the frank discussion, honesty and realisation is the only way to start working on debt. As I said the SOA is the first time I have attempted something like that and it needs work. A lot of figures were just off the top of my head and what I thought would be a reasonable forecast on spending. For example, £50 a month on clothes probably doesn't happen, the £80 a week is all we have left after bills etc. It may well be worth me revisiting the SOA. I have managed to contact E.ON and had a smart meter installed, payments have reduced from £150 (after a period of estimates) to £93. I think this figure may come down again soon looking at the meter readings. My mobile phone contract is up for renewal in November and I can get a sim only deal for circa £15 pm. My son has just turned 12 and is very switched on, it seems a shame that we have not involved him in financial discussions but the truth is we haven't wanted him to feel it. The other unfortunate truth is that myself and wife know the issues but we don't speak about money, it usually turns into a heated discussion and we both suffer with anxiety, even posted on this thread has taken months to do. I am aware that we could be a lot tighter with our affairs but my organisation is terrible. Trouble is don't know where to start, small over payments to credit cards have often felt insignificant (rightly of wrongly). As a credit scores are pretty low at the moment, I wondered whether involving a debt management organisation would work for us?   

MisterBumble23

This is an updated SOA, I think the figure in bold £342.86 is what we have left after everything is paid, which is £79 per week. Is it worth putting the credit cards on a direct debit above the minimum payment to account for the surplus?
---------------------
[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......... 1

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1312.39

Partners monthly income after tax....... 1444.24

Benefits................................ 84.2

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

Total monthly income.................... 2840.83[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 411.9

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 249.89999999999998

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 119

Electricity............................. 50

Gas..................................... 50

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

Water rates............................. 33

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

Mobile phone............................ 87

TV Licence.............................. 14

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 57

Internet Services....................... 15

Groceries etc. ......................... 390

Clothing................................ 12.5

Petrol/diesel........................... 90

Road tax................................ 3.5

Car Insurance........................... 30

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

Car parking............................. 3

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

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

Other child related expenses............ 0

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

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 23

Buildings insurance..................... 10

Contents insurance...................... 10

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

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

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 0

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 20

Breakdown Cover......................... 15

Furniture Payment....................... 25[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 1808.8[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

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

House value (Gross)..................... 110000

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 3500

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

Total Assets............................ 113500[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

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

Mortgage...................... 0........(411.9)....0

Secured Debt.................. 10966.3..(249.9)....13.9[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 10966.3...-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

Credit Card....................3867.18...38.67.....19.3

Credit Card....................5372.85...149.6.....25.55

Credit Card....................8814.57...155.......20.93

Store Card.....................341.31....18........23.9

Credit Card....................4229.95...134.8.....26.03

Credit Card....................8291.17...193.9.....25.25[b]

Total unsecured debts..........30917.03..689.97....-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 2,840.83

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,808.8

Available for debt repayments........... 1,032.03

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 689.97[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... £342.06

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 113,500

Total HP & Secured debt................. -10,966.3

Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,917.03[b]

Net Assets.............................. 71,616.67[/b]

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

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

BobsySpud

Hi there, I don't normally comment on these threads, but thought I might be able to add something here. I'm also in the early stages of trying to clear credit card debt (£20k). After years of burying my head in the sand, barely looking at the
credit card statements and only having a vague idea of how much I actually owed, I finally decided to get to grips with it all. I downloaded bank statements going back a couple years and analysed exactly where all my money was going. I listed all the credit card balances, noted down the interest rates etc.......all very dull but eye-opening stuff, vital to get a true picture of where you're at. I came to these boards and read through multiple posts like these, and tried to take on all the advice that was generously being given out. I also found Dave Ramsey and now regularly watch him on YouTube or follow his podcasts. There are loads of other money/personal finance/budgeting related podcasters and YouTubers out there, so there's no end of advice available. I decided to go with the Snowball method of tackling the debts and opted to pay off my smallest balance first. I felt this would keep me motivated. One very helpful App I found was Debt Manager. This allows you to plug in the details of all your individual credit cards, and interest rates. You then state what monthly payment you are making against each card (when I started, I went with the current minimum payment rounded up to nearest £10). Set your regular payments to this amount so you know exactly how much is going out each month. The App then applies the snowball method and gives you an end date for when all the debts will be clear. For me, that's June 2022. That's still a couple of years away, but far better than the lifetime of debt I had assumed I was facing! The app also has a section where you can type in an extra 'snowball' payment and see what effect that has on your end date. It's amazing what an extra £20 a month can do to that end date! Like you, I've run out of 0% transfer offers......but I know that as the balances get cleared, the offers will start rolling in. I've accepted that I'm paying hefty Interest charges at the moment, but know that I can reduce these as the months go on. 
The other App which has been a life saver for me is Emma. This links, via open-banking, to all your bank and credit card accounts. It pulls through the data into one app (don't worry, it's read-only), and allows you to keep track of the overall balance on a daily basis. You can categorise your spend and set individual budgets. I now make a point of logging into this first thing EVERY morning. I make notes against the previous days spend and track the spending. I've gone from not having a clue about how much I owe, to tracking every penny. 
You also mentioned the troubles surrounding talking about finances with your partner. I was the same. My husband and I have always had seperate bank accounts and whilst he knew I had debt, he had no clue how much. I was really worried about talking to him about this. In the end, I did all the work I mentioned above over a couple of days, and when I finally felt that I had a handle on how much I owed, a plan of action going forward and that vital end date, I broached the subject with him. It went far better than anticipated, because I had done all the groundwork. Whilst he was shocked at the total amount I/we (most of the spending I would class as family expenses) had built up, he was pleasantly surprised that there was an end date which didn't span into our retirement :-) 
So, I hope that my story helps in some way. For me, the key is to keep track of the spending and have a plan of action going forward. Your end date might be much further ahead, but once you are armed with all the information you'll start making informed decisions on how to direct your income and what things you can do to bring that end date nearer (side hustles to bring in more income or reduce the outgoings).

Singlespeeder

MisterBumble23 said:

Thanks everyone, 
I appreciate the frank discussion, honesty and realisation is the only way to start working on debt. As I said the SOA is the first time I have attempted something like that and it needs work. A lot of figures were just off the top of my head and what I thought would be a reasonable forecast on spending. For example, £50 a month on clothes probably doesn't happen, the £80 a week is all we have left after bills etc. It may well be worth me revisiting the SOA. I have managed to contact E.ON and had a smart meter installed, payments have reduced from £150 (after a period of estimates) to £93. I think this figure may come down again soon looking at the meter readings. My mobile phone contract is up for renewal in November and I can get a sim only deal for circa £15 pm. My son has just turned 12 and is very switched on, it seems a shame that we have not involved him in financial discussions but the truth is we haven't wanted him to feel it. The other unfortunate truth is that myself and wife know the issues but we don't speak about money, it usually turns into a heated discussion and we both suffer with anxiety, even posted on this thread has taken months to do. I am aware that we could be a lot tighter with our affairs but my organisation is terrible. Trouble is don't know where to start, small over payments to credit cards have often felt insignificant (rightly of wrongly). As a credit scores are pretty low at the moment, I wondered whether involving a debt management organisation would work for us?   

There's some positive stuff in there ! Every family is different. My 'kids' are adults, 20 & 21. I have a FANTASTIC relationship with them both.... but a major regret I have now is NOT involving them in the family discussions about money. Instead I put more and more stuff we COULD NOT afford on credit cards and mortgage overdrafts. We / I ended up around 45k in debt. It was only the dissolution of the marriage that made me have my LBM. 
Get the child involved, literally sit around the table with all the bills and credit card statements and discuss what can be done. It'll be good for ALL of you. Your son will have a much better comprehension of debt and it's debilitating effects, as will your partner. Yes it may be uncomfortable, but you'll all feel better for it, and hopefully your son will avoid these issues in the future.
You've had some good honest advice on here, you definitely can trim a few of the outgoings, food especially (though shopping online seems WAY more expensive than going to Aldi !) Bulk cook, eat vegetarian meals a few nights a week, soup is dirt cheap and easy to make, beans and rice, lentils, all cheap and filling. 
Talk. And stay safe.

MisterBumble23

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I have contacted CAB this morning and am expecting a call from their 'MAS' team?? I will also get on the Apps which have been suggested.