SOA -some advice needed please

sharpe106

A DMP might be the way forward and you can either do it by going through one of the charities or self-manage it yourself. Probably step change would be your easiest option.

 

But I think the main issue you need to sort out is that you are paying most of the bills, you can't afford to now and it is not fair. You are spending about £1400 a month on family expenses (excluding your car) where I would be surprised if his comes to £500 a month. Once you have sorted that out and with some tight budgeting you may find that you have enough to cover your debts.

 

Even if the debts were yours from before, with you paying most of the bills it has made the situation worse for you so he should be helping you out now.

fatbelly

sharpe106 said:

A DMP might be the way forward and you can either do it by going through one of the charities or self-manage it yourself. Probably step change would be your easiest option.

 

It looks like about 32k non-priority debts and £300 surplus so for a homeowner I'd say that is the least damaging option even though it will take about 9 years to complete

warby68

Perhaps a little more work still to do on your spending/SoA if I understand it correctly. You currently have a surplus of £330 ( which also might be a few hundred higher in normal times assuming furlough is 80%) but haven't been paying the car finance £195. I make that roughly £525 pm surplus, higher in non-furlough times, from which you are only paying about £120 towards your debts. So about £400 not yet accounted for in spending.

TheAble

I can't really see an awful lot of fat to trim from your SOA, with the exception of your mobile phone. How have Stepchange recommended that you proceed with the debts?

fatbelly

Don't forget, if the car is on HP then you have the option of voluntary termination. 

Not saying you should take it but be aware that it exists and can limit your liability to 50%

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Well done for keeping posting, it's not fun when you're getting your head round it all. 
Personally, my steps would be.
1) you and your husband go through 12 months of all your bank statements, CCs etc TOGETHER, list all your outgoings and then divide them into monthly amounts.
2) Now you can see where (BOTH) your salaries have been going over 12 months, which areas can be cut/reduced?
3) With this new budget, you should hopefully see a surplus in your joint finances to put towards debt.
4) Snowball calculator - put all your debts into a snowball calculator.  It will allocate your surplus (from step 3) towards your debt in the best way to minimise interest payments and get the debt paid back asap
Until you do steps 1) and 2), you don't know for sure you even need a DMP, you might have enough money between you to service the debts and pay them off.
You might be able to terminate car, take on overtime etc to help pay off sooner.  You'll have a much clearer picture to make a plan from once you know exactly where your household finances stand.
Hope this helps, good luck

theoretica

lulu79_2 said:

£425 goes into the joint from my husband. I used to use this for shopping but then my husband was on a much lower salary and used the joint account so I just ended up buying shopping from my account. T

While you are paying £600 on the mortgage and nearly £300 on groceries?  When finances are split, the division needs to be looked at regularly to check that bills and income still match in a way that is fair to both people.  Some bills will have gone up (maybe even some down) and your incomes have changed.  It looks to me as though the way you share your bills is still based on what worked years back and just needs regular updating.

lulu79_2

Thank you all so much. It really hit me last night that until we work out the HOUSEHOLD expenses TOGETHER, I cant move forward. I'm so grateful for the advice. This is all new to me, overwhelming and stressful but I feel better for even coming this far, knowing I have advice to move forward. 

sharpe106

fatbelly said:

sharpe106 said:

A DMP might be the way forward and you can either do it by going through one of the charities or self-manage it yourself. Probably step change would be your easiest option.

 

It looks like about 32k non-priority debts and £300 surplus so for a homeowner I'd say that is the least damaging option even though it will take about 9 years to complete

Most likely but I still think the husband has a lot to contribute, as the OP is paying most of the bills and the husband earns more. So in theory there should be a lot of spare cash hanging around that they can throw at the debt and reduce that time significantly.

lulu79_2

Had a good chat with my husband today and we are going to go through finances together. I explained I had been on here and had submitted SOA based on my account but we really need to have a household one. He is more than happy to get our budget sorted and fully appreciated that we need to get it sorted and make sure things are shared. I feel a lot better knowing we can work on things and see it as a project - an urgent one - that we can work on.
I checked my credit file on here this morning.
I have a Studio account and a Debenhams account that have been sat at 0 balance for some time so will close those.
My car HP shows no data from Mar-May then 1 missed payment in June so I assume the 3 months no data is from when they agreed to put my account on hold. 
My Barclaycard shows Apr and May as missed payments. 
RBS CC has no missed payments but APR is high, this is the same for Next and Shop Direct.
Opus CC shows missed payment from Jan to May but I spoke with them in February about my account being on hold so not sure why it doesn't state no data. It now has a Default in June.
So, as well as getting budget sorted with hubby ASAP,I think I should contact my lenders?? can anyone suggest any other priorities for the next few days? TIA