Where to go? What to do?

redlaces

Is your road tax correct? 380 per month seems crazy high. Perhaps that is the annual fee.

TheAble

redlaces said:

Is your road tax correct? 380 per month seems crazy high. Perhaps that is the annual fee.

Couple of Ranges or similar?

inthezeroroom

You don't need to sell your house. Ditch the cars and drive a couple of hoopties to free up the cash to pay off the other debts and you'll be done in no time. Sure, you have some other things that could be cut back (e.g. 4x SIM-only contracts for £100pm, really? I pay £8pm), but the cars are killing you.

RAS

You need to include the value of your outstanding mortgage in the secured debts section.

Cars, get rid of the more expensive one if you can. Dual fuel is massive, do you have debts there?

Get new basic bank accounts with a bank group to which you owe no debt . Add in to you SOA all missing items that have been identified.

Then stop paying all the unsecured debt until you get defaults, as this stops interest charges which will be huge. Save that money into an emergency fund. You should soon have enough to buy a cheap run around to replace the second car if necessary.

Obviously you both need to stop spending on accounts, particularly things like Very and Next. And open up "savings" aka budgeting accounts, for insurances, holiday, presents, house maintenance, white goods replacement. 

Depending where you live look at Olio, Too Good to Go etc to reduce household budget. And basics like stop buying lots of different cleaning stuff when a couple will do.

Stuff does not make life, it drains you. Go through what you have and identify what you need. If you are in a formal office job, you may need white shirts. Other flog most of them. Learn to downgrade clothes to informal, house wear and then grubby job kit.

EssexHebridean

Churchy8019 said:

Please find my SOA below - this hurts

I'm interested where I go from here, your feedback and advice.

Thank you

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details

• Monthly income after tax................ 3134.62

• Partners monthly income after tax....... 1982.49

• Benefits................................ 138

• Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 5255.11

Monthly Expense Details

• Mortgage................................ 1321.1

• Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 604.6

• Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

• Council tax............................. 195 Is this over 10 months or 12? If 10, then changing to 12 will help the budget.

• Electricity............................. 595.48 - Both Gas and Electric just transferred suppliers hoping it going to be lower This is chunky - have you checked your actual annual use against what is being predicted by the supplier to set the DD? Nonetheless you will hopefully see a drop here before next winter - fingers crossed!

• Gas..................................... 0.01

• Oil..................................... 0

• Water rates............................. 49.5 

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

• Mobile phone............................ 97.17 - These are sim only for 4 of us Yep - high. I pay just under £10 a month for 10gb data and unlimited calls & texts, and could frankly do better than that with a bit of effort. You need to look at these as that is an easy win! 

• TV Licence.............................. 13.43

• Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

• Internet Services....................... 23.05

• Groceries etc. ......................... 500 - Struggling to maintain this value  Have a proper think about why it's proving to be a struggle then - that's a perfectly respectable budget for 4 people and there are plenty on the Old Style board managing bigger families on less, so a reduction might even be doable. I'll expand on that one below.

• Clothing................................ 0.01 Not realistic - you need at least "socks and pants" money here, and what about kids shoes, uniform etc? 

• Petrol/diesel........................... 175 - covers the 2 cars 

• Road tax................................ 380 - for 2 cars That isn't per month, surely? 

• Car Insurance........................... 71.41 - for 2 beers

• Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 7.5 This could be realistic if the finance deal covers absolutely everything apart from maybe things like screenwash - but think servicing, tyres, wiper blades etc to be sure this will be sufficient.

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

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

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

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

• Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 58.5 Can this be reduced by means of using pre-paid prescription certificates or anything like that? 

• Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

• Buildings insurance..................... 25 This includes contents, yes?

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

• Life assurance ......................... 25.18

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

• Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 You never buy any birthday or christmas presents at all?

• Haircuts................................ 10

• Entertainment........................... 49.93 - Apple for family and Amazon Prime Being brutal, I'd say you need to pick one thing here - Prime will cost you under 310 a month and there is a lot there to watch. When that gets dull, switch to Netflix, then Britbox, and so on. Combined with the free channel options that gives plenty to watch though. 

• Holiday................................. 0 You never go anywhere at all, not even to visit family?

• Emergency fund.......................... 0 You already know you need to be saving something here, yes?

• (Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0

• Gym Son................................. 19.99 Are this and the adult membership absolute non-negotiables? Does son have access to after school activities that would give him some fitness stuff, and can the adult gym user make use of free forms of activity like running, walking or online workouts? 

• Gym Adult............................... 19.99

• Dog (Food, Medicine, Emergencies)....... 80 

• Kids Pocket Money....................... 20

• Bin Cleaning............................ 7.8 - This could go It absolutely could - get it cancelled! 

• Bus Fair................................ 72

• Bank Fee................................ 5 What benefits do you get from this?

• LinkedIn Learning....................... 25 - This is used a lot, but can cancel temporarily

• Estate Charge........................... 25

• Design Software......................... 25 - for free lance and share with a friend to reduce costs

• Child Trust Fund........................ 5 I'll be honest - IMO if you are saving anything anywhere right now it should be to the household emergency fund. 

Total monthly expenses.................. 4515.64

Assets

• Cash.................................... 0

• House value (Gross)..................... 325,000

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

• Car(s).................................. 18,000

• Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 343,000

Secured & HP Debts

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

• Car His (PCP)..................25374.8..(361.5)

• Car Hers (PCP).................14812.2..(243.1)

Total secured & HP debts...... 40,187.....-.........

Unsecured Debts

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

• Aqua Her.......................2002.35...82.5......0

• Barclays Him...................8799.61...330.......21.87

• Barclays Her...................5640.12...184.2.....0

• Zopal Him......................3207.6....61.69.....0

• Lowes Us.......................100.......10........0

• Lendable Her...................3167.5....93.52.....0

• Lendable Him...................2670.78...79.65.....0

• Currys Him.....................3161.98...161.......0

• Very Her.......................4539.47...240.......0

• Very Him.......................2248.98...12........0

• Next Her.......................621.19....36........0

• Next Him.......................444.72....24........0

• Argos..........................0.........0.........0

• Vanquis........................2634.07...110.......0

• Capital Her....................57.8......27.21.....0

• Capital Her....................1346.9....46.9......0

• Capitol Him....................0.........0.........0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........40,643.07..14,98.67...-

Monthly Budget Summary

• Total monthly income.................... 5,255.11

• Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,515.64

• Available for debt repayments........... 739.47

• Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,498.67

• Amount short for making debt repayments. -759.2

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

• Total assets (things you own)........... 343,000

• Total HP & Secured debt................. -40,187

• Total Unsecured debt.................... -40,643.07

• Net Assets.............................. 262,169.93

Usual responses in bold above - I have deliberately commented without looking at what others have said on this as sometimes the overlap can look at things in a different way which can give options/choices/possibilities to consider.

On the groceries even if you can't make any savings you need to keep it to that current level as a maximum really I think. Stop and look at the things that go onto your shopping list every week - are there lots of brands being bought? Lots of pre-prepared or pre-made foods? And do you shop for the week or end up doing multiple top up shops where lots of extra bits get bought? Do you meal plan, write a shopping list and stick to it? Do you try to build meals around what is seasonal and good value? Batch cook and freeze the balance for home made budget friendly "ready meals"? 

Have you checked availability on any 0% deals you might be able to get? To be honest even then though it would be the tip of a rather large iceberg - the cars are killing your budget - a quick scroll through the responses now shows that fatbelly has already provided some information on the possibility of getting out of PCP deals which might be food for thought. 

I'm with ES & fatbelly - stop making the payments on anything unsecured, let them default then go the DMP route. That way you will be able to actually start making some proper impact on the total - particularly if you can make some savings in various areas which I think is distinctly possible. 

Edit: work out your actual annual use of both electricity and gas in kWh and then consider posting over on the energy board for advice about cutting down your use. Of course it may be that you find that your supplier is vastly overestimating your use and your DD is set far too high - either way, it can be brought down I suspect! 

Rob5342

Soundgirlrocks said:

I believe you can remortgage with your existing lender if you are on a DMP (others will know more) 

If you are simply switching deal with the same lender and not borrowing any more then there is no credit check so it doesn't matter what is on your credit report. When we changed to a new fixed rate in August I had £30k of credit card debt and four defaults and it was no problem at all, it took about 3 minutes on Santanders website.

Singlespeeder

TheAble said:

redlaces said:

Is your road tax correct? 380 per month seems crazy high. Perhaps that is the annual fee.

Couple of Ranges or similar?

Has it really gone that high? £380 a month is £4,560 in VED!! I thought my sports van was high at £270 a YEAR !

Someone with this much debt can't afford two fairly high end / expensively taxed cars

EssexHebridean

Singlespeeder said:

TheAble said:

redlaces said:

Is your road tax correct? 380 per month seems crazy high. Perhaps that is the annual fee.

Couple of Ranges or similar?

Has it really gone that high? £380 a month is £4,560 in VED!! I thought my sports van was high at £270 a YEAR !

Someone with this much debt can't afford two fairly high end / expensively taxed cars

It would appear unless I'm reading it wrongly that the £380 entry was an error - see here: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

Singlespeeder

EssexHebridean said:

Singlespeeder said:

TheAble said:

redlaces said:

Is your road tax correct? 380 per month seems crazy high. Perhaps that is the annual fee.

Couple of Ranges or similar?

Has it really gone that high? £380 a month is £4,560 in VED!! I thought my sports van was high at £270 a YEAR !

Someone with this much debt can't afford two fairly high end / expensively taxed cars

It would appear unless I'm reading it wrongly that the £380 entry was an error - see here: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

Depends on the car doesn't it? The 255g ones at the bottom are + £2k VED so it's feasible.. unless I'm reading it wrong too !

Churchy8019

Thank you to everyone who has feedback.

Definitely some good advice here - though hard to hear/read the feedback, I really appreciate it.

I did slip up on the £380 car tax.  This is meant to be per year for two cars.  I used a system and then copied and pasted.  I should have checked this, but I was keen to hear from you in my stressed state.

Good to hear that I should not sell the house.  This gives me confidence that there are better options to pursue.

The sim-only deal was at £16 per person (me, wife, son, daughter).  It shows that it adds up if you don't monitor some increases, even if you think you are a good deal.

The fuel cost is astronomical.  I am in a 4-bed townhouse and have been fighting with S.P. for the last few years, we are on a smart meter, and my increases over the years have made me reduce heating (layer up), reduced showers/bath, and plugs off.  Even considers turning the main electricity box at night to recouple.  Our original fuel bill was £178 two years ago.  I felt I was being taken for a mug (and was).  Since this post, I have switched energy suppliers.  Not sure if I've jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Reading the posts, I have gone to a charity organization about a debt solution.  With your advice, the DMP has been identified as the best solution for us.

My action will be DMP, reduce the car from 2 to 1, analyze and see if I can go to 0 cars, reduce mobile phone costs, not sell my house and sort out the fuel costs.

Thank you all for your help.