Drowning and need saving 🙃

tigerlily91

Hi all, 

I’ve stumbled across this forum after searching all over for where I should go with this - very nearly signing for an IVA 3x which I really didn’t want to do. 

I’ve been holding out because I’m a nurse and I really thought we’d get that payrise… but alas 4 months later that’s looking unlikely for some time! (My car is leased so comes out of my salary, this is post deduction figures. I literally just have to fuel it, no other costs). 

I’m only hitting a brick wall because I’m paying £5-600 in minimums that I just don’t have. Possibly missed something off my calculations because most others say I only have £90 spare normally (the IVA calcs anyway). 

I’d appreciate some words of wisdom. I’ve read some threads and done an SOA, please see below: 

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

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 1

Number of children in household......... 1

Number of cars owned.................... 0[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1484.89

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 922.61

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

Total monthly income.................... 2407.5[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 0

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 686

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 120.88

Electricity............................. 110

Gas..................................... 110

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

Water rates............................. 3.71

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

Mobile phone............................ 75.01

TV Licence.............................. 0

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

Internet Services....................... 29.99

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

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

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

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 0

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

Car parking............................. 21.15

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

Childcare/nursery....................... 287.5

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

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 32

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 6.62

Life assurance ......................... 15.32

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

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0

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

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

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

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Brownies' Subs (Daughter)............... 10

Gymnastics (Daughter)................... 21.13

Ring Doorbell Storage................... 3.49

Apple Cloud Storage..................... 6.99

Microsoft 360........................... 7.99

HP Instant Ink.......................... 2.99

Amazon Prime............................ 4.49

Cineworld Unlimited..................... 19.4

Spotify................................. 13.99

Professional Union (RCN)................ 16.4

Professional Registration (NMC)......... 10[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2165.05[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

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

House value (Gross)..................... 0

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

Car(s).................................. 0

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

Total Assets............................ 0[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

MBNA Credit Card ..............1875......25........0

Fluid Credit Card..............2703.81...81.67.....33.6

Halifax Credit Card............1027.89...10.27.....0

IKANO Ikea BNPL................591.......55........0

PayPal BNPL....................1072.75...54.83.....21.9

Very...........................408.67....7.04......51.9

Tesco Credit Card..............0.........0.........0

Tesco Credit Card..............6768.4....67........0

Virgin Credit Card.............4538.2....45.38.....0

HSBC Credit Card...............3780......94.5......0

Vanquis Credit Card............926.1.....10........0[b]

Thank you! 🙂

sourcrates

Hi,
Well according to this SOA, you have approx £200 a month with which to do a DMP (Debt Management Plan).

Forget the hype over selling you an IVA, that would not be appropriate in your circumstances, as you have no assets to protect.

A DRO (Debt Relief order) would not be advised due to your car being leased, and worth well over the 2k limit.

Grumpelstiltskin

You have scope to cut back as well.

£350 groceries for 1 adult and 1 child? How old is your child?
Spotify, you don't need that you only want it.
Ring doorbell and Apple storage, vital?
Cineworld, again vital?

Brie

Dreadful that people doing vital jobs find themselves struggling so much.  Hopefully you can get yourself back on track at some point.  And sooner rather than later!!

Ok so here's what I'm seeing.....

• no TV license so you aren't watching anything live and never use iPlayer.
• why Amazon Prime?  It's not a lot but do you need it.  Likewise Cineworld as someone has already mentioned.  Or is this your whole entertainment expense?  Could you do without for a year using just Freeview channels?  Or drop both and get Netflix for half what you're paying now?
• Spotify? Why?
• On the other hand - no presents? no haircuts? no holidays? Sure if you have to cut back sharply but does your child understand?  (didn't see how old, not that that always matters)

Credit cards

• lots showing 0% APR - does that mean you have balance transfers that might end at any particular point?  Or you have agreed no interest for a period with them?  Either way do your best to follow what they have agreed as a minimum payment to maintain the 0%.
• Very!  Blinking 51.9%!!  Yikes that hurts.  Obviously every single penny you can find needs to go against this.  It's the smallest debt so the easiest to get rid of and the highest interest so the most expensive.  You will be so relieved when this falls off your SOA!  If you dumped Cineworld, Amazon & Spotify you'd have nearly £40 a month and Very would be gone within a year.  And I've tried to run a calculation on your Very numbers but from the looks of it you're not even paying the interest that accrues each month - have you got them right??   And I thought that was now illegal.   But assuming you have about £400 debt with Very, are being charged nearly 52% interest but were able to pay £40 a month towards this it would be gone in 10 months.  And then you could put that £40 towards the next debt (Fluid obviously).

 fyi - with my debt and the various cards with different BT deals I kept a spreadsheet with how much was owed, what I was paying when and a highlighted bit to remind me when an deals were going to end so I'd be prepared to shift things or ensure that they were paid off.  I printed the spreadsheet and kept it in my back pocket.  It was a comfort because it meant I was controlling the debt rather than it controlling me - even though some times it did feel like I might be overwhelmed.  

OK - so that's enough nattering for now.  Well done on getting started on this. 

kimwp

Hi there! Glad you found us 🙂

Some of your expenses seem higher than necessary, or just unecessary, so it would be worth seeing what you can cut out or reduce. In addition to those mentioned, your phone is high, when out of contract, you can reduce this to less than £10 a month per person (and buy a refurbed one for £150 when you need a new one). Is Amazon prime needed? Things usually arrive within a couple of days in my experience.

What is the Microsoft 360 and ink subscription for?

You haven't got anything in your SOA for presents, entertainment or holiday, is this realistic? And it would be good to start allocating some funds to an emergency fund.

You don't need to share this, but you need an understanding of why you have this debt, otherwise you will end up building it up again. Was it a big unexpected spend - if so, how can you guard against that in the future? Or if it's constant small overspends, then you need to keep a closer eye on your spends (which you'll need to do with a dmp anyway)

kimwp

Some useful things to know for a dmp-

1. like an iva etc, it will affect your credit record (because you won't be paying the full amounts)
2. it's a good idea to open a bank account with a bank that you don't have debts with and get your wages paid there to avoid the possibility of your wage being used to pay the debt. Only move your essential bills across.

3. a default takes six years to drop off your credit record, whereas an arrangement to pay will take six years after the debt is paid. To get a default you need to stop paying and don't engage with any attempts from the creditor to make contact.

4. while not paying in order to get the default, it's a good idea to save up an emergency fund as you won't be able to draw on credit (see 1).
5. you can do a dmp through an organisation or by yourself (you can get advise here if you want to do it yourself.) You do not need to pay for an organisation to do the dmp, just make sure you use one of the charities. They may advise you to start the dmp as soon as possible, but it will probably be preferable to get the defaults first (see 3)

Hth

theoretica

Should there be child support on the income side?  

Can_not_think_of_one

Not a given, but I'm assuming a nurse in the NHS. In which case - 

Childcare - can your arrangements be paid for with childcare vouchers? Possibly salary sacrifice (I've never had them) but if they are they'll lower your tax & NI contributions so effectively cost you less.

Microsoft 360 - is this 365 or Office 365 as was? My (non-NHS) public sector employer provided an in-work perk of cheap Office 365. A one-off payment, certainly under £10 at the time & possibly only £5, gave me up to date Office for as long as I'm employed there. Unless your version has any (needed) extras that aren't included in the usual Office applications, you'd save a fair bit checking whether you're employer does the same.

Plus use your NHS card every time you can.

elsien

It seems unlikely that your child is not getting any Christmas or birthday presents given that she is the age to be in the brownies. The same with entertainment/days out. You have a lot of digital extras – Cineworld, Spotify, prime et cetera. Firstly do you need all of those, and secondly what about the non-digital entertainment side of things in school holidays or whenever?
And I agree that you really need an emergency fund, otherwise as soon as anything unplanned comes along it goes on the credit card.
How accurate do you feel your figures are? Have you been through your bank statements to check or are you at the guessing stage at the moment. No one gets it right first time round.

enthusiasticsaver

I would look into a DMP so the debt figure is affordable and the interest frozen. The groceries figure is high but you haven’t allowed for presents, haircuts or emergencies. Check out the DMP thread on here. 

tigerlily91

Thank you for replies. 

A DMP put me off as one company quoted me around £4k in fees. Not sure if that’s inflated or standard? I know I can effectively write my own by sending an SOA and temporary offer of payment - who knows, we might get the 19% pay rise one day 👀 🤣 

Groceries look high on paper, but 6 cats and a dog, most of them older than my daughter (7), account for around £60-£75 a month. Also includes things like wash powder, cleaning items, toiletries etc. I generally budget £60 a week to cover food and all of these - which is really quite tight these days. 

Prime and Spotify are like my TV alternative. Spotify is very heavily used. I have inattentive ADHD and it helps me keep moving and focussed. My Mum pays my TV license, despite my insistence I don’t need one, because she’s scared I’ll end up in prison 😅 

Last haircut was August ‘21. Same as my daughter! Before that it was 3 years for me. So very infrequent. 

Childcare is covered by universal credit, I’ve always been under the impression I’m unable to combine the two - although I could be wrong? 

I am an NHS nurse indeed. Band 7 at that. Work 4 days a week for £30k before tax and car deduction. Car deduction is locked in, on paper seems a lot but reduces my student loan contributions and my out of pocket cost is less than a private ownership (previous car was costing £500 a year in MOTs alone, plus tax, insurance, service etc). 

If there are alternatives to iCloud storage I’m open ears! I have a 512GB phone and my photos and videos far exceed that and exceeded the smallest cloud storage package too. 

The Microsoft sub is generally for excel (where I have done monthly budget sheets since my daughter was born). I have some other none financial accounts I keep track of on there. Regrettably I could have purchased a license for it by now, as I’ve had it for >6 years. It also has cloud storage, which was intended for my photo back up. However the uploads were sluggish and I wasn’t sure if I could trust it. But it has 10000s files on that I’m not sure where to place otherwise. 

I sell a lot on Vinted (outgrown clothes mainly), and that tends to be my present pot. But I see where you’re coming from - she had 5 friends birthday parties in March. I used to aim for £10 per friend, but knocked down to £5 this time. Something to consider. 

I see where you’re coming from about Cineworld - it really is pretty much the only entertainment other than the very occasional night out (where I sneak mini alcohol bottles and hip flasks out as much as possible!). Some months I think there’s nothing on, I’m not getting the value. Others I’m there weekly and it’s worth it. 

I was set to be debt free Dec ‘22. I was really controlled from Dec ‘22. I had about £10k to clear then. I was getting good interest free balance transfer offers and just moved things around accordingly. Then I used one to book a city break, quite cheap to be fair - but didn’t account for spending while out there and the food/tourist things weren’t the cheapest. We also had an all inclusive holiday, I guess I just spiralled from there with really bad choices. 

I’ve reached this point now because my credit score took a nose dive since and accidental missed payment (Next - balance currently clear) and I have no offers whatsoever other than interest baring money transfers. 

I have around £6k that will become interest baring in the next few months. The others are spread out up to 2024. 

Very is actually made up of £300 at 0% and £103 at the higher rate, I probably should have listed those separately.