Debt before maternity

SassyS

Hello! 
New member here but have been reading other threads for awhile. 

Just wanting to post a SOA - we are expecting our first baby december 2023 and want to clear the debts we can before that, plus I'm saving for maternity savings as well. 

I have filled in our SOA as much as I can. 

I'm doing roughly 20 hours of overtime each month at the moment (which I haven't included in the SOA as that extra money is going straight into maternity savings (aiming for £2000 to have saved for my no pay months while on maternity)
The cash £950 we have is monzo pots divided into maternity savings, birthdays, Christmas, car insurance, car repairs, treats/haircuts and emergency savings) 

I'm currently paying £300 a month to my Barclaycard to pay as much as I can before my wage drops so thats why the minimum is £300 on my SOA for that. 

Its dawning on me now I don't have many full pays left before maternity, I can't believe how fast my pregnancy is going! 
end of september payday - full wage + the overtime
end of october payday- full wage + the overtime 
end of november payday- full wage only (annual leave from 3rd november before my maternity starts)
end of december payday - start of maternity pay which starts as 90% of my wage

Just posting really to see if anyone has any tips to help so thank you in advance for reading

[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......... 0

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

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1495

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2000

Benefits................................ 0

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

Total monthly income.................... 3495[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

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

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

Rent.................................... 575

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 173

Electricity............................. 55

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

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

Water rates............................. 40

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

Mobile phone............................ 30

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

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25

Internet Services....................... 30

Groceries etc. ......................... 300

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

Petrol/diesel........................... 100 (my partner has a work van so his car is only used on weekends, my work is 5 miles away so full tank lasts me 6/7 weeks) 

Road tax................................ 11 (my car is £0 on car tax)

Car Insurance........................... 60

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 80

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

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

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

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

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 34

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 34

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

Contents insurance...................... 11

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

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

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

Haircuts................................ 20

Entertainment........................... 300

Holiday................................. 50

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

dog/cat food............................ 55 (2 dogs half raw fed, half kibble. 2 cats also) 

other sinking funds .................... 160

LISA house deposit................................... 100[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2507[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 950

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

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

Car(s).................................. 14000

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

Total Assets............................ 14950[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

very...........................739.......100.......0

barclaycard ...................4966......300.......0

monzo loan ....................7000......123.......0

monzo credit card .............500.......50........0

natwest loan...................6800......285.......0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........20005.....858.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,495

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,507

Available for debt repayments........... 988

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 858[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 130[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 14,950

Total HP & Secured debt................. -0

Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,005[b]

Net Assets.............................. -5,055[/b]

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

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

Brie

Any interest being paid on all the credit?  That will determine the order in which to clear things.  My guess is that very has the highest interest rate and I'd be looking at using the ££ in savings to clear that completely.  It would leave you to concentrate on the others and give your debtwork a jump start.

£80 a month on presents?  No - that should stop.  "sorry can't afford things now we have a baby!!" said with enthusiam!

£300 for entertainment?  Again no.  Nowt the matter with going out occasionally but this needs to be cut back.  

Brie

Oh and well done for looking to get this sorted and congrats as well.

Grumpelstiltskin

What are the interest rates on your debts?

Sometimes you can tackle the highest rate first.

SassyS

@Brie I think i'm replying to your comments right! Still new to me. 

The £80 a month on presents is to go into sinking funds so we build up a bit of a pot with my wage reducing soon... but yes we have defo already said presents will be drastically cut back for sure. My parents have already insisted xmas and birthdays not to buy for them etc, my partners parents are so understanding but they will just have to deal with a smaller present and be thankful! 
 
The entertainment is both our 'spending' any dinners/days outs, golf for my partner and odd football match that he has a season ticket for. I forgot to include that actually in the SOA oops. 

I don't have interest rates to hand but I know very is 0% until June 2024 with buy now pay later (we are planning to clear what is left with my partners christmas bonus on his december wage then that will be gone) 
Monzo credit card is my partners too interest free for 3 months.
He does get added over time but its hit and miss with his work, he's a industrial door engineer and his work will just ask if he can do Saturdays when there is extra work. He does do the work call out rota which the next one will be in october so the plan will be to use that extra money to pay extra debts.
The natwest loan is fixed ends jan 2026, monzo loan ends march 2028 but more can be paid which we are hoping to do to get it finished before. 

I do feel very motivated to get as much as we can paid but its great to hear other opinions of what else we can do to try help so thank you so much.
Since we turned 18/19 we have such great years, holidays, memories together and silly us just had credit cards which has led to this situation. But now little on is on the way we are both very motivated to get ourselves sorted out and hopefully be able to purchase the house we are living in a few years down the line. 

SassyS

My partner does have a private work job coming up in a few weeks that should be £400 so the aim is to pay that off the Monzo card. 
My barclaycard is interest free balance transfer until May 2024. 

SassyS

Grumpelstiltskin I don't have all of these to hand but very is 0% until june 2024, barclaycard is 0% june may 2024 and monzo credit card is 3 months interest free which ends october 

Brie

Sounds like you need to hit the monzo card hard before interest kicks in.  Even if it means using your savings.  If you switch to paying the minimum on very due to the longer 0% term and pay off monzo CC instead that would be the best saving.  Then I would go for the very and then Bcard.  I'm hoping the loans are relatively low interest compare to the 24% or whatever the cards will charge at some point so obviously the more paid off on the cards the better.  If when you get to May 24 and haven't cleared the Bcard do you think you might be eligible for another 0% offer on monzo?  Or how likely will Bcard give you a money transfer deal so you could bounce some money into your bank account and then back on the card?  (I've resorted to this myself a couple of times in the past.)

SassyS

@Brie Thank you.... that seems like a better idea with Very being interest free for longer. 

Barclaycard is the only one of my debts and they are always sending me offers for balance transfer or money transfer so I could always do that as I don't think barclaycard will be fully paid by then. I do have other credit cards that send me 0% deals too.  

Brie

Ah there's other cards!!  Well then..... you might decide that once you have knocked a bit of this debt on the head that you look at closing a card or two.  Certainly I would suggest the very account should go.  The reason I suggest this is to take away temptation but also I think you mentioned something about getting together a down payment for a house.  One way to improve your credit history is to have only the credit you need so you're a better fit for the mortgage company.  So even if you have a CC that isn't being used that tells the bank you could use it and will limit what they will allow for a mortgage.  Getting rid of a CC now/soon will give you time to have the credit history updated way before the mortgage application.  Obviously you're both going to ensure your registered to vote too.....

SassyS

@Brie I hadn't thought of that! My tesco, m&s and halifax credit cards are in a drawer at home and never used so I should get rid of a couple of them for sure. I never realized regarding the credit history and what you have access to but it makes sense. 
That will be a job for me this evening. I will leave my tesco credit card open as they do send me good deals so that will be for a back up for when my 0% runs out in May 2024. 
My partner could probably close a couple of his credit cards too as he is the same with 2 in the drawer. 

We are registered to vote at our address which is one thing ticked off. 

I would do more overtime at my work as it is available with a backlog we have but now being 6 months pregnant I don't want to burn myself out too much, 20 hours seems to be enough for me with tiredness/the heat. 
Before we fell pregnant I would do 30/40 hours and halved my debt (paying off my old loan) so feeling very proud so far with that and ditching old spending habits.