Advice appreciated on the best approach for managing my credit card and overdraft debt

sparks_2023

A quick positive action would be to set up an extra standing order ( separate from your normal payment ) to pay the exact amount that your national insurance payment will drop this month onwards into your "quickest win" NatWest credit card. Totally painless.

Also NatWest offer a structured overdraft reduction facility. For example you can set your overdraft to reduce by eg £100 every month.

Those are 2 quick tasks to get you on the road.

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Please find below the completed statement of affairs (SOA)...

I can see there's a problem with those unsecured debts - overdraft and credit cards

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

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 2236
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0[b]
Total monthly income.................... 2236[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 555
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 50
Council tax............................. 150
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 12
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 40
Groceries etc. ......................... 650
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 155
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 11
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 120
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0[b]
Total monthly expenses.................. 1873[/b]
[b]

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 100
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0[b]
Total Assets............................ 300100[/b]
[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86055....(555)......3.64[b]
Total secured & HP debts...... 86055.....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................2190......80.5......22.43
Natwest Mastercard.............560.......11.42.....19.96
Sainsburys bank card...........5450......125.......0
Natwest a/c overdraft..........4000......115.......39.49[b]
Total unsecured debts..........12200.....331.92....-  [/b]

[b]
Monthly Budget Summary[/b]
Total monthly income.................... 2,236
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,873
Available for debt repayments........... 363
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 331.92[b]
Amount left after debt repayments....... 31.08[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]
Total assets (things you own)........... 300,100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,055
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,200[b]
Net Assets.............................. 201,845[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.[/i][/font]

MFWannabe

A couple of things stand out straight away:

No buildings or contents insurance? 

Your grocery bill for one person is huge! Could easily at least halve this 

Do you get single person discount on council tax? 

stymied

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cut-overdraft-costs/#zeropercentoverdraft The Nationwide account talked about by Martin here could be very helpful with that overdraft cost

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MFWannabe said:

A couple of things stand out straight away:

No buildings or contents insurance? 

Your grocery bill for one person is huge! Could easily at least halve this 

Do you get single person discount on council tax? 

Thanks - yes I do get single person discount on council tax.

Groceries work out to around £21 per day for 30 days - I'm sure I could reduce it though

No, I don't have any of these insurance policies

kimwp

Some quick thoughts - your grocery bill should be under £200. Being frugal, batch cooking etc could give you a healthy diet under £100 a month.

Is your water metered? For just me, it costs approx £15 a month. 

I think by making some savings, (if your SOA is accurate) you could find an extra £450-500 each to throw at the debt.

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stymied said:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cut-overdraft-costs/#zeropercentoverdraft The Nationwide account talked about by Martin here could be very helpful with that overdraft cost

Thanks, I will have a read

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kimwp said:

Some quick thoughts - your grocery bill should be under £200. Being frugal, batch cooking etc could give you a healthy diet under £100 a month.

Is your water metered? For just me, it costs approx £15 a month. 

I think by making some savings, (if your SOA is accurate) you could find an extra £450-500 each to throw at the debt.

Yes, I think I will have to cut back on groceries.

Yes, I think water is metered.

Thanks

foxgloves

Definitely cut back on that colossal grocery spend. There really is a significant saving to make here. For one person, £250 per month on groceries (including household cleaning products, washing powder, etc) would be a generous amount. £200 per month is perfectly possible. 
Even addressing just this one factor would put a decent amount of money back into your budget. 
F

onomatopoeia99

Are you use you have no buildings insurance?  Mortgage lenders tend to get upset with borrowers that don't insure the asset that their loan is secured on in my experience.

I'm curious at what you're spending all that money on for groceries, but it really is just curiosity, you've acknowledged it needs to be significantly reduced already.