Held out as long as I can. Pips now really squeaking!

GreenArmyPilgrim

I'm fast approaching 62, currently a part-time, self-employed sole trader and drawing a small civil service pension. I'm carrying about £36k of unsecured debt as a personal liability. Essentially all my start up and bounce back borrowing either side of the pandemic. I understand my formal approach for debt advice would be via Business Debtline rather than Step Change but at the moment I'm open to any constructive advice about a way forward. With limited earning years left I have to be considering DMP, IVA or Bankruptcy although the latter 2 fill me with some dread from a credit score perspective as I'm stuck renting for the foreseeable. I'm not in arrears or defaulted on anything yet but getting pretty close. Robbing Peter to pay Paul as you'll see from the SOA. 

Appreciate any help. Thanks.

[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.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1900

Partners monthly income after tax....... 1988

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

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

Total monthly income.................... 3888[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

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

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

Rent.................................... 1350

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 247

Electricity............................. 85

Gas..................................... 85

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

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

Telephone (land line)................... 25

Mobile phone............................ 40

TV Licence.............................. 13

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 68

Internet Services....................... 20

Groceries etc. ......................... 850

Clothing................................ 40

Petrol/diesel........................... 80

Road tax................................ 16

Car Insurance........................... 28

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20

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

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

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

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

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 23

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

Contents insurance...................... 20

Life assurance ......................... 43

Other insurance......................... 14

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20

Haircuts................................ 40

Entertainment........................... 20

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

Emergency fund.......................... 20

Membership subs & charity............... 10[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 3237[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

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

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

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

Car(s).................................. 2500

Other assets............................ 400[b]

Total Assets............................ 2900[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

Credit card B'card.............7900......218.......28

Credit card MBNA ..............3374......115.......30

Credit card M&S................1775......47........24

Credit card Sains..............2600......79........25

Credit card Aqua...............3018......130.......40

Credit card TSB................8670......240.......27

Barclays loan..................8500......160.......15[b]

Total unsecured debts..........35837.....989.......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,888

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,237

Available for debt repayments........... 651

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 989[b]

Amount short for making debt repayments. -338[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 2,900

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

Total Unsecured debt.................... -35,837[b]

Net Assets.............................. -32,937[/b]

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

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

RAS

Your food costs are huge, you can easily save £500+ on that if not more. And the phone bill isn't great even for two.

But this is your debt and your joint income? Have you shared this with your partner and checked that they agree with the sums? Do they have their own debt?

You need to get together, go through the last 6 months statements and work out how much you are actually spending jointly, on what, and what you combined debt total is.

enthusiasticsaver

That grocery figure is huge. We eat well for just 2 of us on less than £300 a month. I would tackle that as you need to find £338 just to break even. As you are renting and presumably need to keep a decent credit record I would cut back as far as possible and tackle Aqua first. Failing that as you say it is bankruptcy or a DMP but both of those will ruin your credit record. The satellite figure could also be reduced once out of contract. 

GreenArmyPilgrim

RAS said:

Your food costs are huge, you can easily save £500+ on that if not more. And the phone bill isn't great even for two.

But this is your debt and your joint income? Have you shared this with your partner and checked that they agree with the sums? Do they have their own debt?

You need to get together, go through the last 6 months statements and work out how much you are actually spending jointly, on what, and what you combined debt total is.

Thanks very much for responding. We've trimmed down pretty much everything. The food figure certainly is still more than we'd like though we do shop at Aldi! It also includes dog food costs. It's inflated currently as our eldest son is still with us and does contribute but as this is likely not for much longer I didn't wish to mislead on the SOA. We are looking to reduce phone payments this summer as contracts expire. All the listed debt is in my name as a sole trader and I hope to deal with it without also lumbering my wife with the credit implications as we proceed with this. We will get our heads together as you suggest in case we've missed anything. Appreciate your help.

kimwp

As others have mentioned above, your grocery bill is massive. Are you definitely eating all of the food you buy and not throwing or storing it? Check out the BBC programme "eat well for less" if you need inspiration. 

£40 a month for clothes is quite high as well if you don't have growing children.

GreenArmyPilgrim

enthusiasticsaver said:

That grocery figure is huge. We eat well for just 2 of us on less than £300 a month. I would tackle that as you need to find £338 just to break even. As you are renting and presumably need to keep a decent credit record I would cut back as far as possible and tackle Aqua first. Failing that as you say it is bankruptcy or a DMP but both of those will ruin your credit record. The satellite figure could also be reduced once out of contract. 

Thanks very much for responding. We are looking to trim wherever we can and when son no.1 leaves us the food bill should reduce considerably! We will make savings I'm sure but I fear that still won't be sufficient to deal with the debt situation. Bankruptcy seems quick but painful, DMP I need to read up on as it's unregulated and self-managed. Really appreciate your help before I head off to Business Debtline.

Grumpelstiltskin

You say you don't want to lumber your wife with your debts but do you have any joint accounts? even a current account. If so you are financially associated with her.

GreenArmyPilgrim

kimwp said:

As others have mentioned above, your grocery bill is massive. Are you definitely eating all of the food you buy and not throwing or storing it? Check out the BBC programme "eat well for less" if you need inspiration. 

£40 a month for clothes is quite high as well if you don't have growing children.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. We are looking to trim wherever we can and when son no.1 leaves us the food bill should reduce considerably! Its rare we get to spend on clothes and do use charity shops. We will make savings I'm sure but I fear that still won't be sufficient to deal with the debt situation. 

GreenArmyPilgrim

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You say you don't want to lumber your wife with your debts but do you have any joint accounts? even a current account. If so you are financially associated with her.

Yes I'll need to attend to that, thank you

RAS

GreenArmyPilgrim said:

kimwp said:

As others have mentioned above, your grocery bill is massive. Are you definitely eating all of the food you buy and not throwing or storing it? Check out the BBC programme "eat well for less" if you need inspiration. 

£40 a month for clothes is quite high as well if you don't have growing children.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. We are looking to trim wherever we can and when son no.1 leaves us the food bill should reduce considerably! Its rare we get to spend on clothes and do use charity shops. We will make savings I'm sure but I fear that still won't be sufficient to deal with the debt situation. 

Unless son no.1 is contributing £500 for food plus one third of utilities, you need to ask him for more, and you need him to understand the severity of your financial situation.

Are you in a secure tenancy? As a bankrupt, you'll not get a new tenancy with a main stream estate agency and many landlords will avoid you. Your wife will need to earn 36x£rent to be considered for most tenancies on her own income. So if you think you are going to need to change tenancy in the next 6 years and the above is going to be problematic, you might want to move before you go bankrupt? If you've got your son living with you now, can you down-size?

thegreenone

Our youngest son (30) is back home.  He's a former Personal Trainer but currently working elsewhere.  He buys almost all of his chicken, broccoli, rice etc.  We always have porridge, cereal and eggs in the house and I cook the evening meal - he sorts himself out for whatever he needs otherwise.  We like good food and I buy almost all of our meat, butter and cheese from local farms and we come in about £450 a month with wine.  I've averaged over the year as we bulk buy from the farms.  

I did some rough calcs. and if you shaved £500 a month off your food bills, you could get shot of most of your ccs very quickly.  I'm sure someone can post a link to a snowball calculator.  Please don't go down any other routes just yet.  I'm sure you can do this without bankruptcy etc.