Any advice, got credit cards, loans, and more.

Andyjflet

I have now followed your thread, I like it when people really grasp the importance of this and get sorted, I have a feeling you are going to smash it.
Well done on the car, do you need one for work? I think £3k is fair for a second hand car in todays market, try and go Japanese if you can, Toyota etc 
Always keep £1k for emergency fund, puncture, boiler issue etc, the rest I would snowball. You can clear the natwest 1 card and use the feel good factor as motivation. Dont necessarily think of the highest APR first as quick wins will motivate you during this journey, I have been there. 

stymied

It would be worth looking into mortgage cost of living support.

Brie

I find that MBNA will wait a couple of months after a balance hits zero before offering something new.  With the 3 cards you'll likely see slightly different offers - time period longer/shorter, fee up/down a %.  But consistently over at least 2 decades of stoozing they have been pretty determined to get me to use their cards.  

candle_light_express

I don't want to fill in the lemon fool thing over again, but I've made up a spreadsheet to help myself keep track. Here is the summary:

Secured Debt	Unsecured Debt	Assets	Cash	Income	Expenses	Servicing Debt
£165,274	£60,599	£208,000	£10,998	£4,380	£1,486	£3,810

Shortfall: £915

enthusiasticsaver

candle_light_express said:

SOA was worth doing as my memory is clearly faulty. There are a few clear differences.

I had a share/save scheme which I didn't expect to pay out because the options to purchase shares were worth less than 50% of my investment. There was no penalty for withdrawing so I've withdrawn which has increased my available cash and my net income.

I also overlooked the fact I'm renting some serviced office space as I was keen to keep work out of my residence.

Finally, I realise I could cut Gym and Counselling, but I'm a big guy and, with these services, for the first time in my life I'm loosing weight, not gaining it. So my thoughts on that are while not being in debt any more is very important to me, my health is even more so.

The mortgage payment for the month has gone out, roughly 50% of the card payments have gone out but the loan payment hasn't yet, so the cash balance will decrease shortly.

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

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 4380
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0[b]
Total monthly income.................... 4380[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 1098
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 488.79999999999995
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 124
Electricity............................. 64
Gas..................................... 34
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 34
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 52.5
Car Insurance........................... 48.45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 26.5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 48
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 35
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 12
Entertainment........................... 114.37
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Professional Subscriptions.............. 54
Office Space............................ 200
Gym/PT.................................. 130
Counselling............................. 175[b]
Total monthly expenses.................. 2892.62[/b]
[b]

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 11338.8
House value (Gross)..................... 170000
Shares and bonds........................ 200
Car(s).................................. 33000
Other assets............................ 0[b]
Total Assets............................ 214538.8[/b]
[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 130773...(1098).....8.8
Secured Debt.................. 34500....(488.8)....4.9[b]
Total secured & HP debts...... 165273....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin.........................3328.89...97.22.....23.29
MBNA 1.........................0.........0.........0
MBNA 2 bal 1/2.................4340......108.5.....0
Admiral Loan...................17940.6...996.6.....12.9
Paypal.........................4096.76...138.8.....21.9
Nationwide.....................7121.59...174.8.....17.9
Halifax........................5125.25...128.1.....0
NatWest 2......................9420.53...252.7.....19.95
NatWest 1......................3004.94...30.32.....0
MBNA 2 bal 2/2.................6219.96...295.8.....27.14[b]

TOTALS                         60598.52    2222.84
monthly shortfall     -735.46

The bottom of the soa was not showing so I added up the monthly payments and as expected you have a monthly shortfall of £735.46.  Getting rid of the car will obviously save you £488 a month but even with that you will either need to cut back or default or just use your cash to plug the gap until the property is sold especially as you have not allowed for groceries in the soa.  I am guessing you have been carrying the debt for quite a while so presumably you were overspending even before the higher mortgage payment caused you problems? Getting to grips with why you got into the debt in the first place is part of the process. The other option is asking your mortgage provider to switch you to interest only until the property is sold. 

katsu

If you want to keep the counselling, why not cancel the office space for now? 

Why would it be so bad to work from your actual home? 

You could go once a week to Costa or a hotel or whatever, spend a few hours there and just keep the total spend under say £50 a month, if you get desperate for company? 

Water rates... if you aren't in the house can you get those down? Are you on a meter? Ditto G&E, are you on minimal heating now that the weather isn't freezing? 

Can you drive less for now to reduce the spends?

Do you really need to buy a car now or can you share with your parents until the house sells?

I would focus on getting into a balanced budget for the next few months/ reducing the overspend and working out after that what you can realistically afford to live on to get your remaining debts cleared. 

candle_light_express

Why not cancel the office:

Because my home is a smallish one room (plus bathroom) bedsit so is already low on extra space and I'm using the office for extra storage space also, which again I don't have room for at my home. I work on a desktop pc with a large monitor, so it's not easy to squeeze it in/use a desk for multi purposes.

Water / Gas / Electric - all metered. Water already is just the standing charges and surface drainage charges, no usage. Gas / Electric I spoke to the provider a couple months ago to say the property was unoccupied, they reduced the direct debit, but it can definitely go lower, but I'm not gonna worry about it for now, since the house is going and the accounts will hopefully be closed soon.

I've agreed the sale of the old car with a dealer, they've been out and inspected the vehicle and confirmed the price. I should get back £1,660 from the sale after the finance is cleared. Due to be collected next week.

I have already bought the new car at £3k, on the basis that I should be able to get most of the cost back fairly quickly if I had to by selling it again.

I am keeping my driving to a minimum but unfortunately my employer has just requested I attend the office twice a week, so it looks like that'll be going up a little in the short term.

On the plus side, my employer has also indicated they're willing to pay overtime for me to work an additional day a week over the next couple of months, so I think I should be able to get around £200 after tax per Saturday I work, and I could probably work 3 in every 4 Saturdays without issue.

With the changes I've made so far, and not counting the possibility of overtime, My monthly shortfall has dropped from £1,115.46 to £510.68. These figures are including an allowance for groceries and an additional misc allowance for unexpected things (e.g. just had to pay £95 for an EPC for my house sale) which wasn't in the original SOA above.

Even if I do no overtime, with the cash I have on hand I can carry on for 6 months without any further changes to my expenses (though I may look to cancel more things if the sale looks to be dragging on past 3 months and doing overtime hasn't worked out). My solicitors have informed me the house sale contract has been sent to my buyer's solicitors this week, so the sale seems to be progressing well. I'm hopeful that within the next 3 months the sale will be sorted. With the money from the sale I can clear a little over 2/3 of my unsecured debts, after which I am estimating, very roughly, that I will have sufficient surplus to pay off my remaining debts within about 8 months.

I think that's a workable plan to carry me through the next 9-12 months.

Brie

If you are in credit with your utility provider either ask for a refund or go on to a variable DD so you actually pay for what you use.  

Are you claiming the tax credit for working from home??  You are essentially if you are paying for office space.  

zedonk

Brie said:

Are you claiming the tax credit for working from home??  You are essentially if you are paying for office space.

The rules for this changed recently so very few people can claim it. I don't think the OP would qualify:
https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

Little_bit_taller

Sorry if I've missed something but can't you use your cash to pay some of the debts off?