Last chance saloon before insolvency.

NeverendingDMP

Your more recent comments and soa sounds much more positive. See -you can make progress can't you and better to do it now before it gets worse. Your food budget might be a tough one and I agree add a bit for clothes for the kids. If you manage it send me some tips. I need to cut down our food costs but I'm struggling to keep ours less than 150 a week (fam of five) 😂 
There's a few high interest ones on your list but your income is good so you should be under 100k in no time! Good luck. 

13thlegion

Have tried on putting the figures into a Snowball calculator? If you are using lemon fool for the SoA you can import the figures very easily. This will give you a strategy for where to target overpayments and also calculate interest so you get an accurate debt free date as a goal.

The most important thing is that you and your family are on the same page and tackling this together.

Harrysplan

13thlegion said:

Have tried on putting the figures into a Snowball calculator? If you are using lemon fool for the SoA you can import the figures very easily. This will give you a strategy for where to target overpayments and also calculate interest so you get an accurate debt free date as a goal.

The most important thing is that you and your family are on the same page and tackling this together.

Hi,

I'll definitely do that. Thank you

Harrysplan

So I have run the debt snowball and if we commit £2800 per month we would be debt free in 41 months. I am amazed at this. There is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be achievable for us, in fact we should be able to pay more. Our current contractual payments are £2200 and our most recent ( aspirational) SOA shows a surplus of over 2k. This means that we could be debt free in 41 months and still have a surplus of around 1.5K - I am going to rerun the the numbers with us paying an extra £500 per month. 

Sea_Shell

As others have said, getting the whole family on board is crucial to the plan.

Everyone needs to realise that life (and spending) will be changing, but it's not for ever.   Eyes on the prize!! 

When do you think you'll be able to take a deep breath and put all the financial cards on the table?

Harrysplan

Sea_Shell said:

As others have said, getting the whole family on board is crucial to the plan.

Everyone needs to realise that life (and spending) will be changing, but it's not for ever.   Eyes on the prize!! 

When do you think you'll be able to take a deep breath and put all the financial cards on the table?

Hi.

I plan to have a chat with my wife this weekend. It won't be a 'big reveal' conversation as she knows that we are in a mess. I just need to update her on the balances etc. 

RAS

Even with your horrendous APRs and level of debt, it looked like you could bottom this within 6 years.

Glad to learn that you will be updating your wife. Getting debt free is a lot cheaper than divorce, even if it takes a little longer. You need to work out together what is acceptable to both of you. 

You also need to talk together and with your children about the changes that are going to be necessary. Does your oldest expect or hope for continuing financial support after graduation? Is the younger one going to go to university? If so, what sort of support can you give them? Both probably need to understand that there is a trade off between practical financial support in early adulthood and having nicer holidays or expensive presents paid for by their parents.

And maybe time to introduce them both to the SOA? Even if the younger one only uses it to budget for going out with mates, special clothes and things that they want, saving for holiday money etc. Spreadsheets aren't for everyone; my early budgeting was literally the back of an envelope style.

Best of luck.

Harrysplan

We had the chat last night- quite low key really. I printed the SOA and we talked about the snowball method etc, she didn’t mention,or comment on the total debt level, but perhaps that will come later 

peb

Well done.

I would add though that I think your food budget is going to be tight, firstly as with prices as they are it would be a challenge for anyone and secondly it's a massive drop to do all at once.  Maybe up that budget so you don't all feel deprived 

enthusiasticsaver

Harrysplan said:

We had the chat last night- quite low key really. I printed the SOA and we talked about the snowball method etc, she didn’t mention,or comment on the total debt level, but perhaps that will come later 

I am glad you have had the conversation with your wife so you are both on the same page.  

I would start by tackling some of those relatively small expensive debts like Zopa, JD Williams and Elfin Market. They total around 5k and are charging crippling rates of interest.  As some of those debts are repaid you may find some 0% deals open up to you which will save you on interest. It will be a lifestyle change to live within a budget but you will quickly find that debt figure decreasing which will motivate you further.