Newbie...£60k in debt... light bulb is on!

ManyWays

but as I see posted so often, the court cannot force you to pay more than you can afford. 
This is true for most people whose expenses look reasonable to the court, but £1,300  a month for the animals is highly unlikely to look reasonable.

But a SOA will make all this much clearer.

At a guess the first debt that may cause big problems is the vet bill. 

OopsIdiditagain1

[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................ 5672

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

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

Other income............................ 143[b]

Total monthly income.................... 5815[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 2042

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

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 35

Council tax............................. 150

Electricity............................. 93

Gas..................................... 30

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

Water rates............................. 30

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

Mobile phone............................ 22

TV Licence.............................. 28

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 14

Internet Services....................... 97

Groceries etc. ......................... 430

Clothing................................ 30

Petrol/diesel........................... 180

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 0

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0

Car parking............................. 5

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

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

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

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 50

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 477

Buildings insurance..................... 25

Contents insurance...................... 0

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

Other insurance......................... 66

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 30

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

Emergency fund.......................... 50

Car Rental.............................. 310

Family debt repayment................... 410

Horses.................................. 965

Garden waste collection ................ 5[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 5664[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 200

House value (Gross)..................... 350000

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

Car(s).................................. 0

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

Total Assets............................ 350200[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

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

Mortgage...................... 274000...(2042).....7.47[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 274000....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

HMRC...........................1445......107.......0

Aqua...........................3000......210.......40.73

Capital One....................550.......24........22.21

Vet............................1500......0.........0

Next...........................755.......35........24.9

Oakbrook.......................5575......226.......13.4

The money platform.............589.......469.......292

Ticktock.......................603.......147.......1299

Jaja...........................3017......117.......34.7

Drafty.........................3096......300.......69.35

Paypal.........................1000......35........0

118118 credit card.............4429......200.......41.2

118118 Loan....................6723......164.......31.07

Onmo...........................1557......74........22.46

Zopa credit card...............1513......72........34.7

Zopa loan......................12420.....295.......27.4

Zilch..........................676.......0.........0

Klarna.........................651.......0.........0

Vanquis........................4076......0.........30.36

Lloyds Overdraft...............1000......0.........49.9[b]

Total unsecured debts..........54175.....2475......-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 5,815

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 5,664

Available for debt repayments........... 151

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 2,475[b]

Amount short for making debt repayments. -2,324[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 350,200

Total HP & Secured debt................. -274,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -54,175[b]

Net Assets.............................. 22,025[/b]

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

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

OopsIdiditagain1

To add some context:
I share 2 dogs with my ex - he pays contribution to insurance and vet care.
Groceries includes dog food and supplements
The car is effectively rented through a company car scheme, includes maintenance and insurance etc
I live in a rural area so travel by car essential. I've allowed 3 full tanks a month, but likely to be less than this.
I've been in debt before when I was younger. Family bailed me out and I'm repaying this. As mentioned before, absolutely no one apart from you know about my current situation.
Pet Insurance is high I know. Includes horses and dogs, plus allowance for annual vet bills and routine care. I can look at these premiums when they come up for renewal. Maybe even reconsider insurance for the horses. If something significant happens that will be expensive to fix, I could consider letting them go. Reducing premiums backfired in a big way last year though.
Horse costs includes livery, feed and farrier. They are barefoot so don't pay for shoes now. I looked at DIY but by the time I included paying for help, hay and bedding etc, transport twice a day, it didn't make much sense. 

Grumpelstiltskin

I think you realize something drastic has to happen, no use just tinkering around the edges as you just can't make £2200 a month out of thin air.

Stop paying all unsecured debt except HMRC, you will need to look at unaffordable complaints and you must have some serious thinking to do about your lifestyle.

ManyWays

Internet Services....................... 97 Sky? can you reduce this to a normal broadband?

Groceries etc. ......................... 430 does that include a lot of pet food?

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 50 you need something but that seems a lot

Other insurance......................... 66 what is this for?  or is it professional fees?

Family debt repayment................... 410 how large is this debt

Mortgage...................... 274000...(2042).....7.47 when does the fix end and who is the lender?

OopsIdiditagain1

Internet services - BT - includes broadband, landlines rental and TV package. Committed until next April then can review.
Groceries - £120 for dogs £250 for me. I have 3 dogs.
Medical - I pay into Denplan. I need glasses, eye test and new lenses or glasses every 2 years and ad hoc prescription if I need antibiotics for example. 
Other insurance - income protection. If I'm ill and can't work I can keep the roof over my head.
Family debt - £70k in total. Have been paying this off for over a decade. Would need to work out how much is left payable.
Mortgage - fix ends next April. Specialist lender (The Mortgage Lender). I obviously won't be able to get a high street mortgage so will probably have to renew with them or go on SVR.

RAS

This problem appears to pre-date the vet's bills? Even if they were the final straw.

Get a new basic bank account (no credit check), or apply for Monzo with its pots.

Transfer salary, essential DDs to the new account. Do not use switch as that transfers all the creditors' DDs as well.

Stop paying all the creditors apart from HMRC and the vets. Don't think you have options with BNPL? You don't appear to have any credit union debts?

Given the limited amount of of surplus you have to beyond costs, you are going to struggle even to pay those accounts. You haven't accounted the family loan as a debt, but you need to ask for some forbearance there until you get accounts above under control.

Would the ex take one of the dogs?

You are going to need to take a lodger if you have a spare bedroom or a second reception you can let out. That's £7k tax -free. You'll probably go over that if it's full-time  so maybe Monday-Friday or short-term like contractors or people moving into the area looking for more permanent rentals/purchasing.

Put the left-over money into an instant access ISA. That's your emergency fund. Given the issue with your professional body, that needs to be enough to pay off your largest debt in case they threaten a CCJ, and then some. That's not going to happen anytime soon unless you make major lifestyle changes.

It may seem like peanuts but the TV licence is something like £14.70. Either have that or satellite, not both. The holiday isn't going to happen this year. Go over to the Money Saving OldStyle forum and look at store cupboard challenges, or bulk cooking and meal planning. 

You cat make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but you need to find the sow's ear.

Grumpelstiltskin

Affordability complaints.

How to get refunds from catalogues and credit cards · Debt Camel    (  Applies to loans as well )

The problem you may have is that on paper you have enough income, but it is all your outgoings that are the problem.

RAS

OopsIdiditagain1 said:

Internet services - BT - includes broadband, landlines rental and TV package. Committed until next April then can review.

In which case why do you have a TV licence and Cable TV? Can you cancel them? 

Groceries - £120 for dogs £250 for me. I have 3 dogs.

You can probably cut £50 off the your bill? Are sure you aren't also buying coffee, snacks and lunch out?

Family debt - £70k in total. Have been paying this off for over a decade. Would need to work out how much is left payable.

If you've been paying £410 pm for the last decade, that's £49k paid off?

This family debt is a serious problem.

Unless you declared it, it's permitted you to obtain commercial credit you couldn't really afford because it is not visible on your credit record, and delayed the date when the commercial crunch stopped you accruing more.

At the time this was used to pay off previous debt, the effective value was much higher.

Some of this might have come from the costs of education and training, but the fact that neither you nor apparently the family has kept track of how much is owed, at least settling up the statement each year, suggests a rather lax approach. Which doesn't set you up to keep track of your other debts either. 

Going forward, you're going to be keeping tabs on pennies not just pounds and thousands.

When do you get paid your bonus?

kimwp

Thank you for posting your SOA. On a brief glance, it looks like you'd have to get rid of your horses and dogs, not pay your family debt and make cutbacks to the bare minimum for groceries entertainment etc just to afford your minimum debt payments. So it doesn't really seem like you have much of a choice other than to default and do a DMP. As RAS says, then you need to build up an emergency fund in case a CCJ becomes likely (but if you make payments to each debt once they have defaulted, then this reduces that risk)

I think the key thing here (in addition to the practical things outlined by other posters already about a new bank account etc) is to understand how you have built up this debt, particularly as this is the second time this has happened. You don't need to share it, but you do need to understand it and put in place methods to avoid it happening again. You will also need to cut back on your outgoings and ideally increase your income (a lodger is a good idea) to increase the gap between income and outgoings for significant emergency savings given that you have expensive dependents (as well as wanting to avoid a DMP). So no holidays, no entertainment, cancel expensive tv packages until you can look after your dogs and horses. Really think about whether you need new clothes and whether you are getting value for money from your Denplan - price up what you actually need and compare it to what you pay out. 

It seems miserable, but we all have to work to a budget - you are apportioning a lot to your animals (which I personally agree with, I would have to be in dire straits to give up my cat), but that means you have less for the other areas. 

On the horse front, could they go to a sanctuary and you donate what you can to their care?