After Advice Please

ellenvan

How long are the credit cards / loans on % for.

What are the interest rates on the cards / loans when interest starts to be paid? Or if interest is being paid at what rate?

Catscoffeecake

It sounds more like you don't want to tell your wife no. what would happen if you said to her, we cant afford it, i have had to stop the cleaner? lets put a plan together as to how we will tackle the cleaning.

ellenvan

Stopping the cleaner could be the least of things if you let credit card debt get out of hand!

bazdvd

OP you have to at least make some sacrifices if you want to get on top of this.

If you carry on living beyond your means you will get to the point where you get yourself in a hole you cant get out from.

You or your wife need to take control and step up otherwise it might all crash and burn. Do it for the children before its too late.

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82033994#Comment_82033994

his wife isn’t a child though is she? In a relationship one person doesn’t get to lay the law down for another. It would need to be discussed and negotiated as both are working adults.

warby68

I wouldn't come down so hard about a cleaner. Its not really a huge amount in the overall scheme of things and a much more common practice than it used to be. The OPs comments about their perfectly normal working times making it essential suggest to me they've never known any different. I suspect the real problem lies in what hasn't been disclosed yet, the spending that happens to make that SoA not actually work and which has probably happened for quite a long time. Mr and Mrs , perhaps Mrs more so, have become entrenched in a lifestyle that their earnings don't support. Earnings are good but unspectacular as its for 2 x fulltime ish, and not good enough for what they've become accustomed to. There's a couple of real giveaways already though , overspending on a wedding and still borrowing for holidays.

For that reason my advice is a Mr and Mrs finance meeting to discuss the whole financial and lifestyle package and how much of it is sustainable. I note Mrs appears to be the higher earner and also takes a bit more personally and I wonder if there is a certain dynamic here underpinning preferences. Apologies if completely off the scent.

That SoA doesn't look too bad if it were accurate although obviously you have some chunky loans with not much to show for them and over £1100 pm in repayments which will seriously limit your choices for some time to come. This is how sustained overspending and failing match your lifesyle appropriately to income gets you to a very restricted position for a long time and the regret that goes along with that. If you look at how much of your equity those loans erode the sheer size of them becomes a bit more real. BTW do you have a plan for the 20% Help to Buy?

With a £450 boost in the surplus to come next year then £800 pm (assuming no replacement before and after school care) is a decent figure spare and you could tackle the debt more speedily with it providing you have overall spending under control by then,

Your mindset seems a bit stuck - lots of reasons why certain spends can't change but the reality is that almost every number can change if it has to. Also a little unusual to class life insurance as a want not a need with a young family and similar for the pets.

So your overall choice will probably be do you leave the loans to run and live with that £1100+ depleting your income for a good few years or do you look to make some savings and throw more money at the debt to get rid of it quickly while your children are still young and get to your 'real' standard of living a lot sooner. Both options depend on you getting to grips with spending in general otherwise your problem will get worse.

First job, get a grip of everything you spend, lots missing I suspect. The missing items could well be the ones where most savings can be made or at the very least some limits introduced. The cleaner might be able to stay. Then you've got a good 6 months to implement your 'living within our means plan' before the nursery money is freed up and you can decide which direction you want to go.

A bit of a ramble sorry but my main point is Rome wasn't built in a day. You seem like you have quite a lot of unpicking to do and you can take your time to get it right as a couple because your current repayments are affordable subject to the SoA becoming workable and assuming there is no more debt lurking. Good luck.

vampirotoothus

Hi I've added the totals a couple of times and get to £215.54 left, so we are adrift somewhere (could be me).

So with these figures you have your head above water. Do you have the amount left each month, or is that being spent (clothing, sweets, treats etc)? Find out where every penny goes.

Going forwards I would save an emergency fund and then focus your attention on the highest interest debt to pay down (if it accepts overpayments).

Good luck V x

onarollsaver

so me and my wife have decided instead of having 2 separate personal pots we are going to put the money in to one to see where our money is going and asses it from there. just making sure our personal bills are covered in own bank accounts

onarollsaver

so we have cancelled the cleaners. Found new swimming lessons which are £52 for both kids. So that’s a positive start

in_need_of_direction

what plans have you for the money this frees up?