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ANY help would be gratefully received. Desperate times
Comments
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I thought I would post my updated SOA. Still got loads to do, but it feels so good to see what I've achieved so far on here
)
OUTGOINGS
Mortgage £875.43 - £680 nice one but try and get this back on track when debt free then you could even maybe throw the money you were paying out on debts at overpaying your mortgage(if allowed)in preparation for remortgaging.
Council Tax £91.00 Paid for each of 10 months what was the outcome 12 months wise
Buildings & Contents Insurance £33.00 *
Gas & Electric £96.00 *
Water Bill £19.75
Telephone Bill & Broadband £46.00 *
Mobile Phone £25.00 - £15
TV Licence £11.37
Life Assurance £14.56 *
Life Assurance £10.00 * see if you can combine these, if you died what would happen to your son? sod the mortgage company are they essential
Loan £287.39
Interest Free Credit (Bed) £48.67 - Paying this off tomorrow
Tesco Master Card £171.00
Virgin Credit Card £142.00
Petrol £40.00
Food £120.00
INCOME
Child Maintenance £309.00
Salary £1374.83
Children's Tax Credit £37.38
Child Benefit £72.40
Total Incomings £1793.61
Total Outgoings £1771.51
SURPLUS £22.10
* need to try and work on these, you may not be able to do anything about them but may be worth a try.
Well done you have improved your SOA by over £100 with a couple of phone calls you will be an extra £49 better off once you have paid the bed off.You can now keep your head above water.
You just need to address your debts particularly the Virgin card that is about to rocket up, find out how much it is going to change by and when so you can prepare for it.
You don't necessarily need to enter into a DMP but with your extra income and some help from you Dad you should have some surplus to throw at your debts(pay off the highest interest first whilst making the minimum payments on the others)
As an alternative to some money from your Dad each month could he maybe clear off one or more of your debts(highest interest ) and you pay him back on an interest only basis each month.
Someone suggested your son maybe getting a job, I'm not for a moment suggesting you take anything from him but if he has his own money it will take the pressure off you a bit.He is old enough that you can explain the situation to him and maybe he will be willing to do that as his small contribution and maybe in the future when you are debt free you can do something to repay him for helping out in his small way.
Knowing he is helping to keep a roof over your heads will make him feel grown up and responsible rather than acting a stroppy teenager when you say he can't have any money to go out.
When I was 15 my mother was in the same situation, in fact probably worse both me and my sister gave her most of our money from our part time jobs and between the three of us we managed to keep a roof over our heads until my mother got back to work. I felt very proud at that age it made me feel like a real man to be contributing like that. Not that it gave me any real sense with money I subsequently managed to run up my own debts in the subsequent years.But I'm better now.
Looks like you are heading in the right direction and you should be fine
good luck0 -
* need to try and work on these, you may not be able to do anything about them but may be worth a try.
Well done you have improved your SOA by over £100 with a couple of phone calls you will be an extra £49 better off once you have paid the bed off.You can now keep your head above water.
You just need to address your debts particularly the Virgin card that is about to rocket up, find out how much it is going to change by and when so you can prepare for it.
You don't necessarily need to enter into a DMP but with your extra income and some help from you Dad you should have some surplus to throw at your debts(pay off the highest interest first whilst making the minimum payments on the others)
As an alternative to some money from your Dad each month could he maybe clear off one or more of your debts(highest interest ) and you pay him back on an interest only basis each month.
Someone suggested your son maybe getting a job, I'm not for a moment suggesting you take anything from him but if he has his own money it will take the pressure off you a bit.He is old enough that you can explain the situation to him and maybe he will be willing to do that as his small contribution and maybe in the future when you are debt free you can do something to repay him for helping out in his small way.
Knowing he is helping to keep a roof over your heads will make him feel grown up and responsible rather than acting a stroppy teenager when you say he can't have any money to go out.
When I was 15 my mother was in the same situation, in fact probably worse both me and my sister gave her most of our money from our part time jobs and between the three of us we managed to keep a roof over our heads until my mother got back to work. I felt very proud at that age it made me feel like a real man to be contributing like that. Not that it gave me any real sense with money I subsequently managed to run up my own debts in the subsequent years.But I'm better now.
Looks like you are heading in the right direction and you should be fine
good luck
I'm going to give Virgin a ring shortly. With the mortgage payment holiday next month and £1000 that I was holding back in a separate account for emergencies, I'm going to throw that at the Tesco card and Dad is going to help me pay off the remainder of that one.
I didn't manage to get hold of the Borough Council yesterday, but will ring them Monday morning - hopefully they will let me pay it over 12 months instead of 10 - that's another £15 a month better off. I've also just managed to reduce my BT bill to £30 a month by paying off the debit from when they weren't taking the money off for broadband for 6 months. I'm going to look at other options for the phone too.
Thanks
Jue0 -
Hi there
Ref the life insurance, I would be amazed as a government employee if you not only have a good pension, but also death in service benefit. This may be the a similar amount of money for what your are insuring against via the life insurance policy. Worth a check?
chevI want a job that is less than an hour driving away from my house! Are you listening universe?
0 -
Hi Chev
Yeah there is a death in service benefit too. I'll double check on Monday what the life assurance policies cover and pay out etc plus the pension.
Thanks
Jue0 -
if the local government one is similar to the nhs one, then it pays out twice your pensionable annual salary in life insurance.
you would be able to get the details from their website / online handbook0 -
I'll have to enquire about that then on Monday, It may be that it's going to be beneficial to get rid of one or both of them.
Thanks0 -
maybe just take out another policy to top up to cover your mortgage.0
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I think from what I've been able to find out that I've got £55k policy, £100k death policy and £45k death in service pension at the moment. The mortgage is £152k so at least I know I'm covered in the event of something nasty.
Will keep the mortgage as interest onoy for as short a time as possible, then go back to repayment.0 -
....As money was so tight I started using my credit cards for general stuff like food, petrol etc. I've never been one for really going out so it all went on essential stuff. Unfortunately, as the credit cards went up, so did the payments, and so did the need for me to use them more and more each month just to get by
This is where the warning bells started ringing for me too.... when I started having to regularly pay for food and petrol on my credit cards. And now they're finally at their limits and the monthly payments are horrendous. I was in denial for far too long.
I do hope you can hold on to your house - I am dreading selling mine but I have no choice left anymore as far as I can see.
Good luck
xWill keep the mortgage as interest onoy for as short a time as possible, then go back to repayment.
I've also considered this - how easy was it with Northern Rock? It might ease things for me while my house is on the market.0 -
Northern Rock were fine. I was dreading ringing them after the events of the past few months but it was not a problem. They are sending the forms out within 7 working days, then I've just got to return them with a cheque for £75 and it's all done. It's the same to change them back again too, so at least when this is all sorted out in 3 or 4 years time, I can go back onto repayment again.
I really sympathise with you. It's a horrible situation to be in - having to spend on your cards just to feed yourself. Life really doesn't seem fair sometimes.
I really hope everything works out for you. Perhaps if you speak to Northern Rock you could take a payment holiday like I have and go onto interest only - that really worried me but was so simple and cheap to sort out.
Good Luck x0
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