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At breaking point!
Comments
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Take home pay: 1900
2 adults 2 children
Unsecured Debt:
Lloyds Loan:£17849 - £397 pcm
Lloyds credit card:£4400 - £100 pcm
Barclaycard credit card:£7000- £200 pcm
Halifax credit card:£1700- £45 pcm
Mbna credit card:£4000 - £65 pcm
Nationwide:credit card £3000- £35 pcm
Next:£600- £30 pcm
Other outgoings:
Payment to wife who sorts all household bills £160 pw
Shopping £60-80pw (planned meals)
Petrol:£60 pcm
Car tax:£28 pcm
Car insurance:£19 pcm
Gym:£5 a week
Amazon Music:£7.99 pcm
Netflix:£8.99 pcm
o2 sim only: £20 pcm0 -
OP can you use the standard template for the SOA do you think - what you've posted seems to switch between weekly and monthly amounts and this makes it incredibly difficult to see what's going on. It also leaves out a lot of essential stuff like clothing, medical/dental costs, haircuts and a lot more. Does the transfer to your wife cover mortgage or rent, council tax etc as well as utilities, for example? If your money for shopping the whole spend or does she contribute there as well?
Looking at what you've posted though you're in around 38k of debt which is a lot for someone on that income - I'm not surprised you're feeling the strain. just from a quick scan of what you've posted it looks to me like you're in deficit every month so you're right to try to tackle the situation now before it gets any worse.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
The good news is that by stopping Netflix / Gym and Amazon you are saving £22 a month which you can start to put towards a snowball system on the debts. Start with Next for a quick win, pay the minimums on the other debts until Next is cleared. I have had prior experience with Next back in 2004 and I would never touch them again to be honest.
You also need to sit down with your OH and sort a budget, transferring as much to the debt as you can, do you have an emergency fund ?Baby Step 6/7 . £16000 saved and invested. £47,000 deposit paid on new home DEBT FREE !!!
Currently Negotiating with HMRC !0 -
I think there is an awful lot missing from your SOA. Stuff like car maintenance, MOT + service.
Do you buy birthday, christmas presents etc or have a haircut etc?Tallyhoh! Stopped Smoking October 2000. Saved £29382.50 so far!0 -
Look again at the figures for gym (+ Netflix and Amazon) is £450 over a year. For somebody trying to cut costs these should be the first things to be cancelled. Exercise at home/in the park and watch Freeview.0
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I think there is an awful lot missing from your SOA. Stuff like car maintenance, MOT + service.
Do you buy birthday, christmas presents etc or have a haircut etc?
Looking at your outgoings that you have put on there they total around £1500 a month which by my reckoning gives you £400 disposable each month.
Like tallyho says what are you missing off - document everything including if you buy yourself lunch or a coffee on the go during your work week, takeaways, pints with the lads or days out with the family. They all add up and unless you are true to yourself with these you will never get yourself out of debt.
One little tip i was given is start working toward your smallest debt first - it should be the easiest to clear and will give you a boost when you clear it, as AndyJflet reccomends with your Next.
Next has fairly high interest too so you probably aren't making much impact with the minimum payment the more you can put in each month will clear it much quicker.January NSD8/100
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