Please help me get my head around this.

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  • warby68
    warby68 Posts: 3,021 Forumite
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    Well done for facing it head on

    I think your SoA will need a few tweaks but that is very common after a first draft. You have no vehicle maintenance, no clothes (not usually realistic for long with children), no paid TV package (just checking) and your target for food may be a bit on the low side for a family of 4.

    Its more good news than bad though - you have a good income, a modest mortgage and lots of choice. You've just been spending like there's no tomorrow lol and now have to balance the books.

    You can take time to find the right balance between the speed you pay off the debt and the lifestyle you are comfortable with. You certainly don't have to live miserably.

    I actually think its ok that you are squirming a bit rather than being resentful/looking for something to blame, as it means you've accepted its entirely your own faults and what you have to do about it so you're well on the way.
  • karencks
    karencks Posts: 17 Forumite
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    warby68 wrote: »
    Well done for facing it head on

    I think your SoA will need a few tweaks but that is very common after a first draft. You have no vehicle maintenance, no clothes (not usually realistic for long with children), no paid TV package (just checking) and your target for food may be a bit on the low side for a family of 4.

    Its more good news than bad though - you have a good income, a modest mortgage and lots of choice. You've just been spending like there's no tomorrow lol and now have to balance the books.

    You can take time to find the right balance between the speed you pay off the debt and the lifestyle you are comfortable with. You certainly don't have to live miserably.

    I actually think its ok that you are squirming a bit rather than being resentful/looking for something to blame, as it means you've accepted its entirely your own faults and what you have to do about it so you're well on the way.


    Hi, I wasn't really sure what to put for clothes and car maintenance so I will go back and look at this. Surprisingly we don't have a sky package - we use freesat which provided us with what we need. We do have a netflix subscription though which I sholud have included at £7.99 per month.
  • karencks
    karencks Posts: 17 Forumite
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    fatbelly wrote: »
    Available for debt repayments........... 3,189

    I'd be surprised/impressed if this were ever true.

    You need to budget for things that are essential expenditure but don't necessarily come up every month. For example car maintenance/MOT on 2 cars is going to be significant -I'd suggest 40 as a starting point

    For clothing I usually work on a minimum of 3-5 per person per week, so 51 there.

    Prescriptions/dentists/eye care could easily be £10 per person per month.

    You own your own house. Will it need anything doing in the next 3 years? Because I think that is the sort of timescale you are looking at to demolish 60k of debt, and I think it's do-able

    Personally I would try to get as many credit cards to long term 0% deals as I could, then use the savings to clear the high-interest ones. your mortgage looks good, and the 6.9%/9.9% apr debts are good enough to stay as they are

    edit - cross posted with that 8.23 post but I agree with your thinking there

    Thanks Fatbelly

    I will add those things in later. I am thinking -

    Car maintenance - £50
    clothes - 60
    household repairs - £100 - there are a few things that need sorting out over the next year or two.

    So this would reduce my £3189 to £2979 which is still fine. I have based my snowball figures on £2100 per month for total debt payments so I still have plenty of wiggle room.

    On a separate notes, if we can't get new 0% deals, would you recommend that we just plough on with over payments, or would you contact step change at that point?
  • System
    System Posts: 178,094 Community Admin
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    You are spending over £100 on gas and elec per month - this should be closer to half
  • pumpkin89
    pumpkin89 Posts: 639 Forumite
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    andydownes123 wrote: »
    You are spending over £100 on gas and elec per month - this should be closer to half

    How would you achieve this? We have a largeish 3-bedroom house but there are only two of us living there, and we pay £150 per month on a very good tariff. I'm assuming the OP's home is similar as she has 2 children and says they have a "nice house".
  • fatbelly
    fatbelly Posts: 20,499 Forumite
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    karencks wrote: »
    On a separate notes, if we can't get new 0% deals, would you recommend that we just plough on with over payments, or would you contact step change at that point?

    I agree with a previous poster. I don't think you need stepchange or the services they provide.
    andydownes123 wrote: »
    You are spending over £100 on gas and elec per month - this should be closer to half

    Hmm. 2 adults, 2 kids. You should definitely check, and mse energy club is a good place to do that.

    If bulb comes up as one of the cheapest they have good customer service and referral cashback, with some mse'ers offering to give you extra cashback from their share

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=74660994#post74660994
  • bigisi
    bigisi Posts: 925 Forumite
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    pumpkin89 wrote: »
    How would you achieve this? We have a largeish 3-bedroom house but there are only two of us living there, and we pay £150 per month on a very good tariff. I'm assuming the OP's home is similar as she has 2 children and says they have a "nice house".

    Two of us here in a three bed. semi. We pay £40 per month and this leaves a nice surplus for winter. Your £150 is mental.
  • pumpkin89
    pumpkin89 Posts: 639 Forumite
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    bigisi wrote: »
    Two of us here in a three bed. semi. We pay £40 per month and this leaves a nice surplus for winter. Your £150 is mental.

    Maybe this is the wrong board (if so please advise :)) but how can there be such a big disparity? What sort of things contribute disproportionately to energy use?
  • Sky_
    Sky_ Posts: 605 Forumite
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    pumpkin89 wrote: »
    Maybe this is the wrong board (if so please advise :)) but how can there be such a big disparity? What sort of things contribute disproportionately to energy use?


    Heating (thermostat) temperature, when the heating is used (some people run it most of the year and keep it on day and night). General poor building insulation and things like opening windows and doors a lot, will cause higher bills. People in warmer parts of the country may also use less heating than those in the far north.


    Also how much people use electronic devices and so on.


    I'm somewhere in the middle: 3 bed detached in the north of England, 3 adults all working different hours, (so usually someone at home 24/7) and our gas/electric bills are £85 a month. We generally set the heating thermostat at 20-21 degrees. The heating is on all day in colder months but turned off between 10pm and 5.30am.
    2022. 2% MF challenge. £730/3000
  • chelseablue
    chelseablue Posts: 3,303 Forumite
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    We (2 adults, 1 child) live in a 3 bed semi and our gas & electric is £61 a month.

    We're out all day Monday - Friday
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