Newbie to Debt-Free Wannabe... All help or advice welcome

d_brat81

NUF!!!!ter wrote: »

Try selling baby clothes in "Bundles". They seem to go better than individual items.

Ok, I would send the CCA letters off to MBNA, Natwest Credit Card, Kwik Fit, Capital One, Virgin and LLoyds TSB loan. Is there any chance that you could have charges that you can reclaim back from any of them?

That was my second course of action after notifying them of the difficulties; however they never got back to me.

I did something very foolish which has now caused me more debt and stress rather than helping.

I was looking for reclaim charges and found this site that said no win no fee.... It was going well until they said that the amounts were too low so we need to pay them... I know that we are owed monies but now we owe the company that was helping us reclaim as well

I should have known you can't get something for nothing....

d_brat81

betti911 wrote: »

Hello (waves) Welcome!

What do other childcare expenses include?
Could you cancel sky and get freeview?
Any chance of reducing your mobile phone bill?
Your car expenses seem high. Any chance of getting rid of the car?

Hi

Sky is still in contract and freeview doesn't work in this area... silly I know.

Childcare expenses - baby sitter charges

The mobile bill is the amount we pay in line rental for both phones.

There are 3 (only 2 works) cars because its a residential area and buses dont run frequently. My husband works 30 miles away which is why petrol is so much and why we need the 2nd car. The 3rd is a long story as the mechanic messed it up and now we are being offered 100 for it despite it being worth alot more. Its declared as off road so we're not paying anything towards it.

Essentially we want a more cost effective car but at the moment its not possible. The other car is only worth 100 and is in need of serious work so that will soon be gone as Tax and MOT is due end of the month...

Numpty_Monkey

d_brat81 wrote: »

That was my second course of action after notifying them of the difficulties; however they never got back to me.

I did something very foolish which has now caused me more debt and stress rather than helping.

I was looking for reclaim charges and found this site that said no win no fee.... It was going well until they said that the amounts were too low so we need to pay them... I know that we are owed monies but now we owe the company that was helping us reclaim as well

I should have known you can't get something for nothing....

I'm not sure about the legalities on that but you can try and reclaim charges from this site (meaning here) all it costs is postage and a bit of work have a read of Martins :money: article http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/

Numpty_Monkey

Something i saw on fith gear the other night about scrap cars, take it to your nearest scrap yard the price of scrap metal now is high you might get more for itscrapping it than selling it

betti911

I would get rid of your car if you don't need it for work.
Is the clothes budget necessary?
What is the 'other insurance'?
The groceries also seem expensive. Is there any way these can be reduced . There are good tips in the oldstyle moneysaving part of the forum.
Any way you can get someone to babysit who doesn't need to be paid... a family member, friend?

d_brat81

betti911 wrote: »

I would get rid of your car if you don't need it for work.
Is the clothes budget necessary?
What is the 'other insurance'?
The groceries also seem expensive. Is there any way these can be reduced . There are good tips in the oldstyle moneysaving part of the forum.
Any way you can get someone to babysit who doesn't need to be paid... a family member, friend?

The clothes budget was put by the adviser at the Law Center. We personally don't buy clothes every month but my daughter might need something as she is growing very fast.... We don't spend that every month on her so I will adjust it.

The 2nd car is still being paid for and the other 1 will be discarded/scrapped by month end. As for the other that is not working I find it very hard to sell because its a very good car and if I can find a trust worthy person to repair it I can get back at least 3000 from it...
The other insurance is the burglar alarm, this has 8 months left and will be canceled as soon as time is up. When we moved to the area we took out a monitored alarm, i.e if it goes off and we don't respond to the call on our mobiles the police would come out to the property. Seem like a good plan at the time but its money wasted as we never needed it or will need it!

Groceries is a rough estimate to be honest but with milk, nappies, wipes it does bring it up. It has been cut down quite alot with purchase of only essentials and a few treats for my daughter.

We live in an area where our closest relative is 30 miles away, no friends close by (quite shy person) but will see how the cost can be reduced.

Numpty Monkey I will look into the scrap metal, thanks.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

d_brat81 wrote: »

I have tons of stuff for ebay but I am despondent because they never sell...

New stuff, nearly new and used... Can't seem to shift them at all. I saw there is some information on ebay on the site so will have a read later.

Thank you all the same

I found bundles of baby clothes sell better. OK, you don't get as much, but at least they sell and every little helps. We find the same with toys. Bundles of 5 of 6 good toys (and a few bits of junk :rotfl: :rotfl: ) sells for around £15 to £25. We used to buy toys from boot sales as 5p to 50p each and make up boxes of toys.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

Baby milk - get yourself to Lidal, they sell the Heinz brand for approx £4.50. The new rebranded packaging in Tesco is around £9 now. We have stocked up as the other cheapest in Tesco are all around the £7 mark.

Nappies - Aldi are great. Much cheaper and just as good as Pampers and Huggies.

Tesco Clothes - I always buy tesco clothes for the kids. They are cheap, wash great and seem to last. Buy them in advance when they are in the sale. For example, my daughter is now 5, but the clothes I am currently buying are for 6 year olds.

TK Maxx - Great for kids shoes. Again, I buy them in advance. I just take the kids to have their feet measured, but only buy in the shoe shops if they are in the sale.

Pushcairs and Prams - Buy from Europe. My Quinny Pushchair and Car Seat came from abroad for the same cost as the pushcair here. They were both new from company selling baby products. Search on the other countries equivaluent of ebay. For example. www.ebay.fr for France. Search for the item in the normal way, then save an item to your favourites. When you log back into www.ebay.co.uk the language and currency will be converted to English, when you view the item in your favourites. The text in the listing will still be French, but then I just use Google's free language converter. A bit of hassle, but loads of money saved.

d_brat81

Thank you all for the advice thus far.

With regards to the debts, I used templates from the Debtline Website and sent it to the creditors offering a gesture of goodwill payment.

Despite that the threatening letters are pouring in daily.

I've also just had a strange man know on the door, I opened thinking it (dunno what I was thinking!!) and he asked for my husband so I asked what was it regarding... he stated he couldn't tell me because of 'Data Protection' so I said he is not available who should I say passed... he refused so I shut the door.

He left a blank paper with his name (illegible) and his number.

I am thinking he is a debt collector from Natwest. They have rejected our token payment and proceeded with Default Notice.

What I want to know is, could that man take our car from our property?

Also what role does the CCA letter play? What happens after I send it off and they respond? What would be my next course of action?

jacobia

Is your car on finance? Have you looked into the difference between selling the car and surrendering it to the finance company. Look at the terms and conditions of the finance and consider is it worth handing that car back to the finance company ( it will depend on how far through the term you have paid up ) and that may free up the £140 per month for a more economical car. It seems a bit drastic but I did it myself with a car I was trying to sell and I was offerred £4000 but I owed £4700 on the finance company. I contacted them and within a week the car had gone and the remaining finance with it at no charge. Just a thought.