Please help, we've hit crisis point

Janey51

Hi Shezza. As always, really good advice on here.
Please don't worry about CCCS. My fuel bill was set last year at £175pm for 2 of us.
When I had my review, CCCS were happy to leave it at that level just for me but I have cut it as I am off at the moment.
If you exceed their guideline amounts in one area, they will increase amounts in another to cover it.
Good luck.
You are doing really well.

shezza

Hi, again thanks for all the responses and advice. I have been looking into getting a second job for a while, maybe with Christmas coming up, I might be able to get in somewhere as all the seasonal jobs will be popping up soon, and my OH works as much overtime as he can get, but 9 times out of 10 his overtime basically gives us something to live on as pretty much everything we earn on basic goes out.

With regards to my petrol, I do buy my petrol from the local Sainsburys and I am an avid nectar point collector, I have nearly £60 worth of points on the card which I am saving for Christmas so we can have a little touch of luxury for free.

I also have a Pigsback account, and I do as many surveys as the companies can throw at me, which again is being saved up for Christmas, last year I managed to buy most of our presents with vouchers or e-vouchers and it was fab, we only had to really spend cash on OH's daughter, so hopefully we will be doing the same this year.

RAS

Some other ideas here?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/make-money

Also join www.freecycle.org, if you are not already signed up - like e-bay but you get the goods for free.

magneto

you can save on haircut cost, by buying a cheap hair clipper from argos and cutting your hair yourself. This will save ten pounds a month

horsechestnut

If you collect Nectar points, are you doing surveys with the following as they "pay" in Nectar points?
http://uk.mysurvey.com

horsechestnut

Have you joined Quidco. (You and your OH)
There is a thread on the this site.
Again do you both have a pigsback account?

horsechestnut

magneto wrote: »

you can save on haircut cost, by buying a cheap hair clipper from argos and cutting your hair yourself. This will save ten pounds a month

Do you have enough Boots points to buy one?

Local College Hairdressing Dept. usually charge just a couple of pounds if you don't fancy doing it yourself. Ask for 2nd or 3rd year students if your worried !!!:rotfl:

Tra77

I too would strongly recommend you check out 'snowballing' on www.whatsthecost.com.

Can't recommend it enough!!!



Wishing you all the best and hope you're back on track very soon xXx

lynzpower

Another thing that no one has mentioned ( are we all forgetting to do it ) is a spending diary.

Get you and OH a cheap notebook and every day write down exactly what you spend- every penny, be it a newspaper, a parkign ticket - ANYTHING! and youll soon see where other money goes. I know many of us come here saying "I spend 300 a month on groceries" but once you do the spending diary- NO ONE TRULY KNOWS.

Ive been DF since last january and Im still getting to grips with the diary- now we have a whiteboard and then update on the spreadsheet. it really is very illuminating- definately worth a try ( or ten!)

shezza

Hi, well I have taken the bull by the horns tonight and rang cccs. I managed to talk to a lovely lady without crying, but I have to say I picked the phone up and put it down at least three times before I managed to put the number in.

I have an appointment with a counsellor on Friday, so hopefully we will start to get everything sorted out then. The lady on the phone tonight told me that my OH and I need to get new bank accounts with a bank that's not affiliated with any of the companies that we have debts with, does anyone know any accounts that I should look at.

The telephone call was very informative, but a lot of it is a blurr now, so much information to take in, in a very short time. I really must have a note pad with me when they ring on Friday, is this what everyone else has done, or do you get the information sent to you after the consultation. I'm sorry for so many questions but I'm still overawed with all of this.

I am hoping tonight that I will manage to actually get to sleep without any problems, as for the last few days I have not managed to get to sleep before 2am, which really is no good when I have to go to work. My OH is on nights as well at the moment so I don't even have him to cuddle into when I feel really rotten. It really is amazing how lying in bed staring at the ceiling makes you feel 100 times worse.

I will be buying the local evening paper tomorrow night to have a look to see if there are any Christmas jobs being advertised yet. I have not been into the city for a while, so I'm not sure if anything is out there, so fingers crossed. I am also taking photo's to put some things onto e-bay, does anyone know if there are any free listing days coming up?

Thanks for listening x