My Mum's Money Troubles

angelaf_3

Good luck for the interview and all the others. You are a star for supporting your mum like this. God bless

RAS

I am not going to wish you good luck. Errr?

Look at that job description, and next to each thing that they say you want, write down Yes - I have done this - and this is exactly what I did.

I once talked to a young woman who wanted to be a nurse. When asked what experience she had of caring she said none ...............except I know what it is like to have a colostomy bag bust in the middle of Sainsbos. Turned out she and mum had been home nursing an elderly relative with a life limiting disease for years. BUT she thought she had no relevant experience.

Once you know that you have all the experience you need, you can do a good interview.

freetobeme_2

KiKi wrote: »

Hi Katie

Some suggestions / advice below in red. It may sound a little harsh in places, but I promise it's meant kindly and only to help! I haven't read through every single reply, so apologies if this is repeating what others have said!


Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................268
Other income.........................145.90 my JSA + money from my sister's godfather
Total monthly income.................... £413.90
If your mum is working PT, and your sister has a baby on the way then you MUST be entitled to more benefits. Make sure you check out the Entitled To website which others have already outlined - it's really important you use this to even begin to make up the deficit here.


Monthly Expense Details
Electricity............................. 59
This is HIGH. Go to www.moneysupermarket.com and compare your prices. Change to a cheaper supplier (you may want to consider fixing your rate as prices are likely to go up again). Before you change, go to www.quidco.com and see if you can get cashback for changing to your new chosen supplier.

You can get this cheaper, despite prices having gone up. Because your deficit each month is high, you need to do the silly little things, like not keeping chargers plugged in, NEVER leave the TV on standby (it uses 80% of elec as if it were still on), unplug items etc.

Gas..................................... 35
As with elec, although this isn't so high for three of you.


Telephone (land line)................... 150
Internet Services....................... 50
ATROCIOUS. Inexcusable, esp from your sister. You can get a phone line, and internet for £20 with Virgin. Better still, you can get a BT phone line for £11 and internet for £7.50 with O2 if you have an O2 mobile phone. Compare at www.moneysupermarket.com and then go to www.quidco.com to see if you can get cashback if you change.

I appreciate you are putting a lock on the phone, but you still might be able to get a cheaper package, regardless of how much you use it. You can CERTAINLY get cheaper internet.


Mobile phone............................ 20
What package, and with which supplier? O2 SIM only offer 400 texts, 200 mins for £15 a month, no contract. Only £5 less, but the reality is you need to cut wherever you can.


Groceries etc. ......................... 200
You can get this down by meal planning, only buying what you need, meal planning, shopping sensibly where products are cheapest, and meal planning. Oh, and meal planning. Best thing I ever did, my bill went down by 60%! Check out the Moneysaving Old Style board for truly inspirational stories of people who make the most amazingly little amounts of money last! One current thread on there is a woman who is feeding her family on £20 (with some other food that was already in her cupboard) for a whole MONTH. Just amazing.

Treat meal planning as a challenge. If your mum is working part time, then you should be able to sit down and make it a challenge between you as she seems really happy to work this out with your help, which is great.


Clothing/Catalogues................. 250
This is debt that you're paying back each month, right? What's the APR, and the minimum payment? And who's it with?


Other travel............................ 90
What is this, please? (Sorry if you explained elsewhere, I didn't see it...)


Monthly Budget Summary
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -558
The harsh reality is that you are going to have to find work - any work ASAP, and that may be two or three part time jobs, offering to babysit, paper rounds, whatever it may be. Your mum may also need to consider working more hours, as may your sister, even if it's a few hours a week.


The great news is that you and your mum want to do this together, and it will be really good for you to set this as a challenge and achieve it. The debts are not huge, and you CAN pay them off, so that's all really positive. The fact that you've already made changes is great, and now this is posted and you have advice from lots of people here, it can only get better!

I really hope that helps you - turn this into your 'diary' so that you can see how you're doing and we can check in and offer more support when you need it. It might also help your mum (perhaps) to be able to come on here and see the support and be inspired by other people's stories.

Oh, and cut up any catalogue / store / credit cards that you don't actually need (you might want to save one for emergencies you might have)!!!

Best wishes!!!
KiKi

Hi Kiki, Thank you for your help.

I have the moneysupermarket site up and my mum and I are looking at changing the suppliers for our Elec, Gas and Telephone. Do we change now although we are still to pay our currant suppliers? We are off to check the entitled to website next.

Mobile phone............................ 20
What package, and with which supplier? O2 SIM only offer 400 texts, 200 mins for £15 a month, no contract. Only £5 less, but the reality is you need to cut wherever you can.
This is my mum's mobile, she is on the Adsa mobile which she tops up £5 a week. Me and my sister are on O2, but rarely top up.

The meal planning sounds like a fantastic idea. Which is something we are going to sit down and go through ready for next weeks shopping. I get paid next week so said that I will do the shopping.

The travel, none of us drive so this was for public transport. The total was just an estitmate - I was going on bus fare into town and then back home is £3 per adult. My sister has an half pass so her's is £1.50 and if we went to town 3 times a week, to do shopping or go to the jobcentre etc - in a month it would be about £90, though might have got my sums wrong :embarasse

The clothing is the the debt yep. Not sure what the APR is though.

Thanks again
Katie x

RAS

Hi

Not sure where you are, but check with your local bus compnaies in case they do weekly tickets at a lot less than day tickets.

I am on a ludicrously priced deal (through work) where they take less than £90 per month out of my salary and I can travel anywhere in the county on rail or bus for that. It would cost me £9 per day to travel into work each day so it halves my costs and I get all my leisure travel for free.

freetobeme_2

Thank you for the tip, I will check the firstbus website today thank you.
Does anyone know if I'd be entitled to a half-fare pass like my sister?

My mum has told me that she gets housing benefit and council tax benefit, plus she gets a second adult rebate on her council tax with me being on JSA. She says the rent is just the arrears that she is paying off.

Red_Fraggle_3

if you sister has money ie benefits get her get a pay as you go phone and use that for texting etc

candygirl

My DD has just got a good deal on on Orange PAYG SIM, unlimited texts for a miniscule sum, i'll ask her when she comes in:D

RAS

Hi

I am first bus too but the best deal is on the Passenger transport Authority site.

You are just too old to get the student plus card - which is £61 here compared with the bus only adult card which is £71 per month.

First bus do a weekly card with restricted range for £10 per week here as wel.

freetobeme_2

RAS wrote: »

Hi

I am first bus too but the best deal is on the Passenger transport Authority site.

You are just too old to get the student plus card - which is £61 here compared with the bus only adult card which is £71 per month.

First bus do a weekly card with restricted range for £10 per week here as wel.

oooh thanks for that, RAS

FROSTYFRECKLE

Hi Katie,

Just checking to see how the interview went? I'm sure you knocked their socks off!