My Mum's Money Troubles

RAS

Hi

if you cannot block mobiles ( and you need to look at that seriously), then you may be able to buy a lock for the phone that only allows incoming calls.

It sounds like your sister needs a wake up call. If she is not working, she should have been signing on, and have applied to support before the baby was born. She may be able to back-claim on her benefits and she needs to know that every last penny will have to go to mum to pay for the massive telephone buills she has run up.

For baby clothes, sign up to the local group of www.freecycle.org. And if she has not already stopped, try to get her a session with the local breast=feeding adviser. It maybe "embaressing" but in her position the child needs as many advantages as posssible and breast feeding will protect it from infection and stomach upsets, as well as being the best nutritional option.

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hello lovely,

I'm so sorry you're all in such a pooey situation.

Have you been to entitled to.com yet?

Three adults and a baby must be entitled to more money than you guys are getting. Hopefully as RAS says your sis will be able to backdate her benefits and grants and get stuff on Freecycle.

Perhaps you need to make an appointment with someone at the CAB who knows the benefits system well and can guide you through it all as a family?

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm#searchbox

OR Post on our benefits board?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=23

As for the phone sweetie - either your sis is going to have to grow up fast now she's a parent and stop costing the family a fortune or your mum will have to go incoming calls only, or get a phone with a pass code so your sis can't use it willy nilly. (or maybe you'll get cut off which will solve that problem for you!)

Has anybody suggested you ring CCCS?

They really know their stuff regarding debts and low incomes.

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Completing their Debt Remedy tool for the whole family would be a good idea as it prompts you as to what are considered reasonable amounts for each section - which can be quite surprising.

Do let us know how you get on cos I'm worrying about you all.

Love Jacks xxx

freetobeme_2

Hi thanks

Just wanted to say, we are having a lock put on the phone. We've looked at pervious telephone statements and they aren't as high as this months. So hopefully with the lock, the bill will drop. We seem to have seperate statements for our telephone and internet though she got them as a package with BT.

We've had a gander on freecycle and also found another site thats similar called snaffleup. Also Kim as contacted that CARE charity, who are hopefully going to help with getting clothing for the baby.

My sister has an appointment with the jobcentre on Wednesday and has all the forms to fill in for her benefits. I have an interview on Friday for a job and just recieved an application for another job, so hopefully we will be able to contribute more to my mum.

Thanks again for everyone's help and advise.
Katie x

P.S how do I find out about the £10 a day thing?

RAS

Hi here's the make £10 per day thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1125049

aLSO HAVE A LOOK HERE http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/make-money

FROSTYFRECKLE

Hi Katie,

Good luck for the interview on Friday.

KiKi

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

savingholmes

freetobeme wrote: »

Hi thank you to everyone for you help and advise.

My mum is working, but only part time at a school, she was working full time but was struggling with the debt, so went part time so she could get help with her rent. I've just found out I have an interview on Friday, but will continue to look for more even temp jobs over Christmas.

My mum said she will look at changing telephone company, the bill is high because of my sister phoning mobiles. The catalogues, that is just the debt, we have not binned every catalogue and we have stopped buying from them.

Thank you so much for everyones help.
Katie x

quidco are giving £50 cashback if you sign up with talktalk - we are now paying £17 per month for 40gig broadband and phone with free evening and weekend calls - a saving of £29 on our previous bill! If you are going to change your suppliers - join cashback sites and then effectively get them to help fund the change!

moo2moo

Good luck with tomorrows interview Katie. Fingers crossed for you!

savingholmes

Just wishing you all the best for the job... Keep applying for jobs...

freetobeme_2

Thank you for everyones help. I went into town yesterday and got application forms for the christmas jobs. I'm getting nervous about the interview tomorrow but hope its a good out come.