What do I do

SunderlandBlackCat

churchy80 wrote: »

£12000 for and IT course

:shocked: :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

What on earth are you covering on this course?

I've been in the industry for 16 years & paid for most of my own training & multiple vendor certifications & haven't spent close to that amount.

moo2moo

Ok a couple of things strike me as a bit odd.

Do you and your partner really earn exactly the same amount of money each month?

Bank charges of £25 a month - for what?

You're paying Littlewoods £50 per month (at 0%?) their website says this is a whopping 44.9% APR. You could be saving this each month for presents instead. I'd make this a priority and get rid of it asap. Perhaps your son has some outgrown toys you could E-bay?

£350 on groceries each month is double what I spend on 4 people and we eat free range meat. You can do much much better than this. In fact if you halved it to £175 a month (£40 a week) you'd no longer be in the red each month. Its not as hard to do as it sounds. Pop over to the old style board, list the contents of your cupboards and your usual weekly shopping bill and they'll give you lots of suggestions.

Your internet package and Setanta is costing you a small fortune each month. Your initial statement reads "we don't have enough for entertainment" but thats exactly what this is and you're paying £64 a month (£768 a year) for this. Its exactly the same amount as the repayment on your Mastercard.

The IT course leaves me jawdroppingly gobsmacked. £12000. At your take home pay thats an entire years salary. What will you stand to gain from it?

churchy80

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your feed back. I'll answer some of the questions raised.:rolleyes:

The Gas and Electric - these are high because the companies has set the rates to low and are paying for catch up.
Sentate and Sky - these are 2 seperate payments
Internet/phone - is £45 together I didn't know how to break it down as it's one payment
Groceries - we are doing the feed a family for £5 which works out at £35 a week the rest of the shopping increase and not sure why???
Clothing I've not bought a piece of clothing for over 6 months after everything I left with nothing for clothes
Road Tax - is about £165 a year, unfortunately this is some we have never thought about puting aside each month
Car maintenance - Same as above never thought to put anything aside, so far over the past year I have spent approx £70
Building/Content - like the telephone and internet building and content are together as one fixed price, again sisn't know how to put this on the form
Presents - ???? never thought the include this in the budget spend approx £100 over the last year.

To explain the IT course the cost is £6150 on a buy now pay later scheme, I was niave at the time, but was sold by the prospect of a career and options to pay it by the end of the 12 month period, unfortunately 12months later the interest has kicked in and shot up to £12000, my options of paying the course off before 12 months failed due to being out of a job and depts catching up with me.

A strange as it sounds my partner and I do earn the same each month give or take £2 - £3 pound difference we are on the same salary in different jobs.

The £25 bank fee is the AA cover and the benefits of being with the bank. I user the free AA cover once but not since, thinking of cancelling but not sure.

The £50 per month is without % as week are paying with in 20weeks - hope this makes sense.

So far I have ask my work if they could help out with my IT course and came back as an answer say in not because I'm on a fixterm contract(this is due to expire in january 09 - but just has an interview for a perment posistion, hoping to find out today or monday if I got the position)

MOO3MOO - I' interested in how you got you groceries down so low I though I had cut right back!

Thank you all again for your input I hope I have answered all the question with the novel I provided. You help is highly welcomed and hope with these answers you are able to help!

pink_princess

Hi churchy the groceries are really high, i feed all 5 of us on that and it includes alcohol, take outs etc.Jamie oliver feed your family for a fiver is a rip off, thats my most expensive meal full roast and all the trimmings lol.
You s really cant afford setanta on your budget i would cancel it and yes id cancel the account fees also, make use of free banking before its to late.
Come join us on a thread called october grocery challenge you ll be saving in no time.
I hope this helps you and best of luck .
PP

MrsTinks

Ok the £25 for the bank account has to stop! £25 x 12 = £300 - you could pay the recovery service per call out and it would be cheaper! There are ways of getting AA or RAC cover for £10-£15 so definitely cancel this!
As for getting your grocerybill down - meal plan, spend time on the OS board and cooking from scratch... I laugh when Jamie comes on TV saying how he can cook for £5 for a family... Yeah blooming easily if you ask me!!!!
Setanta and Sky... Guess what... You CAN'T afford this right now... cancel both! Use your sky box as a freeview box for now and later when you have spare cash then look at this again.
£45 for internet and phone... where do you phone? Timbuktu??? This is WAY high and needs to be cut - look up martins article on this and chop and change - make sure you check for cashback deals too.
Water rates seem a little high too - are you on a meter?

The IT course... I'd get someone legal to check this... honestly... 100% interest? :eek:
But assuming that you're stuck with it then you need to increase your income to make serious inroads into these debts. Can you get a 2nd job? Can your OH? Have you asked for payrises? If you don't ask you don't get

GeorgeUK

You have all the debts as being 0%. Are they really 0% - if not would it be possible to get a new creditcard that does a 0% APR promotion? The lower the interest rates, the quicker you will be able to pay off the debts.

I agree that you should be looking at some price comparison sites (uswitch, moneysupermarket) for the utilities and the ladies will keep you right on reducing the grocery bill. A spending diary may be helpful if you cannot account for all the money being spend.

churchy80

Can't remember the interestes exactly I rang up three or four months ago. My credit card is on around 19.8% my loan is on 7.something%.

I have rang up virgin in march/april who had a deal for 0% interest for 18 months but due to my salary and credit rating I was rejected.

moo2moo

Hi Churchy.

I buy my meat direct from the farmer. My last bill was £118 for 1/2 pig, 1/2 lamb, both butchered to order, mutton joint (freebie but revolting) and a carrier bag of bacon. Between them we ended up with 4 months worth of meat filling an entire freezer.

Otherwise I tend to buy the best quality meat I can so if its mince I'll buy turkey mince as its lower in fat than red meat minces so doesn't shrink as much. The last lot I bought was 2 x 340g for £3 from Tesco.

As an example sphaghetti bolognese....
onion 20p,
mixed peppers 33p (1/3rd of a99p pack),
mushrooms 80p,
2 handfuls lentils 20p(to bulk it out and because they are high in protein)
Kidney beans 34p
mince £1.50
pasta 50p (from a 3kg bag for £3 from Tesco - I hate the value stuff).
grated cheese 50p

Total cost £4.37.
That will give dinner for 4 plus I'll freeze enough for a second meal and I'll have enough left over for jacket potatoes for lunch the following day. Allowing for a second portion of pasta (50p) and 4 spuds (40p) thats 2 main meals and 1 lunch for £5.27.

Fish pie would be another great recipe.
2x packs of smoked kippers from tesco (vary in price but average is 75p) £1.50
white sauce (milk, flour, knob of butter from inside kippers pack) 50p
mashed potato and parsnip to top 50p
grated cheese 50p
veg 50p

Peel skin off kippers, chop up raw, pour over sauce. Top with potato and grated cheese. Bung in over for 40 mins at 180 C. serve with veg. Total £3.50.

Tuna mayo sandwiches for lunch. 33p tuna couple of scoops of mayo and bread. All in about 50p.

Start small use up what you've got in your cupboards and then meal plan and don't be tempted by things that aren't essential. Feed your family for a fiver is a great idea but thats £150 a month without breakfast, lunches, snacks, drinks, toiletries etc.

Interest rates will be on your statements.

RAC cover is available via Tesco clubcard deals or cashback via quidco. Even taking out an AA policy direct with the AA would be cheaper as its £29 a year on-line. What benefit do you get from your bank that you can't get free (or much cheaper) elsewhere? Phone up and cancel this asap.

I get a call package from Tiscali which allows me unlimited downloads, the fastest broadband speed my phone line can handle, free uk evening and weekend calls and free international calls for £14.99 a month plus BT line rental. You can do much better than the package you're currently on.

TotallyBroke

churchy80 wrote: »

Monthly income after tax................ 1039
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1039
Benefits................................ 375
Other income............................ 72
Total monthly income.................... 2525

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 486.53
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 69Ask if you can pay over 12months
Electricity............................. 90High maybe think about a product swap. Also switch everything off. See if you can get free energy eff light bulbs
Gas..................................... 65Same as above high try product/company swap
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 41.55Not sure if this high or not. Almost double what I pay but different areas = different prices. Look into a water meter
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 11.61
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 19Does this now include your Satanta cost. You can get a Sky deal for tv, phone and broadband for a lot less than you are currently paying. OR cancel altogether
Internet Services....................... 45
Groceries etc. ......................... 350As others have said this can be cut. Look at how much gets thrown out each week and see if you can use it up elsewhere. I was forever throwing out tomatoes now if they start going soft I use them to make a spagbol sauce and freeze it.
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 35.32
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 60Can you consider another form of transport so you don't need to pay this. Maybe ask around for car sharers it'll at least cut this amount.
Other travel............................ 60Buying tickets in advance can make a saving on this
Childcare/nursery....................... 385
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 31.53
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 6.5
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Bank Charge ............................ 25I too would consider cutting this down or cancelling altogether. AA can be got cheaper elsewhere
Total monthly expenses.................. 1891.04

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 95000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 98000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 84000....(486.53)...0
Total secured debts........... 84000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mastercard.....................2899......64........0
Bankloan.......................21357.....486.......0
Barclays.......................12816.....212.......0
Littlewoods....................230.......50........0Throw this out and stop buying from this. There are lots of discount codes for shops on other mse sections. Plus if kids are young would they notice if their toy was bought second hand or not. Boot sales or NCT sales are great for this
Total unsecured debts..........37302.....812.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,525
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,891.04
Available for debt repayments........... 633.96
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 812
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -178.04

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 98,000
Total Secured debt...................... -84,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -37,302
Net Assets.............................. -23,302

See if you have anything that can be sold on ebay or by boot sale or NCT sale (you don't get so much of the hassle but do have to donate 25%).
Good luck it is hard but can be done

churchy80

Thank for all your all your help!

Moo2moo - the fish pie is appealing

I see I got my work cut out and see some light ant the end of the tunnel!

I will begin actioning all the help recieved and will keep everyone posted