Scared - don't know what to do

Welshlassie

check out this wesbite for the best and quickest way to snowball. It will also tell you when you will be debt free if you do it the right way.

Congratualtions. You will be fine. Remember when baby arrives you will get child benefit and child tax credits, and possibly working tax credits as well. have a look at this to give you some idea of how much to expect. You may also qualify for a maternity grant of £500 to help towards the cost of the baby.

Penpop

Welshlassie wrote: »

check out this wesbite for the best and quickest way to snowball. It will also tell you when you will be debt free if you do it the right way.

Congratualtions. You will be fine. Remember when baby arrives you will get child benefit and child tax credits, and possibly working tax credits as well. have a look at this to give you some idea of how much to expect. You may also qualify for a maternity grant of £500 to help towards the cost of the baby.

Thank you, I will take a look now. How do I find out about a maternity grant? Thanks xx

Welshlassie

The Maternity grant information will be included in the entitledto website as it is a means tested benefit.

I've just dne a very quick calculation on the snowball calculator using the figures in your SOA and a few guesses and excluding the car loan (which I'm guessing is inflexible) you can have all the debts paid off my this time next year, just by paying what you are paying now, just doing it in the right order, quicker again if you can find any extra money such as Overtime, selling on ebay, surveys, mysery shops etc. You'll be amazed how quickly they come down if you really put your ming to it.

One other thing I will say though is make sure you have tackled the issue as to why the debts built up in the first place, was your OH overspending for a reason or just to survive. Has this stopped now? No point in you paying everything off and in 2 years time be back in the same place because you didn't get to the route of the probelm this time around.

Good luck.

RoxieW

Surely rent, utilities and bits for the baby need to take priority over the 'freedom' of having a car?

No offense to you personally but this attitude towards cars always amazes me as they are such a drain on finances. The odd taxi here and there would be more cost effective! Many of my SAHM friends have a car as well as hubby which they use for shopping/visiting people and generally just getting out of the house. They say to me, why dont you get a car - you're loaded. Yes we are - because I dont have a car! We have our shopping delivered, I get buses and any time I'm desperate I get a taxi. It saves us thousands a year!

mspig

You say that you and your partner work 40 hours but your wages are quite low, could your partner not look for a more well paid job, just that my hubby works 30hours and after tax he earns £1300 plus bonus's etc per month. I understand that he works for your dad but sometimes you have to do whats best for you and not whats best for your dads business or to stay loyal. Either that or ask for a pay rise!

Don't forget when the babies born you will be entitled to child benefit and ctc and wtc.

Penpop

I know and I agree with you, but I still want / need it tbh with you. As mentioned before - there really isnt any buses around here like that and no shops deliver to my area, i live about 20 miles from the supermarkets so I dont understand why they dont but there you go xx

Penpop

another bomb just hit. just spoke to sister, her and her hubby are going to swap my parents 2nd home (where we currently live) with their 2 bedroom home and my parents will want £625 for us to live there, plus council tax (£125) and all bills, we're looking at about £800 now, but there is nothing cheaper! We cannot move into a flat - wouldnt be any good cuz of the cars. now im really worried

RoxieW

could you look at getting by with the one car - doing shopping/outings at weekends? I appreciate what you are saying but if you cant pay the rent something has to give!

RoxieW

You have to cut your cloth to what you can afford and if a flats all you can afford then so be it for the short term. Rent, council tax, bills - we all have to pay them. I really wish there was a magic wand I could wave but there isnt. I learnt this the hard way fast when I fell pregnant at 19. My expectations of 'family life' ie nice house, mamas and papas baby stuff had to fall pretty quickly when i realised all we could afford was a tiny house in the worst area. Still, we got by and it was only temporary. Five years on we're in the situation i wanted to be in at the time and we/the kids want for nothing. I still cant afford a 2nd car though - lol!
If I were you I'd find a cheap flat, get rid of a car and pour all extra cash into sorting out debts/then saving. In 3 years time little one will start nursery, childcare costs willl be less prohibitive, you can go back to work, you'll have a nice little nest egg and you can start looking for your own house.
It's doable - I've been there - we lived on 8K the first year our son was born but we managed.

MrsTinks

Penpop wrote: »

I know and I agree with you, but I still want / need it tbh with you. As mentioned before - there really isnt any buses around here like that and no shops deliver to my area, i live about 20 miles from the supermarkets so I dont understand why they dont but there you go xx

I'm sure some of them deliver 20 miles The certainly do both here and in Scotland (infact further than 20 miles!) as I've ordered a couple of times for someone up there to help out...

You do not NEED a car you WANT a car Please don't confuse the two...
OK so you both work for your dad... I know jobs can be sparse in Cornwall and salaries aren't always great but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get a better paid job. Giving up before you try... that ain't gonna work... You have to make the effort! More to the point someone I know recently moved north for a better paid job as rent down in that area is the same as up here pretty much and his salary went up considerably. That might be something you need to consider.

As for the second bomb then right now I think the only choice you have is to find a studio type flat pref near a bus route. And you need to make some very hard choices about if you can find better jobs out of that area and move away or how you will cope with paying "normal" rent and bills...