advice needed from others!!!!

Deep_In_Debt

Can you get rid of mags/newspapers? You can read these on-line for free.

Also, I'm a single person and live on about £70 per month food and sundries and this is with 2 cats as well, so can you reduce yours a little?

JamieT1977

Deep_In_Debt wrote: »

Can you get rid of mags/newspapers? You can read these on-line for free.

Also, I'm a single person and live on about £70 per month food and sundries and this is with 2 cats as well, so can you reduce yours a little?

Would be able to reduce it if lived nearer a tesco etc,so my shopping is done at the local village shop and other more expensive outlets.I could travel the 12 miles to the nearest Tesco or Asda but that is a £24 round trip by taxi,which in turn pushes my travel budget up.

Regarding jobs I have been busy applying,but having no money for short notice trips to attend interviews,means I have potentially lost up to 28 jobs I have been invited for an interview for.

Since leaving my previous job I have reduced my outgoings greatly,and there is no way I can reduce them further.Even after this reduction sometimes I go without food etc for upto 2 weeks.

lauzjp

I don't understand how you can justify £45 on payg? What network are you on? What tarrif? With most of them now there are things like top up x amount and get free calls or texts..? Even cross-network. I'm on vodafone and have a group where one person pays £5 a month and all calls between them are free, also if we top up and use £5 in a week we get free weekend calls, and by topping up £10 in a month I have free texts for the next month! and get people to phone you, if they wanted to speak to you that badly they will call you.

Presumably as an outdoor sports instructor you have a bike? Just make sure to arrive ten minutes before an interview to freshen up! You could also use bike to make shopping trips. Or shop online. Why not grow your own fruit & veg?

I strongly suggest you learn to wash clothes (£20 a month on clothes? Why?) by hand and dry them yourself, or perhaps allow a few 50p's for the drier at a laundertte.

You can no way afford £15 a month for magazines & newspapers. end of. Like said above - read them online! Do you live on your own? Perhaps you could ask if anyone else nearby wants to share travel costs on a trip to tesco or asda.

It would probably be a good thing if you attended court next time - then you could see someone from Citizen's Advice who could advise you. See if you can get an appointment to see someone at your local branch, or phone CCCS

Jesthar

Just a thought on the food/toiletries shopping - do you live in an area where a supermarket will deliver? If you could save more than £5 (to cover the delivery charge) on your monthly shop by doing it online in one batch (requires planning ahead, but well worth it!) and choosing the cheapest options, then providing you can meet any minimum order value (I think Asda are £25 - I work near several supermarkets, so I don't need delivery!) you would save on buying things locally even after the delivery charge. And you can stock up on BOGOF offers for things you actually use, too.

Or would it be possible for a friend to take you to a supermarket once a month or so? I won't mention the 'bus' word - I know what public transport is like, especially in rural areas... :rolleyes:

Plus, review what you actually buy. I already mentioned the buying budget brands, but there are plenty of ways to save on food shopping - check out some of the food budget threads elsewhere on this board for advice. There was one lady recently who fed her whole family (2 adults, 2 children) for a whole month on less than £30 (major budget crisis!) plus what she had in her cupboards without telling the rest of the family, and they never guessed! Speaking personally, I can make the meat from a slow cooked £5 joint of beef brisket last a whole week (with fresh veggies/potatos etc), and my slow cooker spaghetti bolognese recipe makes about 7-8 good size portions, also for about £5. I love my food, and I am also a single person living alone, but I spend a lot less than £90 on food, and I really think you can make good savings here. It just takes a bit of planning ahead.

Sorry, but the others are right - unless essential (and you can get TV guides for under 40p), you have to stop buying the newspapers and magazines.

And I'm pretty sure you should be able to save money on your mobile phone, but I'll leave that to people who actually know more about the tariffs.

Finally, I know all this can mke for pretty depressing reading, but don't give up - it will need some work, but you can do it!

JamieT1977

Thanks for being ignored,had to keep repeating these figures are lower than my CCCS reccomended budget was,they do not want to help me any longer because I can not afford a DMP (it would take over 10 years to make all my repayments complete) or qualify/earn enough for an IVA.
I have to pay for the laundry because I get dirty in my job and have to wear clean uniform everyday,so washing by hand and hang drying is not an option in this job sadly.
Can not grow my own stuff because I live on an Outdoor Activities Centre!!!!!!
Have to use my phone to remain in contact with work when away with groups,and obviously in emergancies.Sadly they do not provide work phones just because one member of staff is in debt.
You have all tried to make out that I have not made sacrifices etc to get my current budget,even though I have made it clear I have.
Do you really think I would make my current situation of not eating etc for upto 2 weeks any worse by overspending on magazines.
And no I do not own a bike I sold it to gain money towards repayments,nor would I be able to cycle the 300 mile round trip to interviews if I had a cycle.

So I give up goodbye

fudgecat

As a teacher, I visit ourdoor activity centres with pupils. Food is usually provided for the instructors, as it tea, coffee, etc
I this is not the case, look into other outdoor activity centres that offer a better package. Is is only done as an apprenticeship? Will you gain a portable qualification at the end of this course?
Many outdoor activity centres stay open throughout the year, so I am surprised that yours is closing until February. Again, you may be getting a bad deal from your current chosen centre. Some offer ski/adventure packages where incement weather is a positive plus!
Don`t give up - you will be qualified, doing a worthwhile job in a fantastic ourdoor setting and all this will happen quite soon if you stick with it.
Best of luck.

debtmuncher

JamieT1977 wrote: »

Thanks for being ignored,had to keep repeating these figures are lower than my CCCS reccomended budget was,they do not want to help me any longer because I can not afford a DMP (it would take over 10 years to make all my repayments complete) or qualify/earn enough for an IVA.
I have to pay for the laundry because I get dirty in my job and have to wear clean uniform everyday,so washing by hand and hang drying is not an option in this job sadly.
Can not grow my own stuff because I live on an Outdoor Activities Centre!!!!!!
Have to use my phone to remain in contact with work when away with groups,and obviously in emergancies.Sadly they do not provide work phones just because one member of staff is in debt.
You have all tried to make out that I have not made sacrifices etc to get my current budget,even though I have made it clear I have.
Do you really think I would make my current situation of not eating etc for upto 2 weeks any worse by overspending on magazines.
And no I do not own a bike I sold it to gain money towards repayments,nor would I be able to cycle the 300 mile round trip to interviews if I had a cycle.

So I give up goodbye

you being in debt has nothing to do with it...they have a duty to supply a work phone...my work place (different kind of job though) has phones for us to take out and about and i sure as heck wouldnt be using my phone for their benefit. do they pay you back anything for the costs of it?

cant remember where i saw it but you can claim back tax or something on work uniforms being washed. if there is a tax forum that will be where i saw it but it was a while back ago.

lauzjp

you can get a much better deal than paying out £45 a month, that's all I'm saying on the phone matter.

you sound like you just want an easy way out, and there isn't. you either pay your debts - even if it does take ten years (as a lot of people on the DFW board's are, mine included!), OR you don't...

continualdiamond

Im a little surprised that CCCS closed the account so quickly. My OH was unemployed for 6mths this year and in that 6mths we paid payplan £11 a mth. (11 creditors = £1 each)

They told us from the start when he lost his job that they could only keep the account open for us with such a low payment for 6mths.

So we made it just in time to keep everything going as OH got a job like a week before the 6mths ended.

So correct me if i am wrong but if you didn't have this CCJ which resulted from CCCS payments stopping you would have £21 a mth spread between 10 creditors and that would = £2.10 each.

Income = £320 every 4 weeks
Expenditure = £299 every 4 weeks
[strike]CCJ = £25 a month
[/strike][strike]Left = -£4[/strike]

= £21

Any chance of contacting CCCS and seeing if they could accept £11 a mth for 6mths like payplan did for me and then seeing if the CCJ would accept £10 a mth???

Deep_In_Debt

We weren't trying to ignore you - I am with CCCS and I know what their recommended budget is for groceries etc but you don't have to necessarily use the whole budget. I don't. I use half of it and therefore save the rest to put towards paying off my debts. And I still eat well and don't go without.