New here and in debt

carlih1

Hi

I am new here and hopefully can be of some help and you can be to me also,

I am in a some debt which i have had help from the CCCS who says that ishould offer £1.00 token payment, i have sent the letters off.

I have a few unsecured debts to the total of £4,000.00 not as much as everyone else i know but with two small children and a house to run still worrying.

I have overpayments of £500.00 for my housing benefit, not great news i wasn't impressed as i told them money was tight and i didn't have the money left over that they were asking for.

Anyway i have sent off the letters awaiting replies, just wondered how i can get out of this problem, i work part time and get tax credits but if i increase my hours my tax credits goes down considerably and i end up worse off, also the childminder fees would go up.

I don't want to be in debt forever i was very good with money but my partner left me with some debts then my tax credits was stopped whilst i was on income support leaving me with £500 per week to live on with 2 small children for 12 weeks.

Anyone got any suggestions

Carli :xmassign:

ms_london

Hi there.

Well done for contacting CCCS & writing to your creditors, thats the first step. Now you just need to see what they respond with.

It would be helpful if you could post your SOA (statement of affairs) which lists all of your incomings & outgoings each month. You might be able to save some money without realising it!!

Check out the "Old Style" section of this board, for handy tips around the home, how to make your food budget go further etc..

Could you also include a list of your debts, total balances, interest rates etc etc.

I hope we can help.

Ms_London

robnye

sell on ebay/amazon.

car booting...... (more difficult with younguns) also when the weather is warmer

carlih1

Hopefully this looks ok not too sure how to post the soa

Outgoings

Rent 272
water 67
council tax 80
gas 40
electric 40
house insurance 11
telephone inc internet and mobile 130
tv licence 11
satallite 40
childcare 350
car insurance 37
fuel and parking 65
food toiletries ect 282
school meals 38
tobacco 43
bank account fee 8.

Income

Child benefit 123
Working tax credit 210
child tax credit 481
wages 550

Creditors

over payment of housing benefit 560
rent arrears 350
capital one 872
argos 289
aktiv kapital 316
argos additions 200
call serve 163
3 mobile 222
one tel 88
nursery fees 800

God it looks awful

Thanks :xmastree:

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

Your telephone, internet and mobile is excessive! Cut down on the sky to a more basic package if your tied in, if not scrap it all together. Do you not get help with your rent, council tax and childcare? Can the kids have packed lunches-cheaper childcare? Gas seems high too. How many people does £282 feed etc? Im sure this can be trimmed abit.

You need to sort out your priority debts initially, then snowball the rest. Having a roof over your head is important, so your rent arrears are a must to sort out. Can you negotiate the overpayments for the time being and reduce payments to them? Can you cut back on the smoking or quite all together? You can get the gum/patches etc on perscription now I think.

Your income is £1364pm and outgoings are £1514, leaving a deficit of £150. Thats without paying any of your debt. You need to take some drastic action. You can not afford to live like this. Sorry to sound harsh but im sure with some planning you could easily shave £200+ a month of this.

PM me if youd like a chat. Ive cut down by £700 per month over the past 18 months so apreciate how hard it is.

Good luck hun

PP
xx

Trout69

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Your telephone, internet and mobile is excessive! Cut down on the sky to a more basic package if your tied in, if not scrap it all together.

I Agree, me and my partner haad a top package and sky plus, when we split i was left with covering all of the household outgoings..i rang sky and told a small lie, said i was going to be working away and asked whether they could place my account on hold...i was advised that they could offer me a very basic package and all i would pay would be 68p a month for however many months - admittedly the channels were not very good, but i did that in the hope that i would be back on form after a few months.

Try it - just say your working away, no-one will be using the box but you do not want to cancel as your worried about an installation fee if you want to sign up again.

Regards

Donna

---lee---

Some points for consideration. Remember, they are only suggestions, I'm not trying to tell you what you should do, just pointing out some areas where you could save money.

carlih1 wrote:

Hopefully this looks ok not too sure how to post the soa

Outgoings

Rent 272
water 67

Water seems expensive. Are you on a meter, if so there are ways you can save water (see articles on main website).

council tax 80
gas 40
electric 40

Gas and electric are both expensive. You may be able to get a better deal - again see articles in utilities section on main website.

house insurance 11
telephone inc internet and mobile 130

Wow, that seems an awful lot. My broadband costs me £17.99, telephone is around £23 with an all calls include package. I have a mobile but it's pre-pay and I never use it.

tv licence 11
satallite 40

You can cancel your satelite TV. £ 480 per year is a lot of money just to watch the box. Even with your sky package cancelled, you still get to keep the box and watch all the news channels etc.

childcare 350

Could close family or friends help out with childcare on a temporary basis whilst you repay your debt?

car insurance 37
fuel and parking 65
food toiletries ect 282
school meals 38
tobacco 43
bank account fee 8.

Switch bank accounts (see articles on main website for advice). If you don't want the hassel of switching, go to your bank and tell them to downgrade your account to a free one.

You could stop smoking. Better for your health. I smoke though, so I can't go on about that!

Income

Child benefit 123
Working tax credit 210
child tax credit 481
wages 550

Creditors

over payment of housing benefit 560
rent arrears 350
capital one 872
argos 289
aktiv kapital 316
argos additions 200
call serve 163
3 mobile 222
one tel 88
nursery fees 800

God it looks awful

Thanks :xmastree:

Destroy your credit cards and do not charge anything further to them.
Move as many debts as possible to 0% cards.
With debts you can't move, concentrate on paying the most to those with the highest APR but make sure you meet at least the mimimum payments on all others. Try to pay over the minimum payments.

jcr16

can u not get free school meals ?


your car insurance seems very high , shop around. my new car i had quote's from £18 a month to £30 + .

can u get help with nursery fees as i always thought if u worked and needed child care then tax/child credits could help

tattooed_lady

Hiya and well done for posting!

Defo cut back on the sky, either go to a basic package or get a freeview box instead (one off fee for buying box, no monthly subscription), you can always go back to sky when your circumstances improve if you want. Tobacco is high, can you cut back or better still, quit?

The phone/broadband is very high, check out the relevant forums on here for the cheapest deals.

Good luck!

micheleen

If you cancel sky (assuming you're outside the first 12 months) then your card will revert to the same as a Freesat card, so you'll still get Ch4,Ch5 and Sky3 as well as all the FTA channels.
Two good ways to avoid the hard sell when cancelling are 'I'm moving abroad' and 'personal circumstances'.
Since you keep all the equipment anyway there's no problem resigning up when you can afford it. You already have the installation and would just take out a second-hand contract (this still has an initial 12 month period so you'd have to be certain you could afford it for a year)

carlih1

Hi

and thanks for all the replies.

My sky is being downgraded to £20.00 per month as i am still in the 12 month contract. My mobile phone bill is extortionate i know but i am in discussion with organe about getting a lower tarrif with more free mins ect.

My shopping bill is for three and i feel quite adequate, i do buy a lot of organic produce as my daughter has ezcema and it helps it a lot, i don't no buy ready meals ect and produce my own meals every night.

My water is high as i am paying them for 9 months in a three month period so this will go down after april.

Any other tips???

Carli