Another tale of woe

Barneysmom

I think your food bill could be much lower,if you go onto the Moneysavingoldstyle board, you'll get loads of money-saving tips there to make your food stretch a long way. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

Your electric seems really quite high, have you looked at switching suppliers or cutting down on what you use?

Barneysmom

insertname1981 wrote: »

MLSL

no offence taken. there are a couple of good points in your reply that i will look into.

the problem with selling the car is that the money form the sale will have to pay off the honda finance.

If you don't need it, sell it. It's one more load off your shoulders.

insertname1981

MLSL

no offence taken. there are a couple of good points in your reply that i will look into.

the problem with selling the car is that the money form the sale will have to pay off the honda finance.

one thing i have been doing is putting what little talent i have to use on rentacoder. its not megabucks, but can be good for £50 / £75 a month.

i know it sounds selfish and selfdefeating, but i cannot realistically get rid of sky. we are on the bare minimum package, and we dont have ANY kind of social life as we can't afford it. Sky is the only entertainment we have.

insertname1981

sorry for the partial double post.

The car is sort of needed otherwise my wife cant get to work at all. There are no reasonable public transport links between the two towns.

MYLITTLESISTERLOLA

insertname1981 wrote: »

MLSL

no offence taken. there are a couple of good points in your reply that i will look into.

the problem with selling the car is that the money form the sale will have to pay off the honda finance.

I agree it would have to go to honda but that would be one less thing to pay - freeing up some income
I'm not expert I have debt myself which at the minute we're managing with but with Martin's books and this site I fear we would be in a much worse situation ( if your buying the books try play.com and don't forget to go through quidcos website to gain cashback, or try your local library )
Keep posting and keep your head up the boss:money: says he has never seen a problem that cannot be solved and this website has help many people see the light at the end of the tunnel
Having a small child myself ( aged 4 ) I would say don't go mad for xmas, he/she will get loads from family members, I agree with one of the other posts clothes and maybe a small toy or two he/she'll have a great day and to be honest he/she is too young to remember what you bought
If you need a hand with starting on ebay give me a shout I've been doing it for 2 years and would class myself as a bit of an expert ( sadly )
Good Luck

benbenandme

Have a look at the Up Your Income board too, join all the survey sites, cashback sites etc, do the clicks ... it might seem to only generate pennies but put them all in a tin and use it for birthdays / christmas etc and its one less thing to have to find form your budget

Going back to the childcare thing, I may be wrong but I think that because your daughter is looked after by a family member you wouldn't be able to claim tax credits for this, however, if she was looked after by a childminder /nursery you could claim back up to 80% of the cost of it. I can understand you'd probably prefer her to be with family but it may be another possible way of reducing your deficit?

otb666

you should be getting working tax credit

tyllwyd

benbenandme wrote: »

.... however, if she was looked after by a childminder /nursery you could claim back up to 80% of the cost of it. ...

I'd check the figures before you rush down that route - it may well be that together you earn too much for that to apply.

If increasing your income isn't a possiblity, I think you need to talk to one of the debt advice charities asap - being realistic, I can't see that you can cut down more than £300 out of your budget, so the longer you leave it, the worse things will get.

insertname1981

we currently get ~£70 "family allowance" and £40 working tax credit.

MrsTinks

Insertname I think looking at those figures then unless you can find a way of upping your income - ie your wife working full time or either of you getting a second job then you are realistically looking at a DMP at this stage...
My advice is to contact CCCS (link in my signature) and speak to them. You can survive just about on your income but your debts are not getting dealt with properly...
A DMP would make this easier to manage although it WILL mess your credit rating for a few years to come. Which in my view isn't a bad thing...