Advice please

afur

At present i am a tad worried about my finances. My current situation is...

Mortgage...£500 p/m...£82,000 outstanding
Unsecured Loan...£465.50 p/m...78/84 months outstanding
Car finance...£165.57pm...53/60 months outstanding
Car Insurance...£50.65 pm... 6 months remaing, i use confused to find cheapest.
HP...£32.89pm...4 months outstanding
Nursery fees...£364 pm....4.5 years remaining till child goes to school
Sky..£30pm... just recently entered into agreement
Broadband...£25...will look for cheaper
Council tax...£123 pm
Gas/Elec...£57 just changed to cheapest supplier.
Credit cards...£140pm
Income - £935pm from myself and £881 from wife plus £100 per month for child.

Any advice given will be appreciated as i am really starting to struggle

cheers

dell_2

Yikes!

Off the top of my head....

Budget Planner
Child Tax Credits
Nursery vouchers from either of your employers
I'd lose the Sky I'm afraid
Broadband - you are right £25 is loads > are you in a Telewest/NTL area?
£600 per annum sounds a lot for car insurance - 2 cars maybe?
Just guessing that the c. cards are low apr?

Nothing listed for food/living expences?

grumbler

:eek:

Stop thinking in terms of 'pm'.
Start thinking in terms of 'APR'. If APRs are high it is worth considering switching debts to cheaper provider(s).

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micheleen

If you've just taken up $ky then you're in a 12 month contract, no cancellation possible I'm afraid.
You'll probably get more suggestions if this is moved to the Debt-Free board.

savvy

Hi afur
Hope you don't mind, I've moved your post to debt free wannabe, as it's more suited to that board.
Good luck
savvy

homersimpson_3

1. do you really need (not just want) car. if not sell it.
2. once hp comes to an end use this money to target debts.
3. have you applied for childcare vouchers.
4. get rid of sky
5. broadband too expensive
6. gas and electric seems very high
7. what mortgage rate are you paying- cheaper deal?
8. what is apr for these debts- target the highest one first and try and get lowest rates/0% deals
9. tax credits- have you applied.
10 what is £100 per month for child for?
11. what about tv licence, food and other expenses.

tattooed_lady

It looks like £100 income for the child could be child benefit/child tax credits?

You need to be a bit more specific OP, you need to list everything your money goes on, have you done Martin's budget planner?

fairylights_2

afur wrote:

Mortgage...£500 p/m...£82,000 outstanding
Unsecured Loan...£465.50 p/m...78/84 months outstanding
Car finance...£165.57pm...53/60 months outstanding
Car Insurance...£50.65 pm... 6 months remaing, i use confused to find cheapest.
HP...£32.89pm...4 months outstanding
Nursery fees...£364 pm....4.5 years remaining till child goes to school
Sky..£30pm... just recently entered into agreement
Broadband...£25...will look for cheaper
Council tax...£123 pm
Gas/Elec...£57 just changed to cheapest supplier.
Credit cards...£140pm
Income - £935pm from myself and £881 from wife plus £100 per month for child.

I'm not surprised you're starting to struggle - you have next to nothing to feed yourselves with! Try virgin.net for your broadband. They offer it as 14.99, and often have offers so you don't have to pay for your modem. It is monthly, too, so you aren't tied to them if a cheaper deal comes along. Your electric and gas seems high - are you doing everything you can to keep usage to a minimum. We are a family of four and I work from home - our electric and gas bills are £30 combined a month.

I'd have to say your car costs are crippling you too - maybe sell it and get a cheaper one if you really need it? Your budget doesn't include petrol, which is what used to catch us out when I was working.

Also, I'd echo the tax credits comments, with that little coming in and that much going on nursery fees, you should be entitled to some help ....

in*the*red_6

It seems to me that it's your unsecured loan which you're paying nearly as much as you mortgage on every month that's crippling you. Do you have a large amount of equity in your property? If so a remortgage deal might be worth consideration as your monthly repayments on your mortgage seem quite high too??
It's usually not considered the best thing to use equity or secure unsecured debts agains your property and I would normally completely agree with that, but the repayments on your current loan are huge. If you post some more detail i.e. total amount of debts and APRs then others would be able to advise whether a remortgage is worth thinking about.