Need to tighten our belts!!!

Daddyto3

Hi all,

Fairly new to this forum, and hope I will be offered lots of good advice, as I have been reading the advice given to everyone else, and it’s wicked!
Where do I start? husband, and Daddy to three beautiful kids (username probably gave that away), we live in a modest 3 bed terraced house. I work full time, and wife part-time. We still have 2 of the children under school age. So wife works evening/nights.

Have fairly good incomings, but debt of;-
Credit cards; £4,600
Loan £2,500 and
Mortgage £28,201,
and 3 loans that run along with mortgage £25,00 (mainly to renovate)

Do you all count mortage/secured mortgage loans as your debt? – I know it is debt, but unsure when you all say debt at highest XXXX – does it include it?

Ours is £53,200 I know it includes the 3 loans – but house been valued at £167k.

Anyway the problems we have is we never seem to have any money left at the end of the month, we usually overdraw! My wage is enough to cover d/d and food, petrol etc. ( Or should be)
So we have taken the step of getting wifes wages paid into different account to purely pay off debts. Approx £500-550 month. This is our 2nd month.

We have direct debits coming out for all sorts, we will be sitting down very soon and wading through these, we have also been looking at the cookery boards – which are wicked too!

How do we begin to knuckle down, and get debt-fee once and for all? We are both guilty of the “it’s only money”, and “we work all year why cant we have a nice holiday in the summer” attitude, but it’s getting us down, and nowhere, so it has to stop!

Being January and New Year and all that – this seems our perfect opportunity.

All help, advice will be most welcome.

Sorry for going on a bit!

Conor_3

Whilst your mortgage is a debt, most people wouldn't count it as such here because you've got to have a roof over your head no matter if you buy or rent.

I assume the loans are at the same rate as the mortgage and run for the same term? If so, £53k isn't alot.

Should be quite easy. A quick credit card shuffle onto 0% and cutting out a few of the non essentials as well as finding cheaper sources for some of the bills such as insurance.

Can you please do a statement of affairs and post it here so we can help? Include the interest rate for the credit cards and loans.

in*the*red_6

Hi Phil and welcome

People don't usually include their mortgages in their debt total but I think you would include secured loans. What are the APRs on these? It may be that you could get a better deal by remortgaging as the loans are secured anyway and your current mortgage is so low, but if you can give a little more info others will be better placed to tell you if that's the best option.

Best wishes

Kevicho

The best thing to do (this is becomming a standard answer now lol) is to post a full list of what you earn and where your money goes each month (ie food/water rates/rent/mortgage etc)

Then we can find out what your overpaying on and any luxuries that you may be able to cut back or get rid of to save money

Daddyto3

Wow, thanks for your replis upto now.

Conor wrote:

I assume the loans are at the same rate as the mortgage and run for the same term? If so, £53k isn't alot.

Yes rate is 4.39% but runs out end of april. Will be shopping around for another fixed deal. (dont think will get another as low tho')

Loan is with Cahoot 8.4% p
Credit Card x3 - 2 are 0%, and waiting for another 0% card to arrive to transfer the bulk £2455 from tesco to new card.

Will definately work on incomings/outgoings tonight, and post for all the world to see later on.

For this first time in months feel really motivated! :rotfl: ....let's see how long it lasts!

Cheers guys, and keep advise rolling in. Desparetly need it!

frosty

Hi Daddyto3,I joined the site in july last year, :j so far I have managed to pay off alot of credit cards and reduce all monthly bills,our food shopping has gone from over £100 a week :eek: to about £50 a week (5 adults +animals.) :T if you keep popping back each day to have a read like I do you will find it keeps you motivated,I have been money saving now for nearly 7 months and it great to be in control,good luck :beer:

Daddyto3

Thanks frosty, it's reassuring to know the tips on this site do work. :j

Right been working on this for an hour, so stick with me, 'cos its long!

INCOMINGS;

ME £1,500.00
HER; £ 500.00
CHILD BEN 159.20
WORKING TAX £ 137.06
CREDITS.

OUTGOINGS

DIRECT DEBITS;

CAHOOT £53.56 (loan 8.4% apr)
SCOT POWER £100.00 (gas & lec,gone up from £53, as we were a little in arrears, even Tho once a month I enter true rading on-line)
COUNCIL TAX £103.00 (10 Months)
MORTGAGE £206.47
3 MORT LOANS £180.47
CAR INS (HIS) £ 23.45
IMP, CANCER £ 2.00
02 MOBILE £17.50 (500 FREE TXTS, 1000MINS MONTH)
NTL £26.99 (PHONE)
NTL COMM £35.64 (INTERNET)
ROYAL LONDON £38.25 (ENDOWMENT & LIFE !!!!!!)
OXFAM £ 2.00
HOME & CONTS £28.01
CAR INS (HERS) £25.89
WATER £30.67
TOTAL £873.90

FOOD £220.00
PETROL £100.00
MILKMAN £25.00
PRE-SCHOOL £64.00
SWIM LESSONS £25.00 (£52 FOR 2 KIDS FOR 10 WEEKS)
SPENDS £80.00 (£40 EACH – USUALLY GOES ON KIDS)
EATING OUT £40.00 (£10 WEEK FOR CHIPPY/MCDON)
MISC £50.00 (EMERGENCY CASH AT HOME)

TOTAL £604.00

My money just about covers all the outgoings for a month. (ALL LISTED ABOVE)

Then my wifes wage, and benefits for the children now go into a seperate account;-

TOTAL: £796.26

Out of this she pays;-
Sky; £33.00 (20% REDUCTION FOR 8 MONTHS)

A&L CC - £1238.56 - 0% TILL MARCH 06
HSBC CC - £916.00 0% TILL MAY 06
TESCO CC- £2455.58 - AWAITING CARD FROM HALIFAX TO TRANSFER - 0% 12 MONTHS.

And as much as possible of the above 3 cards, along with a couple of cheque Next (£90.11 o/s and Vertbaudet about £44 o/s)

So, this is only the 2nd month my wifes money will be getting paid into a seperate account along with benefits, as we felt it was getting swallowed up with the direct debits, so werent paying as much as we should have to debt!

Now we have written it all out, it seems we have a little more money than we thought, as we had forgotten about benefits.

But even though it looks more written down, we don't actually plan for mot's, maintenance to cars, birthdays, parties, xmas etc. We tend to sort it when it comes to it. Instead of paying every last penny to your debtors, what do you all do? Should we keep money aside for these events or not?

On the account which my wages get paid into, and all the bills come out, I am actually £700 overdrawn? So even tho' it should balance, because of Xmas, overdrew a little bit (!) :eek:

Waffled enough, going for me tea! Got a right headache now! :rotfl:
be back tonight, cheers guys!

Biffa

Why do you have a milkman? Surely it's cheaper to go to the supermarket? And if you're financially struggling, then charity begins at home, and not with Oxfam. Also, your monthly NTL bill seems a bit high. Have you looked at their 3 for £30 offer? You could probably save around £25 ifyou changed. Also, have a look at uswitch.co.uk to see if you can find a cheaper energy supplier. I'd skip the takeaways as well, or maybe make them a monthly treat and not a weekly one? I'm sure others will come up with other ways of cutting back and increasing your income, I just can't think of any at the moment. But well done for posting and good luck in sorting it out.

bank_of_slate

Hi Daddyto3
I agree with the milk thing, much cheaper from the supermarket.
Also, can you contact NTL to give you a better combined deal? have a look on their website and see if a new customer would get a better deal for the same services. If so, ring em and complain using the old 'loyal customer' thing...it might work!

Your incomings are similar to mine & hubby's and we used to look and say "We earn good money, what the hell are we doing in this situation?"

Check all the lecky, gas, insurance deals around using the guides on this website, your home & contents could come down a bit, also can you combine car insurance?

Check at both your work HR debts if they run the childcare voucher schemes as they can save a fair bit of money!

The important thing is you have turned a very difficult corner and are facing the situation head on! If you feel weak at any point, just keep on here as often as you can. It's like a thriving community here and we'll give you lots of support!!
...Linda xx

newmum1

hi there well done for posting, i agree about the charity begins at home, and milk is cheaper form the supermarket,
i think your food bills are quite high also at £220 per month plus milkman , thats £245 have you tried meal planning doing a menu so you know exactly what you need to buy, also maybe you need to cut down or out the eating out, what is the £80.00 spends for??????????

magentadreamer

I'd go for ditching the milkman, you'll find milk cheaper at the local shop or supermarket. With regards to your NTL packages - are you out of the 12 months contract for the broadband? I rang them and asked if they had any special offers for existing custumers after being put throw to the retentions dept I got half price broadband for 6 months plus a free UK phone calls ( not prem rate one's) for 6 months. Check to see if you can get cheaper household insurance - I rang my existing supplier and funnily enough I could get a no claims bonus that matched the other policy I found plus they gave me accidental cover for the buildings insurance - I can now go in the loft without worrying!

I'd also suggest the store cards were ditched ASP.