In serious debt trouble

fonay1805

Keeping_Positive wrote: »

Going cold turkey and cutting out all luxuries can back fire by leading to silly splurges. Debt busting can be similar to weight loss its better to go slower at times for better long term results.

I agree. I realise that it will take quite some time to clear the debt we have and am prepared for that to be the case. I have cut back where I can and have reduced the cost of the luxuries we have by cutting down the services we subscribed to.

bluecowonthebus

Hi

I'm pretty new to posting but thought of a couple of things. Are you claiming all the Tax Credits you could be? Your SOA says £220 for benefits but child benefit alone for three children is £201 monthly. Surely you must qualify for some child tax credit on top of that?

The NCT charity is a good source of cheap items for children at their Nearly New Sales. You can also sell stuff like bags of baby clothes, toys etc. Their website https://www.nct.org.uk lists upcoming sales.

With the Sky TV cost, it does seem a bit unnecessary. You can get CBeebies and CBBC on Freeview.

Good luck.

fonay1805

Hi,

We are claiming tax credits, I wasn't sure what we were allocated but we get £15 a week. As for freeview, we live in an area where you need to have sky or cable to get any kind of reception. When we first moved in we have freeview and struggled to get any channels at all. It was only after talking to my neighbours that I found at the poor signal is known throughout the village and that sky or cable is the only way to get a guaranteed signal.
Thank you for the link, I will take a look at the website shortly...

chevalier

My comments are in blue

fonay1805 wrote: »

Hi VanillaDelia,

Thanks for your reply.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0 - needs to earning p/t - I work irregular shifts and therefore my wife is unable to work part time as she can't guarantee that I won't be working.

But did you take previous advice to get her signed up to survey sites, doing daily clicks, signing up to sites like bingoport where you can get amazon vouchers, or what about writing reviews on dooyoo etc. All of these mean she can do them any time little one is asleep. Most of them pay in Amazon vouchers (though some survey sites do a cash payment into a paypal account). All of which could mean at the very least you had a money neutral year with regards to presents.
There is also AQA - any questions answered. Your wife would have to register as self employed with this, but there is one poster on here who earn £500 a month approx on here. Ok you have to set aside 30% of that as tax and national insurance, but even so that is still a few hundred to throw at debts. Also mystery shopping (again have to register as SE), which can be fitted around the children. And don't forget that the oldest child can be going to nursery free for a set time each week now, which might make it easier on OH to get to mystery shops.

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 45 this is a luxury, they may not allow it. - I understand the principle behind what your saying, however, my kids enjoy having their programmes as does my wife so I would call this something else if I had to. I have reduced it to £34 Sorry but your children don't care. If you got a £10 freeview box, or even put a wanted add on www.freecycle.org (you might be lucky and someone has one to give away), you would get Cbeebies for free. Also some of the digital channels. £34 is still nearly £400 a year you could be saving for a one off fee.

Groceries etc. ......................... 360 very high try cut back by £60 at least - We are trying Again where your wife can help. I did online shopping at Tesco. I always managed to find a free delivery voucher on the voucher board on this forum, so it saved me the petrol and the time. I often got another voucher for extra Tesco points so got a lot of deals, that could be spent on days out (so you don't feel so deprive

Also on this front you could do an inventory of what you have in at the moment. Everything in the cupboards, freezer frigge. Make it a challenge to only buy milk veggies, nappies and fruit, and bread for say two weeks. Could you meal plan two weeks worth of meals to save that grocery spend? Then going forward do as above. Sorry but it isn't hard, it is just a case of you or your OH getting into a routine of batch cooking, meal planning, shopping listing etc.

Clothing................................ 40 this should come into your groceries etc section - This was more for the kids shoes etc than for my wife and myself. Can't remember the ages of your children, but don't be fooled into thinking that children that can't walk yet need shoes. they don't - who tells you they need shoes, shoe manufacturers. In fact cheap shoes, can actually harm growing feet.

Petrol/diesel........................... 220 that is far to much, take a walk, bike - When I am working it is a 100 mile round trip and therefore taking a bike or walking is not an option.Ok think out of the box here, can you car share with soemone to lower the costs? What about on the day shifts getting the bus - yes i know it may increase your journey time, but you have to try and budget time versus money and work out which is worth more. Or (and believe me I know this is hard to think about), do you have a mate who lives near where you work, who might let you kip on his sofa free a night every other week or something?
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 54This is REALLY high. Are you under 25, or got points? If not then what group is the car? If you have now settled the log book loan, can you sell it for a cheaper group insurance car. Or check on insurance comparison websites to get a better deal. And then go via a cashback site to get money back on the deal?

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 they dont give for these things, they are luxuries - Like I said with the sky, I will call this something else if I have to. I understand why I shouldn't be listing these things but there is no company I owe who is going to tell me I can't buy my family presents etc

Again you have young children, quite frankly the youngest one would love a box full of bright torn up paper if it was big enough. The older ones don't need new toys, only YOU need to buy them new toys... look in charity shops regularly you would be amazed at how much good almost new toys you can get in there. Again look on www.freecycle.org to keep an eye out for people giving away toys for FREE. You just have to go and pick them up. Some people just can't be bothered to ebay them, so give them away instead.

Then have a look at the special occasions forum. Get crafty, creative. Easter is coming up. If you feel that older relatives need something at this time, then get the children some cheap pain, and some cardboard from the £ shop and do their foot prints or hand prints with the pain. let them throw some glitter round the edges, or maybe stickers again from £ shop and voila cheap easter presents, that will pls the relatives cos they are from your children.

You just have to make your money work HARDER AND SMARTER for you.
quote]

Like I said you don't HAVE to pay for these things, or not at this price. that is what the previous responder was pointing out

Well done on coming this far. I hope that you can get the rest of it sorted out
chev

beanielou

Great advice there from Chev

Keeping_Positive

If you cancel sky you still keep the box and have freesat channels which will include kids channels like cbbc and cbbcies. The only ones in the family who cares about how must spent is the adults. Young children really dont care or understand.