newbie has light bulb moment - Advise please

apples101

well we are approx 50k in debt actually thought it was just under 40....doh


went through accounts as wife has just been given notice on her last full time child (wife is a child minder)and had a big shock. statement below:


% Rate Ammount Monthly Payment
Egg Loan 7.7 10560.33 200.34
Cahoot Loan 11.5 8902.6 176.69
MBNA C Card 7000 150.00
Mint C Card 1900 80.00
Nat West Loan 7.9 10030 260.00
Overdraft 6500

Easymoney C Card 1652 65.28
Virgin C Card 4414 141.00
Next store 1000 177.00
Barclay Card 589 17.00
Capital one C Card 1850 60.00


total monthly outgoings 4353 including house expenses
total income 3768 :eek: (in three weeks time)

havnt been extravagant but these debts were in the most part due to my wifes ex.
need advice please, (just started to speak to pay plan)

homer_j_3

welcome to the forum, you are in the right place to get support. I am sure that you will get plenty of it through your journey towards debt free living.

Is there any chances of your wife lining up new employment within the next 3 weeks???

Lydia.42

Welcome.....
Any chance you could post the rest of your monthly out-going's? The people on here are great at spotting ways to cut back.
They tend to need everything from mortgage/bills, etc to mobiles/clothes, etc.
Hang in there, they'll be along soon.
Lots of hugs
L

Xbigman

Which debts are in your name, hers and joint names? The straightforward way out is to write to unsecured creditors and offer them reduced payments, hopefully they will freeze interest in the meantime, but it depends on a lot of different things. If you go down this route you probably need to open a new bank account. That overdraft will otherwise cause problems. With a new bank account it is just another debt.

The more info you can post the better feeling we can get for your situation.
First thought, advertise and get more children into the childminding job to boost income. If this comes off please don't carry on spending, instead keep on this board and start clearing those debts.
Regards





X

apples101

child minding in this area seems to be very slow, wife always advertises within the allowed parameters. further expediture details below.

Council Tax 197.00
Water 20.00
Gas 50.00
Elec 50.00
Car 1 35.00
Car 2 35.00
Tv 11.67
insurance dryer 5.33 (cancelled)
Food 433.33
Petrol 1 86.67
Petrol 2 150.00
Clothes 208.33
Dog & Cats 23.08
Dog insurance 25.00
2 Dance 44.00
1&3 Dance 37.50
3 Swimming 22.92
Brownies 4.50
1 swim daily 8.67
1 swim fees 9.17
Mortgage 1,416.00
Virgin B Band 14.99
Mobile 1 30.00
Mobile 2 35.00
Car tax 1 15.00
Car tax 2 15.00
Phone 40.00

apples101

PS. tried to remortgage but valuation was less... :-( (further 500 indebt)

highguyuk

Just a few questions!

Do you need to run two cars? They must have big engines because of the higher rate of tax. Do you travel alot of miles because that is quite high petrol! If you need to run two cars could you downgrade one and save on tax/petrol. Where do you get it from? Have a look at https://www.pipelinecard.org and https://www.petrolprices.com.

For your phone calls look at https://www.18185.com. No need to change from BT, just dial a number before you make the call and save yourself some money!

I presume you both have contract mobiles? Maybe you could use as Pay as you go mobile? o2 offer free sims card, top up £10 per month to receive 300 text messages or 100 free minutes - top up more to get more benefits. Could work out cheaper.

Swim fees. If this is something you enjoy doing is there a discount scheme? Prepay and get certain amount free? Or unlimited passes that might work out cheaper? Perhaps off peak/on peak times are different prices?

Do you eat out alot? £433 seems high for food? You have children of your own? Check out some of the other forum threads for ways to cut this down such as recipe suggestions.

Not up on my insurances etc - but do you need dog insurance? Someone else may be able to help with that.

Well done on your 'lightbulb' moment, there are lots of people here in the same situation as you - and everyone will try and help you as much as they can.

jesster_2

how many of there are you in the house? Think you could reduce food spend...

magentadreamer

I think you should consider talking to payplan or CCCS as your debts have spiralled out of control.

I'd seriously look at ways to cut back as well.

Food: £433 - how many are you feeding on this amount? Have you looked at the OS board for tips on meal planning etc? Where do you do your main food shop? Have you considered trying the likes of Lidl and Aldi? I shop at both Tesco's and Lidl.

Clothes:£208 this is another area that you can cut back on drastically. I'm assuming this monthly figure is for clothing your kids and not yourselves? Try shopping in the sales etc plus look on Ebay,markets,primark etc

Cars: your cars are costing you £306 a month or £3680.04 Do you really need two cars? if you do have you thought about buying at least one smaller old run around thats more economical on petrol. I'm assuming it's your wife who works from home that spends £86 on petrol a month.

Mobiles: These are costing you £65 a month if you're out of the contract then I'd suggest payasyougo.

Dancing/swimming - I understand that these are probably for your kids is there any way you can cut back on this expenditure?

Phone/Gas/Elec: are you on the cheapest tarriffs? This would also go for your household insurance etc.

fairylights_2

Hey apples101

Welcome to Debt Free Wannabe! Looks like you've got your work cut out to get this debt down, but as has been said already, there are lots of places for you to save.

First, though, you need to find out the APRs of all your debts and get them into an order. Work out what's costing you the most in interest and pay that first (not necessarily the highest debt, just the highest APR). Then find out about your loans - can you overpay them or are you tied in to these full term?

Bad news for your wife - does she have another potential source of income whilst waiting for more children to mind? I work from home, and have to admit wouldn't want to go back to work full time until both of my two are at school (youngest is just one) but it means certain sacrifices ...

I'm assuming you earn too much to get any tax credits, but what about child benefit? You can use that for the children's activities if you really can't bear the thought of stopping brownies, or whatever.

The key as far as limiting your spending goes is that you need to accept that you can't afford to live as you are doing. That means things have to give. So apologies if you find me a bit harsh, but lightbulb moment generally means you know things need to change, and don't know where to start. I'd recommend working down the list on the left hand side of the screen (the maroon buttons) to cut your costs in every bit of your lives.

Your Gas and Electric both seem astronomical. Can you turn the heating down - or off? What's eating your electric? Switch EVERYTHING off! Buy some tealights, and burn them instead of having lights on in the evening.

Your Food bill is huge too. That's more than £100 a week on average. This is where you can probably save the most. Buy own label rather than brand foods, shop online so you can't get tempted to buy more than you need. Plan your weeks so you have a certain number of meals' ingredients and can cook from them. No takeaways, no ready meals. If your wife is at home, she can make things in the daytime. Why not make bread with the children? I appreciate she'll have to have food in the house for however many little ones, but buy a big bag of raisins and give them a bowl with a few in rather than individual packets (just daft examples of where we've saved money!)

I'm assuming you need two cars so she can do her job, and you can get to yours, so just try to use them less - walk more, drive less. I don't drive if I'm going somewhere in our town (which means within two miles).

Stop buying clothes! If you spend £200 a month, that means nearly £2.5k on clothes per year. Imagine what a dent that would make on your debts. If you can help but get tempted when you go near shops, DON'T GO! You must have wardrobes full of things you don't wear spending at that rate. Make the most of what you've got for a while instead.

Not a word about the £50 per month pets, I'm not an animal lover, but that's your choice! Unless you can get cheaper pet food?

All those activities tot up to £126.76 per month (1.5k a year). Can something give, for a term? Is swimming daily really necessary? What about all that dancing? Seems really expensive!

Stop using those mobiles! £65 a month? when you have a home phone? How did you manage before mobiles? Remember, and recreate!

Check out the article about the best home phone providers, and act on it.

I know you like the way you're living at present, but you have to recognise that THAT is what has got you into this situation. Good luck, and keep going!

tattooed_lady

Hiya Apples,

I'm guessing from your SOA that you have 3 kids? I don't spend more than £50 a month on clothes for all of us (we have 3 kids), try charity shops or even see if you can swop with other families -have a clothes swapping party! In my area the local sure start has a clothing swap where you can take your kids good quality outgrown clothes and swap for other clothes. Worth ringing around and see if there's anything like that in your area. Also, having 2 cars is SO expensive, I have an old banger but if/when it conks out it's gone! Good luck!