Help Us (SOA Included)

Aruffell

This is a SOA for me and my partner.

http://www.blade-uk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/soacalc.html

Upon looking at it, we think the best course of action would be to consolidate the Argos card and Vanquis card onto the Nationwide card due to it having a lower rate and encorporate our payments onto this.

Also, i don't work and am entitled to £4 per fortnight from JSA, which (once we've drove to the job centre) we would be wasting more than that in petrol so it's not worth it. They will only give me £4 because my partner works part time and gets £65 a week so they deduct that from my JSA.

I'm guessing that we are entitled to Housing benefit and council tax benefit?
What about income support?

I'm looking for a job but as you know it is hard to find a job out there.

Help us as we can't live off of £57 disposable income.

Andy

debtfreein4years

have you got any money set aside for birthday and christmas presents as with 3 children it seems prudent to have even £10 a month set aside.

again when is your road tax due for the car? should you be budgeting something towards that.

gas and electric seems slightly high. i pay £30 a month each and am in credit. im home every day and have laptop etc on all day.

council tax can be spread over 12 months rather than 10.

groceries could come down a bit. i spend £120 a month on 2 adults and we eat extremly well. even cutting it down to £200 by meal planning should give you that bit extra room in your budget.

to me it seems sensible transferring the balance of the argos and vanquis cards onto the nationwide card as long as you close the accounts.

good luck

Fire_Fox

Hi!

You can live on a £57 disposable income if you have budgeted properly for all other outgoings. You need to include haircuts and suchlike as you can't ignore these indefinitely. Can you cut back on the mobile phones, get Freeview instead of a TV package? These are not priority bills.

Do you actually need to run a car? It's probably costing you most of your partner's wages - if not more if any of your debts are car finance. I know with kids it's hard but you don't seem to be able to afford to run it right now ... Also you must budget for road tax, MOT and maintenance as again these are unavoidable expenses.

Benefits don't take debts into account, they only look at what the average family needs to pay essential bills (rent/ energy/ water/ council tax/ food). You may want to look at going onto a Debt Management Plan to take care of the debt repayments.

Tixy

Aruffell wrote: »

I'm guessing that we are entitled to Housing benefit and council tax benefit?
What about income support?

Does the benefits income figure include HB & CT benefit? If so are you already getting these or are you still waiting for them?

Just had a quick look through the expenses. Is the car a definite necessity?

With petrol, costly insurance and the road tax and MOT, maintenance it must also need it is costing you a lot per month. If you do need it are you on the best insurance? Have you shopped around using the comparison sites and make sure you look at getting cashback if you switch providers (quidco, topcashback etc). Also what is the petrol spent on (as you are not commuting at the moment) Are all journey essential? If not cut down to reduce fuel costs.

Groceries could be cut a bit (although depends on how much the children eat/ how old they are).

May be a good short term measure to move debts onto Nationwide if you can (depends on if you can do a BT from the others at check you'll get the same rate), but as a long term measure you need to work out what the debts were built up on and make sure you are not continuing to increase them. Essentail you close the accounts you pay off through BT so you don't spend on them again.

Caroline73_2

Aruffell wrote: »

This is a SOA for me and my partner.

http://www.blade-uk.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/soacalc.html

Upon looking at it, we think the best course of action would be to consolidate the Argos card and Vanquis card onto the Nationwide card due to it having a lower rate and encorporate our payments onto this.

Also, i don't work and am entitled to £4 per fortnight from JSA, which (once we've drove to the job centre) we would be wasting more than that in petrol so it's not worth it. They will only give me £4 because my partner works part time and gets £65 a week so they deduct that from my JSA.

I'm guessing that we are entitled to Housing benefit and council tax benefit?
What about income support?

I'm looking for a job but as you know it is hard to find a job out there.

Help us as we can't live off of £57 disposable income.

Andy

You can live off it as you have covered all your essentials in your SOA.

However, I can understand the situation you feel you are in. £55 is an amazing amount on mobiles per month! You can reduce this significantly.

£120 seems a lot for petrol too, are all those journey's necessary?

Moving your debts to a card with a lower interest makes sense but make sure you close the other accounts.

Good luck.

Aruffell

By moving the debts via balance transfer, our nationwide leaflet says:

We are increasing the minimum fee for balance transfers to £5.00. On all balance transfers, including those made after the 3 month introductory period, a fee of 3% (min £5.00) will be charged. Please see clause I of the revised terms and conditions.

So i'm thinking, if we balance transfer it is going to cost us whereas what is stopping us ringing up Argos and Vanquis and paying them off with the nationwide credit card and it won't cost us a penny?

Andy

Aruffell

By the way, our Phone, Internet and TV is £20 all in as we know someone at BT and got a special staff deal on it.

So that is the cheapest of the cheapest.

Andy

Jesthar

Aruffell wrote: »

By moving the debts via balance transfer, our nationwide leaflet says:



So i'm thinking, if we balance transfer it is going to cost us whereas what is stopping us ringing up Argos and Vanquis and paying them off with the nationwide credit card and it won't cost us a penny?

Andy

Check to see what the rate would be for a balance transfer as opposed to the 'normal' rate on the VERY quickly through accumulating less interest on the debt, possibly in just a month!

Either which way, you NEED to transfer those as soon as possible, as they are larger debts costing you a not-so-small fortune in interest. :eek: After that, pay the minimum payments only on the Nationwide card, and throw all your spare money in overpayments on your Littlewoods debts, as they are also horribly high interest, but the smaller balances may make transferring less viable if you can clear them quickly.

Incidentally, have you listed BT twice, under both Telephone (landline) and Sattelite/Cable TV, being as you said you pay £20 for the lot? If so, that's £20 off your outgoings right there.

As to only having £57 disposable income; well, you've covered all the necessities of life, plus basic luxuries (TV etc.) AND all your debt payments, and still have a bit left over with the potential to save even more money off your outgoings. If you can bite the bullet and throw as much of this spare cash as possible at clearing as much as you can off your debts for a while, you're going to be pouring a lot less down the drain in debt interest, and will have more cash to enjoy sooner in the long run.

~Jes

Aruffell

Ok, one thing, with the Nationwide card, it is in my partner's dad's name.

Does this hinder anything? We have full permission to use it and we are paying the payments.

I listed the telephone thing twice because the water in our area is rubbish and really chalky and hence why we have a water cooler so i listed the price of that under cable TV, as i didnt know where to put it.

Andy

RAS

Aruffell wrote: »

Also, i don't work and am entitled to £4 per fortnight from JSA, which (once we've drove to the job centre) we would be wasting more than that in petrol so it's not worth it. They will only give me £4 because my partner works part time and gets £65 a week so they deduct that from my JSA.

I'm guessing that we are entitled to Housing benefit and council tax benefit?
What about income support?

I'm looking for a job but as you know it is hard to find a job out there.

Andy

It is vital that you sign on even if you do not actually get any money. This means that your NI contributions are credited and affects your future benefit and penson entitlements.

It also allows you to access a number of addtional benefits, so please do it.

If you check www.entitledto.com you will get an idea of the benefits you can claim as well.

OrkneyStar

debtfreein4years wrote: »

have you got any money set aside for birthday and christmas presents as with 3 children it seems prudent to have even £10 a month set aside.

again when is your road tax due for the car? should you be budgeting something towards that.

gas and electric seems slightly high. i pay £30 a month each and am in credit. im home every day and have laptop etc on all day.

council tax can be spread over 12 months rather than 10.

groceries could come down a bit. i spend £120 a month on 2 adults and we eat extremly well. even cutting it down to £200 by meal planning should give you that bit extra room in your budget.

to me it seems sensible transferring the balance of the argos and vanquis cards onto the nationwide card as long as you close the accounts.

good luck

These are not really that high I don't think.
Depending on the age of the children I also think £280 pcm is a reasonable amount to budget for food. I'd be inclined to leave it at £250-280 pcm but if you can get reduced stuff, offers etc then maybe aim to spend a bit less than you actually budget iywsim. Setting it too low can mean you give up completely, whereas discovering you have £10-20 leftover to pay to a debt on top of what you actually planned will make you feel like you are doing something and also look like you are making an effort (although not too much more in case creditor starts to think you are flush lol).
Good luck with it all.