BrightHouse/Council Tax Arrears Advice

carlislelass

baby wipes aren`t essential, nappy area can be cleaned perfectly well with warm water.

B..

wipes are fine for me.

carlislelass

not getting into an argument

B..

Does anyone know where i stand regarding the council? As i pay £60 a month for the last two years arrears, do you think i'd be able to get them to accept less so that i can start paying this years on top? Or is it a case of i pay what they tell me to?

edit again, thanks Merlin, useful post!

diamondgal007

B, I had issues with my council tax (I have a thread on here), it went to the bailiffs, once I got some great advise from people on here and contacted my local councillor, it got sorted, as I am now paying the arrears AND the new years council tax in monthly instalments. They agreed too, to it being paid in 12 months rather than the 10.

I suggest you try and contact your local councillor, to see if he/she can help, until mine stepped in the council had refused to talk to me.

Good luck!

Tixy

I would suggest you don't change you council tax payment until you have had your meeting with CCCS in a couple of weeks, I know its frustrating to have to wait to see them when you have your LBM and are finally ready to tackle things its demotivating when you can't start moving things forward. But keep things as they are until then 'don't upset the applecart', as my Gran used to say, until you have decided what you are going to do DRO, DMP, Bankruptcy etc.

What you can do in the meantime is look at areas you can cut back in and also have a look at the up your income board. Maybe you and OH can sign up to do some online reviews/surveys that pay in vouchers (as these doesn't affect your WTC). Also there are the little things like the bingo free scratchcards. You can both sign up to 2 sites. It works out as earning around £150 a year between you which can, say, pay for christmas presents. Look at the freebies board - often baby products and toiletries samples on there - every little helps;). Also there is the competitions board you could look at (although I don't do these) - my advice for freebies and competitions would be to set up a new email account (on yahoo or hotmail) so that you don't get emails from these bombarding you to you normal email or worse your work one!

Really all areas of the forum can help save you money in one way or another (though I would say that DFW & Oldstyle are the friendliest boards!)

Fire_Fox

B.. wrote: »

£300 for groceries still isn't enough to be honest! we both eat fairly healthy so everything is fresh and usually smartprice stuff aswell. things like nappies, baby wipes, laundry tabs shoot the price up.

Our contract phones include pretty much everything apart from 08 numbers, which i call off the landline anyway as some of them are free. We have tried to go for lower tariffs but they won't let us. We've barely ever gone over our allowance and if we have it's been because the landline hasn't been working.

Believe it or not, we don't EVER have the heating on lol. Last time we had it on must of been 6+ months ago. Both electric and gas are on meters, the gas meter still has debt which i have listed, we use that much gas just by heating the water (only when needed) and cooking.

OH doesn't watch tv at all during the day, he's too busy looking after our 2 year old. He has applied for jobs etc with no luck of even an interview, plus we can't afford the childcare. little one is too much of a handful for him to be mowing lawns etc. He will be starting a college course if he can't find work, so we should hopefully get some help from that.

I will take everything you said on board though, hopefully try cut a few costs down.

I still need to cut it down by a big amount as i'm not paying full council tax at the moment. (Should be paying £168)

Looking at your Statement of Affairs you do have some wiggle room and certainly enough to be making token payments. CCCS have advised you which are priority debts and you must go with that.

You can eat healthily on a budget - beans on wholemeal toast, Spanish omelette, lentil and vegetable curry and rice, brown pasta with homemade tomato sauce and a little cheese, savoury bread and butter pudding, etc. Buying laundry tablets is expensive - own brand powder is much cheaper. If things don't come white enough buy Value bleach. :money:

Right now your mobile bills and satellite TV are not priority bills - you may get cut off so be it. Gas and electricity are huge - you can switch supplier if one a prepayment meter, if you don't use the heating much Ebico is probably cheapest. Use a price comparison site or post up on the 'Gas and Electricity' board.

Travelling to work is costing you £415 a month which is crazy. Can you use public transport to get part of the way, then get a lift or cycle the rest? Can you car share with anyone?

I am sorry if we all sound harsh, don't forget many of us have been in your shoes. You are trying to justify expenses that are not essential to survival: please learn from our mistakes. If you don't you may end up with the council taking you to court and getting a charge against your wages, bailiffs for BH taking your furniture or the lease company taking your car.

wannabe_sybil

I hope you do not mind me posting, as I am not an expert, but there is a Food & Shopping board which may help with grocery bill. Actually I am coming in at just over £300 per month groceries and I consider my spend lavish. This is for two adults and a little one who is nearly two and a half.

Also, I use wipes on my little boy at the moment, but I had a better result with his bottom when I used just plain water on reusable clothes (wash at 60 degrees). Also I use less expensive nappies during the day (I am a devil for changing him) but the more expensive at night. Sainsbury Basics wipes work better for him than the more expensive ones but I do spend out more because instead of buying nappy bags I tie them up in basics sandwich bags, which are a lot more pong proof.

Also on Old Style board a lady aimed to spend 50p per person per day for two adults to eat healthily and she did all the research. I don't suggest you read perhaps the longest thread on this site, but the recipes at the start may help.

One thing I found is that if I got eg Sainsbury basics pears I got a selection of different varieties for my little one to try, for a very reasonable cost. Apples also you get a number of different varieties depending on season etc. However if your little one struggles with different foods then that is difficult, and you cannot cut costs there.

It depends on your set up, it is hard to cut grocery costs with all these rising prices, but that may be a way to go.

I hope this does not offend or upset you and that it is of use.

B..

Thanks Tixy/DG

FF, don't worry i don't take it in a negative way, at the end of the day they are all ideas and i take them all on board.

I have thought about just not paying certain bills, but i did that with BT and ended up with a whole years contract in debt just short of £800.

Gas isn't possible to switch due to the meter having debt on it, and electric is the cheapest in our area, with prepayment meters.

It is expensive travelling to work and back but it's my only option at the minute, i live quite a distance from work so i can't cycle or anything and there's no-one within a 10 mile radius that i can get a lift with. Nearest bus/train routes don't go anywhere near my work place as i have explored this when i was without a car last year. i ended up having to borrow my grandads car for a short while, which he wasn't happy about.

I am still not ruling out the fact that i will probably go BR or get a DRO, the fact is even though i might be able to cut costs down in certain areas, i will still be left paying the debts off for longer than i can imagine, so going BR sounds about the best option at the minute.

Although i have listened and taken on board all the advice given to me in this thread, which might i add has been extremely helpful to me

edit - thanks wannabe, i will take all that on board

edit again lol - thanks Merlin, and thanks for all your input, very much appreciated

RAS

Hi

I strongly advise you to go over the the BR forum where there is a long and excellent thread on DROs.

Based on when I last read it, the car may be a sticking point.

You cannot include secured debt (Brighthouse and possibly the car) in a bankruptcy and you need careful advice on the council tax debt as that is not always wiped out by bankruptcy.