Debt Help Needed please..........

RandyRos

As there's too much info to take in on this site, I thought I'd make a post...........
........right, well, here it is. I'm a married mum of 3, husband is employed. we're getting all the benefits we're entitled to. don't know offhand how things stand right at this moment, but I have a financial statement that was done 6 months ago........

MONTHLY INCOME
Wages
1100.00 (CAN GO UP OR DOWN, ACCORDING TO OVERTIME)
TaxCredits (GET SLIGHTLY LESS NOW, + WE HAVE TO PAY FOR PRESCRITIONS)
431.03
Child Benefit
162.71
MONTHLY INCOME TOTAL
1693.74
MONTHLY EXPENDITURE
Buildings! Contents Insurance
9.67
Life Insurance! Pension
2.98
Council Tax
74.00
Electricity
40.00
Oil I Other fuel
20.00
Telephone inc mobile (LESS NOW, AS I HAVE A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE)
95.00
TV Licence I Rental
29.17
Road Tax & Insurance
22.00
Petrol & Repairs
150.00
Food & Housekeeping
541.66
Clothes
50.00
Sundries & Repairs
50.00
Entertainment inc Cigs
86.66
Pocket Money
9.00
internet
12.49
Pet food I vets bills
66.00
PRESCRIPTIONS
12.20
MONTHLY EXPENDITURE TOTAL
1271.83
MONTHLY CASHFLOW SUMMARY
Total monthly income
1693.74
Total monthly outgoings
1271.83
MONTHLY CASH AVAILABLE
421.91
NON-PRIORITY DEBTS Monthly
Lloyds Tsb
payments
36.00
Debts
2216.00
Notes 50
L
Egg (9.9% apr)
79.00
4871.00
133.91
Egg
17.00
1016.00
20
Lombard (6.9% apr)
245.00
15000.00
193.16
Bank of Scotland (5.9% for the life of the balance transfer)
26.00
1574.00
48
Argos (NOW PAID OFF)
6.00
375.00
12
Studio (NOW PAID OFF)
2.00
145.80
5 Reduced
General Credit
9.00
542.31
5
Daxon
3.00
184.57
5
.
Oxendale
11.00
679.76
5
NON-PRIORITY DEBTS TOTALS
434.00
26604.44
Payments set by equitable distribution,
rounded off

I have changed a few bits on there to update it, hope I got the sums right, but at 2am it's doubtful. ::)
We recently got a MINT card with 0% interest for 9months, and put almost all of the TSB balance on it.
And before anyone asks, yes, we realise we have a big problem, and have cut back spending accordingly.
I was advised by the CAB that bankrupcy was a viable option, but as my husband is a proud man, he dismissed this out of hand, and I can see his point. We got ourselves into this, we should get ourselves out.
But it won't hurt to ask for advice, which I am doing now.
Please can you help????

System

Hi

A few thoughts occur to me.

First, you say this statement is 6 months old. You need an up-to-date one, and to keep it up to date!

Good move to shift interest-paying debt on to a 0% card, so just pay the basic on this for the life of the 0% deal, at the same time throw as much money as you can to the highest-interest debt and reduce it.

Keep on paying the 'priority' things, which I'm sure the CAB told you, are things to do with the roof over your head (mortgage/rent, council tax), and utilities.

Think about either increasing income OR reducing expenditure - essential to reduce expenditure anyway. What's all this about cigs/entertainment? Cigs at £4+ for 20 - you can't afford them! Can you do without entertainment for a while? sit down and talk together, and decide between you what you can do without. To get out of this situation is possible, with co-operation and effort. You need some belt-tightening (even if metaphorically!)

Good luck!

M

System

over £500 a month on food ! geez wot do you guys eat??

Maybe a tesco 'value' shop would be in order - and no I am not taking the P - I buy nearly all 'value' and its halved my shopping bill

what do you class as 'entertainment' do you go out alot, maybe thats one thing to look at for a while anyway

sorry I am no help I was just shocked at your food bill!!

Former_MSE_Moderator

Have a look at 'Q. Help. My debts are completely out of control. Its a crisis, what should I do?' on the FAQ page of the main site

RandyRos

thanks all. re: cigs, I dont smoke, hubby does, and he buys.......how shall i say........duty free tobacco. so its as cheap as it can get. he refuses to give up smoking, so i dunno what I can do there.
entertainment, we dont go out, and i cant remember what the woman at the CAB said when she wrote that bit down. lol
re; shopping. i already shop at asda or tesco....we have countless pets which pushes the bill up (large dog, 3 cats, guinea pigs, rabbit, fish). i go out every time with great resolve to spend less money, but it hardly ever works out like that. :-[ also, the way they work it out is take your weekly spend, times it by 52, and divide it by 12, so its actually calendar months, not four weekly. i think the woman said that with 3 kids, they allow £110 per week.
i will make another financial statement when the next wage packet comes in, see how things have changed.
i have been selling stuff we dont need on eBay with some success, so we have a little more money coming in that way.
uuuumm..........thats it.

System

Hi

£500 per calendar month for food still seems a lot. Maybe this is an area you need to look at - break it down a bit, look at what you spend most on. Is it the animals?

There are 2 of us and we spend £250 calendar month on grocery. I also buy dog-food (for the foxes - and stop laughing at the back there!!)

Do you buy a lot of convenience foods, frozen chips, that sort of thing? It's possible to go round a supermarket and buy an awful lotta stuff which is cr*p, both nutritionally and in terms of what it costs you.

Good luck!

M

System

There are 3 of us in our household, plus a rabbit and fish, and my hubby smoke and our monthly shopping bill is £100 - as I said I buy all value stuff -and I also do my tesco shop online, that way I buy the same stuff every month and I am not tempted to buy stuff I dont need which I would do if I was walking round the shop!

I also sell on Ebay - but they do sting you with the charges so thats something to watch, the last thing you want is a big Ebay invoice every month -

I hope you get things sorted out

Pal

There appears to be no rent/mortgage on that breakdown?

How proud is your husband? Is he proud enough to give up smoking in order to avoid bankruptcy?

One obvious suggestion is that you refuse your children's demands to replace any pets that die until you are sorted out!

Have you reviewed the loans to find out whether you can pay them off penalty free and replace them witha cheaper loan from elsewhere? For example, could you pay off Lombard with a balance transfer from the RBOS life of balance card (possibly through an egg card or similar). Can you apply to RBOS to ask if you can transfer the balances from Egg as well to their life of balance deal?

I assume that all these credit cards have been cut up and put in a draw rather than are being used?!

System

Hi

I agree with everything that Pal says.

It's possible to argue forever about pet animals: 'get rid, they cost too much' vs. 'the kids would be heartbroken, every animal is a family member'. There are no answers, it depends on your point of view.

We had a cat, until she died a couple years ago. That one cat was costing us between £5 and £6 a week. Then there was her vet's bills, annual vaccinations, we couldn't do pet insurance because of her age.

We took the decision never to have another pet animal because we like the freedom to pick up and go away for a couple of nights if we feel like it, without having to make elaborate arrangements. And we also like the wild birds in the garden - and according to Bill Oddie, a pet cat is one of the most efficient predators there is.

I rest my case.

M

I rest

Jen_Jen_5

the £500 pcm may seem like a lot but for 5 people its only £23 per person per week which isnt really that much when it also includes soappowder, shampoo, toiletries etc.

Going Brupt may be an option but remember they can ask for monthly payments for up to 3 years too so if you've got available income to pay your debts and you can still juggle 0% deals then carry on.

Other than what your doing now making savings on your expenditure and increasing your income are the only things you can do.

Good Luck

RandyRos

right, where do i start??
rent.................my husbands employer pays it, its part of his contract. so we thankfully dont have to worry about that.
THANK YOU JEN JEN!!! yes £500 pm seems a lot, but it is for 5 people, the youngest of which is in pull-ups, which arent cheap whichever brand you buy!! plus (i remembered!!) it includes birthday and xmas prezzies for 21 family members. so its not that much really.
the pets............are all mine!!! :-[ bought in better financial times.
the loans, one was only taken out last year to round up more expensive debt........the other we have only had about 2 yrs, so its got another 3 to run. i did put the % rates up in my original post, and as you can see, they are not expensive loans.
no, we dont use the credit cards anymore.
hubby will never give up smoking, been there, done that, not worth the aggro!!
no i dont buy convenience foods, we only have fish & chips from the chippy about once a month-if that.
hubbys doing as much overtime as he can, but like he said theres no point in earning all this money if we cant enjoy some of it. i realise these bills need paying, but it doesn't harm to take the kids out to the zoo once a year, etc... after all, life with no enjoyment is no life at all.