My SOA - help please!

daily_2

elyphant wrote: »

We are always in our overdraft (honestly don't remember the last time we had a positive balance).

Cash 6000

Where is the £6000.

Emergency fund or savings are not a good idea if you are using your overdraft, or are paying interest on debt, is the CC 0%

Floxxie

• Personally I would go down the official route for child maintenance if you know that your income won't be taken into account (perhaps you could post on the benefits forum to see if anybody has some firm advice?).

• In terms of your husband'and learning English, you need to check out the local colleges etc as there are free courses to teach people English. Try the direct.gov.uk site as well to see what other help there is.

• You don't mention what kind of musician your husband is but is there any scope of him giving private lessons in future, for example? Alternatively can he increase the hours he works performing? Can he do things locally?

• As for childcare, you need to find a childminder who can help out on short notice rather than pay constantly for one. I didn't know they existed until this year but they do; I got a list of childminders and also asked around. (Out of interest how did you get wtc when your husband's work is sporadic?)

elyphant

Sorry another long post - thanks for bearing with me.

daily - the cash is in savings accounts. It was left to me by a relative, and I really don't feel I can use it to pay off the overdraft, it was not really meant to be for that. I know that I may need to get over that at some point, but I haven't yet! I am hoping that I can get our monthly finances sorted out enough that we can get out of the overdraft. The CC is 0% so I am not really worried about that - happy to switch it again once the 0% period is up.

Floxxie - I would love to go down the official route for child maintenance, but there are huge 'non-money' issues here - lots of manipulation re contact whenever money is mentioned, conversations going on with the child around which I'm sure does no good. Am really stuck with this one - sorry to be so negative, always have a 'yes, but...'

- Thanks for the tip about English courses, I will check that out. He does speak some but lacks confidence and needs to develop. Again, that affects things like teaching music. He is getting a bit more work locally now which is good.

- Childcare - we used to have such a childminder but have since moved and have not found one locally. The child is question is in childcare 2 days a week only. Costs will reduce a bit once child is 3, as we get 15 hours a week paid for, but his hours are increasing as well. btw, the wtc is based on our joint income, we also get a childcare element as DH works on average 25 hours + per week, so that's how they advised us to work it out.

I think I am going to have a good look at all the things that have been pointed out here, keep a spending diary, sit down and go through the figs with DH, and then see where we are. Will keep in mind using savings and tackling the maintenance thing, but will leave them for now. Does that sound sensible???

Thanks again for all your help and sorry if I am coming across as negative, with an excuse for everything.

Jesthar

Hey elyphant, and welcome!

elyphant wrote: »

daily - the cash is in savings accounts. It was left to me by a relative, and I really don't feel I can use it to pay off the overdraft, it was not really meant to be for that. I know that I may need to get over that at some point, but I haven't yet! I am hoping that I can get our monthly finances sorted out enough that we can get out of the overdraft. The CC is 0% so I am not really worried about that - happy to switch it again once the 0% period is up.

Honey, how big are your overdraft arrears, and is your overdraft interest free? If not, I bet the interest rate on your overdraft is a lot higher than the interest rate on the savings account! If this is the case, keeping this money in the savings account will actually be costing you money, not saving you money, as you will be charged more interest on your overdraft than you will ever get from the equivalent (or much bigger!) amount of savings!

So, if you do use the money to pay off your overdraft (and maybe give yourself a £200 - £500 buffer in case of emergency?), you'll actually be getting much better value from your savings, as whilst you won't be actually earning interest on the money any more, you'll have stopped paying a lot more in overdraft interest.

And definitely get that spending diary under way, you'll be amazed where the pennies slip away!

~Jes

the_cat

elyphant wrote: »

daily - the cash is in savings accounts. It was left to me by a relative, and I really don't feel I can use it to pay off the overdraft, it was not really meant to be for that.

I'm sure the kind relative who left you the money would have wanted you to use the money for whatever you NEEDED. I would def use it to pay off the debts as long term you will save money. You can always divert your loan repayment money to 'repay' the savings account once things are sorted

- Thanks for the tip about English courses, I will check that out. He does speak some but lacks confidence and needs to develop. Again, that affects things like teaching music. He is getting a bit more work locally now which is good.

You could you help out here by making sure that at home you always speak in English if you don't already- practise makes perfect!

QUOTE]

euronorris

If you're OH doesn't speak English very well, how do you communicate? Do you speak his native language?

If so, you can earn extra money using your talent to translate documents for a fee. There are loads of sites that offer the possibility to connect people who need a translation with those who translate. I think they pay per word translated, so...the bigger the document, the more money. I also think there is room for negotiation on the deadline. ie, you wouldn't have to do it all in one night and you can pick and choose which assignments you do.

I wonder if there is a thread on here about it.....mmm.

IWantToBeFree_2

Re the charities, charity begins at home, and if I was you, this would be the first thing I would cancel. Its nice to help others, but you need to help yourself first and this is a very easy win!

elyphant

Hi all and thanks again for all the support. Sorry this might be long again!

Jesthar - the overdraft is £2000. The loan I am not so worried about (I know this is debt-free wannabes, but really at the mo I am just looking to start spending less than we earn). My worry about using the savings is that if we are still spending more than we earn, the £6000 will just disappear. Feel like maybe if we can get to be every month within budget, maybe we could use it and set up a direct debit to pay back. The overdraft isn't interest free, so yes it is costing us. Have just had a thought - is there a system for getting a 0% credit card and doing a bal t/f from your current account? Might this be another way round it - get in a +ve balance, pay off CC with direct debit? Any advice please!!

Spending diary already underway - and helping me really think every time i reach for the purse!

The cat - yes I ought to really speak English to DH and we could probably do quite a bit at home.

Euronorris - yes I speak his native language and have looked in to translation in the past. However, you actually need to put a lot of time in to get any work really - there is a lot of competition out there for this language - and with fulltime work and family commitments it would not really be feasible. I do have another way to bring in some extra money though, music lessons, and maybe I should bite the bullet and try and find one or two pupils. Reluctant to give up the time, but even one or two would make a difference. I used to do this some time ago, thanks for the inspiration!

IWantToBeFree - I think you are right. In fact, i think I will cancel them this month, but will think about coming back to it when we are in a better position.

I know I keep saying it, but thank you so much - I hadn't realised until I posted on this thread how much I have been worrying about this and feeling stuck. I know our position is not as bad as some, so I do feel fortunate and I know we have a lot of options, but it really has been stressing me out.

Hope you all have a good day.

IWantToBeFree_2

Re transfering the overdraft to an interest free credit card, some lenders allow you to do a super balance transfer, which means you can transfer your credit limit to your current account rather than another credit card.

The lenders that do this are: MBNA, Egg & Post Office.

Virgin (run by MBNA) currently offer 16 months interest free on balance transfers, they charge 4% for the super balance transfer, and the minimum payments whilst in the promotional period are only £25 a month (aside from the first payment where you will also have to pay the balance transfer fee).

Hope this helps!

Fire_Fox

Is there any reason your OH cannot make the packed lunches that you don't have time to make? Also when your OH was to spends time with the children what language do they speak? We had foreign student lodgers throughout my childhood and their English improved through spending time with the whole family - the kids enjoyed 'teaching'.

The other thing that struck me was the charitable donations - NOT because I think you should cancel them (I sponsor two children abroad and won't give that up) but because there is an alternative. Why not combine your charity and gifts categories? Several of the survey sites offer gift vouchers for charities - I don't know if you get these as an actual voucher to spend or give but it could be worth finding out.

Secondly many of the charities have online catalogues available through cashback sites, where you can buy something like 'the gift of sight' for £5 upwards. The card you receive doesn't specify the amount, and these gifts never fail to bring a tear to an adult relative's eye. It's even a good way of teaching children that others are not as fortunate as ourselves. The cash you do need to spend after going as money neutral as possible could be spent in this way. :T Even if you aimed for only Fairtrade gifts you'd be 'making a difference'.