Up to my neck, need help please

Smashing

You say your children are under 4 so what's the £20 pocket money for?

Chinahand

Statement of Affairs as given to the CCCS

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details estimated as not paid 2 months in a year
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 584
Benefits................................ 172
Other income............................ 280 - ??do you pay tax on this?
TOTAL .................................. 2156

Monthly Expense Details
Rent ................................... 540-is it possible to move to somewhere cheaper?
Electric ............................... 100- very expensive especially as you are paying for oil as well.
Oil .................................... 50-as above
Contents Ins ........................... 8
Telephone, mobile and net .............. 77- this is extortionate - ditch the plans and use prepaid
TV license ............................. 15
Sat .................................... 20-luxury but may be only source of entertainment.
Repairs and maintenance ................ 10-landlord should be paying this.
Vehicles spares and serivces ........... 20
Road tax ............................... 20
Car ins ................................ 134-VERY expensive
Fuel etc ............................... 260
Food etc ............................... 390
School meals and meals at work ......... 100-take sandwiches or make a big batch of hearty soups/stews and freeze.
Pet food ............................... 21
School trips and activities ............ 10
Medical ................................ 4
Dentist etc ............................ 2
Hairdressing ........................... 24-luxury - ditch this and go once every 3 months -easy with long hair.
Clothes and footwear ................... 50you dont need new clothes every month.
Newspapers and mags .................... 20-luxury - ditch and read in library or online
Sports/hobbies/ent ..................... 25
Pocket money ........................... 20-for whom?
Charity donations ...................... 7-luxury-ditch.
Emergency .............................. 25

Total monthly expenses.................. 1952


Assets
Car(s).................................. 7000 + 800

Total Assets............................ 7800


Unsecured Debts
Halifax - 21k - - - 32k with interest added - 540
Credit card 3500 105
Total unsecured debts 645


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2156
Outgoings 1952
Available for debt repayments 204
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments 645
Amount short for making debt repayments. -441

Last edited by confusious; Today at 4:14 AM..

So sorry to hear of your predicament. However, if your company do not allow you to take time off (with pay) when your children are sick - go to the doctors and plead stress and practical breakdown and get him to sign you off work. If you work full time and pay the correct stamps you will be covered.
Food - make and bake luxuries and if you have a freezer - freeze them.
Can one of you get a 'night' job - bar.. shelf filling at big supermarkets to tide you over this difficult time. You are spending the most on rent and your cars and petrol... can you not move closer to one of your jobs and ditch one of the cars? Who looks after your children while you are working?

thefoolonthehill

Hi

I thought an IVA was for someone who owned there own home and was to protect this asset?

I also thought that CCCS would not be able to negiotiate a loan that is less than six months old.

I am no expert tho. Hope you get sorted.

learning_to_drive

For the two months you are without work, would it be possible to do some mystery shops when OH is there to look after the kids?

Surveys, daily clicks etc? Could you start ebaying things to generate some extra cash?

The mystery shopping thread is here

Lemon_Tree

it's probably been said before but you need to start by cutting out newspapers, you can read them online, and stop the charity donation for the moment, you just can't afford it (that's a hard one i know, i had to do the same when i first started out so i moved to blood donation as it's another way i could do some good)
can you cut back on the pocket money? also you're going to need to turn in to the electric police and keep going round and turning things off so you can start to reduce your leccy DD.

nimbo

hi,

just a few thoughts on the SOA.

i seriously reccomend the old style board, as you are spending £490 (nearly 25% of your income) on food. there is no such thing as a silly question there, and all of the posters tend to be realy nice, and helpful.... they are all really incouraging and they will help you use up all the dregs of the freezer, and the store cupboards in attempts to clear out the old, and save money...

you wouldn't need to take it to the extreme, but there are threads on there that detail how to live heatlhily on 50p per day, so i'm sure thay can help cut your spending here.

it would be worth looking at cutting the £77 for the net and phone, seeing if you coud get a better deal from the same/another supplier, i know this can be difficult out in the sticks, as there may be no choice, the other thing would be to see of you could lessen usage????

£100 a month seems quite high for leccie, would it be possible to see if you could get a better deal from a different supplier???? i pay £54 a month for gas and electric (i don't have children though so this woudl probably add a bit, but still seems high.)
#
good luck, :):)

cherrypie556

How many bedrooms is your home and how many rooms? £100 on electric is high but we pay the same plus £60 a month for gas and we do switch everything off and have energy saving bulbs throughout, but sometimes it's just one of them things and of course, the bigger the house the more you use.

With regards to your monthly food budget this is extortionate. We only spend £300 a month (looking to reduce) and there are 6 of us, soon to be 7 so this is easily halved. Go to aldi and the butchers etc.

Agree with the others that the clothes, hairdressing and magazines are pure luxery and you defo do not NEED them. I treat myself to a weekly mag if i can afford it which is £1 a time.

Who are you with for your tv? Is it worth changing providers or going onto virgin and getting a starview box?