Out of ideas - SOA

katsu

I'm afraid I'm at a bit of a loss to make suggestions looking at your current SoA. Have you looked at your gas and electric to ensure you are paying the best rates? Would selling the TV bring anywhere near enough to clear the loan? If it would that would free up £14 per month and enable you to cancel your TV license for a while, giving you more cash in the short term. I realise this would not suit everyone but I'm struggling to see where else you can make cuts. I think you will have to look at the £100 and break it down to see if you can save on shopping. Do you have a toiletries stash you can use up, for example?

Edited to add: if you borrowed £3k for the car could you sell it and get a cheaper reliable car, then use the leftover cash to make debt repayments?

Good luck.

Amatheya81

Hi,

lou756 - Thanks, I have already spoken to CCCS, the only suggestion they could make was to tell me if I wanted to do DMP I would have to cancel my gym membership. To be honest looking at the DMP threads I don't fancy going down this line because I don't like the idea of all the calls, letters etc. Also it would take 2 years more to clear it that way that it would for me to keep struggling on. If possible I'd like to struggle on.

Katsu - Unfortunately selling my TV wouldn't even come close to clearing the TV loan becouse of the fall in price of flat screens. I had conssidered it and looked into it but it didn't seem worth it. Plus as I have a laptop it's stil conciddered receiver equipment so you still need a TV licence.

I also conssidered selling my car but due to accident and the milage I need to do it would no longer be worth that kind of money and I'd struggle to get a relieable car which fits all my needs for less.

Thanks for all the suggestions, they are helping, if only to assure me that I have conssidered most of the normal solutions and I'm not missing anything.

misscousinitt

Just a couple of ideas:

Have you got anything to sell? DVD's, Clothes, Books etc.. that could help towards your debts? I assume any money you make from illustrating will go towards your debt?

Ground Rent - Housing Assiciations are charities that are dedicated to give people affordable housing - I know the 'prefer' payment over 8 months, but would it be worth approching them and asking for 12 months payment this year due to financial difficulties? It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Overdraft - I assume you are incurring the charges every month as you are going over your limit? Would it be worth swapping to another current account to save you incurring these charges and at least help to get you on a breakeven situation with income/outgoings.

Gas and Elec - please do check this as I am in a 2 bed terrace house and only pay £46 per month - only a small saving, but it all helps.

I realise that your Gym Membership is your salvation, but you could work out your own routine? maybe? you would only have to cancel it for 12 months to get the TV Loan under control.

Nothing else really comes to mind - hope this helps.

pointypenguin

Amatheya81 wrote: »

“Ground Rent......................£110.50 This cannot be every month. Ground rent might be £125 a year.I'm guessing that it is rent on the 50% of the property you don't own.”
No this isn't the rent which I have added into Mortgage/Rent and I wish this wasn’t every month but it is… at least for 8 months out of the year it works out at £884 per year but the housing association like us to pay over 8 months. It wasn’t this high last year and tbh this is the bill which has made me overstretched.

If you are paying this over 8 months when is you 4 months free? Is it coming up soon? Hopefully this could help in the short term and you could clear TV loan.

Also if you salary is 1525 this should give you a surplus of £50.43 a month which you can put towards debt repayments.

Amatheya81

"Have you got anything to sell? DVD's, Clothes, Books etc.. that could help towards your debts? I assume any money you make from illustrating will go towards your debt?

Ground Rent - Housing Assiciations are charities that are dedicated to give people affordable housing - I know the 'prefer' payment over 8 months, but would it be worth approching them and asking for 12 months payment this year due to financial difficulties? It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Overdraft - I assume you are incurring the charges every month as you are going over your limit? Would it be worth swapping to another current account to save you incurring these charges and at least help to get you on a breakeven situation with income/outgoings.

Gas and Elec - please do check this as I am in a 2 bed terrace house and only pay £46 per month - only a small saving, but it all helps.

I realise that your Gym Membership is your salvation, but you could work out your own routine? maybe? you would only have to cancel it for 12 months to get the TV Loan under control."

You read my mind, I had a clear out last night and pulled together anything I could bear to sell. That should make a few quid :money:Yes my illustration money does go on debt but as I'm just starting up it's not a lot at the moment.

That's a good idea about the ground rent. Ill call the housing association ASAP. Everyone in the building in clomplaining about the hike and we're going to put a petition together. We think the housing association is struggling with the costs of running the building at the moment.

The bank charges are te interest on the £2,000 overdraft. I don't actually pay anything for the account.

My gas and Elec will go down eventually but because I changed to DD after receiving a quarterly bill they've spread the cost of that bill over 12 months increasing my DD for the time being.

I see what you mean about the gym membership. My problem is that before I started having problems I was learning trapeze. I'm intending to go back when I can afford it but I need to keep up quite an intense rountine in order to keep the muscle tone and fitness level required. Also I have another 6 months contract with them and will have to pay steep penalties if I quit. I am looking into how much it would cost to contunue my routine without the membership though.

"If you are paying this over 8 months when is you 4 months free? Is it coming up soon? Hopefully this could help in the short term and you could clear TV loan."

Unfortunately my gound rent just stared

Amatheya81

Thank you so much for the suggestion of contacting my housing association. Less than 5 mins on the phone and it was arranged for me to pay over 12 months with installments of only £70 :j That makes me feel a bit better about my finances.

I'm also going to try to get by on £10 food per week £10 petrol per month and £20 pet supplies bringing my food and "stuff" down to about £70. I've got a second bank account just for cash so I'm going to transfer that money into there every month and try going down the "it it's not cash in my pocket then I can't spend it" rout for a while... me thinks Christmas might be a struggle though :S

misscousinitt

Great news about the Housing Association...glad they were able to help.

As regards the Gas and Elec - make sure you try to keep your use to a minimum and then send them your readings in when you get your quartlerly bill - if you can prove to them that you are going to be using less (especially with the cold quarter coming up), they will drop the DD.
(Pop over to the Old Style Board for tips and tricks at reducing your gas and electricity usage - there are some wacky ideas, but they work!!)

Old Style should also be able to help you on your £10 per week for groceries challenge too - make a list of what you have in your cupboards and freezer etc.. and see what you can make with what you've got!

Sorry to bang on about Old Style, but there are loads of tips etc.. for a frugal Christmas too - give it a go and keep us updated.