Don't know how we'll eat this month

milliemonster

It's not hopeless at all! there are ways you can cut your budget as some have already suggested but you have to be BRUTAL with your budget and be prepared to make some drastic changes.

Short term you need to:

Change the mobiles to PAYG - saving £30 a month
Electricity@ 120 a month - this is EXTORTIONATE esp when you already have gas, is this made up of arrears? if not you need to cut your usage and try to shop around for a better deal. We are a family of four and there is usually someone at home all day, our electric usage is around £60 a month.
Groceries - you could halve this easily for the 3 of you, we spend £200 a month now on 4 of us, have a look at the OS board.
What is the £66 for other child related expenses?
Your combined buildings and contents insurance is a lot, can you reduce this? shop around and make sure you are not paying out for cover that is ott
What is the £14 other insurance for?
Cut out the £60 a month on haircuts

Long term
You need to look at your housing situation, currently your mortgages come to half your income almost, when interest rates start to rise this could go up even more, you need to seriously consider whether long term you are either going to be able to significantly increase your salaries or consider selling up and either buying somewhere cheaper or renting.

You can free up around £300 a month easily from you budget but it will mean changes to your lifestyle, you have to be prepared to take the bull by the horns if you want to get out of debt.

redsquirrel80

There are also some great ideas on this thread for cheap food etc - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1876825

lolly_896

Some things i picked up on

Clothes - At times like this there not really essential
Nappies - Try using Tesco's superfit there really good i prefer them to top brands
Groceries - With some planning and preparation this could probably be halved. Have a look at the Old Style board lots of hints and tips over there
Mobile Phones - Far too much, phone your supplier explain circumstances and tell them how much you want to pay - We pay £10 a month each with Vodafone

Nothing else for you atm but good luck! x

mum2one

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1205
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2049
Benefits................................ 91
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3345
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 873
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 683
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 149 - doesn't reduce but may help budget can you pay over 12 months and not 10 (£125 pm - save £25pm)
Electricity............................. 120 - how long will arreears take to pay off
Gas..................................... 73 ditto
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 52 - got to be pay and go theres so many deals out there - aim maximum £30 per month both of you (save £22)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 10
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 - knock £100 off that, meal planning, downgrade some brands
Clothing................................ 30 - need to reduce even by £10 per month
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 18
Car Insurance........................... 56 - renewal shop around, est minimum£10 month cheaper)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 140
Childcare/nursery....................... 95
Other child related expenses............ 66
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 25 - shop around at renewal
Contents insurance...................... 20 - shop around at renewal
Life assurance ......................... 18
Other insurance......................... 14
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 - try to reduce
Haircuts................................ 60 - :eek: - Local college - £5 to £10
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 40
Total monthly expenses.................. 3194

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 252000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 235000...(873)......3.04
Secured Debt.................. 21666....(683)......9.66
Total secured & HP debts...... 256666....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Halifax mastercard.............2250......41........22.95
Barclaycard....................4600......110...... .24.9
Barclaycard....................1000......25....... .27.9
Bank OD........................700.......20........NaN
Bank OD........................2500......30........NaN
Next...........................510.......45....... .26.49
Virgin CC......................3500......25........0
Virgin CC......................3500......25........0
Halifax mastercard.............7700......65........0
Total unsecured debts..........26260.....386.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,345
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,194
Available for debt repayments........... 151
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 386
Amount short for making debt repayments. -235
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 252,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -256,666
Total Unsecured debt.................... -26,260
Net Assets.............................. -30,926

Hi
Well done on putting the SOA up, thats always the hardest steps, I've made a few suggestions in red,

Pain free changes -
Council tax - 12 months - save £25.00 pm
Mobile phone pay + go - allowed £30 for the 2 of you - save £22 pm

Little pain saveings-
haircuts - as other postersr have said - local college - allowing £10 maximum per month - saves £50
Grocery - downgrade brands some won't work, some will - £100 saved

SAVE YOU £219.00 PER MONTH

Shopping - do you shop say day of every week?
If you do change the day each week by one day

Shopped on a Thursday

wk 1 - Fri
wk 2 - sat
wk 3 - Sun
wk 4 - Mon
wk 5 - Tues
wk 6 - Wed
wk 7 - Thurs
wk 8 - Fri

By making the groceries last 1 day extra each time, over 8 weeks, you will actually save 1 weeks worth of shopping money, based on £100 pw, you can save £100 every 2 months, £600 over the year.

Car Insurance / House Ins / Contents -
Need to reduce at renewal go through Cashback sites

Personally I use quidco 1st,
I saved my father £5 off his car insurance + £65.00 cash back,
My car Insurance - changed companies saved £55.00 off renewal quote, + £30 cash back

Go through Quidco 1st, then other sites, if you go through one of the compasison sites, then through Quidco, you won't get the cashback, as the initail enquiry with be with comparison sites.

I don't know anything about DMP or IVAs so can't add any suggestions, but hope those few help xx

SuzyWuzy_2

Hi,

Like someone said your grocery budget is much too high, i was spending £600 per month , Im now on £325 per month, 7 of us, not including milk formula.We eat alot , like kings, you have to make time to cook from scratch I'm afraid. Id say half your current budget.

Is your council tax for 12 months or 10 ? just check as sometimes this gets overlooked.

Clothes - I know you have put a tiny amount on - but if u need to eat ! I've not budgeted for clothes for myself at the moment as I'd prefer to hammer my debts



Sorry cant help anymore - good luck

x

SuzyWuzy_2

Good advice

TBH - I wouldnt even wait for renewal on your insurance. Do it now, I did it 2 months ago as i couldnt shop around when they were due to having a baby so did it 2 months ago and saved £800 for the year going through ins, mobile, watching my electricity bill.

Triggles

Couple things:

haircuts £60 per month - that's alot, if it's just for you and DH. How often do you both get your haircut? Does it include other things, such as hair colour, highlights, and such? If so, maybe think about using other options.

grocery £400 per month - that could probably be decreased quite a bit, even with nappies. I don't know where you shop, but we actually prefer the store brand at Sains to the regular brands, and it goes on sale for 33% off regularly, so we tend to stock up during the sale, so we rarely pay full price for them. Do you buy a lot of prepared meals or branded items? Just by cooking more from scratch and buying the basics or store brands, you could probably lower your grocery bill significantly.

Depending on your job and how attached you are to it - how much ahead are you after paying all the extra expenses attached to working? This includes all those little incidentals and work expenses - like contributions to work collections, clothing suitable for work, any takeaways or coffees or such that you purchase during the work day, dry cleaning if you do that with your work clothing. Add that stuff in as well (plus the childcare vouchers you're using) , and see if you actually ARE coming out ahead by working. If not, might be time to either consider staying at home or finding a part time job closer to home that doesn't cost you as much in travel.

mobile phone can definitely be reduced by going to PAYG - but you have to be aware of the change and use it less, if you use it a lot now. When DH & I both worked full time, we used to text and call each other much more frequently, as we were on contract and got minutes/texts free. We have since changed to PAYG (in an effort to reduce spending as I am now a SAHM), and find that we rarely use the phones at all anymore. I top mine up with £15 approximately once every 6 months, and DH tops his up with £15 about once every 4 months. :rotfl:

MrsTinks

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

Unless I'm missing something you need to find £235 to break even each month without spending any more on cards? If that is the case I don't think it's hopeless at all.

Plus 3 large cards will cease to be 0% in Feb - that will increase those card repayments by a fair whack near £15k will cease to be 0% at the same time...

OP can I also suggest that both you and your partner start a spending diary? It is very common that what you think you spend may be a fair bit less than what you really spend... £2 on a sandwich for lunch is £40 a month, 50p a day on a canned drink is another £10 a month (assuming it's bought at work so only 5 days a week), then a mars bar adds another 30p and it really quickly adds up...
Ditto things like paying for parking when you go into town and so on...

Short term you need to decide on what you want to do though - I suggest you speak to one of the charities in my signature and I would think a DMP is probably the better option at the moment... It will mean you assign payment to your creditors depending on the share of your debt they hold. But you have to pay debts like your mortgage and secured debts first as they are priority debts. Then you have food and living expenses and last in the queue are your unsecured creditors... It means no more credit cards or loans for 6 years but I think that's probably no bad idea...

ampersand

Have sent you a pm, ws - also look here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/ and then to the associated Threads.
Off to add another one -
http://supermarketspecialoffers.com/TescoPointOffers.aspx
Here, you can look for extra tesco points, bogof's, 2for1's[and better, of course] and be aware of misprice policies in stores, knowing what your recompense should be, i,e, double the difference in Tesco[ they often get it wrong to your advantage].
When everything really does feel like ordure/cack, come onto the 5 Old Style Pleasures in your Day Thread[link in earlier post].
It will help.
Now, I'd better carry on myself - shall look in later and see how you are.
Already people, non-judgmental, are coming to help and reassure you.
Remember what Martin said: There is NO Debt problem that cannot be resolved[that's the gist; someone will correct me before long:rolleyes:.]

churchrat

hello and welcome

the first thing that strikes me is that although you are saying that you know you are in the pits you don't really want to change much to get out of it. I know that a mobile phone really feels like a can't-live-without-it-thing when you have children, but it really can be done. Likewise the sky/clothing/haircuts/entertainment etc.
There is a lot of help on here to get you started, but the first thing you have to do is to decide to REALLY go for it, otherwise you will manage to get a bit paid off and then be back where you started.
I really hope that didn't come across as rude or patronising cos it wasn't meant to be, I have been there with the sleepless-night-sick-horror-stomach-churning-nightmare but really I just wanted my life to be pretty much as it was, just without the debt. If you can find a way to do that then I'm pleased for you, I wish we could have done it!!

As for the dmp/iva--I'm really not a fan of the iva. As already said they are inflexible and only a step down from bankruptcy, and although they can be sold as the simple solution, a painless way out of debt the truth is that you can find other, better ways to improve you life. .

I'm sure that you both work really hard for your family, so good luck to you both, hope to hear more from you.

churchrat