Things seem to be taking a turn for the worse, here's my SOA

in*the*red_6

Hi

I've been a member of the forums since November last year and have read many, many posts on here. However I have never done an SOA. The reason for this might sound silly but it was because I knew we didn't have enough money coming in but was expecting things to improve.

Quick background, I was made redundant from my job while on maternity leave (commenced oct 04), we had only moved house 2 months before I went on mat leave. Anyway had a period pre-lightbulb of thinking we didn't have enough money to do any kind of budget and ended up putting shopping etc on the cc, we have also had several big car repair bills. Sold my car to pay some off, ended up racking it up again. Knew the redundancy money was coming and that it had to go towards debts but because money was coming we let our debts slide up to a ridiculous £18,000!

Anyway, since Oct 04 the majority of months I have had some income, be it mat pay, wages or JSA. Getting by on a wing and a prayer really.

This is my first month with no income and I'd seen a weekend temp job which paid quite well which was advertised with an agency starting July 1st. Was pretty certain I would get it with my experience so was kind of banking on it but today I contacted the agency and they told me the job was now on hold indefinitely. It would have been perfect as I'm registering to be a childminder but it's taking forever. Feel totally deflated now and worried.

I just really want to know what I can do in the short-term to keep us afloat. I DO care about our credit rating, and don't want to screw it up for 6 years for what may be the sake of a couple of months.

Here are some things you might also need to know:

1) We still have lots of credit available to us, £7,000 on one (high interest) CC and £500 in the flex loan

2) Gas and Elec switched recently to cheapest supplier

3) Have sold/ebayed almost everthing. Still trying a couple of car boots but last week's was a disaster

4) SKY - I would cancel like a shot, when I've mentioned to hubby his response has been 'I might aswell top myself then....'

5) We have a house and repayment mortgage - equity is about £85k

6) We have 2 children (pre-school)

Ok, you're probably bored stiff if you've got this far so here's the SOA

Income:

Wages (DH) £1300 (approx)
Child Benefit £116
Tax Credit £100

Total £1516

Also £20 childminding for friend at the moment (but not guaranteed)

Outgoings:

Gas 39.00
Water £42.45 (Rates over 10 months)
Mortgage 553.05
BT - Line rental 13.00
Talk Talk - Calls 2.50
Car Finance - 120.95
Buildings Ins 11.93
Contents ins 7.53
SKY 40.50 (Will talk to hubby again about cancelling they may offer us the £7.50 deal for 3 months?)
Council Tax £108.00 (10 months)
Electric 25.00
Dog insurance (2 dogs) 22.30
TV Licence 11.00
Broadband 17.99

Total £1015.20

Debts: Cahoot Loan (just put up to 8.9%) £8456.72 - min pay £169.13
Amex £3769 (4.9%) - min pay £114

Total £283.13

Food - £200-£250

Petrol - average about £180 per month but this is claimed back through expenses

Total (excluding petrol) £1548.33

This doesn't include any extras such as hubby's golf, kids expenses etc or anything paid for annually.

We also had our Mot this month and car tax to pay for next month :mad:

Thanks for reading

Any thoughts?

piratess

Hi In the red! and welcome.... Im new here also but just thought id add a post, have you visited the "entitledto" website ? The tax credits dont seem alot, is that working tax or child tax?

xx

spud30

Hi in*the*red,

Get in touch with the tax credit office. With your OH's income, you should be on the higher rate (income under £25,562 per year).

I reckon you should be getting around £78pw child tax gredit and you may be entitled to some working tax credit too.

Give em a ring !!

ms_london

Hi in*the*red!! Well done on posting your SOA :T !!

You seem to be just about scraping by on the one wage. So although things are tight, at least you can make minimum payments on your debts & meet your other repayments, however, as you say there's no room for misc spending!!

Could you not downgrade your SKY package? I think its selfish of your hubby to take that attitude - you should be working as a team. Perhaps when you do find a job, then you could upgrade again??!!

I wouldnt touch the available credit to you, not even for the short term, as you'll end up in a worse off position..

How long will it take for you to register as a childminder?

How about sending your CV randomly to companies in your area offering your services on an ad-hoc basis? It depends on what you can do & what type of work you're looking for, but I did this to around 20 estate agents in the area and got a fab response (which is how I found my 2nd job).

Do you have any savings you could cash in at the moment to see you through? Or could you take any payment holidays on your mortgage/loan? Or could you change your mortgage to lower repayments for the time being?

Things could be worse, but at least you are just about keeping your head above water. Things will turn out ok in the end.

Big hugs.

xx

in*the*red_6

spud30 wrote:

Hi in*the*red,

Get in touch with the tax credit office. With your OH's income, you should be on the higher rate (income under £25,562 per year).

I reckon you should be getting around £78pw child tax gredit and you may be entitled to some working tax credit too.

Give em a ring !!

Hi thanks for your replies>

I sooo wish I was getting £78 per week tax credit but I was (apparently) overpaid for a period when I was working full time. At that point I was paying about £480 per month in childcare and was getting £170pm from the tax credits. Don't know how this constitutes being so overpaid. They then stopped paying me anything for ages because of this and I contacted them when I was made redundant and this is what they pay me now based on me not working. Apparently the period I was on JSA also counts against my tax credits because it was contribution based, not income based. Sorry for the moan but I think the whole system is so unfair, it doesn't seem to be there when you need it. It also annoys me when people who have never had to pay childcare seem to get hundreds a month out of them!

in*the*red_6

ms_london wrote:

Hi in*the*red!! Well done on posting your SOA :T !!

You seem to be just about scraping by on the one wage. So although things are tight, at least you can make minimum payments on your debts & meet your other repayments, however, as you say there's no room for misc spending!!

Could you not downgrade your SKY package? I think its selfish of your hubby to take that attitude - you should be working as a team. Perhaps when you do find a job, then you could upgrade again??!!

I wouldnt touch the available credit to you, not even for the short term, as you'll end up in a worse off position..

How long will it take for you to register as a childminder?

How about sending your CV randomly to companies in your area offering your services on an ad-hoc basis? It depends on what you can do & what type of work you're looking for, but I did this to around 20 estate agents in the area and got a fab response (which is how I found my 2nd job).

Do you have any savings you could cash in at the moment to see you through? Or could you take any payment holidays on your mortgage/loan? Or could you change your mortgage to lower repayments for the time being?

Things could be worse, but at least you are just about keeping your head above water. Things will turn out ok in the end.

Big hugs.

xx

Thanks for your reply Ms London :A - I will get my head together and answer your questions a little bit later, just feeling a bit overwhelmed and emotional with it all at the mo.

Sea78

hi,

Well done for posting your SOA. Obviously, you've had some good advice already - def ring to cancel sky even if you don't intend to and see what they offer you...you can always say you have to ring back later if they call your bluff and say the kids are crying!

How about some extra income from childminding? Perhaps after school pick ups? I know it costs to get the qulifications, but while you're doing that you could ask your friends...? I know a few of my friends who have school age kids have made (paid) arrangements and it means that you could still do stuff with your own kids.. That money could then go to annual expense, like Christmas, car tax etc.

Good luck! Do let us know how you get on
Seaxx

ms_london

in*the*red wrote:

Thanks for your reply Ms London :A - I will get my head together and answer your questions a little bit later, just feeling a bit overwhelmed and emotional with it all at the mo.

Thats alright. Its a lot to take in & think about, but you'll feel SOOOO much better once its been sorted out!!

(((((hugs)))))

Bossyboots

Two things spring out at me.

Firstly, why is your hubby incurring golf expenses when you haven't actually got the money to pay for them?

Secondly, you are on very thin ice taking payment for child minding if you are not registered. You presumably have no insurance. What if a child in your care has a mishap. Although the extra money would be of use to you, you really should make sure this is all above board before even considering taking any more children on.

in*the*red_6

In answer to your points:

Bossyboots wrote:

Two things spring out at me.

Firstly, why is your hubby incurring golf expenses when you haven't actually got the money to pay for them? He hasn't played a game of golf for weeks because of our situation, he would like to be in the position to be able to play a couple of 9 holes a month when I am earning. Can't really blame him for wanting some kind of leisure pursuit as he works full time and sees little reward for it. Edited to add: I know the debt is our fault, but when I am earning again I know that I can get it down by snowballing but this is going to take a good few years. I can be very focused on a goal i.e. debt-freeness and would probably try and live on fresh air until the debt's paid off but hubby just isn't the same as me and I have to deal with that. He does agree that getting rid of debts is important to our future and he has changed a lot of his ways but I cannot change him completely.
Secondly, you are on very thin ice taking payment for child minding if you are not registered. You presumably have no insurance. What if a child in your care has a mishap. Although the extra money would be of use to you, you really should make sure this is all above board before even considering taking any more children on. I am waiting on my registration certificate, I have been Ofsted approved. This is a favour for a friend, one day a week before school. You do not have to be registered to look after children for less than 2 hours a day anyway. It is no different to babysitting. I have no intention of taking anymore children until I am fully registered.

in*the*red_6

Hi Ms London, right here goes.....

ms_london wrote:

Hi in*the*red!! Well done on posting your SOA :T !!

You seem to be just about scraping by on the one wage. So although things are tight, at least you can make minimum payments on your debts & meet your other repayments, however, as you say there's no room for misc spending!!

Could you not downgrade your SKY package? I think its selfish of your hubby to take that attitude - you should be working as a team. Perhaps when you do find a job, then you could upgrade again??!! I'll try and talk to him about this tonight, I just need to make him see we can't justify it at the moment. If we can get them to offer it at discount for three months then it may be ok. Problem is he's a huge sports fan. I talked to them recently about downgrading (we don't have movies) but when you want a premium package i.e. sports they know they've got you. Some matches are still pay per view too!

I wouldnt touch the available credit to you, not even for the short term, as you'll end up in a worse off position..


How long will it take for you to register as a childminder? Goodness knows! My inspection was Easter. Mine and hubby's CRB checks are back but we've had one for his mum too as she comes to stay sometimes, and this one still isn't back. Rang Ofsted this morning to see if they can push it through without as she doesn't live with us. They're very bureaucratic though so I'm not too hopeful!

How about sending your CV randomly to companies in your area offering your services on an ad-hoc basis? It depends on what you can do & what type of work you're looking for, but I did this to around 20 estate agents in the area and got a fab response (which is how I found my 2nd job). I have been looking for a P/T job for a while but haven't done this admittedly. Will need to do a CV then - estate agents could be a good option for weekend work.

Do you have any savings you could cash in at the moment to see you through? Or could you take any payment holidays on your mortgage/loan? Or could you change your mortgage to lower repayments for the time being? Sadly no, all savings have been swallowed up during my prolonged mat leave. Called the mortgage company and can't take a payment holiday on the mortgage I'm on now - annoying as up until December we had a flexible mortgage and I never used the flexibilty so changed to one with a lower rate.

Things could be worse, but at least you are just about keeping your head above water. Things will turn out ok in the end. It's easy to feel despairing at setbacks when you're so determined to get rid of the debt but I know things could be worse, and would be if I hadn't embraced this site! Thanks, I really do appreciate your help and kind words.
Big hugs.

xx