So ashamed please help

chelbel1981

doodledo wrote: »

Well done for posting your SOA. Firstly don't be ashamed. We have all been where you are, be proud that you are facing up to your situation :T

My comments on your SOA are:

- satellite is very high - this needs to go or reduced considerably. Or does this included internet etc?

- How old are you children? Your grocery bill could definately be reduced maybe even halfed in all honesty.

Good luck with your journey to being debt free

Children are just 8 and 3
Yes Sky is all 3
Thank you

savingmummy

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 0
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1003
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 904
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1907
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 75
Electricity............................. 80 these seem quite high
Gas..................................... 75
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 75 reduce package
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 this could be halved
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 650
Other child related expenses............ 44
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10 use this fund now
Total monthly expenses.................. 1781

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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Water arrers...................900.......40........0
Council tax benefit............1500......0.........0
housing benifit................1900......200.......0
Virgin.........................198.......0.........0
Orange mobile..................202.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........4700......240.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,907
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,781
Available for debt repayments........... 126
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 240
Amount short for making debt repayments. -114
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,700
Net Assets.............................. -4,700
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Hi and welcome, Do you get any help with childrens costs from their father?
Could you get your daughter into a free pre school from now til september?
Do packed lunch for school meal to help out for now.
Groceries can be cut back using meal planners, cutting a few brands and using a strict shopping list. Look out for BOGOF and vouchers too.

Good luck x

chelbel1981

jojitsui wrote: »

Hello lovely and welcome i'm a relative newbie to money saving so my advice will be very basic, but hope it helps a bit. don't worry tho i'm sure you will have loads of advice soon.

Please don't be ashamed, be proud that you are finally dealing with your debt.

Have you made a typo with your gas and electric payments? £155 a month is shocking. I would also get rid of the sky. This would make up the £114 easily.

There are also some really good threads on here that will help you half your shopping bill.

To shave a bit more off use your council tax free months (Feb and march) to pay towards your debts and do you really need £10 a month for clothes for the time being.

Cheers J x

I haven't made a typo, it was a guestimate I have put £20 on each and this usually lasts a week in the winter months, it's probably less during the summer well gas certainly

I'm looking into lowering sky

I don't get free months because it's at bailiff level !!!

The girls are growing so quick and constantly need new tight and trousers so that is the minimum I will go to

xxx

Amber_Sunshine

It may be helpful if you can give more details on what benefits you are getting.

Satellite TV has to go - not an essential alas! Could you manage without the internet and just have the phone? Work out what you're really spending on groceries, and see where you can reduce it.

I notice that you don't have contents insurance - this is something you SHOULD have.

Burlesque_Babe

to echo Ames comment - unless you have lots of CCJs, not all your accounts will have bailiffs chasing. Any account with a debt collection agency has no bailiff related powers, however much they may huff and puff about what they say they can do.

Burlesque_Babe

How about getting a basic, cheap PAYG mobile, stick £5 credit on it and ditch the landline?

chelbel1981

Icanandwillsavemoney wrote: »

Are you sure it will release £600. If your childcare costs go down, then so does your child tax credits as you will need to inform them - assuming you get childcare element of child tax credits that is.

:eek: I hadn't thought of that

Ames wrote: »

I doubt all your debts have bailiffs involved, most will be Debt Collection Agencies, which are NOT bailiffs and don't have anywhere near the powers. They should be getting £1 a month while you try and pay back the council tax, if they get baillifs involved then it can get ugly, there's still lots you can do even when it gets to that stage, but it's best to avoid it altogether.

What's the difference???
I have had companies on my door step for the repayment of the council tax benefit overpaymeny and the housing benefit overpayment.
The others have been letters, when I phone them they want stupid amounts of minimum repayment

savingmummy wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 0
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1003
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 904
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1907
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 75
Electricity............................. 80 these seem quite high
Gas..................................... 75
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 75 reduce package
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 this could be halved
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 650
Other child related expenses............ 44
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10 use this fund now
Total monthly expenses.................. 1781

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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Water arrers...................900.......40........0
Council tax benefit............1500......0.........0
housing benifit................1900......200.......0
Virgin.........................198.......0.........0
Orange mobile..................202.......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........4700......240.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,907
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,781
Available for debt repayments........... 126
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 240
Amount short for making debt repayments. -114
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,700
Net Assets.............................. -4,700
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Hi and welcome, Do you get any help with childrens costs from their father?
Could you get your daughter into a free pre school from now til september?
Do packed lunch for school meal to help out for now.
Groceries can be cut back using meal planners, cutting a few brands and using a strict shopping list. Look out for BOGOF and vouchers too.

Good luck x

He has his own huge debts (bigger than mine) and he lives at his parents to save money on travel to work and also so we can both try to get some sort of order to our debts so our marriage can go ahead (If it wasn't 75% paid for we'd cancel, BTW it is a MSE style wedding )
We only see each other twice a week at the moment because of the stress and money problems

Thanks for your tips with shopping

katsu

chelbel1981 wrote: »

I am £1000 overdrawn
Not in arrears but have card meters, thats calendar monthly roughly
Does include everything
Clothes is alot more I suppose
I would say roughly £10 per month, but then there was from October to before christmas when it was roughly £30-40 per month for hospital appointments
I agree with the insurance, I cancelled it cos couldn't afford it
My hair is a treat £10

Well done for being honest.

Can you get clothes down to this £10 or less - look at what you and your kids already own and maybe try to buy nothing else for a while?

Put £10 in for your travel, lets get to the reality, then you can work out what you need to do to clear your debts and break even each month.

Any way to get off the card meters? Can you reduce usage? Are you wearing jumpers first, heating only as much water as you need, closing curtains, turning things off, snuggling under blankets in the front room with hot drinks?

chelbel1981

Amber_Sunshine wrote: »

It may be helpful if you can give more details on what benefits you are getting.

Satellite TV has to go - not an essential alas! Could you manage without the internet and just have the phone? Work out what you're really spending on groceries, and see where you can reduce it.

I notice that you don't have contents insurance - this is something you SHOULD have.

Working tax credit
Child tax credit
and child benefit

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

to echo Ames comment - unless you have lots of CCJs, not all your accounts will have bailiffs chasing. Any account with a debt collection agency has no bailiff related powers, however much they may huff and puff about what they say they can do.

This terminology is all new to me what are CCJ's???

Can I legally repay the ones that aren't bailiffs £1???

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

How about getting a basic, cheap PAYG mobile, stick £5 credit on it and ditch the landline?

I only have the landline because of the internet and because it has free evening and weekend call

Ames

A bailiff gets involved after a court order. They have rights to seize your goods (if you let them into the house or sign something). Although they have less rights than they think.

A debt collection agency has no rights. They can come out to your doorstep and you can tell them to shove off. Never, ever phone them up, they're trained bullies who earn more based on what they can squeeze out of you. Write to them, say 'all I can afford is £1 a month, here it is' and include a postal order. If they take you to court they'll look stupid for asking you to pay them when you owe council tax, and you'll be showing thast you're willing to pay, but not able to at the mo.

You have to keep repeating this to yourself: 'they can't have what I don't have'. They can't get blood out of a stone, and your priority is the council tax debt. It's possible (though not likely) that you can go to prison for it. The rest of your creditors can whistle for a while.