Advice Please!!!! First Time Poster!!

thorpe1

I have been reading this forum for quite some time now and it is excellent, it also make me feel like I am not the only person to be suffering from debts and also struggling like mad every month.


I would just like some advice on things really. At the moment I am keeping up with my repayments but there is hardly a penny left at the end of the month. I cant get a loan as my credit score is not great and also my partner has a ccj and as we have a mortgage together it reflects badly on me. If I go the payplan way does it blacklist me for six years?? My earnings are about 19,000 my partner earns around 11,000 our debts are

Mortgage: £625 per month
Natwest Loan: £10,000 £251 per month
Natwest Master Card: £3400 £90 per month
Natwest Overdraft: £2,400 £30 per month intrest
Car Finance: £4,500 £125 per month
Next Directory: £850 £80 per month
Capital One Master Card: £90 £5 per month

Any help would be much appreciated, Thanks

OberonSH

Hi, we could do with a SOA (Statement of Affairs) see sticky at top of forum. This will help us all chip in and say where we reckon you could make savings.

Start a spending diary from tomorrow - that way you'll know hwat happens to those £10's from the cash machine!

robert_harper_2000

Although not a get rich quick scheme.... if you have had any bank charges overdraft charges, or any late payments on your credit cards get them refunded! easily done and loads of people to help. Could be enough to help you out abit

Oh buy Martin Lewis book money diet - IT IS EXCELLENT! saved me a fortune! and my family

funkymonkey

could you sell your car? i sold mine and bouht a cheap run around! has reduced my debt AND saves me £130 a month in HP costs!

thorpe1

Thanks for that, I cant sell the car as its on hp and not paid enough to be able to sell it, I am already in the process of reclaiming my bank charges waiting for my statements from the bank to turn up. At the moment I dont use the bank machine pay for all things on switch so i dont spend the change on rubbish like I used to. I will get on with my state of affairs right now

thanks again for your help so far.

thorpe1

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,189
Partners salary - £574
Benefits - £450

Total - £2,213

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £624
Natwest Loan - £251
Natwest Credit Card - £90
Car Finance - £125
Next - £80
Capital one Mastercard - £25 oh aswell
Halifax Visa - £15
Council Tax - £82
Gas - £35
Electric - £35
Water - 35
TV License - £10
Mobile's - £35
Sky £37
Phone - £30
Food - £300
Car Insurance - £50
Petrol - £90
Housing Benefit Overpayment - £10

Total: £1959

jessicamb

Hi and welcome.

I would comment on the following:

Food - how many is this feeding? You could probably cut this substantially with a bit of meal planning/budgeting.

Sky - if you cancelled/threaten to cancel to get it a bit cheaper thats another £37 a month to throw at your debts potentially. You could get Freeview

Car Insurance - This seems a bit expensive - is it the cheapest you can get.

Where is the balance between income/expenditure going?

Also - you only look to be making minimum repayments on debt. Theres a snowballing calculator that someone will be able to post a link to that shows when you can become debt-free. Obviously if you can increase the payments this will be much quicker.

OberonSH

My salary - £1,189
Partners salary - £574
Benefits - £450 Have you checked entitledto.co.uk to see if you're getting everything you can?

Total - £2,213 How about appying for overtime, a part time bar job etc? Have you reclaimed bank charges?

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £624
Natwest Loan - £251
Natwest Credit Card - £90
Car Finance - £125
Next - £80
Capital one Mastercard - £25 oh aswell
Halifax Visa - £15
Council Tax - £82
Gas - £35 How many in the house? Mine for 1 adult 1 child is £20 for gas & electric. Check out uswitch to compare suppliers. Don't forget to go through pigsback or cashbag to get money back
Electric - £35
Water - 35
TV License - £10
Mobile's - £35
Sky £37 Can you cut this? Try phoning them, some people have gt half price line rental for threatening to leve, option if you can't live without 135 channels of nothing
Phone - £30 Can this be cut, esp if you're spending more on the mobiles?
Food - £300 Check out Moneysaving oldstyle to make HUGE savings here. I only spend £10 per week on 1 adult, 1 child by meal planning and using up freezer stuff, plus shopping at nettos
Car Insurance - £50 again check out uswitch to make sure it's the cheapest
Petrol - £90
Housing Benefit Overpayment - £10

Total: £1959

thorpe1

the help really is great and much appreciated, there are 2 adults and 2 children in the house, the insurance is for two cars and also for two mobiles. we are defo getting maximum credits available to us. still in first 12 months of sky but will be cancelling cause its rubbish. the shopping is for as I say for 4 we all take packed lunches to work/school. i will check out uswitch for gas and electricity thanks.

lixi

Definitely look at the gas and electric. My quarterly is just a bit more than those for two of us in a three bed house.

poppy_f1

rather than cancel sky altogether, change your package to one of the cheaper ones for the rest of the contract

what % are your loans and credit cards, if your not already on, try and get a 0% or a low % life of balance card

how old are the children? do they have loads of toys and games they dont play with, sell them at a car bootsale or on ebay

mobiles are they contract or payg...if contract try swapping to payg...i did a few months back and im more wary about using the phone as much as i used to

if your switching suppliers look at somewhere like quidco where you get cash back