Statement of Affairs - Can't Improve it

Butterfliesarepretty

I live alone in a my own terraced have one child who lives with dad. Work for Vertex Csa contract and earn £1000.17 a month.
Overdraft £550 with all & leic
Tesco Credit card - £100.00 left till it reaches £2k limit and they won't give me an increase.

Bills
Mortgage £42k over 17 years left - over pay by £50 a month £297.66 altogether each month.
Scottish Power gas and elec £44
Bt Line Rental £9
Home ins an contsents Lloyds tsb £17.61
Council Tax £70
Car Insurance £31
Child Support Agency £115.94
Child Savings £6
Life Insurance £7.70
Bury Mbc Gym £28 (tried to cancel contract not yet 12 mths)
Tesco Homephone calls £9-13
TV Licence £12.12
Water £13.60
Broadband O2 £7.50
Tesco CC £80

Total monthly £749.13

Car Tax £185 annually (car is an 16 yr old mx5) all paid for, no loan on car.

I shop carefully using a calculator as I food shop and buy cheapest.
I get paid on the 15th of every month, most bills go out on 15th or 16th but can't change some of them to 16th , car ins goes out on the 3rd and they won't change it so I accumulate £25 unpaid item fees.
all and leic won't increase overdraft back to £700 like it was in 2008.

i have a tv and freeview and no sky or anything. I hardly use the phone and never call on my mobile with o2 I top up £10 a month.

I have just had to pay £25 for my teeth problems at local nhs dentist and my daughter comes to stay this weekend and we will be staying in. to top it all my father has cancer and I know my debts are just mortgage and the one credit card which is not as bad as some people have but I feel out of control and try really hard to budget. I can't even go for a drink with my mate.
Never buy lunches at work always make own. Have two cats too but always use asda own food and always make sure they eat everything before I give them more. Should I write my spending in a note book so I know where I am up to after minusing all the bills?

Please help?

katsu

Can you complete an SOA template as you've not got everything here - like the £10 mobile top up in your text?

You've not got any allowance for birthdays or christmas for your child, no clothes for you etc.

Spending diaries never hurt.

Why can you not move the bills?

How much money comes out too early causing you to pay these fees?

Why are you making mortgage OPs rather than reducing your credit card debt/sorting out the monthly bank charges?

Hope these help start you off

talana

It's difficult to put it all together without seeing a full SOA, but a few things....

Tesco Credit card - £100.00 left till it reaches £2k limit and they won't give me an increase.

No bad thing. Increasing your credit isn't the answer.

So how much do you spend on groceries per month? You don't give a figure.

Mortgage £42k over 17 years left - over pay by £50 a month £297.66 altogether each month.

Overpaying the mortgage is all well and fine if you can afford it and if you have no other debt. You NEED that £50 for other things. What's the apr on your mortgage and on the credit card?

car ins goes out on the 3rd and they won't change it so I accumulate £25 unpaid item fees.

No sense in just racking up unpaid item fees. Cancel the DD, call the company and see what other methods are available for you to pay.

linz

Hi,

I may be being thick but what is the BT line rental and the Tesco Homephone calls?

Agree with Katsu, why not stop the overpayments for a while - interest on your debts is bound to be a higher rate than your mortgage ?

I'm sure you are aware of shopping around for car ins/utilities etc - you can even get £2 cashback through Topcashback.co.uk for doing a comparison every 2 weeks.

What about a part time job a couple of nights a week for a while?

Visit the supermarkets in the evenings when they reduce stuff. I've had some fab buys from Morrisons at about 6.30pm.

Good luck, hope you get things sorted.

Butterfliesarepretty

I buy for my daughters birthday in june, Probably £20
Birthdays at work I give £2 a month.
I don't buy for my parents birthdays as we don't get on, brother sisters etc we don't either.

Most of the bills are cheapest - some direct debits only have 1st and 15th as choices for dates of deduction.
I can't get cheaper car insurance other than with equity red star.
I overpay on mortgage because I started that in april 2008 and its my biggest debt and want to help it reduce as previous debts have gone on the mortgage. It used to be £31,000 in total.

I have claimed for charges and had them refused because of court ruling. One lot I did get from all & leicester on the day of the court decision but that was only £300 charges from 2009 jan-dec, they decided not to refund me from six year ago and smile bank also refused me because of court decision.

I have not bought any clothes for three months.

Butterfliesarepretty

linz wrote: »

Hi,

I may be being thick but what is the BT line rental and the Tesco Homephone calls?

Its cheaper for me to pay £10 to bt to ensure my line rental is paid and the calls are cheaper with tesco. There is only me and I hardly make any calls.

Agree with Katsu, why not stop the overpayments for a while - interest on your debts is bound to be a higher rate than your mortgage ?

I really don't want to stop the overpayments as I am making an effort to pay biggest debt off.

I'm sure you are aware of shopping around for car ins/utilities etc - you can even get £2 cashback through Topcashback.co.uk for doing a comparison every 2 weeks.

My 16 yr old car is an import mx5 and had it three years - its my only pleasure. Utilities I did today and it was no cheaper anywhere else. I overpay to ensure bills are paid which they always are. I will try the site you mentioned though.

What about a part time job a couple of nights a week for a while?

I have been applying for higher paid jobs since feb 09 but I work four ten hour days and its hard work and as I am 42 I am totally shattered after that. I also work one saturday a month on my job.

Visit the supermarkets in the evenings when they reduce stuff. I've had some fab buys from Morrisons at about 6.30pm.

I do buy the reduced stuff too, I buy reduced priced bread and freeze it for toast and other things. I buy uht milk not fresh and tinned stuff and believe me I do shop around.

Good luck, hope you get things sorted.

Thanks:)

talana

shawtj2 wrote: »

I overpay on mortgage because I started that in april 2008 and its my biggest debt and want to help it reduce as previous debts have gone on the mortgage. It used to be £31,000 in total.

It's also your cheapest debt I'm assuming. Size of the debt is not the prime factor here.
Makes much more sense to pay the most expensive first, ie the credit card.

Butterfliesarepretty

talana wrote: »

It's difficult to put it all together without seeing a full SOA, but a few things....


No bad thing. Increasing your credit isn't the answer.

So how much do you spend on groceries per month? You don't give a figure.
It can vary between £20-£30 a week cause I calculate as I go around.

Overpaying the mortgage is all well and fine if you can afford it and if you have no other debt. You NEED that £50 for other things. What's the apr on your mortgage and on the credit card?

the mortgage is a good one, my fixed rate deal ended oct and it was 6.13% and its now dropped to variable 2.5% so I have been making overpayments since april 08 and I really want to continue that.


No sense in just racking up unpaid item fees. Cancel the DD, call the company and see what other methods are available for you to pay

I can't just cancel it right now and there are no other methods to pay the company I rang them to see if they could offer me something else. Besides that I can't see me getting cheaper elsewhere as its an import mx5

Butterfliesarepretty

talana wrote: »

It's also your cheapest debt I'm assuming. Size of the debt is not the prime factor here.
Makes much more sense to pay the most expensive first, ie the credit card.

So should I cancel the overpayment and increase my credit card payment per month from £80 to £130???
As I am making more than the mininum payment anyway.;)

linz

I'm not sure if the £2 every 2 weeks is just for doing a car insurance comparison, you'd have to register and have a look around. It's with Moneysupermarket, but there are quite a few others like go compare & compare the market that pay for doing comparisons, it all adds up. It's definitely worth registering with a cashback site though, and Topcashback is one of the best.

savingmummy

It sounds like you have cut back already and are doing well with reducing shopping/trying to find cheaper utilities etc.

Stop the credit card! get our overdraft clear this is your first port of call!

Have you anything to sell? how about things for eBay or boot sales to bring in extra income?
It seems you work very hard. Do you do any handyman work or gardening? this could help even just a few times a month!

Mortgage is a good debt! the rest is bad so needs going as a priority!!

You really need to do a full SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html and then see whats going on in full accuracy.
Sorry to hear about your father, must be very hard for you right now.