Baby and Debt... some advice needed

Xevius

Sorry mozzyc not on a dmp, just a very tight budget. Can you not ring payplan and see what they say?

mozzyc

Xevius wrote: »

Sorry mozzyc not on a dmp, just a very tight budget. Can you not ring payplan and see what they say?

Yes, they'll just do a new budget for us, and send this off to the creditors, but they have no controll over how the creditors react to this. But hey, I guess i've got to ask myself what's more important in life.:o

savingmummy

madmich666 wrote: »

Hi all thanks for your tips and kind words.

Here is my soa so any advice would be great... have already cut down as much as poss but some fresh eyes on the soa would be great

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 550
Partners monthly income after tax....... 800
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1350

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 505
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 10
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 40
Council tax............................. 120 is this over 12 months? if over 10 get it changed to 12
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30 this is high-ish
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40 go payg
TV Licence.............................. 23 should be about £12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 go freeview
Internet Services....................... 20 is this with phone?
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 reduce where you can, meal plan, stick to a strict list of things you need
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 this is cheap!! Are you sure??
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 23 is this the cheapest?
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 8
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 5
Haircuts................................ 3
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10 use this for debt
Total monthly expenses.................. 1167


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 75000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 76500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 73500....(505)......7<
Charging Order.................13000....(10).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 86500.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
lloyds cc......................5830......2.........0
lloyds od......................450.......2.........0
tesco cc.......................2022......1.........0
Friend.........................1000......0.........0
southern electric..............319.......10........0
dad............................2500......0.........0
regal credit ..................100.......10........0
maintenance charge ............3500......10........0
Ground rent ...................350.......10........0
virgin cc......................500.......5.........0
Total unsecured debts..........16571.....50........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,350
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,167
Available for debt repayments........... 183
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 50
Amount left after debt repayments....... 133 - where does this go??

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 76,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,571
Net Assets.............................. -26,571

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

I have not read every post but have left comments in red for you.
You have £133 left over each month according to your SOA so your either overspending somewhere or just `spending it. (or going into a overdraft??!!)

How much is in your emergency fund? could you use that on a debt?

Lookingtothefuture

Firstly Congratulations!!!!!:j:j

I am typing this one handed whilst holding my BEAUTIFUL 5 week old baby girl, and I wanted to say please don't panic! I know you will be thinking 'Oh my... HOW on earth am I going to afford this?' but you really do. You find a way. When I was pregnant I managed to shift a lot of my debt, even now I don't know how I cleared so much.:D I knew I was cutting back but didn't realise how much. You have 8 months to cut your debt down, you will be so motivated to do it, you will be surprised where you can make the cut backs.

To repeat everyone else, freecycle is great for baby stuff as is e-bay. We bought a lot of baby grows and vests from George at ASDA, all white but cheap and good quality ( a pack of three baby vests were £1.75 to give you some idea). We also bought a lot from car boot sales. I paid an average of 20p for a grow and because babies 0-3 dont do much than sleep the clothes were still like new. I wrote a list of essentail things we would need so I wasn't tempted to buy anything cute and 'waste' money that could of been spent on the essentials (boring I know! but it works!)

Don't buy a baby bath, babies fit in a washing up bowl. Pampers nappies were rubbish for us and always leaked. Huggies and Tesco's own we found were the best.... you will get loads of money off vouchers for these if you join every single baby club (Sainsburys little ones, Tesco baby club, boots baby club, SMA, Bounty, I could go on!).

We are breast feeding because it's best for us and also it's cheap. There is so much support for breast feeding mummies now a days so take all the free classes and join all the free clubs you can... babies come out knowing how to suck not necessarily how to latch on properly as I found out! but now we have both learned how to do it properly and we love it! :j

You will get your health care in pregnancy grant of £190 after 25 weeks of pregnancy which can be used towards your baby equipment. Also you may be entitled to an extra £500 depending on your circumstances. Don't forget child benefit and child tax credits once baby is here, we get £41 a week, but aren't eligible for working tax credits (I think because we dont pay for child care but it's so confusing I am not 100% sure!).:o

You say you have a one bed flat, well baby will be in your bedroom for at least six months (or that's what is advised) so don't worry about that.

Could you e-bay some of your things firstly to get some cash for the essentail baby things and secondly to make room for all those new cute clothes people will buy you (that's another thing even people you don't know very well will buy you things! My mums boss and our friends mum bought/ gave us stuff) People are so kind and generous!

That's all I can think of at the mo but may be back again! Hope this is of use to you!

Lastly... being a mum is the best thing in the whole wide world and with a little bit of clever thinking can be done on a budget!:money:

Good luck xx

mozzyc

Lookingtothefuture - Wow. So many great ideas and so inspiring!
Thanks, was great reading that