Please Help!

KPR11

lucy_w86 wrote: »

I had problem with contact lenses drying my eyes so the best and cheapest are £35.00 per month.

Hi Lucy,

Well done on your SOA.

You seem to have come to the right place.

Not got a great deal to add but maybe wearing glasses (if it is an option) for a while might help! You will be saving c£400 pa which you can use towards the baby!

Hope things work out for you! Good luck!

KPR

jules888

lucy_w86 wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1473
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1473

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 200
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 150
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 35
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30( buy cheaper presents )
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50(whats this?)
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 610


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
credit card....................2300......65........22
credit card....................3300......75........22
overdraft......................1450......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........7050......140.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,473
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 610
Available for debt repayments........... 863
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 140
Amount left after debt repayments....... 723

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,050
Net Assets.............................. -7,050
[/B]

A few things in brackets i think you could reduce.

barbiedoll

Hi Lucy.
When you see your midwife at around 26 weeks, ask her about the "Health in Pregnancy" grant which is available to all pregnant women, regardless of their financial status. It is £190 and will be paid into your bank account. You can only claim this after week 25 of your pregnancy, your midwife or doctor will need to sign the form. It usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive after the form has been sent. If you will be claiming benefits after you have the baby, you should also be entitled to a Maternity Grant, which is currently £500, so you will have money to buy baby things. You will need to get the form for this at the Jobcentre. As the other posters said, you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds on expensive prams, cots etc, try checking out the National Childbirth Trust website for details of their "nearly new" sales. I've bought loads of stuff from them in the past, as have lots of my friends. In fact, the only things that I bought brand new were the cot (£45, ex-display model) and the pram (half price, around £60 from a closing down Index shop!)

Poosmate

Hi Lucy and congrats on the baby and posting your SOA.

Sorry to hear your parents have asked you to leave, I'm guessing (and may be way off the mark so apologise if I am) that the news they are going to be grandparents is still relatively new to them and is still maybe sinking in? Could the fact they have asked you to leave be a knee jerk reaction? If so, I'm sure it won't be long before they come round and support you as much as they can.

Can't comment on the housing situation because I've never been in that situation. So good luck with that.

what I would do first and foremost is pay the £400 off your Next account and CLOSE it. I'm guessing the interest rate on that will be pretty high and they have some georgeous baby clothes so if you close the account you will be less likely to splash out on it! Also, you are going to need to be buying new clothes for yourself in the next 5-6 months which you are only going to grow out of unless you buy big n baggy in the first instance! Hard to judge though if you're going to have a big bump or a little bump at first. Get rid of that Next card with your next salary and get rid of the temptation.

I would guess if you are paying about £15 in interest on your overdraft then the interest is probably around 14.9% (mine was 19.9% and was paying £16 on £1200).

If I was you, I wouldn't be buying anything for the baby just yet, it's far too early and you're only going to have to lump it around when you find a place to live, plus, as others have said, there will be grants available nearer to the birth time. Also, I'm sure you'll get loads of stuff from friends n family and hopefully work colleagues will have a bit of a baby shower for you when you leave for your maternity leave.

Remember also, your baby will have 2 sets of grandparents so let the father's parents help if they offer. Grandparents are so important in a childs life.

The other thing to think about is furnishing your new home. Especially if you go council/HA as I believe they won't be furnished (someone correct me if I'm wrong please).

So, in summary I would:

Pay off Next and destroy the evidence (close the account).
Pay as much off Credit Cards as poss (£500ish extra per month).
Save for furniture baby stuff (£200ish per month).

Please also remember, when you move to your own place you'll have to start paying gas/elec/water rates/contents ins/life ins (advisable with a child) so saving £200 per month now will help you to budget better when you are paying out these bills in the future (you will already be used to living on £200 less if you start now).

Hope that helps

Poo

tallyhoh

I suggest you pay off all your cards before setting any money aside, you will pay less interest that way.

Poosmate

tallyhoh wrote: »

I suggest you pay off all your cards before setting any money aside, you will pay less interest that way.

I would normally agree with this but even if Lucy paid £840 (£700 surplus after expenses + £140 she's already paying) off her cards each month it would still take over 8 months.

Her circumstances are changing dramatically within the next six months. Paying off debts is only part of the big picture. If her circumstance weren't going to change then yes this would be the way to go but there's no point her paying off most of her debts and then having to get into more debt to pay for necessities.

I know to some people debt is the route of all evil but sometimes damage limitation, in reducing debt to a much more manageable state in changing circumstances, is the way forward.

Rightly or wrongly, debt is something you get used to over years. Having a baby and setting up a home is something that happens quickly (compared to debt) and that is what Lucy needs to concentrate on in the next 6 months or so. The debts will still get paid, it'll just take a little longer. We all have these times where one or two months we can't make the over payments on our debts that we'd like to, but that's life.

Looking at the bigger picture, if Lucy hadn't got pregnant and be looking at setting up a new home, would she even be thinking about tackling her debts now? I believe she'd be still paying her £140 per month until something else happened to give her her light bulb moment.

Circumstances have dictated to all of us on here and in debt when we had our light bub moment and we've all been on the long haul journey since.

Hope that helps

Poo

Shoe_Gal

Sounds sensible advice Poo :A I personally think that you cannot put life on hold just to pay off debt (much like dieting in a way) - it has to be part of your life

And Lucy's life is changing very quickly, debt is not her biggest priority just now Congratulations on the baby

PARIS_5000

If you get your contacts lenses from D & A you can pause your direct debit and start up again the following month.

If you decide to pay your salary into another account just transfer some money into your old account to keep your overdraft and transfer out again.

The bank just needs to see money being paid into the account it does not have to stay there.

lucy_w86

Poosmate wrote: »

I would normally agree with this but even if Lucy paid £840 (£700 surplus after expenses + £140 she's already paying) off her cards each month it would still take over 8 months.

Her circumstances are changing dramatically within the next six months. Paying off debts is only part of the big picture. If her circumstance weren't going to change then yes this would be the way to go but there's no point her paying off most of her debts and then having to get into more debt to pay for necessities.

I know to some people debt is the route of all evil but sometimes damage limitation, in reducing debt to a much more manageable state in changing circumstances, is the way forward.

Rightly or wrongly, debt is something you get used to over years. Having a baby and setting up a home is something that happens quickly (compared to debt) and that is what Lucy needs to concentrate on in the next 6 months or so. The debts will still get paid, it'll just take a little longer. We all have these times where one or two months we can't make the over payments on our debts that we'd like to, but that's life.

Looking at the bigger picture, if Lucy hadn't got pregnant and be looking at setting up a new home, would she even be thinking about tackling her debts now? I believe she'd be still paying her £140 per month until something else happened to give her her light bulb moment.

Circumstances have dictated to all of us on here and in debt when we had our light bub moment and we've all been on the long haul journey since.

Hope that helps

Poo

Thank you so much for this post.

I have sat down the last hour, had a few tears and wondered what the hell I should focus on. Truth be it, I can't put baby on hold and having to move out I either go homeless and be put in a hostel or try to save for a deposit, rent privately and apply for hosuing benefit. Once my pay goes down, I am entited to full hosuing benefit and council tax.

I don't want to go into a hostel so I think my priority is reducing the overdraft a bit, keep paying cards off and put money aside for baby and deposit.

x

Poosmate

Hi Lucy.

There are many paths to debtfreeness and we all have to find the path with best siuts our own circumstances.

Mine will take longer because I will not compromise on certain aspects of my life (only buying Nescafe coffee instead of shop's own for instance). There's a tool called "Treats" on the What's The Cost website:

http://www.whatsthecost.com/treats.aspx

This tool would probably tell me that a £4 jar of coffee will cost me £8 in the long run because I hadn't paid that £4 off my debt, but I'd rather pay an extra £4 over however many years it takes me than be miserable every day drinking awful coffee. I am ashamed to say yes I truely was so miserable when I bought some cheaper coffee! How terrible is that? That a jar of coffee can make me miserable when people in the world are starving/dying! I am so lucky to have the choice to buy my preferred coffee even if it does prolong my indebtedness.

We have to eat and we have to drink, we have to live. Just because we are in debt doesn't mean we can't as long as we accept that it will take us a bit longer to get out of debt.

I can accept it and my coffee helps me to reamin focused on paying off debts not moping round dreading my next cup of coffee! lol

You have to choose the path which is right for you. I know the overdraft is bothering you, but it does look like the cheapest credit you have and for that reason alone I would urge you to concentrate more on the credit cards.

Hope that helps.

Poo