What a mess- please help

Redfraggle_3

Hello Everyone- i am a first time poster but long time lurker and I have got myself and my family in a real mess.

About 5 months ago we remortaged at a fixed rate and lumped our credit cards and overdrafts into the mortgage. At the time I thought fixing at a higher rate was the right thing to do but it means my mortgage is huge and we are fixed for 5 years. A few months later our income went down by £700

On top of that i ran up my credit cards and overdraft again. I have confessed to my OH. Until this month I have managed to juggle things round and pay the bills but I have been unable to pay everything.

We have two children, 2 rescued ponies ( which I have been trying to sell/rehome but one is heavily pregnant)
My OH will try to cancel Sky or at least reduce it as we are in a contract
We have 2 mobiles which used to be £60 a month but managed to reduce.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,200.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 131.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991.00
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.67
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.58
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,331.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,187.58




I havent even included clothes, birthdays or christmas. We wont be having a holiday and we were supposed to be getting married in 3 months but we cancelled this as losing the deposits seemed better than more debt and our house needs so many repairs that we just cant do.

I just dont know what to do

tesuhoha

Really think you have to sell/give away the ponies as they are costing you so much money. The other thing that strikes me is the school meals. You can make packed lunches for your children at a fraction of the price. Also, is your overdraft costing you £120 a month? :eek: If so I think you need to transfer it onto a credit card balance. How much is your overdraft? and what debts do you have? Also, I think you ought to find a different gas/electricity deal as that seems quite high. Are you sure you are on the correct Council Tax banding? You may be owed money if not and you can reclaim it.

tesuhoha

Can you get a 0% credit card and transfer some of your debt onto it so at least you wouldnt be paying interest, just an initial BT fee.

tesuhoha

Are you able to give up smoking and what is 'drinks for home'? Could you put a stop to that? Small cuts added up make a big difference.

Redfraggle_3

Been trying to sell/ rehome ponies since christmas but no luck so far.

My Overdraft is £4500, My OH's is £1300:eek:
My Gas/electricity is through my OH work so we get a extra discount and it is the cheapest. We also have the monitor to see where we are losing money.

BOS CC £6300,Barclays CC £800,RBS CC £1200
Cant get any other credit cards

Council tax banding is correct

I would happily do packed luches but my eldest goes to school then bins them. He would rather not eat and I have tried being tough but will start them again after Easter hols

Should I speak to my bank and confess? see if they can help by freezing charges/interest etc

Zero_Delta

Hi RedFraggle,

You have taken the first two most important steps to sorting yourself out.
1. You have admitted that you are in a mess.
2. You are seeking help through this site.

I would recommend that you bite the bullet and go to the Citizens Advice
Bureau (CAB). I was in a similar mess to you and they sorted it out for me. They are not judgmental, but they are friendly, helpful and totally free.
They will arrange reduced payments for your Credit Cards and can offer help on things that you may not yet have thought of.

If it wasn't for CAB, I would now be homeless, skint and probably divorced. I cannot recommend them strongly enough to you. Things may look bleak now, but CAB can return a little sunshine into your life.

Hope this helps you mate.

Sparkly_Princess

I defintely agree with the school meals. Is that amount a monthly spend for school meals? I make my son a packed lunch every day and it works out so much cheaper than paying for school meals. Plus he chooses what he wants in his lunch so i know it will get eaten.

Please try not to panic ( I know that's easy for others to say) but I have been on this site for just over a week and I have found the advice and help of other people on here invaluable. They have given me the strength to stand up for myself and not be frightened by my debt. You can do it too and posting up here is the first step:T

tesuhoha

Not meaning to be hard but with an income of £2200, and a mortgage of £991, managing all your bills is going to be a struggle, you just cannot afford £340 per month for the animals. Is there a pony rescue centre that would take them?

Also, is there any possibility that you could downsize your house and start again with a manageable mortgage and no debt? Your debt is not that high at present and this may be an option.

misscousinitt

Hi

Well done for posting, a few things leap out!

Keep trying to re-home those ponies, they are costing you 45% of your shortfall every month - know it seems harsh, but needs must...

When OH tries to reduce the sky - see if they will do you a deal on phone and internet too as a bundle - we pay £50 for the lot.

I see that you say you are on the cheapest gas & Elec - really try and see where you can cut down - there are threads on here that will help.

School meals - as above!

Overdraft cost!!!! Can you transfer this to one of your cards? or appy for a 0% one? this is a huge amount!

Food and Household Shopping - big savings can be made here - pop across to Old Style for some tips and tricks - reckon you could shave quite a bit off here.

Drinks for home/ Cleaning Products - could these be included in the food budget our budget includes 6 bottles of wine!

Petrol seems high - are all journey's necessary? Is this for one or two cars? Car Maintenance also seems high.

Boiler Cover - is this absolutely necessary? if so, can you shop round for it?

Hobbies - whats this? can it be reduced/cut out?

Smoking - I know its difficult when times are tough, but you really can't afford this...can you cut down?

Have you got anything you could e-bay etc... to get debts down?

I know you haven't put anything in for Christmas or Birthdays - do you collect nectar points, boots pionts or clubcard vouchers? - this could help here.

Good luck with your journey forward.

A

x

painted

Whereabouts are you Redfraggle? I am a member of an online rescue site and can ask, if you want, if there are any horse/pony sancturies or rescues near to you that can help. Unfortunately most rescues etc are full to brimming but I can still ask.

DarkConvict

Ponies are assets, they can sell for a fair bit. So i agree they need to go. My sister owns 2 horses so i know they costs alot to look after but also cost alot to buy.

School meals has to go to, move to packed lunches and your gas/elec is high. Shop around for better deals.

Your mortgage + other repayments is a large chunk, you have borrowed so much you don't have a great deal left to live on.