What a mess- please help

mum2one

Redfraggle wrote: »

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 - need to reduce to either pay and go or sim only deals -goodones if you shop around
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 - could you get a cheaper package Ipay £6.99 pm, includes local and national calls
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 -start using natural cleaners eg banan skin for cleaning leather shoes.
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 -way to high, turn things off standyby, don't leave items on charge every night, turn lights off when leaving room empty
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 - look at cutting back, turn the theromstat down a degree or 2, you won't notice the difference
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.00 - can you spread over 12 months, just to help balance the figures
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 - need to change bank accounts, I thought I was being ripped off at £1.00 per day with halifax
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00 - is that buildings and contents - shop around at renewal - cash back sites
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 - luxury got to come out of groceries or goes
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.67 - is there any way of reducing this
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.58 - stuck with
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 -renewal time shop around
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220.00 - speak to CAB - maybe relist the debts as amount owed the apr and how much your paying
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00 - ditt0
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 - its a luxury that has to go, even if you can cut back to a 50/50 agreement with them, anything saved all helps
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 - luxury, incontract need to see if there reduce, consider using box, get base set of programmes
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 -sorry this is a major expense, that you can ill afford
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 sorry thats got to go
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

I know its hard and you've taken the 1st and the most important step asking for help, think you def need to speak to cab and see where you can go from there.

Put a few suggestions on, dare say they've already been done, but didn't want to run without sending good wishes, and all the luck on your new debt free life xx

shaven-monkey

for horses :- glue factory.
for haircuts:- buy scissors.
No more drinking or smoking.
No more credit cards. Ever.
Your new hobby is calculating exactly how much those things you bought on credit are going to cost you in the long run.
Cut down on the food spend by about 50%.
Sell all the crap you bought on credit that you don't actually need to live.
You may avoid homelessness.

slowlyfading

well done for posting first of all, that's the hardest step over

Following on from others, obviously the horses are a major expense, but that might take time to find somewhere for them to go etc., and as you've paid until may, not much point obsessing over that.

Do your children know about the debt? Regarding the school dinners, that's an awful lot a month! I know you said that you've tried packed lunches before and your DS throws them away, but maybe he'll just have to get used to the idea - especially if they know a bit about what is going on.

Also, your gas and electric are high - remember to turn everything off that doesn't need to be on. Do you have your heating on a lot? Maybe turn it down 1 or 2 degrees, you won't notice

Do you know what you've spent the money on? I know that seems like a silly question, but sometimes you don't realise where the money goes. I suggest starting a spending diary - either on paper or somewhere like www.spendingdiary.com and writing down EVERY little thing you spend - it'll soon open your eyes!

Do you have anything you can sell? On Amazon, Ebay, carboot sales. Anything that you don't need really, try and get some extra income that way to help costs etc.

Also, your grocery bill is quite good for a family of four, but could be reduced by at least 50 pounds with some careful planning. Do you have some food in your cupboards now? Enough to last you another week? As that will help in the short term Do meal plans, so you know what you are going to have and therefore know what you need to buy at the supermarket. Do you waste some food? Planning will stop this if you do Pop over to the OS (Old Style) board for lots of tips to make a food budget go further

Good luck, you're in the right place

Redfraggle_3

Thanks for all comments and suggestions

......well today I went to CAB and have an appointment next Wednesday with a money advisor. I have to move direct debits from my overdrawn account, then either cancel or freeze account meantime. I will move where my wages are paid in too to stop them being swallowed up.
It was also suggested that since my OH has minimal debt and if we split the priorty household bills then he neednt be involved in my mess too much.

Been contacting everyone i know to put out feelers for ponies and advertising on lots of sites.

.....next to do various budget plans

mum2one

Thats a massive positive step in the right direction, sounds like you had some good advice, and have got straight on to the plans, keep us all informed xx

fluffyboots

God I feel for you.am worried about ponies too you cant move a pregnant horse...

fluffyboots

OPP SORRY..meant to say I am in N Ireland but will see if I know anyone( know a lot of people in animal rescue in England_) that would help you out and I agree as an animal lover you want them to be safe..

WASHER

Shaven Monkey, a little tact goes along way, the op is struggling with her finances and needs helpful useful advice.

OP, well done for acknowledging the situation now before it gets worse, you could always phone the cccs or National Debt Line, or visit the website, a wealth of knowledge on them.

misscousinitt

Just popped back to see how you are getting on.

Good step with the CAB - good luck with that...let us know how you get on...

Take Care

purpleheather2810

Redfraggle wrote: »

Thanks for all comments and suggestions

......well today I went to CAB and have an appointment next Wednesday with a money advisor. I have to move direct debits from my overdrawn account, then either cancel or freeze account meantime. I will move where my wages are paid in too to stop them being swallowed up.
It was also suggested that since my OH has minimal debt and if we split the priorty household bills then he neednt be involved in my mess too much.

Been contacting everyone i know to put out feelers for ponies and advertising on lots of sites.

.....next to do various budget plans

You are making some really positive steps and I'm sure you're feeling better already. You CAN do this!