Sick of being poor

nolongerindenial

From one father to another - take it from me your child needs to come first!

you need to post up a SOA (http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) as it is good for two reasons.

1. It allows you to realise where you are wasting your money
2. Posting it up on here allows other people with a different perspective to you to provide you with help

Chickenbrain2009

I am not sure why some people feel the need to say the 30k is not poor. Its got nothing to do with your income but disposable income. If you live in a pricey area then you can indeed be hard up on 30k. I have bought up four children with no help at all, not even any maintenance. Nowadays most people recognise that a sense of being hard up is relative, if people around you have more money you feel poor. Its how you feel thats the issue here.

KimYeovil

Why do you say you have no pension, OP? If your take-home pay is £1850 on an income of £30K then where, other than pension contributions, is the other four or five hundred pounds disappearing to?

McKneff

I smell a troll,
either that or what the OP wants is a hig lottery win, right now.
He wants it all and he wants it now.

Lifes not like that my friend. What you want isnt attainable so you just have to accept that and get on with what you do have.
I'm with Kim Yeovil, you need to grow up and sort your head out like an adult.

Amara

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why do you say you have no pension, OP? If your take-home pay is £1850 on an income of £30K then where, other than pension contributions, is the other four or five hundred pounds disappearing to?

I think he means 30k before tax and that's 1850 or about per month take home wage. It sounds right for me.

BeautyandtheBeast_3

im surprised by the attitudes and comments from some people on here - have you forgotten that martin asked us to be nice to all money savers. Try remembering how you felt when you plucked the courage up to face up to your debts. its hard and it doesnt help if people are nasty.
be nice - if you cant say anything pleasant then dont say anything!!

The_Big_H

OP, there have been some negative and positive responses on here.
I'll chip in with a bit of both.
I earn under 23k, my wife works part time and earns 2k. We have 5 (five) children, aged between 6 and 15. We have accumulated debts of around 20k over the past few years.
Mainly by being stupid with purchases and then hiding from the bank and credit card statements.
However, now I made it my 2010 resolution to take control and tackle things head on.
I made a simple Excel spreadsheet listing every direct debit, debit card payment and cash withdrawal each and every day. It shows the date, and what my current bank balance is. I key in everything that is known to be going out of the bank on each day, and making a strict budget for essentials like grocery shopping and fuel etc.
I check it off with the bank statement every month.
What this does is show me, in explicit detail, what my bank balance is like now and going forward. I can see in advance when the tight spots are likely to be, you know, those times when the payday is a few days away and there's little in the bank. It allows you to take control, to actually treat your income and expenditure like running a business. Your business. Aim to make a small profit each month so you can treat your daughter, or even yourself. There's no magic way to conjure up extra cash. If you want and need more cash, you've got to make cuts where you can and work extra if you can. Phone up your local chinese restaurants and ask them if they need any delivery drivers. Sounds like hard work? No. I work on a Friday or Saturday evening. 5 hours, 6pm to 11 pm. I get £10 per hour basic and £1 per delivery. Usually 30 deliveries a night, and most are 3 or 4 lumped together. I keep all tips (about a tenner) and get given a fantastic meal to take home when I'm finished. Usually, after my fuel spend, I bring home about £75. CASH. Plus a meal.
Work hard, plan well. It's the only way.
Goodnight.

McKneff

The_Big_H wrote: »

OP, there have been some negative and positive responses on here.
I'll chip in with a bit of both.
I earn under 23k, my wife works part time and earns 2k. We have 5 (five) children, aged between 6 and 15. We have accumulated debts of around 20k over the past few years.
Mainly by being stupid with purchases and then hiding from the bank and credit card statements.
However, now I made it my 2010 resolution to take control and tackle things head on.
I made a simple Excel spreadsheet listing every direct debit, debit card payment and cash withdrawal each and every day. It shows the date, and what my current bank balance is. I key in everything that is known to be going out of the bank on each day, and making a strict budget for essentials like grocery shopping and fuel etc.
I check it off with the bank statement every month.
What this does is show me, in explicit detail, what my bank balance is like now and going forward. I can see in advance when the tight spots are likely to be, you know, those times when the payday is a few days away and there's little in the bank. It allows you to take control, to actually treat your income and expenditure like running a business. Your business. Aim to make a small profit each month so you can treat your daughter, or even yourself. There's no magic way to conjure up extra cash. If you want and need more cash, you've got to make cuts where you can and work extra if you can. Phone up your local chinese restaurants and ask them if they need any delivery drivers. Sounds like hard work? No. I work on a Friday or Saturday evening. 5 hours, 6pm to 11 pm. I get £10 per hour basic and £1 per delivery. Usually 30 deliveries a night, and most are 3 or 4 lumped together. I keep all tips (about a tenner) and get given a fantastic meal to take home when I'm finished. Usually, after my fuel spend, I bring home about £75. CASH. Plus a meal.
Work hard, plan well. It's the only way.
Goodnight.

:TRespect - the big h.

Wow, what a lovely family Sunday morning you must have. enjoy every moment of your five childrens time, I envy you.....................
Not too much mind, mine have grown up and flown the nest but I still missthe excitment of Christmas morning when they were children - sighhhhhhhhhhhh..............

Annie

MadMinx

BeautyandtheBeast wrote: »

im surprised by the attitudes and comments from some people on here - have you forgotten that martin asked us to be nice to all money savers. Try remembering how you felt when you plucked the courage up to face up to your debts. its not hard and it doesnt help if people are nasty.
be nice - if you cant say anything pleasant then dont say anything!!

I agree with you B&TB

I could launch into a lecture about how you've gotten into this situation too, but I never would; you know why? I will NEVER forget how bad it was when I also used to be up to my eyes in it, robbing Peter to pay Paul etc, etc. It was miserable, depressing and soul destroying. I knew I only had myself to blame as I was a shocking spendthrift, but me blaming myself and having others blame me doesn't really change things after the fact. I think it's really easy for some posters to do that, but at the end of the day every one of us has made mistakes, it's what you learn from them that can make the difference to your life. A number of people have commented on the amount of money you earn. In my opinion, the amount you earn is irrelevant if it all goes on debt servicing and essentials every month. Many people earning twice or half of what you earn are in the same situation. If your attitude to money is wrong then you'll always be living for your JOB (Just Over Broke).

What did change things for me however, was my own commitment to change things. I had to have a serious conversation with myself and ask myself how badly I wanted to improve my situation, and I realisedthat I didn't want it bad enough, which was why nothing changed. When I finally wanted it bad enough and REALLY was sick & tired of being poor, I found out the steps I needed to take to change my financial situation and took them. There's been some really helpful suggestions on here and I think they're a good place to start, such as visiting the CAB. Also, I've heard really good things about these people and hear that they're great for giving free debt advice:www.cccs.co.uk/.

I personally didn't have a debt management plan; instead I worked on changing my attitude to money and spending. I don't want to make it sound like it was easy either, because I can assure you it was proper cold turkey, and it was damn hard, and took some time, but as I said before when you want something bad enough, you'll do whatever it takes to achieve it. I've since climbed out of the debt abyss that I was in, and have been debt free for years and am now also a successful property investor, which I never could have achieved before.

LifeOnHold, I really do think you can find somewhere to start with the advice given on here, so please don't give up hope, as it is achievable. I really do wish you every success in turning your life around.

MM

klmikulla

Hi - I can understand your situation and it does become quite draining after a while..its seems neverending but this nightmare will come to an end....just a thought, do you own things like tools, bicycles, tents, hats, evening dresses, if so what about renting them out to earn an extra income every month? Regards