My first post here

all_hours

Toomuchdebt wrote:

The gir's school is an hour's walk away so unfortunately I do need a car.The 3 year old has half day sessions at playschool (next to the school) so if I didn't have a car I would be walking 6 hours a day.

I will try ringing the helplines again on Monday and will read the threads-I just feel so helpless now

Hi sorry I posted before reading your first post thoroughly.

Could you break down car costs into separate sections others could have advice on reducing insurance.

lil'H

Hi and welcome, you'll get some really good advice here, it is scary facing up to debts but it's the only way forward. I've added a few notes below for you hope this may help.

Toomuchdebt wrote:

Here is my incomings/outgoings etc(all monthly)
Income from benefits £1816.12
Outgoings
Rent £750
Council Tax-0
water £61.30 This is huge, is it metered or rates? Also check as some water companies will give a discount on rates for people on benefits
home insurance £12
Gas £35 Go to uswitch.com for this and electric to check your with cheapest, also do everything you can to keep useage down (turn things off not onto standby, wear extra layer in winter so heating isn't on as much etc
Electricity £33 s above
TV licence £11
travelling(petrol,car insurance,road tax) £131
phone and internet £46(year contract)
mobile phone £20 (also in contract)
violin lessons for children(subsidised) £20
dog insurance £17.95
clothes £50I know it's hard but you'll have to try and bring this down, also try selling kids old clothes on ebay to fund for their new ones, this is what I do with my son
food and other shopping £250 again tough I know but even if you can save £30 a month it will all help, plan meals and make lists so you only buy what you need. As you are on benefits it is worth ensuring you use the free school meals, that way your food budget should go down considerably in September
pet food £50 month (dog with sensitive stomach-his food costs £30 a month and all other pets)
total outgoings £1447.25
money for creditors =£368.87


As you can see I am around £120 short each month.

Also as your children are in school/nursery could you perhaps get a job a few houors a day, if you work 16 hours a week you'd get WTC and childcare help? May be worth considering? As for bankrupcy I have no idea, afraid I know very little about this!

Good luck
lil'H

Prudent

Wouldn't you be entitled to transport if its an hour's walk?

Toomuchdebt

Not entitled to transport as it's not the nearest school-however the nearest school is rubbish to be honest and no way would I want them to go there.
The hours that I am child free are not enough to enable me to work-eg youngest child is at playschool from 9-12,so adding time to get to work and back would leave me with 2 or 2.5 hours to actually be at work.I would be worse off due to increased petrol costs and needing to buy work clothes(all my clothes are fairly scruffy casual things).
The water is rates-it's the highest in the county unfortunately
I will look to see if I can get gas and electric cheaper-I'm with Npower for both at the moment so I get the £60 discount every year from them.
Clothes-I buy as cheap as possible-charity shops etc-I probably spend less than that but didn't want to underestimate-shoes are expensive.I try and pass as much stuff down to the others as possible-unfortunately by the time it gets to my youngest it's usually not in a fit state to sell.
Food-I will try and reduce that-that figure includes other non food things such as washing powder and toilet paper etc.
Car costs are as follows-insurance £300 a year on a VW Sharan(not very good condition and high mileage as it was an ex taxi),£189 road tax,£40 MOT and the rest is petrol.

lil'H

OK well it seems like your looking into everything, can I just ask and feel free not to answer if this is intrusive, but your CSA payments are very low for 4 children, is there anyway you can discuss situation with your ex?

lil'H

Toomuchdebt

lil'H wrote:

OK well it seems like your looking into everything, can I just ask and feel free not to answer if this is intrusive, but your CSA payments are very low for 4 children, is there anyway you can discuss situation with your ex?

lil'H

Yes CSA is very low but that is all he is prepared to give and because I am on income support I wouldn't get more than the £50 a month anyway as the rest would go to them,

justruth

It might be worthwhile asking the phone/internet company that you have the years contract with, if there is any possibility of being moved onto a cheaper tariff for the remainder of the term as you are stuggling with your finances. I have in the past asked this of ntl and BT with positive results. Make sure you're making calls as cheaply as possible!

Also do you really need dog insurance? PDSA will often treat pets for free if you are on benefits and just ask for a donation for regular treatments. As you are considering giving the dog up this may be an option, after all once you are debt free (and you will be) you can make regular donations to them.

Try again with the credit card companies that are refusing to reduce your repayments and offer to send them your card, if they understand that they basically have two options, this or you declare yourself bankrupt, they may become a little easier to work with. While it goes against standard snowballing method of reducing the debt with the highest APR first, get rid of the small ones that are less than £50, and you'll have £14 pounds more a month to throw at the bigger debt. Heck you could probably find £24.70 for the burtons card down the back of the sofa, in your pennies jar and generally around the house, but it would be one less thing to worry about.

I have every faith in your ability to beat this debt

Toomuchdebt

The phone /internet is a possibility-I will ring and ask them and see what they say-the mobile won't be any cheaper I don't think and it would cost me more on pay as you go.My actual call costs on BT are around £4 a month so I don't think i can reduce that any more.

Dog insurance-well that's a tough one-he needed an operation which cost me £605 and had he been insured that would have been £80.We don't have a PDSA here unfortunately-the RSPCA offers help but only has clinics on Mondays and Wednesdays so not much good if you have an emergency on a Saturday night.

I did tell the card companies that refused that my only other option was bankruptcy-in fact it's the same company because my Mastercard was taken over by MBNA and Abbey is part of that too.They said to give them a call in 3 months time and not use the card in the meantime.Not very helpful as it's NOW I'm struggling not in 3 month's time.Maybe they will be more helpful if I ask one of the helplines to take on my debt?

Gemmzie

Toomuchdebt wrote:

The water is rates-it's the highest in the county unfortunately

Are you in Cornwall? We have the highest rates, ours is £45.40 (non metered) and there's four adults here. I'd definitely chase that up

Toomuchdebt

No in Gloucestershire.I queried it last year-it's only for 8 months though not 12 so maybe it works out to the same.