Help!..I Dont know where to start

mrsdumplin

Hi,

I really could use some advice..

Let me explain how we are in this mess.

We have allways lived financially close to the edge (and usually beyond). This wasnt a worry as we both have quite secure and well paid jobs our joint income is £74k a year. We had no resposibilites just 2 dogs.. We have always owed a lot but have never been in arrears and allways managed to pay more than the minimum and allways had idea of when things would be paid off.

I was luckily enough to finally fall pregnant last year and we now have a 8 month old daughter..

Before I went on maternity leave I discussed flexible working with my employer and that I would be returning to work as soon as my maternity pay ran out as I couldnt afford to be unpaid.

As fas as I was concerned I was due back to work 2 June, I phoned my employer to confirm and they said they wernt aware I was coming back early I said you were always aware that I was coming back when my SMP ran out, they said but you never confirmed it!...

The up shot of this is I have to give 8 weeks notice to return to work so I am going to be without salary until the end of July....leaving me about £5000 short..

I dont know what to do....I wont be able to cover everything on my husbands salary and I'm the higher wage earner of the two..

Problem two is...my employer have centralised my function and my base office is 150 mile round trip...I have requested flexible working 3 days at home which has been refused, they want 4 days in the offfice, apart from the impact that is going to have on my family life, health etc the fuel costs are going to be astronomical for me something around £450 a month.This plus the additional childcare I was not budgeting for is going to leave us unable to meet our responsibilities.

They have me each way, contractually I am tied to three months notice and as I had enhanced maternity pay is I leave in the next 12 months I have to repay a proportion which I cant afford to do so I cant just go and get another job..

Can you offer any advice firstly as to how I get over the next two months, I have noone to borrow the money from, I have 1 credit card with a nil balance that I could get the money from but I feel that would be irresponsible as I know I am not going to be able to pay it back.

and secondly what I can do about managing my debts and the best way to do it, Should I give them all a call and explain? Should I just pay what I can, up till now I am not in arrears or anything?

Please help I am so stressed about this, I just dont know where to turn..
Any advice greatly apreciated.

below is our SOA.
I also have a car up for sale that will hopefully generate £8-10k but no takers so far as its an unusual and a bit specialist car

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2600
Partners monthly income after tax.... 1800
Benefits................................ 80
Other income......................... 0
Total monthly income.................... 4480

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1254
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 135
Electricity & Gas...................... 121
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line) inc internet. 35
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 70
Groceries etc. ......................... 280
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 650 (both of us)
Road tax................................ 30
Car Insurance........................... 99
Car maintenance (including MOT). 100
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 575
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 40
Buildings & Contents insurance...... 29
Pension........................ 113
Endowments & Life Insurance........373 (inc critical illness cover)
Other insurance......................... 19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 4087

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200,000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 25,000 (current value of endowments)
Total Assets............................ 227,000
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 195,000...(1254).....5.79
Total secured & HP debts...... 195,000....-.........-

Unsecured DebtsDescription...Debt......Monthly...APR
Northern Rock Loan.............8800......398.......7.4
American Express CC............2800......75........4.9
Barclaycard (me)...............9400......6.9.......250
Tesco cc.......................5750......120.......0 (0% for a few more months)
Mint...........................1900......20.8......60
Barclaycard (hubbly)...........950.......11.4......50
MBNA CC........................4200......0.........75 (0% till Oct 10)
Post Office CC.................9100......0.........250 (0% till Jul 10)
also
two overdrafts with Santander £5000

Summary of Monthly Income, expense and surplus
Total monthly income: £ 4480
Expenses (incl. HP & secured debts): £ 4087
Available for debt repayments: £ 393
Unsecured debt repayments: £ 632
Surplus (shortfall if negative) £ -239

LuckyBiscuit

Im not very savvy at this, as im a newbie but just wanted to send you big hugs!!! and say you will get through this, as parents we have no choice...

Good Luck, the experts will be along soon.........................

mrsdumplin

Thanks TMVen...I hope so...I'm sat here in tears, just putting it down on paper has scared me how completely stupid we've been...

ruthber

are you claiming child benefit?

pure_dead_dopey

Don't cry, its only money and it can be sorted.

We were in a very similar position 5 months ago and had to go into a DMP and it was the best thing we ever did. Your SOA is quite tidy and I can see any of the usual suspects where you can cut back except fuel, which is horrendous but understandable. You could try looking at all your insurances to try to get better deals there as they are a bit high. Then there are your endowments which I presume are to pay off the mortgage sometime in the future. It might, just mght be worth thinking abut changing the mortgage to repayment, and cashing in the endowments, obviously all depending on what they will pay out, you are paying a lot of money for them. You'll need to look at what age your and your OH are and if you have to extend your mortgage term. I woud also try to negotiate with your firm, they appear to want it all their way and there are laws about how they treat employees with young children (not my area as am well past children), I am all for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work but they do seem to be expecting you to be superwoman. and I've just read it again, is this a big change to your existing contract? don't think they can just do that either. Other option is ceasing pension payments for a while, not ideal but you need to get through this hard patch.

I mentioned a DMP earlier and if you think this is going to spiral out of control on a more permanent basis, it would be worth going on to the CCCS website and doing their entirely anonymous debt remedy online, see what it comes up with. I'm nt an expert but we did let it spiral out of control and with the benefits of hindsight we could have had it sorted a lot sooner if we hadn't been so proud of doing well and living the life, as it turns out entirely on credit.

So no crying there is an answer, you just have to find it and work to get it sorted.

Keep posting and good luck

PDDxxx

LuckyBiscuit

I know hun,

its scarey most of us on here have been where you are but you are not alone, the guys on here are great and give fantastic advise not only that if you just want to let off steam were here for that too....

You will get through it and the lessons you learn are invaluable, the thing is we all wish we'd learn't them long ago

:smileyhea XXX

mrsdumplin

Thanks Everyone.....It just seems a massive daunting task....

Yes I am claiming CHild benefit...forgot that one..I'll go on and edit my soa also detail the endowment/pension part..

They are arguing that its not a major change as i've allways been site based in an area before I was just lucky and had sites close to home, so the fact that they are basing the location within the area gets them out...I'm waiting for their formal decline and take it from there...

MrsDx

BigCraigJohn

The loan may give you a holiday for a short while. My brother had 3 months off his recently. They added this to the end of the term. Ofcourse they will add interest for those extra 3 months to the amount outstanding hence why they are in such a rush to offer breaks but it may give you a few extra quid well you are still waiting on wages.
The only other advice I can give is if its a toss up between eating/nappies/mortgage and credit cards then go with the first. At this point the unsecured debts will just hold you to ransom with your credit rating.

Pay the 0% cards ahead of any others if you can as they will pull that deal as fast as you can say zero

The above is just in my opinion so i'd wait for some expert advice.

ps remember its bank holiday sunday so it may be a bit quiet for a day or 2.

izzybusy23

mrsdumplin wrote: »

Thanks Everyone.....It just seems a massive daunting task....

Yes I am claiming CHild benefit...forgot that one..I'll go on and edit my soa also detail the endowment/pension part..

They are arguing that its not a major change as i've allways been site based in an area before I was just lucky and had sites close to home, so the fact that they are basing the location within the area gets them out...I'm waiting for their formal decline and take it from there...

MrsDx

Did your employers consult you on the change of office during your maternity leave; as I believe they have a statutory duty to do so if any part of your contract changes.

pure_dead_dopey

Just a thought

what about expenses, do the company not reimburse travelling expenses??? If you are site based (ie not in HO) and have to move around, surely they reimburse you? Might also be worth having a look at entitledto.com to check if you are due anymore benefits etc. A positve money saving step you could take now is to cut your TV package, you really can't afford the one that you have, and also have a look at the landline/internet package, mine is only £20 per month and I live in an area with an old exchange, so more expensive that the norm.. Let us know how you get on.


PDDxxx

Krisp_3

Hi and welcome and well done on posting up your SOA - that's the first step in dealing with everything and there are loads of very savvy people on here who know how to deal with these things.

I never used MSE when we were in our worst financial state (over £80k of unsecured debt!!) and dealing with it on my own was really awful. Having help from here will make it that much more bearable, honest!

xxx

ps - taking a 'payment holiday' from your loan may well help as Craig says, to help deal with your short term money issues. I did that twice with the loan I paid off last week. Yes, it does add to the term etc, but as a temporary fix, it might be worth considering.