Which direction to attack the debt? Advice please :)

sophiesmum_2

Good Luck earth mother with your debt free date plan.Hope you manage to keep everything under control.
Look on the bright side at least your previous MSE escapades made you aware of financial affairs so that you realised the situation you were getting into BEFORE it was unbearable. 2008 does not seem so bad,and then you can clear the payback to the children's accounts too. At least now you have your eye on the ball again it won't get out of hand.
Wishing you luck with sorting this one out
Sophiesmum

chivers1977

Hi, how are you managing to spend so much on nappies, even for 2? Are you buying branded like pampers/ huggies. If so switch to tescos, they do the same job, ahem, and cost half the price.

earthmother

Thanks Msmicawber and Sophiesmum

Chivers - not branded as such - biodegradeable - we are looking to go to washables (use washable wipes and home-made cleansing lotion already). But to be honest, even if we were using normal ones, they would be Pampers - nothing else fits my boys - odd shapes (get it from their mum, lol)

chivers1977

That makes sense I guess. I would love to be an earth mother but not enough time or money - tescos for me!!

david_hellier

According to my calculations you have £135.21 per week to spend on anything else including food, clothes, cigarettes, booze, going out. I suggest you write this in a little book each Monday and keep a note of everything you spend by subtraction. If you spend any more than this you will be getting deeper in debt. Ignore your bank balance.

My figures assume a fixed amount per month paying off the cards. Do not make the minimum payments.

As far as cutting back is concerned, I would get rid of Sky the books. Stop using credit cards.

The figures are as follows:



income weekly monthly
self 0.00 0.00
partner 0.00 0.00
ben 1 633.19
ben 2 266.18
ben 3 177.02
ben 4 203.45
ben 5 519.00
ben 6 433.94

total 0.00 2232.78
515.26 divided by 4.33

515.26 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 600.00
council tax 29.00
elec 62.50
gas 62.50
water 20.00
secured loans
TV licence 13.00
fines
life ins 10.04
contents ins 20.12
talk talk 25.00
sky 28.00
petrol 150.00
car maint 10.00
motability 50.00
ironing 10.00
gardener 71.50
footware 40.00
cap one 105.00
next 15.00
brantano 5.00
aqua 30.00
cap one visa 60.00
kays 100.00
empire 75.00
redoute 25.00
classic c 15.00
books 15.22


total 0.00 1646.88
380.05 divided by 4.33

380.05 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = 135.21 per week

earthmother

Chivers - we use Tesco a fair bit too - their organic range is pretty well priced, and they do the boys toiletries.



Thanks for taking the time to do that David - your figures pretty much agree with mine

Just a couple of notes

I never go by our bank balance - I keep a set of accounts on Excel, where outgoings are logged the day I write the cheque/swipe the card, and incomings aren't written in until they are definite cleared funds - that way there's no danger of slipping up. I actually have the next few months projected in this fashion, and do a P&L at the end of each month - which is part of how all this has come to light


Payments - cards are paid at the maximum minimum (ie, what it would be if the card was maxed out), then rounded up to the next £5. The books are set payments, but I do send double when I can. Everything else is minimum payments plus at least £5 (try to pay interest on top of minimum) - but does not get reduced as the balance reduces unless we are really tight for cash.

Sky can't go - it's on a minimum contract. The books can't go - we've already had them sitting on the bookshelf for several months.

Cards haven't been used for about a month, and I don't intend to change that.




My problem isn't so much a cash managment, as a tendency to be able to cook the books a little too well, lol, and find money where there wasn't before. Then one day the purse strings are so tight they snap - this time I've caught it before it's become a real problem - won't be making the last mistake again. Hopefully there won't be a next time at all.

Toomuchdebt

Definitely switch to washable nappies-I used them part time with my first 2 and full time with my last 2 and found them very easy-one extra load every other day.I am going to be listing mine on Ebay soon(ie when I can get the energy to dig them out of the boxes they're in) as if I ever have more I would hopefully be able to buy more and right now my debts are more important than a possible future baby.(Though I'm keeping some of my favourites-lol) They have a decent resale value and I've seen a few on freecycle lately too,so you could get them for free