I am so worried

snoogiewoogie

No, I know that some of you might think - shouldn't she have thought about that earlier but to be honest I have and sort of put my head in the sand.

I am 26 weeks pregnant and due to start mat leave soon, which obviously will be a big cut in the income. On top of that my husband's contract doesn't get extended and he needs to find a job!

Below is a list with our monthly outgoings

Sky 36.16
Broadband 29.99
Student Loan 78.6
TV Licence 11.07
BT 23
Children Soc 5
Secured Loan 328.67
Sainsbury Energy 139
Water 23.44
Pet Insurance 17.3
Council Tax 94
Mortgage 803.25
Life and Critical Illness106.47
House Insurance 25.62
Mobile Phone 50
Petrol (pre mat leave) 120
Bus fare 56
1891.57

Income now:
Husband: 1785
Me: 1924 (when on mat leave 108 per week)

This will leave us with around 356 to live on when on maternity leave. I know we will just have to cut back and cut back, but I am sooo worried that we will lose the house, have to claim bankruptcy.

What can I do other than just panick

lynzpower

Massive welcome to DFW :wave:

Hey dont berate yourself for head-in-sand- weve all done it

Sky 36.16 ( you can cancel this completey)
Broadband 29.99( you could go onto dial up if you are really strapped otherwise I saw someones doing broadband for 12.99 is it primus)
Student Loan 78.6 ( this can be suspended if your income isnt high enough, phone and ak for defermnet form)
TV Licence 11.07
BT 23
Children Soc 5 ( this can be cancelled)
Secured Loan 328.67
Sainsbury Energy 139 ( woah whats this, gas/lecky? check out https://www.saveenergy.co.uk and phone and see if they are usiung estimates, and give them a reading you could be saving money there)
Water 23.44
Pet Insurance 17.3 ( do you absolutely need this, M&S reported to be cheap pet insurance)
Council Tax 94 ( YOU COULD GEt council tax benefit if your income drops)
Mortgage 803.25
Life and Critical Illness106.47 ( seems very high, mines only 31 a month and im a smoker)
House Insurance 25.62 ( may be slighlty high have you checked thius is the cheapest)
Mobile Phone 50 ( take this to PAYG_)
Petrol (pre mat leave) 120 ( so do you mean this wont be being spent for a while)
Bus fae 56
1891.57 ( minus the savings Ive found)


You havent accounted for food/clothes/prescriptions/ any car costs etc?

hang in there, we will get there

lynzpower

hang on, why will you have 356 to live on, if you will be getting 108 per week - i make it 468 per month.

bargainbetty

Welcome to the boards - try not to panic too much.

Initial ideas:

snoogiewoogie wrote:

Sky 36.16 You can reduce this
Broadband 29.99 Definitely too expensive - shop around
Student Loan 78.6
TV Licence 11.07
BT 23 Why this and a mobile?
Children Soc 5 What is this?
Secured Loan 328.67
Sainsbury Energy 139 Electric and gas? Can you reduce usage at all?
Water 23.44
Pet Insurance 17.3 Unless you have often sick pets, you can't afford this. Try shopping around if you won't give it up.
Council Tax 94
Mortgage 803.25
Life and Critical Illness106.47 Can you shop for this too? I got mine cut by more than 60%
House Insurance 25.62
Mobile Phone 50 Reduce tariff/usage
Petrol (pre mat leave) 120
Bus fare 56 Will this stop too, or is it husbands?
1891.57

More ideas will no doubt come forward from others. Try to be calm, as the baby won't need this stress any more than you do!

xx

msmicawber

Hi SW,

I'm sure you won't lose your house or have to go bankrupt, please try not to panic.

There's lots in your SOA that you could cut back on.

Sky 36.16 This should be cancelled, or at worst, reduced.
Broadband 29.99 You can get much cheaper broadband - see the Phones board.
Student Loan 78.6 Is this yours or OH's? If yours, why not phone them and tell them you're on maternity pay and see what they say?
TV Licence 11.07
BT 23 This is high - see the Phones board for access codes to reduce call costs.
Children Soc 5 Cancel this - you can reinstate it again once you're sorted out.
Secured Loan 328.67
Sainsbury Energy 139 This is very high. Look at switching.
Water 23.44
Pet Insurance 17.3 Is this absolutely necessary? If so, could you switch to a cheaper company/premium?
Council Tax 94
Mortgage 803.25
Life and Critical Illness106.47 Could you get this cheaper?
House Insurance 25.62 Very high - look at switching.
Mobile Phone 50 This could be reduced. Why not use PAYG?
Petrol (pre mat leave) 120 Presumably, you expect this to be reduced - ?
Bus fare 56 Is this OH's? Could it be reduced by using car share scheme?
1891.57

You haven't included things like car tax, insurance and MOT in your SOA, nor food, presents, etc. It's easier to control them if you include them in your budget.

What not start by trying to reduce the costs above, then doing a fresh, complete SOA. I think you'll panic less once you start sorting this out.

Best wishes.

yummum_3

Hi, Panic is not a good state for anyone, let alone in your condition. There are others on here who will be able to help with your SOA better than me but what I would say is dont get sucked in to thinking that you have to buy all of the parafanlia that you get pressured into for the baby, we had a baby last year and it is easy to think "ive got to have a changing table and a vanity box to put the cotton wool in etc,etc..." We found that the whole baby thing wasn't as expensive as it could have been and it was all fine. By the way we have a similar ammount to live on a week and manage fine.

lynzpower

is there any reason why your OH wont be able to get another job?

I know its easy to panic when you are pregnant what with all those hormones and probably tiredness kicking in....

ginger

A lot of mortgage companies do mortgage payment deferrments whilst on maternity leave - it could tide you over til you get back to work/oh finds new job - but then make sure you repay it - else look at interest only payments for a while.

lynzpower

would any of your policies pay out for a while for maternity leave?

snoogiewoogie

Sky 36.16 ( you can cancel this completey) will doBroadband 29.99( you could go onto dial up if you are really strapped otherwise I saw someones doing broadband for 12.99 is it primus) - will need broadband as might need it to work from home, but will look for better deal!
Student Loan 78.6 ( this can be suspended if your income isnt high enough, phone and ak for defermnet form) - didn't know that, that's great!
TV Licence 11.07
BT 23 - we have a BT line because I was told you need it to have broadband, is that not correct?Children Soc 5 ( this can be cancelled)
Secured Loan 328.67
Sainsbury Energy 139 ( woah whats this, gas/lecky? check out https://www.saveenergy.co.uk and phone and see if they are usiung estimates, and give them a reading you could be saving money there) - I have so much problems with Sainsbury Energy, I gave them a reading and they sent me different bills all the time - I've swapped now but this will take 6-8 weeks to take effect, plus anything that I still owe them. I got a saver boiler though earlier in the year, so hopefully some savings there.
Water 23.44
Pet Insurance 17.3 ( do you absolutely need this, M&S reported to be cheap pet insurance) - yes I do, my cats (have two) have a habit of getting ill, so I would have had to pay out over £1,000 this year without it.
Council Tax 94 ( YOU COULD GEt council tax benefit if your income drops) - I will look into it.
Mortgage 803.25
Life and Critical Illness106.47 ( seems very high, mines only 31 a month and im a smoker) jesus, really?? When we bought the house our financial advisor said advised us on it - might have to look into that.
House Insurance 25.62 ( may be slighlty high have you checked thius is the cheapest) - will check it againMobile Phone 50 ( take this to PAYG_) - will do, but contract is still running for a whilePetrol (pre mat leave) 120 ( so do you mean this wont be being spent for a while) - Yes, certainly won't be spending that amount, as I won't have a 2hour commute anymore, when at home I only use the car for weekly shop.
Bus fae 56
1891.57 ( minus the savings Ive found)


You havent accounted for food/clothes/prescriptions/ any car costs etc?

Car insurance is 220 pa.
Food is roughly £50 per week, plus £10 for cat food (they love Aldi food thank god)
Clothes - at the moment I would say we spend around £60-100 per month, but this has something to do with the fact that I am pregnant and needed to get a whole new wardrobe plus shoes (my feet grew...), but if not pregnant I never spend more than £60 on clothes and that includes drycleaning for work stuff.
No prescriptions needed.

hang in there, we will get there

snoogiewoogie

yummum wrote:

Hi, Panic is not a good state for anyone, let alone in your condition. There are others on here who will be able to help with your SOA better than me but what I would say is dont get sucked in to thinking that you have to buy all of the parafanlia that you get pressured into for the baby, we had a baby last year and it is easy to think "ive got to have a changing table and a vanity box to put the cotton wool in etc,etc..." We found that the whole baby thing wasn't as expensive as it could have been and it was all fine. By the way we have a similar ammount to live on a week and manage fine.

I know what you mean, I got loads from friends and second hand, because a lot of my friends who already had babies bought loads of stuff they never used!