Just done a budget sheet. Oh dear.

The_Muher

Me and my other half today done a budget sheet after contacting the national debt helpline.

The pack, as some of you may know, advise that you are clear as possible and also take into account stuff like emergency money, car repairs, clothing and the likes.

Right now we pay out in the region of £700 a month, but after our calculations today we have only £65 pounds left when we take into account everything that is 100% essential.

It's quite frightening seeing so little yet paying so much out for so long.

We have been scrimping on food for quite some time and I haven't bought any clothes whatsoever in about 6 months and I can't do it any more.

Bearing in mind we have been paying out more than 10 times what we can afford according to our budget sheet, but aren't in arrears to anyone, how do you think our creditors will take a request of a payment plan with frozen interest?

The_Muher

Anyone had similar outcome to a budget sheet?

Just looking for some other folks experiences as I'm more worried about the possibilities now and I can't speak to anyone at the national debt helpline until Monday.

Youdontseeme

Hello,

I am in a pretty dire situation myself but the people here have been ever so helpful and I am sure they can help you out.

Not much good on the advice thing myself but I know the first thing they will all ask you to do is to post your Statement of Affairs, you can do by filling in the forms here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html. That way they can point out anywhere that they think you can cut back / get a better deal etc

Good luck!

YDSM

Ellieseleven

Hi, we are in a similar situation where we have managed not to have any arrears so far but our outgoings far outweigh our incomings by around £800 per month. We've been doing this by robbing Peter to pay Paul, this consisted of drawing money from CC's, loaning money from family and using every bit of cash we have and ebaying everything in sight. We too have been scrimping on food and we haven't bought clothes for a long time. We've got to the stage where we can't keep this up any longer and I have now completed the debt remedy on CCCS (and submitted it, which was a big hurdle for me).

I am worrying that the bank and credit companies will wonder why we are now going down this route if nothing is in arrears but I'm sure deep down they will know?

Part of me feels relief at having taken this step but it's early days so I'm also feeling very stressed at the prospect

I wish you well with your journey and hope everything works out for you.

ms_london

The_Muher wrote: »

Me and my other half today done a budget sheet after contacting the national debt helpline.

The pack, as some of you may know, advise that you are clear as possible and also take into account stuff like emergency money, car repairs, clothing and the likes.

Right now we pay out in the region of £700 a month, but after our calculations today we have only £65 pounds left when we take into account everything that is 100% essential.

It's quite frightening seeing so little yet paying so much out for so long.

We have been scrimping on food for quite some time and I haven't bought any clothes whatsoever in about 6 months and I can't do it any more.

Bearing in mind we have been paying out more than 10 times what we can afford according to our budget sheet, but aren't in arrears to anyone, how do you think our creditors will take a request of a payment plan with frozen interest?

You are certainly not alone, and looking on the bright side - you are not in minus figures each month.

If you post your SOA (statement of affairs) / budget on here we can give you a few pointers on how to trim back your expenses, or maybe shuffle around your debts.

The Old Style board is another great place to visit for grocery plannning and cutting back on that front, but also a whole lot more.

You have two options, to either reduce your outgoings, or increase your incomings. By even juggling a few things about, you might be suprised and we can increase that £65 per month!

Well done for posting, you've come to the right place. xx

bottleofred

Hi,

Just because your not in arrears does not mean the creditors will automatically reject the request of freezing the interest. However, some may refuse and others may want to wait until you've defaulted before granting this request. However, if they start hassling you by phone request they contact you only in writing. Put your statement of affairs on and you may get some good advice of how to save additional cash each month.

Good luck and well done on taking the first step

The_Muher

Okay, on the advice of a couple of the reply's, which I'm really grateful for, here goes!

Our Budget sheet.


Monthly Total Income (Including Tax Credit and Child Benefit)
£2764.34

Essential Outgoings

Mortgage: £550
Council Tax: £120
Service Charges: £32.22
Building and contents insurance: £20.79
Life Insurance: £37.55
Gas: £60
Electric: £55
Housekeeping: £727
TV Licence: £10.87
Travelling Expenses (including money for MOT, Road Tax, servicing): £457
Meals at work/school: £40
Clothing: £50
Laundry:£10
Phone and Mobile: £80
Prescriptions and health costs: £34
Childminding:£130
Others
Sky £58.50
Overdraft fee £20
Birthdays and Christmas:£50
Child trust Funds:£140

Total Outgoings
£2701

Whats peoples views on that?

All suggestions welcome.

MrsPorridge

Hi,

First of all, what does the housekeeping figure of £727 consist of? Also your travelling expenses of £457 how is that broken down? Can you not do packed lunches for school/work - saving £40 per month? Your phone and mobile costs seem high.

I am sure others will be along shortly to advise.

It might help if you could fill in the SOA - link given by Youdontseeme in the post above - this breaks everything down so we can see exactly what and where your money is going.

Do you have any loans or credit cards that you are paying?

rocketdog_2

Monthly Total Income (Including Tax Credit and Child Benefit)
£2764.34

Essential Outgoings

Mortgage: £550
Council Tax: £120
Service Charges: £32.22
Building and contents insurance: £20.79
Life Insurance: £37.55
Gas: £60
Electric: £55
Housekeeping: £727 - what is this? Food and what else?
TV Licence: £10.87
Travelling Expenses (including money for MOT, Road Tax, servicing): £457
Meals at work/school: £40 - stop this take form home
Clothing: £50
Laundry:£10 - is this wshing powder or outside laundry? stop this
Phone and Mobile: £80
Prescriptions and health costs: £34
Childminding:£130
Others
Sky £58.50 - get rid of - freeview
Overdraft fee £20
Birthdays and Christmas:£50
Child trust Funds:£140 - stop paying into this until you are straight

Total Outgoings
£2701

Whats peoples views on that?

All suggestions welcome.

[/QUOTE]

That's £250 a month saved there. I'm in a rush but will look again later. Good luck xx

The_Muher

MrsPorridge wrote: »

Hi,

First of all, what does the housekeeping figure of £727 consist of? Also your travelling expenses of £457 how is that broken down? Can you not do packed lunches for school/work - saving £40 per month? Your phone and mobile costs seem high.

I am sure others will be along shortly to advise.

It might help if you could fill in the SOA - link given by Youdontseeme in the post above - this breaks everything down so we can see exactly what and where your money is going.

Do you have any loans or credit cards that you are paying?

The housekeeping figure is for food, toiletries, cleaning materials, papers and magazines.
We've been spending about £400 a month on food for the last 6 months and that doesn't do us for a month so we end up spending more, hence the reason the fugure looks quite high, we're also expecting anothr child in November so we're trying to factor the arrival in just now.

Travelling expenses, £330 pounds for petrol, the rest is money we would have to put aside for Road Tax and MOT.

Most days we do take food for lunch at work but on the odd occasion we might not, also adding the odd packet of crisps of can of juice it's easy £5 a week each, therefore £40 a month.

I'll have a go at that site which was posted, thank you, thanks for having a look people, much appreciated.

The_Muher

rocketdog wrote: »

Monthly Total Income (Including Tax Credit and Child Benefit)
£2764.34

Essential Outgoings

Mortgage: £550
Council Tax: £120
Service Charges: £32.22
Building and contents insurance: £20.79
Life Insurance: £37.55
Gas: £60
Electric: £55
Housekeeping: £727 - what is this? Food and what else?
TV Licence: £10.87
Travelling Expenses (including money for MOT, Road Tax, servicing): £457
Meals at work/school: £40 - stop this take form home
Clothing: £50
Laundry:£10 - is this wshing powder or outside laundry? stop this
Phone and Mobile: £80
Prescriptions and health costs: £34
Childminding:£130
Others
Sky £58.50 - get rid of - freeview
Overdraft fee £20
Birthdays and Christmas:£50
Child trust Funds:£140 - stop paying into this until you are straight

Total Outgoings
£2701

Whats peoples views on that?

All suggestions welcome.

That's £250 a month saved there. I'm in a rush but will look again later. Good luck xx[/QUOTE]

Washing powder for the Laundry section.

The meals the definite 'must go. from that list.

Sky too would have to go but how would I go about that considering I'm still inside the 12 month contract term?

The Child Trust fund is something we'd like to try and continue as the way things are going our kids are not going to get any sort of help education wide from The State. We're looking at £30k to be paid off so it would more or less mean we have no money at all for the kids when they are old enough for college or uni.

This is hellish stuff.