Help me please - I want to DO THIS this time and save my sanity

all_hours

david_hellier wrote:

According to my calculations you have £54 per week to spend on food, clothes, going out, smoking etc. This is an emergency situation. You must not spend more than this amount to avoid further overspending. It also assumes you get rid of sky and go digital.

David you have the barclaycard payment as £350 a month - the balance is £350 with a monthly payment of £8.

ellielou_2

Hi
I know exactly how you feel.
Myself & my ex were about £50k in debt (excl mortgage) and we took out a debt repayment plan with CCCS and would have had our debts paid off in 10 years!!

As it turned out, we split up, I bought him out of the property and paid all the debts off. Now I have a stupidly expensive mortage due to a bad credit rating.

However, I am debt free!!!
I've had copies of my credit reports from Experian et al & discovered that whilst we were on the DMP via the CCCS all our payments were registered as late with the individual companies because we were paying lower amounts than were in our origional agreements I assume.

This was a last resort for us but I'm having problems even opening a bank account these days.

Just something to be aware of.

HateMyself_2

omg!!! omg!!! omg!!!

im stressing here

can someone can confirm it is as bad as that?

i spend 50 a week on food and that is on budget

was feeling really good, have made a few steps in the right direction.

just picked up an extra childminding job and was starting to set up a bank account dedicated to debt repayment

can someone confirm, slipping back into panic here!

HateMyself_2

on a positive note

feeling proud of myself

made a lovely shepherds pie tonight in mint gravy with 6 hidden veggies for the kids to grow big and strong.

made it in my slow cooker (energy saving) and made enough to make 4 mini shepherds pie so got two meals out of one (money saving)

lynzpower

Your Income Amount
Your take home pay £500
Your partner's take home pay £1,750
Child Benefit £126
Child Support £174
Total income £2,550


Mortgage £563
Service charge/ground rent £2
Water £24
Council tax £101
Gas £40
Electricity £40 ( has anyone mentioned https://www.saveenergy.co.uk , check the boilers lagged, get some old newspapers down in the loft, sealant on any drafty windows!, you might be able to make savings here, or at least stop the bills going up, as everyones seem to be going that way at the mo... )
Telephone, mobile & internet £50 ( check what you can get cheaper)
TV licence £11
Satellite £21 ( dump this and get a freeview box, it has cbeebies etc on )
Childcare £112 ( this is now being reduced to 40pcm saving 72)
Hire purchase £50 5 months left ( spare 50 in a few short months)
Car spares and servicing £20 ( is this legitimately being stashed away)
Road tax £17 ( and this?)
Motor insurance £75 ( is this monthly? Or do you pay annually? Have yuou checked its the cheapest?)
Fuel & parking £180 ( this is high, any chance of getting this chopped down a bit, epsecially the parking bit! )
Food, toiletries, cleaning £300 ( this can be reduced, I know you are making efforts, say 200. ) saving 100
School meals/meals at work £55 ( these can go, saving 55 )
Pets, pet food/insurance £20 (who do you get your pet insurance with?)
Tobacco £50 ( any chance of cutting back/ giveing up)
School trips/activities £10 ( every month, or is this a guesstimate)
Medicines/prescriptions £10 ( as aboveis this a guestimate)
Dentist/opticians £14
Hairdressing £16 ( what about model nights or beauty colleges)
Clothing & footwear £53 ( is this an average?)
Newspapers/magazines £10 ( i reckon this can go, read what you need online)
Sports, hobbies, entertainment £20 ( whats this for, mind you i dont think its bad)
Children's pocket money £20 ( could this be cut back a bit....)
Sundries/emergencies £20 ( is this in a savings pot)
Total expenses £1,904 ( or with my identified savings 1606, with savings from lunches at work, shaving off the food bill, sky, newspapers, HP when its over, and your reduction in childcare costs. (reduction of 298 inc 50pcm HP)

Pop that into your snowball calculator and see how it looks

Plus this does not take into account, any increase in your circumstances be it extra childminding, ironing or anything like that.

Also with 2 little ones I suspect you have clothes and what not they have grown out of - get them on ebay and make yourself a few quid!

david_hellier

Well spotted by all_hours. I've corrected the barclaycard figure and your weekly figure rises to £132.93 per week, which is not so drastic!

As follows:



income weekly monthly
self 500.00
partner 1750.00
pension
child ben 126.00
child supp 174.00




total 0.00 2550.00
588.47 divided by 4.33

588.47 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 565.00
council tax 101.00
elec 40.00
gas 40.00
water 24.00
secured loans
TV licence 11.00
fines
phone 50.00
sat tv 0.00
child care 112.00
hp 50.00
car service 20.00
road tax 17.00
car ins 75.00
petrol/park 180.00
pets 0.00
tobacco 0.00
medicine 10.00
A+L loan 239.00
A+L od 40.00
barclaycard 8.00
barclays od 80.00
egg 154.00
egg money 48.00
hsbc cc 15.00
hsbc od 5.00
mbna 30.00
next 35.00
smile 25.00
total 0.00 1974.00
455.54 divided by 4.33

£455.54 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £132.93 per week

jobbingmusician

Fantastic progress, HM! (Even your name looks better, abbreviated).

One thing I wanted to clarify. It was me that said that CCCS might be able to freeze your interest for you. I do think lenders like them being involved, but YOU CAN CONTACT THE COMPANIES YOURSELF and ask them to reduce or freeze the interest. I didn't suggest this before because you were so low, but if you trawl round a few threads on this board you will find that other people have done this very successfully (and your new grasp of the figures, and determination, make me feel you'd be great at this now!!!)

It's worth a try, isn't it? - you have nothing to lose. As I understand it, asking them will not affect your credit rating in any way (although I am prepared to be corrected).

Perhaps some other DFW's could tell us which companies are good to approach, and which are stickier - can we work together to develop some sort of a script to help HM ring them up and be prepared? It's great if we can work together on this.

And a special hug to you - and to the lovely Lynz, for all her support! :j

Hello

I agree you should share with Hubby, he may be horrified that you have been struggling with this yourself and want to help. I left my OH to it for years, hence me now on here!

Please change your posting name, or abbreviate. Everytime you look at it, it reinforces negative self image back onto yourself. Become HM like the Queen or Huge Melons or something that will make you smile!!

Well done with the posting, keep yourself on here and keep us informed, we will help you in times of stress!

Hello
x

Gradixon

I have just posted my own situation and just wanted to say hang in there. Don't know what else to say but I am a great believer in support and knowing that other people who are supporting you, have been there (debt) can be a great help. Good luck, I really hope you get things sorted.

HateMyself_2

I cant thank you all enough for your support, it has really lifted me up out of a hole.

Im started to get that befuddled fog, I can feel it settling.

I need some clear targets for myself

Tomorrow I want to

1. Arrange for my child benefit to be paid in to my "debt management" account and for it to come monthly
2. Change direct debits for all things debt to come out of the newly assigned debt account.
3. Start hinting to DH that things arent good.

Hows that?