Updated SOA

Toomuchdebt

Monthly Incomings:

Child Tax Credit £624
Child Benefit £210.20
Income Support £207.82
Maintenance for 4 children £50

Total - £1092.02

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £0 paid fully by Housing Benefit(not included above )
Council Tax - £0 paid by Council Tax benefit(not included above)
Gas - £33 have just switched so these are old figures
Electric - £35 have just switched so old figures
TV License - £10.99 (paid annually)
Telewest-phone,tv and broadband £30 (just switched so first bill will be for 2 months )
Mobile-between £25 and £35 a month-essential as bf lives 50 miles away and doesn't have a landline so cheaper to call from mobile-my tariff is £25 a month for 400 free minutes and 500 texts until November when I am due an upgrade and can see what else they offer me.
Food and cleaning stuff and pet food - £126.50(ie what's left after everything else is paid)
Car Insurance - £25.00
Petrol - £90 (driving to school and back at 9,12 and 3 and shopping-no other trips-school is the other side of town to where we live)
House Insurance £12
Dog insurance £10.36 (essential as had to pay out £1000 on him for an emergency operation when he wasn't insured)
violin lessons for the 2 oldest girls-£20 per term each (that's a subsidised rate )-works out at about £12 a month.(I won't stop these as they will never get the chance again if they stop now and I get them for a lot cheaper than I would privately or even at school but not on subsidised rates)
Road tax and MOT- £18.66
Water £61.30

Total: £499.81



Abbey £8963 limit £9000 apr 22.48% min payment £172.99
Monument £1000(not had new statement through) limit £2000 apr frozen min payment £59 on last statement not sure on new one
Barclaycard £7180.93 limit £7600 apr frozen min payment £73
Lloyds TSB £1670.48 limit £2000 apr frozen min payment £35
MBNA £8059.20 limit £8300 apr 14% but due to go up to 26.9% in October min payment £101
Morgan Stanley £955.190 limit £1000 apr 5.9% till March 2009 min payment £20
Halifax £1211.55 limit £1250 apr 22.95% min payment £25
Barclayloan £1351 limit £1500(flexible loan) apr 11.43% min payment £40.68 (goes down every month taken by direct debit)
Budgeting loan from Social Fund used to pay off part of Monument £1015 apr 0% taken direct from Income Support so not counted here(figure for Income Support is with payment taken out already)
Bulldog owe £43
BT owe £22.54
Abbey overdraft £1778 limit £1800 no idea what APR is but interest this month is £13
Barclays overdraft £192 limit £200 no idea of APR-interest around £1
(not counted overdrafts in debt total in my sig)

Min payments £592.21 (not counting paying anything to overdrafts)

As you can see I haven't allowed for birthdays(have 5 coming up) or Christmas or emergencies-there's nothing left for these.I don't buy clothes or treats-the only treats the girls ahve are violin lessons.I am applying for jobs as that will leave me better off but no luck so far.

all_hours

Hi toomuchdebt

Including the OD interest as outgoings this gives you a deficit of £13.46 but you should be able to just manage with the overdraft.

Are the bulldog and BT one off payments so you won't have these next month? Also won't you have the 4 month break in the water payments soon?

You could try to keep your mobile to under 400 minutes each month.

Child Tax Credit 624
Child Benefit 210.2
Income Support 207.82
Maintenance for 4 children 50

Total 1092.02
=============
Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent 0
Council Tax
Gas 33
Electric 35
TV License 10.99
Telewest-phone,tv and broadband 30
Mobile 35
Food and cleaning stuff and pet food 126.5
Car Insurance 25
Petrol 90
House Insurance 12
Dog insurance 10.36
violin lessons for the 2 oldest girls 12
Road tax and MOT 18.66
Water 61.3

Total: 499.81

=============

Abbey £8963 limit £9000 apr 22.48% 172.99
Monument £1000 limit £2000 apr frozen 59
Barclaycard £7180.93 limit £7600 apr frozen 73
Lloyds TSB £1670.48 limit £2000 apr frozen 35
MBNA £8059.20 limit £8300 apr 14% - 26.9% 101
Morgan Stanley £955.190 limit £1000 apr 5.9% till March 2009 20
Halifax £1211.55 limit £1250 apr 22.95% 25
Barclayloan £1351 limit £1500(flexible loan) apr 11.43% 40.68

Bulldog owe £43 43
BT owe £22.54 22
Abbey overdraft £1778 limit £1800 13
Barclays overdraft £192 limit £200 1


Debt payments 605.67

Total 1105.48

Balance -13.46

Toomuchdebt

Yep bulldog and BT are one off and water finishes in November so that will help.It just worries me that there is no leeway in the budget for emergencies or anything

skintchick

Well, it is all very tight as you say, but here's a few thoughts:

Gas 33
Electric 35
Hopefully these will go down a bit now you've switched.

Telewest-phone,tv and broadband 30
CAn you alter this? Perhaps go on dial up for now? Forget the TV channels?

Mobile 35
You can cut this right down. Try not to use it if at all possible. Texts soon add up into pounds.

Food and cleaning stuff and pet food 126.5
I can't comment on this as I don;t have kids, but try the Old Style board and they can help you cut it back. Black Saturn in particular feeds her kids on a tiny budget.

Petrol 90
Any chance this can be cut a bit? Can you walk the more local journeys?

Water 61.3
Ouch! This is high! I am on a meter and pay £21! I know oyu have kids but still it's a lot.

I can;t comment on teh debts as I am not very good at all that.

Can you do any work? eBay anything at all? Perhaps take in people's ironing? Just to make a bit of extra cash?

all_hours

Toomuchdebt wrote:

Yep bulldog and BT are one off and water finishes in November so that will help.It just worries me that there is no leeway in the budget for emergencies or anything

Without the BT and bulldog Oct + Nov totals would be

Debt payments 540.67
Total 1040.48
Balance 51.54

This is for 8 months a year = 412.32

Then from Dec to March it will be

Debt payments 540.67
Total 979.18
Balance 112.84

This is for 4 months a year = 451.36

This gives you a total of £863.68 for things like clothes/birthdays/xmas/emergencies. But your shopping budget is very tight also.

Also, it's where to keep this? In your current situation I don't think paying it off the highest interest card is a good idea - because you'll need access to it.

Go through all your direct debits and where possible change the payment date to the end of the month - this means your overdraft will be bigger for a shorter period and could save a little on the monthly interest.

Toomuchdebt

My direct debits come out of a different account to the overdraft.The only thing going through that account is Housing Benefit and my rent.

I can't change Telewest as I just switched to them (previous broadband and phone where over £45)

Mobile-is my only means of communication with my bf-we take it in turns to call and text.I will try to keep it under the free minutes though.

Gas and Electric as you say hopefully they will go down-I'm on economy 7 so try and do washing etc at night but with 4 kids I have to do some during the day too.

I don't think I can cut back on the food any more than I already have-it's for washing powder and toilet paper and everything else not just food.Food is always value stuff with the odd bag of doughnuts for 58p once a week as a treat.

Petrol-unfortunately there are no local journeys.School is the other side of town and even the centre is 35 minutes walk away-fine if I'm by myself,not so good with a cranky 3 year old.As for shopping-no way could I manage to carry back a week's shopping on foot.I get petrol at Tesco so get clubcard points and also do the shopping at the same time to save on petrol.

Water isn't even on a meter-it's the highest rates in my town

lynzpower

What about going onto a water meter then, if you can conserve it ( and its not that hard, although with kids water fights are OUT! lol) i reckon it just has t o be cheaper

Toomuchdebt

lynzpower wrote:

What about going onto a water meter then, if you can conserve it ( and its not that hard, although with kids water fights are OUT! lol) i reckon it just has t o be cheaper

I can't as I rent and landlord doesn't want a meter as he wants to sell this house at some point in the future(hopefully to me in 10 years time-lol) Plus to be honest I'm not sure it would work out cheaper with all the washing there is for 4 kids etc

skintchick

I think a meter might well be cheaper, and your landlord will find by the time he sells most people will be used to it. Also, if your bills are higher then after 12 months you can swap back (although when he sells the new owners will have to use the meter once it's there)

Try this link to work out your consumption:

http://waterwise.fortune-cookie.com/domestic/calculator/usage.asp

There are loads so just Google if that one's not great for you. I do think this would cut your bills a lot, which can only be a plus for any buyer, so persuade your landlord with some actual useage figures!

Ref the food - I know you think it's cut to the bone, but the Old Stylers really do know how to do it! At least post a thread on there and see what they suggest. You can;t lose anything.

toontastic

I know you need your phone (bit confused by the £25 - £35 prices why two ? ) but could you not change them slightly for example £20 a month for 1000 off peak calls.

highguyuk

As people have already said, things are already v.tight by the looks of it and there isn't alot for us to be working on!

Double check that your insurance policies are the cheapest you can get.

Maybe you could use https://www.18185.co.uk for your phone calls to the mobile. 5p weekdays, 2p weekends may help matters?