my SOA....been advised to go BR..

IF

skint2010

neneromanova wrote: »

Your food bills are very high aswell. How old are your children? Also the mobile phone bills are quite high, I would see if you could reduce them. I can fee myself (plus a bump), my partner and my 2 year old on £200 a month and that includes cleaning products.

You just have to really look at that list and think, ok, maybe we could get down to £300 for food. Do we REALLY need to spend £100 on clothes each month? Your water rates are quite high too! Are you sure the £64 isn't every 3 months?

Are you able to go to your bank and put all of your loans, CC's, and OD's into one loan? I borrowed 15k 3 years ago and I pay £245 a month for 7 years so it might be worth looking into.

My children are 18months and 5 months.

the water is made up of clean water £43 and sewage £21. some arears left on the clean water. I guess that will come down overtime. Elect is also paying for arears. £100 p/m on clothes is what cccs advised as is food at £470. I would love to see how you do yours for £200p/m, whats your secret? I agreed with cccs that ts not that unrealistic. household/family. That includes nappies/milk etc. I could do somthing with the phones but i guess im stuck in a contract. My credit rating is hopeless. I can't get anymore credit to consolidate. That was my orginal plan:o

Like someone else said, surley cccs/cab wouldn't suggest BR if they thought i had better options. Even with cutting down, where do i find £500 p/month to pay creditors? what happens when i don't hit bonus and im £200 even worse?.........

Thanks for your advice guys........

twistedmoosie

Hi skint 2010, sorry to hear your situation's got to this point - you have got things in the budget you can change as in the others' advice, so I won't repost what they've put. Things like mobiles and Sky are life's little luxuries but sometimes we just can't have them. However, do you know how much time you have left on those contracts? If it isn't long then there's some instant savings on your budget, by cancelling Sky and going PAYG on the mobiles. If you can re-budget and avoid BR then do your best to, but I realise it's not always easy.

Sunnylooloo

Hi re: Mobiles - I think you can (if you want) get those included in your BR and then get PAYG ones - but that is up to you.

Sky is a big thing I know - but how about a freeview box (again are you in a contract with SKY)

You are also normally allowed to put some money by for a holiday - someone will advise how much

You have done the correct thing and spoke to both CAB and CCCS.

Glad you have kept posting!

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

i seem to remember that when my ex consider BR he was able to put sky but only basic package (i think it was something like under £23) but this was a while back so may have changed

There was an excellent link around telling you what you can and can not claim on a BR - hopefully it'll reappear

AllieBallie

mommyme wrote: »

i seem to remember that when my ex consider BR he was able to put sky but only basic package (i think it was something like under £23) but this was a while back so may have changed

There was an excellent link around telling you what you can and can not claim on a BR - hopefully it'll reappear

That's about right mommyme - you can get sky tv, free evening and weekend calls and broadband for under £20 at the moment - it is the basic package but the guy i spoke to said it included all the freesat/freeview channels too - I don't work for sky or anything but i did get acosted by a sky worker in the shopping centre yesterday when i had 10mins to kill!

OrkneyStar

skint2010 wrote: »

My children are 18months and 5 months.

the water is made up of clean water £43 and sewage £21. some arears left on the clean water. I guess that will come down overtime. Elect is also paying for arears. £100 p/m on clothes is what cccs advised as is food at £470. I would love to see how you do yours for £200p/m, whats your secret? I agreed with cccs that ts not that unrealistic. household/family. That includes nappies/milk etc. I could do somthing with the phones but i guess im stuck in a contract. My credit rating is hopeless. I can't get anymore credit to consolidate. That was my orginal plan:o

Like someone else said, surley cccs/cab wouldn't suggest BR if they thought i had better options. Even with cutting down, where do i find £500 p/month to pay creditors? what happens when i don't hit bonus and im £200 even worse?.........

Thanks for your advice guys........

Whether you go bankrupt or not is your choice, and as long as you seek advice from a reputable place (CAB, CCCS etc) then should be fine.
As for the bit I have highlighted, re clothes and food, well if you really want to spend a lot less on food it is possible- the old style board is a good place to start for cheap recipes, tips for cutting food bills etc- perhaps even if you do go bankrupt you could still try to reduce the food spend gradually ? Make it a challenge! Not sure what shops are available where you are, I do think that can make a difference (eg we are on an island with less access to choice so that makes it harder to shop around!)....even knocking £10-20 off a month is a start! As for clothing, Tesco/Asda/Primark, sales, ebay, charity, hand-me downs are fine at that age- they don't care about labels then really do they and grow out of them/get them messed up anyway ? I'd say again at least try to reduce this- shoes are a biggy of course and new school things can cost so set aside something every month- I do think £100 is too much though! Stock up in the post-Christmas/Summer sales for next sizes etc.
All the best.

philnicandamy

mommyme wrote: »

i seem to remember that when my ex consider BR he was able to put sky but only basic package (i think it was something like under £23) but this was a while back so may have changed

There was an excellent link around telling you what you can and can not claim on a BR - hopefully it'll reappear

that is starting to be considered in all areas now especially now with telephone/broadband/internet packages all rolled into one

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk:8765/cs.html?charset=iso-8859-1&url=http%3A//www.insolvency.gov.uk/DocumentLibrary/Policy/Excel/Income%2520payment%2520Calculator%2520final%2520nov%252006.xls&qt=household+expenditure&col=test&n=1&la=en

you would need excel to open the chart though..

neneromanova

skint2010 wrote: »

£100 p/m on clothes is what cccs advised as is food at £470. I would love to see how you do yours for £200p/m, whats your secret?

I was spending like £350 on food and thought this is rediculous so I decided to make a meal plan for dinners every week. Also I made things from scratch, never bought ready made jars of stuff as they're a waste of money. I also stopped shopping instore and started shopping online. My thought on that was I was seeing things, thinking oh that looks like a good offer, buying it then never using it so it would be a waste.

One of my dinners looked something like this: (I shop at sainsburys by the way)

500g Mince: £2.20 (sometimes on offer for 2 for £4) I use half of this so I get 2 dinners out of it.
Sainsburys own Passata: 90p I use half of this then store it in the fridge or it can also be frozen which means I don't have to use it quickly.
Basil, Oregano, Bay leaves sainsburys own: something like 50p a jar which lasts months
Sainsburys own Frozen peas: £1.48
Sainsburys basic carrots: £1
Half an Onion: £1 for 3
Garlic: 32p
1KG Pasta Shape of your choice: £1.14

That makes a lovely Bolognese sauce with pasta which is more than enough for 2 adults so should feed 2 little ones. Plus also it has 2 of the 5 a day

But that list will do 2 dinner plus loads left over for other dinners.

I also bake my own cakes and make sandwiches for my OH to take to work which saves about £4 every lunch.

I hope this helps you.

dojoman

This is an SOA for BR, not for trying to save money, there is a massive difference.