Newbie, scared to even look.

joolz43

Your various insurances look very expensive, could any of them be reduced / got rid of? The mortgage protection etc is one I need to look at myself, but just a thought.

david_hellier

Hi and welcome to the site. According to my calcs you have £30.11 per week to spend on food and any thing else not in the list below. You need to increase your income by about £100 per week to eat properly. I suggest you reduce your insurances to only term life and the car. Bin the rest. You are currently spending £2900 per year on insurances. Any items not on this list must go to acheive the £30.11 per week figure. Keep a weekly note of this amount and what you spend in a spending diary.

good luck, the figures are as follows:

income weekly monthly
self 575.02
partner
benefits 119.20
other 700.00





total 0.00 1394.22 divided by 4.33
321.75

321.75 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 440.00
council tax 114.00
elec 18.25
gas 18.25
water 27.47
secured loans
TV licence 10.99
fines
house ins 27.59
od cost 17.00
all other ins 167.45
aa 9.27
car ins 46.66
fuel 40.00
personal loan 147.41
hp 22.37
cc 125.05
school meals 32.00












total 0.00 1263.76 divided by 4.33
291.64

£291.64 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £30.11 per week

anniestar

Welcome and good luck.

Comfort

bluezone wrote:

Well done so far, I see your in the red but not by much so do you feel a bit better?.

My suggestions - cut your sky/cable down to the bare minimum if you cant cancel it and have have freeview (this will save you some dosh for starters)

How many in the family? Could you cut down on your food shopping as I notice you are paying for school dinners so you dont need so much sandwich stuff in the fridge?

Does your child/children have clothes that dont fit them or toys they dont play with? If so then ebay them or sell them on a boot sale?

Do you have any ornaments that you hate dusting etc or clothes that dont fit - then sell them as well, you might as well get something back.

You need to keep track of your paperwork now so set aside a couple of hours a week to go through and keep on top of your bills.

Phone your cards up and see what rate they would charge for a balance transer and shuffle your credit about.

See if you could maybe re-finance your loan onto a better interst rate (but for the same time period). If you are paying payment protection on your loan - see when you can stop this as this would lower your payments down - I did this when I had 2 loans and they were fine about it!.

Trust me you will get through this but you are going to have to stick to a strict budget and sel anything that you dont need anymore. When my debt was £112,000 with my ex I personally paid off £4,000 in a year through extra jobs, ebay, bootsales, overtime. AT one point I had a full time job and 3 part time ones!!

I hope I have helped you a bit. If you need a chat anytime then by all means PM me x

Hi Bluezone,

I shall contact the cable company tomorrow to see if I can reduce the package.

There are four of us in the family, myself, my husband and two children of 7 and 5. One has school dinners so the £32.00 is just for that one. The £200.00 per month is for food/toiletries for the whole family. I'm not sure if I can reduce this as already I go way way over the budget of £200 that I have always set myself. I do know that Tescos/Sainsburys/Asda is my biggest weekness and I can visit daily spending £25 a time and thats how I've gotten into this mess.

I have plenty of tut that I could try to sell. Not sure how e-bay works so any tips would be great otherwise I suppose I could have a go at a carboot sale.

My cards are up to their limit so I couldn't transfer any balances to them. One of them I know has a very high interest rate and I hope to deal with that one first.

The loan I have was a great deal I think the rate is around 6.5%apr although I;d need to check. Its fairly new and around 10 years I think, again I'd have to check.

I don't pay payment protection on any of my loans, overdrafts or credit cards. But we do have mortgage protection which I think we should keep. Would welcome any advice on that.

I think the next step is to find out exactly what my debt amounts to and what the interest rates are.

Thanks for you help so far Bluezone, you've been a gem.

Comfort

david_hellier wrote:

Hi and welcome to the site. According to my calcs you have £30.11 per week to spend on food and any thing else not in the list below. You need to increase your income by about £100 per week to eat properly. I suggest you reduce your insurances to only term life and the car. Bin the rest. You are currently spending £2900 per year on insurances. Any items not on this list must go to acheive the £30.11 per week figure. Keep a weekly note of this amount and what you spend in a spending diary.

good luck, the figures are as follows:

income weekly monthly
self 575.02
partner
benefits 119.20
other 700.00





total 0.00 1394.22 divided by 4.33
321.75

321.75 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 440.00
council tax 114.00
elec 18.25
gas 18.25
water 27.47
secured loans
TV licence 10.99
fines
house ins 27.59
od cost 17.00
all other ins 167.45
aa 9.27
car ins 46.66
fuel 40.00
personal loan 147.41
hp 22.37
cc 125.05
school meals 32.00











total 0.00 1263.76 divided by 4.33
291.64

£291.64 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £30.11 per week

David, thats a massive help, thank you. I shall have to have a jiggle with your figures tomorrow and see what I can come up with. I do agree, we are a little insurance mad here, so I will look into those and come back to you.

I notice the cable isn't there at all, and that does include phone and internet connection so I need that to be included although I could try and downgrade it somehow.

ps the hp of £22.37 is on a buy now pay later, so those payments will not start until next year. I included it now, but wasn't sure if that was correct.

Rgc_3

hi
just to say well done on opening those envelopes....its a horrible feeling knowing you should open them.......... but strangely when you get started it gives a feeling of taking control again and quite often the reality is nt quite as bad as the imagination.

well done and best of luck:beer:

ffs

I may have missed something but I don't understand how your husband's finances fit in to this.

Are your finances separate? Do you know whether he is in a similar position, does he understand your situation?

If you try to resolve this by yourself it will be like trying to keep the noise down at a party. Either everyone will leave or you'll give up and join in the fun with everyone else.

kathfisch

Hi Comfort, and welcome from me too! :hello:

You've done the hardest bit by facing up to it all and sorting the contents of those bags. :T I'm afraid I don't have any more suggestions on your soa (bit too late in the day, brain = mush :rotfl: ) but I wanted to say hello and well done!

I'm not sure if you have seen any of Moozie's posts but she's one of our regulars - her first ever post was called Too Scared To Work Out What I Owe: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=154168 Obviously its a long thread and the situations are different but hers is a real story of success, your title reminded me of hers and I thought you might like to see it, even just to read the beginning of it.

Keep us updated with your progress!

Kath

lynzpower

Hi there

heres my thoughts on this


Overdraft Cost - £17.00 ( whats this- is it interest? Or one of those "we offer more including travel insurance" type- jobs? If it is, downgrade your account, unless you are using anything VITAL)
Mortgage - £440.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance £27.59 ( have you checked this is the cheapest?) Council Tax £114.00
Water Rates / Meter £27.47
Gas Bill & Electricity £36.50
HOME TOTAL £662.56 645.56

INSURANCE
Mortgage Payment Insurance £50.70 You are insured up to the hilt here!
Mortgage Term Assurance £41.89 and here!
Healthcare Cashback Scheme £10.40 ( do you need this? seems pointless?Pet Insurance £7.24
Gas & Plumbing Cover £15.25 ( do you need this)
Other Insurance £41.97 ( whats this for?)
INSURANCE TOTAL £167.45 ( this can be sliced down easily, at least ditching the gas cover & health scheme will give you 141.80, but there may well be more savings there)
EATS, DRINKS & SMOKES
Food & Household Shopping £200.00
Eating Out £10.00
Coffee / Sandwiches Out
Pet Food
Drinks for Home £10.00
Drinking Out you never go out- ever? Even if its only once a year, the costs need to be estimated then divided by 12 Smokes
Meals at Work
Other Eats, Drinks & Smokes
EATS TOTAL £220.00

TRANSPORT & TRAVEL
AA / RAC Membership £9.27
Rail / Bus / Coach / Taxi
Car Maintainence MOT costs etc?, again divide by 12
Car Insurance £46.66 ( this seems high - have you checked its the cheapest?)
Car Tax - as obove you need to budget for this, divide by 12 etc
Parking you need to add in here any parking charges across the year then divide by 12
Petrol / Diesel / Gas £40.00
Other Transport
TRANSPORT TOTAL £95.93 ( should actually be more, with repair, parking & tax costs)

DEBT REPAYMENTS
Car Loan Repayments
Personal Loan Repayments £147.41 ( How long for APR)
HP Repayments £22.37 ( how long for? APR)
Credit Card Repayments £125.05 ( how long for APR)
Other Loan Repayments
REPAYMENTS TOTAL £294.83

FAMILY
Childcare / Play Schemes
Baby Sitting
Children's Travel
Laundry / Dry Cleaning
Nappies / Baby Extras
Pocket Money
School Meals £32.00
School Trips ( never?
Other Family
FAMILY TOTAL £32.00

FUN & FROLICS
DVD / Video Rental
Hobbies
Pet Costs
Fitness / Sports / Gym
Shopping For Fun £10.00
Big Days Out
Book / Music / Films / Games £10.00
Cinema / Theatre Trips
Family Days Out
NTL / Sky Subscription £62.91 this is MASSIVE. Ntl do 3 for 30quid, saving you 32.91 per month
TV Licence £10.99
Other Fun
FUN TOTAL £93.90 £93.90 60.99

BIG ONE OFFS
Cost of Christmas
Cost of Winter Holiday
Cost of Summer Holiday
Cost of Birthdays
Cost of Sofa / Kitchen / TV
Other Big One Offs
BIG ONE OFF TOTAL £0.00 You have to budget for these, how much do you normally spend, divide by 12

CLOTHES
New Clothes
New Childrens Clothes
Work Clothes
Other Clothes
CLOTHES TOTAL £0.00 again, even if you only buy from charity shops you need to budget for these

ODDS & SODS
Beauty Treatments
Regular Charity Donations
Tax & NI Provisions (SE ONLY)
Newspapers / Magazines
Dentistry
Haircuts
Optical Bills
Complimentary Therapies
Other Odds & Sods
ODDS TOTAL £0.00 ( again, haircuts? prescriptions? Youll have to spend the money on them at some point in the year, so divide by 12

INCOME MONTHLY


Average Income From Employment / Self Employment £575.02
Income Taken From Savings & Investments
Pension & Annuity Payouts
Benefits Including Child Benefit, Child Tax Credits £119.20
Gifts or Help From Family / Friends
Other Income £700.00
MONTHLY INCOME TOTAL £1,394.22

YOUR MONTHLY TOTALS

TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENDITURE £1,566.67 or with my savings 1490.91 -
TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME £1,394.22
YOUR COLOUR -£172.45 - 96.69

I think that 96.69 could be shaved from your insurances TBH.

Have you cut your cards up?

good luck
Lynz

bluezone

Comfort wrote:

Hi Bluezone,

I shall contact the cable company tomorrow to see if I can reduce the package.

There are four of us in the family, myself, my husband and two children of 7 and 5. One has school dinners so the £32.00 is just for that one. The £200.00 per month is for food/toiletries for the whole family. I'm not sure if I can reduce this as already I go way way over the budget of £200 that I have always set myself. I do know that Tescos/Sainsburys/Asda is my biggest weekness and I can visit daily spending £25 a time and thats how I've gotten into this mess.

I have plenty of tut that I could try to sell. Not sure how e-bay works so any tips would be great otherwise I suppose I could have a go at a carboot sale.

My cards are up to their limit so I couldn't transfer any balances to them. One of them I know has a very high interest rate and I hope to deal with that one first.

The loan I have was a great deal I think the rate is around 6.5%apr although I;d need to check. Its fairly new and around 10 years I think, again I'd have to check.

I don't pay payment protection on any of my loans, overdrafts or credit cards. But we do have mortgage protection which I think we should keep. Would welcome any advice on that.

I think the next step is to find out exactly what my debt amounts to and what the interest rates are.

Thanks for you help so far Bluezone, you've been a gem.

Hi again comfort,

DO you feel any better this morning?

£200 a month for food toiletries isnt that bad for four of you. Dont go shopping on an empty stomach. Write a list before you go and stick to it unless you see something in the reduced section that is worth it! Go for the stores own brands or even value (on most things you wont notice the difference). Could you maybe do a packed lunch instead of the school dinners which would cut down the £32.00? If its any consolation I used to be just the same, go in tesco's for a sandwich and come out with £20 worth of stuff! I buy alot of value stuff but still buy a couple of my fav things in the brand name - as a treat!

I have had lots of fun with e-bay but to be honest I get more enjoyment doing a bootsale because you see the cash there and then in your hand. Get your stuff together and the kids toys and I double dare you to attempt one this weekend Remember to keep your prices down as you want to sell your stuff! Clothes can go for a £1 a time and toys the same. People love to know they are getting a bargain and with low prices they will keep coming back. If you start to go regularly then the regulars will recognise you and give you regular custom. I even go to my local tip and get stuff to sell!

Ok so your cards are up to the hilt - no problem just dont use them!

How did you get on with cable? This really has to be cut down if you cant cancel it to free up some money. If you can then cancel it and use freeview then do so asap.

General things like make sure the kids dont leave tons of lights on or telly's blaring away to no-one etc, turn your heating down a notch.

Keep your payment protection on the mortgage and make sure your mortgage is always paid.

Make a list of your credit cards, balances, and apr's.

Let me know how your getting on x