I Need Help.....please!!!!

MikeyB_2

For more info on why your "credit score" suffered have a look at:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1101485056,23650,

Some thoughts on its improval:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1149605730,95768,

MikeyB_2

DAISYCAT wrote:

yes we have 3

Why I ask is because there are two strands of thought related to this fact

a) It might be possible to use them to do a "Credit Card Shuffle"
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1102335753,51771,

b) It might be useful to close them
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1098274211,85485,

although this is open to some debate...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=7382

as it might either improve or harm your "credit score" depending on your situation and opinions

tryhard_2

hello daisycat, welcome.
1. council tax - martin has written an article on council tax - to see if ur neighbours are paying lesser than you - worth a read. you might be able to call up council tax and ask them if you can pay your amount over 12 rather than 10 months - will free up some money, e.g £101pm for 10 months = £1010 same over 12 months = £84 pm. not megabucks but every little helps
2. utilities are they by DD? - you get a discount for paying by DD
3. credit cards - sometimes your rating suffers because the next company thinks you have so much credit already even if your unused cards have no balance on them. i'm not sure whether it is better to cancel the unused cards - i'm sure someone will be along to answer ur question

tryhard_2

as mikeB says it is open to debate

tryhard_2

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1160141972,18232
the link to martin's article on council tax

MikeyB_2

DAISYCAT wrote:

Sorry I'll try to be a bit more clearer. (Sorry if you thought I was being critical of your original post. That wasn't my intention - it's just that more information helps us :-))
WFTC= working families tax credit (Thanks to those of you that pointed out that gap in my knowledge. I've no children of my own so I guess that one somewhat passed me by!)
Travelling expenses- i have a car from Motability so apart from putting petrol in it, I have no other worried on this point. (There are a number of websites including the AA (IIRC) that you can search to find the cheapest petrol stations in your area - worth a look)
My husband has to get the bus to work which is £20 a week (fair enough) and I need to travel each day to take my son to school( he goes to a special school for children with learning difficulties and I am not entitled to free bus transport (really? that's pretty shocking), walking not an option) I try to get by on £15 a week petrol money. (keep up the good work!)
We have already switched all out utility bills to the cheapest, we did this about 3 months ago.We are saving around £200 a year by doing this. (Very well done - I need to do this myself)
Our phone bill is with TalkTalk and we pay £21.99 per month including Broadband and usually have about an extra £2-3 extra call charges for calling mobile numbers. (I suppose including the tinterweb connection this isn't so bad, but keep your eyes open to other deals when your 12 months are up)
At the moment both CC are 0% Virgin until Deceber and LLoyds TSB just recently moved with 6 months 0%. (More good work)
We recently switched Mortgage lenders and are saving ourselves about £60 per month. (Yet more good work. You're probably better at this than I!!!)
We try to stick to £150 a week for food, travel/petrol 2 kids dinner money( tried the sandwich route-found it dearer!!) (Get on over to the "Old Style" board and see if they have any good advice for cutting the cost) also try to put away a bit each week for Christmas/ birthdays.
We hardly drink, occasional bottle of supermarket wine and don't smoke but we do like to go out the occasional meal/cinema trip. (Do you have a mobile? Is is it on Orange e.g. is Orange Wednesdays available to cut the cost of cinema tickets? There is a loophole that Martin was talking about recently involving the £1 PAYG SIM)
Yes, I did forget the TV license, which I beleive is about £9 a month. (Nowt you can really do about that, but good to include it in your reckoning)
I just don't know what else we can do. (It's a good start just doing the things above)
i can't think of anything else to add.
Just really worried about the Virgin one when the interest starts !! (It might be necessary to snowball your debts until more 0% becomes an option - it's not great, but it is better than nothing

Keep your chin up and I'm sure the others will have more advice to add

tryhard_2

hi daisy cat,
whe does the virgin card 0% end?

MikeyB_2

tryhard wrote:

hi daisy cat,
whe does the virgin card 0% end?

I think she just said it was December a few posts back so not all that much time to get a Credit Card Shuffle or another mechanism worked out

atypicalblonde

hey i'm no expert but just wanted to say here's a hug :T for doing so so well so far - you can deal with this and you have come to the right place to do it. One suggestion I have that may help is do you do 'menu plans' for the week? I find it helps me budget for meals a bit better (not suggesting the amount is too high as I dont really know what a 'correct' amount should be) , Just offering a little pearl of wisdom that has really helped me to make the smaller cutbacks. all the best xx

tryhard_2

atypicalblonde wrote:

One suggestion I have that may help is do you do 'menu plans' for the week? I find it helps me budget for meals a bit better

that's very true - should be taught at school, I reckon!