From bad to worse...

helena83

We have reached the point where we simply can't cope anymore. e are on a DMP with CCCS and are paying £180 per month at the moment. This will have to stop once my wages reduce at work when my maternity pay stops and I have childcare to pay for. Even if we stop paying CCCS we still won't have enough money to live off and we have cut down on everything and all that is left is our monthly direct debits. The mortgage we have on another house which is rented out is about to go up as well and there is no way we can afford that. Needless to say, we are trying to sell the house.

So all I can think of now is trying to reduce the amount we pay in bills each month. The problem is that most stuff which is non-essential is still in contracts (mobiles, internet etc) The only way out of them that I can think of is to stop paying them, wait for them to go to collectors and then add them to the DMP.

If anyone has any other suggestions for reducing our monthly dd's I would be really grateful.

boo80

Eek, I don't have any advice, but didn't want to read and run. Can you post up your SOA so when someone who does know what they are talking about comes along, they'll be able to advice you better? x x

helena83

OK, so here is my SOA. I'm terrified now!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 970
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 180
Other income............................ 350
Total monthly income.................... 2900
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 460
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 137
Rent.................................... 700 (pretty standard for 3 bed house in this area plus cant raise deposit/moving costs anyway)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 153
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 55 (would look into switching but have £200 outstanding which we can't clear, BG won't reduce dd's by any more)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26
Telephone (land line)................... 24
Mobile phone............................ 135 (massive I know, 3 phones still in contracts - any advice greatly appreciated!)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24 (on basic package now I think)
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 260
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 (Travel to work and picking up kids from their mum every other weekend)
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 106 (2x insurance and AA)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 500 (approx)
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 12
Other insurance......................... 20 (homecare)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lovefilm subscription................... 10
Child Maintenance....................... 350
Total monthly expenses.................. 3446

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 90000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 93000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 72000....(460)......4.5
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4500.....(137)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 76500.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DMP............................15000.....180.......0
council tax arrears............120.......60........0
tax bill.......................210.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........15330.....260.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,900
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,446
Available for debt repayments........... -546
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 260
Amount short for making debt repayments. -806
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 93,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -76,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,330
Net Assets.............................. 1,170
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Pinky15

Hi there - just a few suggestions until some more knowledgeable peeps come along.
Food bill could be reduce to £200 - pop over to old style board they have some fab suggestions.
Mobile phones - can you not get out of your contract? These are costing a fortune.
Also I think if your house sells you will be in a better position - if not can you extend the term of the mortgage or could you switch to interest only.
Childcare - are you claiming help with childcare eg vouchers? Could a family member help out even 1 day per week?
Well done for posting HTH x

helena83

Thanks for replying so quickly...

Food bill - have already reduced this as much as I can so far, do meal plan each week, cut out all non-essentials but now have nappies to buy as well! At least breastfeeding is cheap!
Mobiles - so far got nowhere trying to get out of or reduce these.
Childcare - not really looked into this much yet just got rough idea of what it will cost for 3 days per week. I know I can get childcare vouchers but not sure how this works.
Selling the house is the biggest solution as we could pay off some of the debt etc but there's just no interest at the moment and I don't want to sell it for less than I paid for it. The mortgage is still in fixed rate til august, managed to get it on Interest only but only for 6 months so it goes back up next month and they won't extend it at all.

mariemcg

Hi Helena

Unfortunately I am not in a postition to give financial advice, but I just wanted to try to boost your morale a bit. Please do not get discouraged by your financial situation. No matter how bad your situation is someone has had it worse and lived to tell the tale. The people on here are great and tcan always be relied on to give practical advise (as well as encouragement). The beauty with the forum is that there is always so you are not alone!

Keep your chin up - things will get better xxx

boo80

Do you HAVE to go back to your job Helena? Would you be better off finding a job closer to home that you do do around your OH's hours, then you'd be saving some petrol money, and childcare money? x x

helena83

I'm starting to seriously consider it, I've worked hard to get where I am in my career and it won't affect the fuel costs as they are mostly for OH anyway. The only other thing I could do is take a job in local shop or something evenings/weekends on minimum wage but I would be giving up a good job with decent wages and also my career so its a big decision.

The other option is to stay off work and just rely on the SMP that I will get for a bit longer, this would mean we are slightly better off (-£736) but still nowhere near able to cope.

No matter how I look at it even if we cancel all the non-essential stuff (mobiles etc) sell the house, etc etc we are still going to be hundreds short. What happens then? I'm so scared

boo80

Is the £350 other income rent from your tenants? Your mortgage is costing £460, plus £12 insurance, are there any other costs? All the time you have the house it's costing you money, so would you not be better off taking the hit and lowering the asking price, just to get rid of it? As long as you can pay off the mortgage, you'll be in a much better position.

Can you phone up the mobile people and ask them how much they would charge you to cancel the contracts, then sell the phones to pay it off?

Would you consider putting your baby in cloth nappies? I'm sure if you asked on freecycle someone would offer you some. You should be able to shave a bit more off your groceries, I know you said you've already done your best there, but people do get by on a lot less.

As far as your job goes, thats down to you. Could you not have a career break, then get back into it once DD is at school? x x

helena83

I've been having a play with the figures on my SOA and no matter which way round I look at it we would still be short. Even if I work part time in a shop, have no childcare, manage to sell the house, stop the mobiles etc etc. Where do you go once you've tried everything and still can't survive? I feel like we're going to end up getting behind on rent and then we'll be on the street. I'm doing my best not to have a panic attack but I really don't know what to do or where to turn...

mum2one

Your mobiles - try ringing the companies and ask them to drop you down a tariff or 2, generally they would rather have some money coming in than none at all.
didn't want to run without saying keep ur chin up, Iknow its not easy - but there be a way round it, and I'm sure someone else will be able to help in other way sxx