Not enough money to go round

nikipixie

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post on, or where to start!

I have a large amount of debt, mostly with Lloyds TSB, but also with littlewoods catalogue.

My Lloyds debt is being paid off via Abacus but I haven't received a statement in a long time (I am going to write a letter requesting an up to date statement tomorrow) so am not entirely sure of the exact figure. Total for 2 loans and 1 credit card £15,000 ish (without interest) ?! No excuses for running up debts I know, but ... I lived with a gambler for 3 years when we got the 1st loan(2006) (for a washing machine, deposit on a rented property and car) and credit card(2006/7), when I left him and was waiting for benefits to be sorted I used the credit card to pay my rent, food etc for me and my daughter, then when settled I got a 2nd loan (jan 2009) to pay off the credit card as the interest seemed a better rate. My ex then stopped paying maintenence as he was gambling again so I got my credit card back(april 2009) to cover things while I chased the csa to get maintenence for my daughter - it's all a horrible big mess as stupidly all the debt is in my name, but anyway then I set up things with Abacus june 2009
My debt with littlewoods is a more recent thing that is not being sorted by Abacus I have been making the minimum repayments since I got it july 2009 but the council have written to me to say I have been over paid housing benefit and they are taking the over payment out of the benefit I am entitled to meaning the income I thought I had has gone down by £31 a week, also tax credits deposited some lump somes into my account but then dropped my tax credits by £13 a week so now I will be getting £44 a week less than what I budget for.
I am not on my own anymore as last year I moved in with and married a new partner(he works 40hrs a week but the money is crap hence the housing and tax credits) and had another baby, but also I have my daughter and he has his daughter living with us, things are so tight with a teenager, a 4yr old and new baby.
I don't know what to do, shall I cancel the debt management plan with abacus and track down one of these debt charities to take over? which one?
Also what shall I do about littlewoods, it's my last grip on having some kind of credit for when the kids need something and we haven't got the cash but with these new benefit cuts it's unaffordable for the foreseeable future - shall I just pay what I can afford instead of the minimum?
I'd be grateful for any advice offered, please don't use abbreviations with writing it in full first as I do tend to get confused.

Many many thanks in advance.

lindann_2

do you pay for abacus, if you do l go to cccs or payplan, l would do a soa so people know what you pay out each month, etc. they may see a way round it. again... good luck

[Deleted User]

here's the link for the SOA: http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

nikipixie

I pay £125 to abacus for Lloyds TSB and I think they take £25-£30 of it. Thank you for those names. I will give them a call tomorrow. Will they advice me about Littlewoods too?

nikipixie

Hi

I did the calculator but it won't let me paste it to here as I a new poster.
So here is my incomings and outgoings, It's all a bit complicated as littlewoods is paid 4 weekly, our pre pay meter electric gets topped up weekly, school lunches, shopping bus fares get paid weekly etc (but I have worked these out on a monthly basis) Then our income is all over the place, fortnightly, weekly, 4 weekly. Trying to keep track is really hard. Why we can't have all the money come in on the last day of the month and all the bills go out on the 1st I don't know, would make life easier!!

tv licence 13
littlewoods 216 (4 weekly)
next 35
house insurance 15
fishing insurance 21
lake membership 25
both waters 32
rent 730
sky 81
lottery 35
mobiles 105
abacus 125
hubbys loan 101
gas 28
council tax 35(start 1/4/11)
nursery lunches 22
school lunches 48
work money (bus fares and drinks)115
electric (prepay meter) 100
tobacco 30
food 400

TOTAL: 2312

housing benefit 226 (fortnightly)
tax credits 156 (weekly)
child benefit 187 (4 weekly)
wages 206 (weekly)

TOTAL: 2259


Hope this helps any of you to help me

The_Matelot

nikipixie wrote: »

Hi

I did the calculator but it won't let me paste it to here as I a new poster.
So here is my incomings and outgoings, It's all a bit complicated as littlewoods is paid 4 weekly, our pre pay meter electric gets topped up weekly, school lunches, shopping bus fares get paid weekly etc (but I have worked these out on a monthly basis) Then our income is all over the place, fortnightly, weekly, 4 weekly. Trying to keep track is really hard. Why we can't have all the money come in on the last day of the month and all the bills go out on the 1st I don't know, would make life easier!!

tv licence 13
littlewoods 216 (4 weekly)
next 35
house insurance 15
fishing insurance 21 - is this part of husbands work?
lake membership 25
both waters 32
rent 730 - do you get housing benefit?
sky 81 - this is very high could you not drop a package or even freeview till you get sorted?
lottery 35 - sorry to say you cant really afford to do the lottery at the minute. Or just a quid a week?
mobiles 105 - how many phones is this? Can you drop to a lower tariff?
abacus 125
hubbys loan 101
gas 28
council tax 35(start 1/4/11)
nursery lunches 22
school lunches 48
work money (bus fares and drinks)115
electric (prepay meter) 100
tobacco 30
food 400

TOTAL: 2312

housing benefit 226 (fortnightly)
tax credits 156 (weekly)
child benefit 187 (4 weekly)
wages 206 (weekly)

TOTAL: 2259


Hope this helps any of you to help me

i have made some comments above from what i can see. These are just IMO. It would definately benefit you going to CCCS instead of abaccus. Im not sure of all the details (if your in a contract) with abaccus but worth looking into. Best of luck to ya (keep calm and carry on!)

nearlyrich

Why we can't have all the money come in on the last day of the month and all the bills go out on the 1st I don't know, would make life easier!!

What you can do is sort out a budget and have a bank account that's just for bills. If you pay your bill acount first and don't touch it for anything else it will be easier.

Even with disposable income it's easy to get confused with money and you can only spend it once without getting into a mess,

mintymoneysaver

Just a thought, have you applied for free school meals?

d3mon4ngel

nikipixie wrote: »

Hi

I did the calculator but it won't let me paste it to here as I a new poster.
So here is my incomings and outgoings, It's all a bit complicated as littlewoods is paid 4 weekly, our pre pay meter electric gets topped up weekly, school lunches, shopping bus fares get paid weekly etc (but I have worked these out on a monthly basis) Then our income is all over the place, fortnightly, weekly, 4 weekly. Trying to keep track is really hard. Why we can't have all the money come in on the last day of the month and all the bills go out on the 1st I don't know, would make life easier!!

tv licence 13
littlewoods 216 (4 weekly) (avg: £234 p/m)
next 35
house insurance 15
fishing insurance 21 <-- If this is a hobby, this needs to go for now
lake membership 25 <-- Ditto
both waters 32 <-- Ditto
rent 730
sky 81 <-- You cannot afford this right now. Cancel or at least cut down to very basic package
lottery 35 <-- You cannot afford this right now
mobiles 105 <-- If you are in contract, drop to the lowest tariff. If you are out of contract, go PAYG or negotiate with them for better price
abacus 125
hubbys loan 101
gas 28
council tax 35(start 1/4/11)
nursery lunches 22
school lunches 48
work money (bus fares and drinks)115 <-- Take drinks to work with you rather than buying out
electric (prepay meter) 100 <-- Is this also paying off arrears? Make sure everything is switched off when not using it and is not on standby
tobacco 30
food 400 <-- Try dropping a brand at the supermarket, shopping at the "discount" supermarkets, cook from scratch, batch cook, see ideas on Old Style

TOTAL: 2312

housing benefit 226 (fortnightly)
tax credits 156 (weekly)
child benefit 187 (4 weekly)
wages 206 (weekly)

TOTAL: 2259


Hope this helps any of you to help me

I've made some comments above. As others have said, I suggest contacted CCCS as then all the money you pay to them will go towards your debts rather than some going into a management companies pockets. Hope this helps.

nikipixie

Hi
Thank you for the replies.
We're not entitled to free school meals.
The lottery, I will do this, just 1 lucky dip and get the shop to check it for me. If I checked the numbers and my old numbers (that I have played for years)came up I think I'd be sick LOL
Housing benefit - yes we get 226 fortnightly
Sky - unfortunately we are under a 12 month contract for a few more months yet
Mobiles - this is 3 contracts, mine, hubbys and my step daughters. Again we couldn't drop mine and my stepdaughters for another 6 months or so and my hubbys for another year.
The fishing insurance is for my husbands fishing equipment, fishing is his hobby since he was a boy so selling his stuff would be out of the question.

Thank you again. I'm going to pen that letter to Lloyds today, also ring cccs as I only have to give one months notice to abacus.

I have seen on this site about cca (re littlewoods) would this work?

Cheers

nikipixie

also the 'waters' are my water bills - I don't think I can drop those )