New and in a mess!

pickle18

I am 24 and my partner 20 , we have 2 children and have got ourselves into a mess with debt.

We have 2 credit cards:
MBNA £2500
EGG £2500

I lost my job and was out of work for a month and this has got us seriosuly behing with all bills - the following is the outstanding of what we owe.
We have got a couple of months behind on our mortgage too so we now owe £2330 in arrears - new payment mid december to be added of £816
Water rates - £220
MBNA - desperately asking for £150
Egg - as MBNA
NTL - £200
Gym - £130
TV License - £40
Mum loan - £900

We have basically just put our head in the sand since October and its just spiralling out of control but finally we have seen the light today as I spoke to mortgage company who informed my court proceedings have begun. Its got to the point where we have stopped opening post and turned the phone off (handy really becuase its been cut off now!). Council Tax have just reassessed our house and wacked us witha £550 bill. 2 car insurance payments £180

Incoming

My wage - £3000 per month but can be up to £3400 per month
Partners Wage - £138 per month
Child benefit has been £69 up till now - had to resend birtch certificate for second child so fingers crossed £127 from now on
Total - £3207

Outgoings
Mortgage - £816
Gas - £40
Electric - £19
MBNA - £60
Egg - £60
Gym - £42
Food - At least £450 but probably more like £600 or even more
Nursery fees - £150
Clothes - £70 generally not used
Fuel - £100
Car Insurance - £90
Car Insurance - £50
House Insurance - £43

Council Tax - £170
Broadband - £10
Car tax per month for both cars - £23
Car repairs - £15 max
water - £40 ( though will only be starting monthly in march)
TV - £35
Mobile - £50 (essential for his work and this new contract has lowered it to what was previous £100!)
Housephone - £11 line rental only no outgoing calls

Total = approx £2284
Even missing stuff out which I may of forgot our incomings should be more than adequete even if I do wild on the food shopping.
I have agreed to pay Mortgage company £1400 on saturday so we then owe them £900 until the 19th when another 816 comes on. I will be paying them £450 a week until Dec 22nd when the debt should be cleared. This means we will be a bit strapped though until then. I will also pay the car insurance debt this weekand the gym. Then hopefully a bit of both MBNA and EGG the following week. Then the following week the TV license and a chunk of water rates (DD for the rest). Hopefully we should be up to date by the end of December except for the council tax which we shall pay bits off and clear in january.

I am doing things correct in the way I am paying everyone off this month? Obviously I will be pulling the strings in significantly this month - the food is going right down - I can manage on £70 a week , I have done it before!

When we are straight I just want to concentrate on getting the cc paid off as the interest rates are in the region of 22%

Hoping I can get some support from here if you don't mind having me!

Pickle

Uniscots97

Hi, you'll get support here. You've come to the right place. Do you mind me asking if your food value is correct? It seems very high if it is. This could be cut back a lot. Try the moneysaving oldstyle section for meal planning ideas. Even for two adults and two kids your monthly food bill should be at very most half of what you have put. So this would save you at least £200 a month to put towards your debts.

pickle18

unixgirluk wrote:

Hi, you'll get support here. You've come to the right place. Do you mind me asking if your food value is correct? It seems very high if it is. This could be cut back a lot. Try the moneysaving oldstyle section for meal planning ideas. Even for two adults and two kids your monthly food bill should be at very most half of what you have put. So this would save you at least £200 a month to put towards your debts.

Hi
Thanks
Yes food bill is correct I'm afraid! Someowhere in that massive post I wrote we are cutting down - we have managed on £70 a week before so can def do it again

We are just awful at saving or budgetting. A huge problem is that only £425 of my wage goes into the bank which means we have cash hanging about all the time and it just dwindles. I think we should start going straight to the cash machine when I get the rest of the money on a saturday afternoon and pay it in

Thanks

gettingitsorted

Hi pickle,

wecome aboard the good ship DFW you sound like you are tackling everything with vengance .

just a couple of small points with your SOA

your food shopping seems high for 4 of you
do you really need the gym membership?
have you shopped around for all your insurances?


some other the better guys and gals will be along shortly

Uniscots97

have a look at the moneysaving old style section. I'm awful at putting links in but there's loads if information in there about meal planning. It would be a good place to start. With proper planning you could get the food budget down further than £70 a week. Also keep a spending diary and see exactly where your cash goes. How about setting yourself a budget for the week and withdrawing the cash then either asking a relative to hang on to your cash card or putting it in a bowl of water in the freezer so you can't use it quickly (no cheating by putting bowl in the microwave it'll melt the card). Freezing your card means you have to let it thaw out by which time whatever impulse buy you want you've thought about.

lynzpower

do you need to be spendign 70 per month on clothes?

Why are you spending 600 a month on food? I expect you are binning a fair amount of that, it cant be possible to legitimately eat all that much- that 6 x what me & My OH pay!

You need to get a serious handle on all this, and pronto. Once you start getting into 3 month arrears, your lender will start making noises about repossession. Have they said anything about repossessing your home yet?

pickle18

Thanks everyone.

Gym membership - it isn't something I need but I am in a contract for a year so alhough I won't renew it I do have to keep it on for now. We were ina much better financial posistion when I took it out.

House Insurance - Is high but neccesary due to an antique which I have worth over £15000 PS no I cant sell it!

Car Insurance is high due to our ages

Food is nothing short of ridiculous and I hang my head in shame. Its mainly takeaways except for the children obviously but we still seem to buy at least £80-100 on shopping in Tesco then still get takeaways. I shall bin the menus. Below £70 may be difficult as both children are in nappies but I will try.

TBH I think I overestimated the clothes - there are many months we don't buy anything at all

Mortgage lender will be happy they aid as long as we show an active commitment to sorting this out - which we are going too. I spoke to them today and ended up bursting tinto tears but also worked out the 450 aweek etc. She is ringing me back on friday and every friday to encourage me!

I amn certainly prepared to tackle this problem but ultimtly i know financially things can be very managable if I am up to date

Uniscots97

You mentioned £180 for car insurance yet you've posted £90 and £50? I realise that some households do require two cars but are you getting the best deal on your insurance? Also do you really need 2 cars? I realise as drivers under 25 you will be hit with high insurance but if your partner only drives a low mileage what about the 'pay as you go' car insurance?

Uniscots97

Just read your post pickle18 about takeaways. These need to go straight away. There's lots of good recipes on here where you could make things in bulk and freeze them. As for keeping cost down on nappies someone on here will be able to tell you where to get them cheaper. I know a few people on here have gone onto using the new washable nappies on their children as disposable were a frightening cost.

TTMCMschine

pickle18 wrote:

I am 24 and my partner 20 , we have 2 children and have got ourselves into a mess with debt.

We have 2 credit cards:
MBNA £2500
EGG £2500

I lost my job and was out of work for a month and this has got us seriosuly behing with all bills - the following is the outstanding of what we owe.
We have got a couple of months behind on our mortgage too so we now owe £2330 in arrears - new payment mid december to be added of £816
Water rates - £220
MBNA - desperately asking for £150
Egg - as MBNA
NTL - £200
Gym - £70
TV License - £40

We have basically just put our head in the sand since October and its just spiralling out of control but finally we have seen the light today as I spoke to mortgage company who informed my court proceedings have begun. Its got to the point where we have stopped opening post and turned the phone off (handy really becuase its been cut off now!). Council Tax have just reassessed our house and wacked us witha £550 bill. 2 car insurance payments £180

Incoming

My wage - £3000 per month but can be up to £3400 per month
Partners Wage - £150 per month why does your partner work when its all gobbled up with nursery fees. She wouldnt need the second car then. You could sell it, pay some of the arrears & save the costs.
Tax credits - £69
Child benefit - £50 ish

Total - £3269 - 3629

Outgoings
Mortgage - £816
Gas - £30
Electric - £19
MBNA - £60
Egg - £60
Gym - £42 Dont need this - drop it
Food - At least £450 but probably more like £600 or even more too much - cut it down by £250 pm+ (work out what you need per meal)
Nursery fees - £150 drop this if partner stops working
Clothes - £70 dont need this
Fuel - £60 can cut this back with only 1 car
Car Insurance - £90 could lose this or the other 1.
Car Insurance - £50 ditto.
House Insurance - £40
Life assurance - £10
Council Tax - £145
Broadband - £10

Total = approx £2252

Even missing stuff out which I may of forgot our incomings should be more than adequete even if I do wild on the food shopping.
I have agreed to pay Mortgage company £1400 on saturday so we then owe them £900 until the 19th when another 816 comes on. I will be paying them £450 a week until Dec 22nd when the debt should be cleared. This means we will be a bit strapped though until then. I will also pay the car insurance debt this weekand the gym. Then hopefully a bit of both MBNA and EGG the following week. Then the following week the TV license and a chunk of water rates (DD for the rest). Hopefully we should be up to date by the end of December except for the council tax which we shall pay bits off and clear in january.

I am doing things correct in the way I am paying everyone off this month? Obviously I will be pulling the strings in significantly this month - the food is going right down - I can manage on £70 a week , I have done it before!

When we are straight I just want to concentrate on getting the cc paid off as the interest rates are in the region of 22%

Hoping I can get some support from here if you don't mind having me!

Pickle

You could easily save £450 pm there & make some cash selling the car. You have a very good salary [what do you do - any jobs going ] & really shouldn't be struggling.

TTMCMschine

House Insurance - Is high but neccesary due to an antique which I have worth over £15000 PS no I cant sell it! You could loan it to a local museum on the proviso they insure it.