New and in a mess!

bride2be2006

unixgirluk wrote:

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.

The freezing the card thing is a great idea!!!

Storm

Hello pickle18 :hello:

Reading through your posts it seems to me that your main problem is money management rather than huge discrepancies of income/expenditure. It sounds like you've got a plan in place for repaying all the arrears- is this correct? So your immediate issue is that you've got big arrears to pay off quickly on top of your normal monthly expenditure.

Sell on Ebay/Amazon anything you've got lying around unused - if you're not planning to have more kids sell all the baby stuff etc. If you can clear off the arrears in a few months then hopefully you'll be in a better position.

When paid in cash this has GOT to be banked immediately so that it can't get frittered away. I would then recommend you each withdrawing an agreed amount on a Monday morning, which has to last you for a week.

It does sound like a nightmare trying to work out budgets with fluctuating wages, periods of not working, messed up benefits & emergency tax so please don't feel bad - at least if you're getting some lump sums back in you'll be able to clear stuff off in nice chunks.

Storm

Storm

Oops, messing up my postings here... a quick point I forgot though:

Your first priority has to be the mortgage, but make sure you talk to the other creditors too - if you have some idea of when back-dated tax & benefits etc will come in then send them a token payment of £10 for example and a letter saying you will send a further cheque for £X on a set date.

Uniscots97

Hello Pickle, how are you getting on? We'd love to know.

pickle18

Thanks everyone for your replies. Heres a little update, I have spoke to MBNA and they asked my to just pay £17 and that that would be fine till January - he also wiped a couple of late charges. I will when all cards are clear reclaim thos charges but right now we couldn't risk them tell us to pay it all of straight away.
I have paid £1400 off the mortgage today :j :T Feels fantastic! It also means that if we pay £450 a week till dec 22 nd we will be completely up to date including Decembers payment - which is fab and I am really confident we can do it. His boss has put his first payment of £450 in the bank (before this he has had ALL wages incash) so this will continue weekly now so I can easily pay the mortgage off straight away. We have decided to pay his cash into the bank immedietely every saturday on the way home from his work. Though we won't have any this week as thats what we paid the £1400 with.
We are also opening another account solely for the mortgage so as soon as his wages hits the bank £225 of it will go out of it straight away as we cannot get in the posistion we are in now, again. Its just so easy to fall behind with such a big mortgage as two months behind means you have £1600 to pay.
I did my weekly shopping today and I am so excited!!! I went to the market for veg and 3 overloaded carrier bags costed me £10!!! I couldn't believe it - that would of cost me at least double in the supermarket I'm sure. I had to ask the lady to repeat the price! I then bought all the other bits I needed from the supermarket, milk,bread, cream, cleaning etc etc and spent £30 and then I went to the butchers (it is important for us to eat free range meat so expect this to be a little more expensive) it was £34 but that included a roasting joint that would last two nights this week, stewing steak enough for two nights and another two nights, mince - there was an offer on so I got 3 times what I needed (two more meals next week) and 6 chicken breasts so I am pleased with that. So I got 7/8 nights shopping plus 4 nights worth of meat for next week for £74 though we may need to buy a loaf, especially as I am going to start making sarnies for him as he eats crap at work and spends loads!. It felt so good . It was only last week that we spent £200 at the supermarket and tbh we have nothing to show for it. I have always good meals from scratch as it was very important for the kids, just recently I fell behind and just cooked for the kids as I was mad at DP working such long hours so I was making me*-als at 11pm . He is working less now and we are all round less stressed. We also agreed for me to have a little help from him in the evening ie taking his plate from the table to the kitchen . So I feel much keener to cook etc
One thing we didn't need to buy this week though were nappies, I bought thos last week (£16 for both kids) and I think I will get at least another 2 weeks out of them.

I have cut down washing tabs to just one tab instead of two and its perfectly sufficient.

I do have quite a few meals in the freezer but I am not going to use them up as we will struggle over xmas as he won't be elidgable fo the two weeks holiday pay but has to take them off as the firm closes.


I spoke to MBNA yesterday and paid them the £17 and I will speak to the other creditors today to let them know our posisition. MBNA said we are elidgable for a loan but he said this after I said we had a mortgage so I think they would want to secure it on the house. I declined as even though we are ona really higher rate (higher than I thought 28%) we are going to throw all our money at it in feb

Thanks for your advice - I will keep updating this thread to let you know how we are getting on

Pickle

lynzpower

WAY TOP GO PICKLE :T

Soon you will be all sorted, doesnt it feel fab :j

Mrs_Sparkle

Pickle what a fantastic improvement! Well done you. Must admit I switched to one tablet per wash about 5 months ago and have never looked back. So proud of you hun :T

Uniscots97

Fantastic :T . For the two weeks he's not entitled to holiday pay why not bulk out some of your meals with more veg etc and freeze the extra? I understand that you want to buy free range, maybe next time you are buying all that meat be a little cheeky and see if they'll throw in some flank mutton or oxtail free to make soup. If you don't ask you don't get. If you need soup recipes let me know I have loads as well as the rough costs (pennies really). After making it you can freeze it in portion sizes, perfect for filling up when your feeling a little skint or you just want to stretch your budget a little further.

pickle18

unixgirluk wrote:

Fantastic :T . For the two weeks he's not entitled to holiday pay why not bulk out some of your meals with more veg etc and freeze the extra? I understand that you want to buy free range, maybe next time you are buying all that meat be a little cheeky and see if they'll throw in some flank mutton or oxtail free to make soup. If you don't ask you don't get. If you need soup recipes let me know I have loads as well as the rough costs (pennies really). After making it you can freeze it in portion sizes, perfect for filling up when your feeling a little skint or you just want to stretch your budget a little further.

The meals I will make over the next four weeks that will do 2 nights I will just freeze the second portion. Will use the extra meat I got this week too for then . Will just buy a couple of bit extra meat per week I think- as really it will be 3 weeks without wages as he will have to work till the end of the week before getting paid.

I need to double check whether he is elidgable for holiday pay - I am sure he should earn about 2 1.4 days per month if so he should have 9 days plus the 2 bank holidays which is almost 2 weeks anyway - anyone know where I can find out more about this?

Thanks unigirl I'd appreciate some recipes for soup

lynzpower

by law ( unless he is self employed/ contractor ) he IS entitled to holiday- the law lays down that everyone regardless of their hours is entitled to minimum 20 paid days holiday per annum

If he isnt getting this ( or theres any naffing around re: his entitlement) then I suggest you gi e acas.org.uk a ring- they should be the best people to speak with about it :beer: theyve been top with me.