Advice on how we can save money or is there anything we can claim

willowwoody

Hi, we are struggling to keep our heads above water financially and was wondering if anyone had any advice or knew if there was anything else we could claim. I cant work as i look after my 2 children and couldnt afford the childcare, have thought of lots of ideas but partner works away and so couldnt even do night !!!!!!. Any help would be great thank you.



[tt]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 340
Other income............................ 397
Total monthly income.................... 2237
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 497
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 695
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 87
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 295
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 150
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 40
Other child related expenses............ 28
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27
Contents insurance...................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2458

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

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 94000....(497)......5.29
Total secured & HP debts...... 94000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,237
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,458
Available for debt repayments........... -221
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount short for making debt repayments. -221
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -94,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. -91,000
[/tt]

grandma247

Are you paying rent because you are in a shared ownership scheme?

kepar

Do you really need two cars?????????

kepar

Rereading it, all your debt is your mortgage and you are overspending by £221 a month, why are you posting on a bankruptcy forum ??????????????

grandma247

Do you have to be so rude, it seems to be this persons first post.

iamana1ias

Why the spend on childcare if you don't work?

You can't afford the sky package, mobiles or entertainment, and your spend on presents is ridiculous.

Oh, and 2 cars are a luxury you can't afford. £150 a month just to insure them! :eek

FuzzyCub

iamana1ias wrote: »

Why the spend on childcare if you don't work?

You can't afford the sky package, mobiles or entertainment, and your spend on presents is ridiculous.

Oh, and 2 cars are a luxury you can't afford. £150 a month just to insure them! :eek

This board is for help not judgement

Your comments are neither helpful nor non-judgemental, the OP was been courageous enough to seek assistance in sorting out financial issues, it has already been pointed out that it is likely to be a first time poster. If you feel unable to assist in a constructive manor perhaps it's better not to post.

OP - I'm sure you'll get some more constructive help soon. Well done getting this far, I know it takes courage.

StuntmanBob

I can't say I understand how come you are paying rent and mortgage. Maybe it's shared ownership as someone else has suggested.

However it seems to me you are living very frugally in some ways (£150 on food, £30 on clothes, incl for 2 kids), and yet in other ways you are in denial (i.e. 2 cars, sky TV, £50 per month on mobiles, £60 on leisure, a crazy amount on presents, a crazier amount on fuel for the 2 cars!).

Could you ditch one of the cars and use public transport or get lifts? Get rid of Sky TV (difficult with kids I realise), cut down on such generous birthdays and Christmas for the kids? £50 p.m. on mobiles seems like a heck of a lot to me - my daughter uses O2 pay-and-go and gets unlimited texts & internet for £15 a month! My guess would be you have nice smart-phones on contract. Can you really afford them?!

Going BR taught me to be a lot less proud and also taught me that going BR is best avoided. So try cutting back on luxuries and non-essentials so you can avoid BR if possible. BR is no picnic and debt is hard to live with. Don't look for more you can claim, look for less you can spend!

Best of luck.

AlyBaly

Firstly , welcome to the board and well done on making your 1st post. As Fuzzycub kindly pointed out we are not here to judge just offer advice so the rest of my post is directed at the people who in my eyes are being judgemental with out the full facts. If I had received some of these responses to my post I would have run away.

Two cars is definately not always a luxury I personally would love to drop down to 1 car but that would be impossible with the locations we work in. Perhaps asking some questions around the cars would have been more fruitful
And kepar sorry but your post is very rude , willow is new so instead of posting " why are you posting on a bankruptcy forum ?????????????? " perhaps pointing our new member in the right direction may have been more useful and the use of ?????? could easily be perceived as aggressive.

I would imaging with your OH working away the rent is for his accomodation.

Sorry willow I do not have enough indepth knowledge to offer solid advice on your SOA but hope you realise that a lot of us are struggling and are here to support in anyway we can . There are a lot of really knowledgable people on this board and I am sure they will be along shortly to help

fermi

willowwoody wrote: »

Hi, we are struggling to keep our heads above water financially and was wondering if anyone had any advice or knew if there was anything else we could claim. I cant work as i look after my 2 children and couldnt afford the childcare, have thought of lots of ideas but partner works away and so couldnt even do night !!!!!!. Any help would be great thank you.

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