Erm - opinions please? SOA

Timmne

Ha - good point!!

£1083.00 is correct....

sanfrancisco

Good News then!!!

pinkthinks

Hi all - thanks for your responses, must admit I do feel like a total pillock as I know there are ppl worse off than me and it does feel like I'm whingeing somewhat.

Sorry, I forgot to add in the all-important £625 pcm rent. Oh and also the TV licence at £11.33.

The waters are correct - one for supply and one for waste.

Council tax if for 10 months of the year, but I budget this for the car tax also which is due in March.

Partner is currently divorcing, so is still paying his mtg, child maintenance, etc and has a big ole bundle of debt all of his own as well (some of which I have sorted thanks to all the advice on different topics on this site).

Don't know whether the best way to go is to consolidate loan & c/c - if I did this I could be paying about £289 p/m with no ppi, but then get that from Antinsurance for £10 pm.

Another option is that I could go for something like M&S LOB card, but am concerned that would'nt get a high enough limit to xfer all of Egg, for example.

Seem to have a 'good' credit rating atm (used the free trial thingy with Experian).

In your experiences what is the best way to go?

immoral_angeluk

Incomings:

Salary - £1258 - Is there the possibility of any overtime? Or could you get a better paying job?
Child Benefit - £69.80
CSA (altho only guaranteed if he pays it, lol) - £69
Partner - £250 (believe me he has more debt than me) Could he not contribute more?
Total £1646 Have you checked out https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if you are entitled to any help? If you have children you should be entitled to tax credits.

Outgoing:

FD P Loan - £239 (9 months paid 51 remaining) APR 7.9% £9601 settlement fig. as of today
Egg c/card - £110 (have fixed slightly over min payment) APR 15.9%. Balance £4800 limit £5000
Tesco c/card - £50 (am paying over fixed payment) APR 16.9%. Balance £1000 limit £1500 Only pay the minimum on these at the moment. Every penny counts.
Council Tax - £112
Electricity - £50 What about gas? This seems very high have you checked uswitch to see if you can get a cheaper deal?
Phone/internet - £50 this is very expensive, have a look round for cheaper packages. you CAN cut this down.
Water - £15
Water - £28 why 2 lots of water? Are you in arrears?
Car ins - £32 Is this the cheapest you can get?
Diesel - £80 Would it be cheaper to use public transport?
Childcare - £54 Have you got any friends or family who could help with childcare? Or could you get help with this through tax credits?
Child karate (!) - £32 Sorry but you can't afford this right now, so you need to put this on the back burner until you've got your outgoings lower than your incomings.
Food - £200 For how many people? Check out the money saving old style board to see how you can cut this down. I guarantee you can cut it down, even if it's only by a bit.
Sky - £15 Personally I'd cancel this and go freeview. It's a luxury you can't afford right now.
House Iins - £16 Is this the cheapest you can get?

Total £1708


Sorry if I seem blunt but you need to get your outgoings down now as you can't maintain an overspend like that for long without increasing your debt. Definately check out tax credits as I'm fairly sure you should be entitled to them.

immoral_angeluk

pinkthinks wrote:

Hi all - thanks for your responses, must admit I do feel like a total pillock as I know there are ppl worse off than me and it does feel like I'm whingeing somewhat.

Sorry, I forgot to add in the all-important £625 pcm rent. Oh and also the TV licence at £11.33.

The waters are correct - one for supply and one for waste.

Council tax if for 10 months of the year, but I budget this for the car tax also which is due in March.

Partner is currently divorcing, so is still paying his mtg, child maintenance, etc and has a big ole bundle of debt all of his own as well (some of which I have sorted thanks to all the advice on different topics on this site).

Don't know whether the best way to go is to consolidate loan & c/c - if I did this I could be paying about £289 p/m with no ppi, but then get that from Antinsurance for £10 pm.

Another option is that I could go for something like M&S LOB card, but am concerned that would'nt get a high enough limit to xfer all of Egg, for example.

Seem to have a 'good' credit rating atm (used the free trial thingy with Experian).

In your experiences what is the best way to go?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for consolidation to work you have to be VERY strict not to run up more debt on the 'cleared' cards etc. And as you don't have much to play with you'd more than likely find that you started spending on the card for emergencies and it's gradually creep up again leaving you in even more of a mess.

earthmother

I may get shouted at, but I'd approach this in a slightly different angle to the concensus so far.

Council Tax can be paid over 12 months if you can prove hardship (your SOA does that) - so maybe worth talking to the council and spread the payments a bit.

Car tax - can you still buy stamps at the Post Office? - that's how we used to do it - that way you're still budgeting for it, but are guaranteed the money will be there when it's due (as you are at the moment, what happens if in March you have some sort of financial disaster and can't pay the car tax from that one months' money - no car - at least saving in installments will mean it's already dealt with and out of the way).

You obviously don't need more debt, so rather than consolidation, I'd consider closing your credit down and talking to the creditors about reduced payments to clear the debt. You should be able to negotiate a reduced interest rate, hopefully completely stop it, and there won't be the tempatation to reuse what you pay off as it won't be there.



Do that, and rebudget your shopping, phone/internet and Sky as suggested, and you should still have money in the bank at the end of each month for emergencies, and be able to pay for the Karate (if you're like us, it'll be important you can still do that - I know we'd give up everything else before cutting the kids activities completely - although if they're old enough to understand the basics of finances, then maybe reduce/renegotiate how many sessions they attend/where they go).


Good luck

emzig123

earthmother wrote:

Car tax - can you still buy stamps at the Post Office? - that's how we used to do it - that way you're still budgeting for it, but are guaranteed the money will be there when it's due (as you are at the moment, what happens if in March you have some sort of financial disaster and can't pay the car tax from that one months' money - no car - at least saving in installments will mean it's already dealt with and out of the way).

You can still buy car tax stamps at the post office. My boyfriends mum does it for the whole family,we all give her a tenner a month and then she goes and gets the stamps. Much easier because you almost don't notice it going outcompared to over £100 in one month

girlsmum

I would serioulsy look at getting a lob card, or 0% one, even if they dont give you enought credit tranferring some will help, i have 3 low interest LOB cards i have managed to get all my debt on these 3,

sanfrancisco

As Martin says, it doesn't matter how MANY debts you have, just try to get them all at the lowest APR% as possible. I would go for LOB card. Don't worry if you don't get high enough limit, just more as much as poss. Please do not consolidate.

ixwood

You can't ignore the debts. They'll just snowball and bankrupt you.

Either transfer the debts to 0% cards (with capped fees preferably), or ideally get in touch the CAB, and see if they can help you negotiate with the lenders. Maybe they'll accept a % of the debt in installments (it's better than nothing for them sometimes.), or freeze the interest at least.

You should then have more slack with your budget and start cutting into the debts.

I agree with everyone else, don't get a another loan whatever you do.

And as everyone says, ditch the sky. That's a luxury for sure.

All your utilities sound expensive to me. Get on uswitch.co.uk and you could easily save £50+ a month. Also sign up to greapy palm or one of the other recommendations sites. I'm sure they're offering £25 for going to uswitch through them.

Car insurance sounds high as well. Who's that with? Paying in installments always cost more (It's effectively a loan). Could Maybe try paying on 0% credit card next time and banking your usual installments (safely. As you MUSTN'T spend the cash). You'll have more left over after.

Do you have a budget planner? Is that definitely all you spend?. I always find it's the 50p for this and £1 for that that do the unnoticed damage. Record every penny you spend and analyse it at the end of the month, You might get a surprise.

Every penny counts at the mo. Question every purchase, do you need it? Can you live without it? Can you borrow it?

Cut out all luxuries for shopping. Old school is definitely the way to go. Healthy unpolluted food for a lot less.

Any other "luxuries"? Mobile phones? holidays? Booze? Fags? Takeways? Meals out? Expensive treats/presents for kids? Magazine subscriptions? Newspapers? gimiky health products? Until you've got yourself straight you need to be tough on yourself and everyone else. Tough love, It's for your/their own good!! ;-)

Convert the house to drinking water. I started drinking water at work from the water cooler, but now it's my standard drink at home. Turn on the tap and bingo. Cheaper than pop or juice and probably a lot better for you.

Do you live in a city? Car sponsorship might be an option if you do. I'm sure I've seen up to £180pm quoted on their websites.

Do you have any free time? It's not exactly well paid, but there's an endless supply of surveys you can do online for cash. 60p or a £1 doesn't sound a lot, but do 1 a day and you've got £20 extra a month to help you get by.

Anyone you can babysit/childmind for? If you do it at the same time you're looking after yours, then it's almost free money.

Oh and if the OH is in more problems than you, maybe he should do the same review and see if he can be helped anyhow. If his debt could be frozen and he got on top of his finances as well, you'd both be in a lot better position.

Don't give up. It's by no means a hopeless cause. You'll get there!!