Mortgage and debt problems

simonandclare

Hi Tixy

Thanks for the quick reply.

With reference to the monthly credit card repayment, I have recently changed the way we pay it each month. Rather than just paying the minimum amount each month as we had been doing I have decided to transfer £600 a month into it and use my credit card to pay for food etc instead of my bank card/bank account. I was hoping that this would somehow show the credit card company that we were good creditors by putting back in this money each month and hopefully the remaining "unused" money would go towards paying off the balance we have built up.

Not sure on the APR for our bank account so I will find it out and post as soon as I know.

We are now considering all the other suggestions you have come up with, starting with the gas and electricity as I agree it seems terribly high. O and the food bill amount I have posted seems to be a safe average, I cook alot of meals from scratch so no expensive freezer meals here and we have to feed 2 adults and 3 children.

:-) x

MrsTUS

simonandclare wrote: »

Hi Tixy



We are now considering all the other suggestions you have come up with, starting with the gas and electricity as I agree it seems terribly high. O and the food bill amount I have posted seems to be a safe average, I cook alot of meals from scratch so no expensive freezer meals here and we have to feed 2 adults and 3 children.

:-) x

Hi, just wanted to say that we're also a family of five - 3 children ages 8, 2 and 1 year old. Our monthly shop comes in at £220 every month - we meal plan for the entire month ahead, including breakfast, lunches and dinners and also my husbands packed lunch for work and my 8 year olds packed lunches. That amount also included all nappies/wipes for the babies (we use Asda brand nappies which are FAB) and it also included all household items... Admittedly, we do buy value brand almost everything, but all our meals are fresh and cooked from scratch - all very healthy and balanced... try this website for meal planning ideas https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk - there are some lovely meals on their - the only thing I will say is to ignore the use of lard - it's a very bad form of fat for you to consume, I refused to feed it to my children and instead opted for the the use of healthy oils or margarine where I could.

It would be great if you could provide a detailed SOA using the link at the forum, as I believe there are many many areas where you could make cuts.

I'd also like to mention, rather than cut your childrens saving amount in half - cut it out altogether for the time being - perhaps ask family members if they could help out with depositing a token amount in place of it? I know you want to provide your children with a good start in life, pay uni fees etc - however, NOT at the current expense of your quality of lifea. Once you're back on an even keel, I promise you canmake it up to your children and pay in as much as you like into those savings accounts. My childrens savings accounts are empty and they don't get paid into. I used their savings to contribute toward debt repayments because in the long run, it's for the greater good - when we're debt free as a family, and when I return to work in about 4 years time, we will have a large surplus of disposeable income and I have made a vow to myself to see my children right - and I will.. but just for the time being, it has to be this way...

EDIT: Please excuse the atrocious grammar, punctuationa dn spelling - I'm not illiterate, it's just it's nearly 2am ha - I'd go through and correct it, but I really CNBA

EXTRA EDIT: ^^^ oh the irony :-D

fatbelly

Claim child tax credit. You can do this over the phone and it takes ten minutes

0845 300 3900

donny-gal

Re your husbands work expenses. How about a separate credit card, just kept for work, and paid off as he receives his expenses. Also he must be religious in submitting his expenses in time to meet the weekly payment runs. Often overlooked when you get busy. Or even better find out if his company do a Company Credit Card which he can just use for work expenses, which they pay each month, and he covers via his expenses.

This will keep them out of your day to day expenses, and not cloud them.

Also what about a spending diary so you and your OH find out how much you are spending on "odds and sods"?
DG

simonandclare

Hi MrsTus, thanks for all your interesting advice. The more I think about it the more I think everyone is right about the amount I spend on food shopping each month. I am now on a mission to make this as cheap as I can.

My children are 8, 6 and 17 months so it sounds like I'm as busy as you, don't you just love the school holidays!!! When you suggest providing a detailed SOA, is that not what I posted last night? Is there a more detailed one than the one I have already given?

I'm not convinced at the moment about cutting the savings for the children, after all its not there fault that there parents are useless with money and until I can see a way out of all this I want to atleast make sure there futures are provided for, god forbid where not around to help them out in the future.

I think when I started this process I was having a few low days but now I've had time to regroup I know that the situation were currently in isn't going to be forever and once my baby is old enough to go to pre-school and then big school (not wanting this to come around to quickly you understand) we can start to really pay things off with the wage I will hopefully be bring in though with my Fibro I'm not sure at the moment I much I'm going to be able to work.

Fatbelly - I have tried to claim child tax credit but as my husband wage is over £45k a year we do not qualify for any help.

donny-gal - a few years ago we opened a credit card for my husband to use just for work expenses but as you can see from our SoA we are rubbish with money and so ended up with a huge credit card bill that has had to go in the melting pot to be repaid. I refuse to do it again as I just don't trust ourselves to keep up with it at the moment. My husbands company has been making alot of redundancy's lately and has just shut one of there foreign operations so they have said no to any additional company credit cards. Its gotten so bad this year that they decided not to pay the bonus packages to all employees, they say, and consequently the golden hand shake of between £7,000 - £10,000 that we had been used to over the past 5 years he has worked with them was not forthcoming! Coupled with the fact that the job I was due to return to in January that my employer had said he was happy to negotiate more suitable hours for me to return on when I left on maternity leave decided, 4 weeks before my return date, that they would not change the hours and I either returned on the hours I had been working before my daughter was born or make my own decision what to do if you know what I mean.

Its just been a terrible year money wise and this is why I think we have decided enoughs enough and something has to be done.

O and I started a spending diary last night after I submitted my SoA on here as I was suprised that it would seem we should have money left over each month.

fatbelly

simonandclare wrote: »

Hi
Fatbelly - I have tried to claim child tax credit but as my husband wage is over £45k a year we do not qualify for any help.

Valid point - it seems that entitlement peters out pretty soon after 40k.

MrsTUS

simonandclare wrote: »

Hi MrsTus, thanks for all your interesting advice. The more I think about it the more I think everyone is right about the amount I spend on food shopping each month. I am now on a mission to make this as cheap as I can.

My children are 8, 6 and 17 months so it sounds like I'm as busy as you, don't you just love the school holidays!!! When you suggest providing a detailed SOA, is that not what I posted last night? Is there a more detailed one than the one I have already given?

I'm not convinced at the moment about cutting the savings for the children, after all its not there fault that there parents are useless with money and until I can see a way out of all this I want to atleast make sure there futures are provided for, god forbid where not around to help them out in the future.

Haha, yes, I am very busy - stay-at-home-mum, debt busting, starting an Open Uni course, volunteering for a few local/community initiatives all inbetween my husbands 12 hour day and night shifts - eeek!

Re, the savings, I can see what you're saying, I guess at the end of the day, my line of thinking is that if anything happened to us, I know my family would take care of my children as best they could - in all aspects. And while I understand it's my responsibility to provide for my childrens futures, I think that means (to me) taking a chance and just getting shot of debt ASAP so we can start saving some serious money (£1k per month once debt free) and then buying our own house etc. We have life assurance if anything happened in the immediate future which would provide some relief..

What I meant via a detailed SOA is using this link http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html - you need to budget for things like hair cuts, entertainment, birthdays/xmas etc It's also in a format that's easier to read and you'll find once you post it, people will make suggestions alongside any fields they feel they can help you with..

:]

simonandclare

Thanks for the link MrsTUS, will complete tomorrow evening and post for all to see. x