New Year, New Hope!!

achtunglady

Hi all, heres my story. I am a stay at home mum, looking after daughter who is 2 years and 5 months old. I also have a son who is 9. I am married and my husband works full time as a HGV driver.
Things have always been a bit tight, but since the tax credits have stopped my payments, things have been especially hard. I try very hard to scrimp and save but my husband is the opposite,his philosophy is that he works damn hard and he should have some say in what he spends it on as the government control everything else.

We live in a flat (council) and are not entitled to any benefits as he earns too much. This is a list of our outgoings:

RENT £390 a month includes water rates too
COUNCIL TAX £100 a month
CAR PAYMENTS £263 a month
CAR INSURANCE £66 a month (joint cover)EDIT: Sorry its actually £56 the prevoius price was before i was put on the insurance and b4 renewal
PETROL £40 a month
GAS £25 a month
ELECTRIC £35 a month on key meter
TELEPHONE, BROADBAND +TELLY PACKAGE £29 per month+ extra for calls (already reduced from £39)
MOBILE PHONES £25 husband per month, £30 a month for me, contract expires Aug 07
TV LICENSE £11 a month
BED LOAN £68 a month- total 2448 paid off 748
HSBC FLEXI LOAN £120 REPAYMENT PLUS £35 PER MONTH INTEREST, STILL TO PAY BACK £3000
DENTAL INSURANCE £27.13 per month joint cover
CRITICAL ILLNESS COVER £8.65 a month joint cover
OLD CREDIT CARD £40 a month- balance to pay back £212.63
CHILD TRUST FUND £5 a month
FOOD SHOPPING £100 plus £40 for extras
CIGARETTES£150 a month
SUNDRIES £50 a month

overdraft limit is 1500 (temporarily raised to 2000 for this month only to cover mot and replacing brakes in car)
husband earns on average £1600 a month,sometimes more if he gets overtime
child benefit £116.15
bank charges varies from £25 up to £150


We are due back £2969 from bank charges but have not heard from the bank despite winning by default because they did not respond. Husband will spend £1000 on upgrading his HGV license so he can earn more money, the rest will go on lowering his overdraft and paying some off his flexi loan, this was taken out in June 04 for £3000, and could have been paid off by now but when a payment is made, he goes and transfers it back again to his account!!!!

We were in rent arrears, but we paid extra each month and we are now back on track.

This month we are being charged £150 in bank charges, because my husband put his card in the machine and it gave him money, he thought he would take out £40 more, each time incurring £25 charge.

He buys a couple of 500ml bottles of coke/pepsi at between 79-99p a bottle, plus he buys rolls from work everyday,£1.00-£2.00, i have told him to buy a baguette from tesco (47p) and make his own, and to buy a big two litre bottle and fill his little bottles. Mother in law bought me a soda stream maker so that should help cut down on the cost I hope. He has a food flask and a drink flask, so he can take food to work, but he starts work early and can't be bothered to faff around in the morning boiling kettles etc. I even bought him one of those gizmos that you can plug it into the cigarette lighter and pop it in your drink and it heats it up. I buy him the coffee cups like the ones in hots drinks dispensers from the poundshop, 10 for a pound.

I have looked at his flexiloan, it was for £3000, we have paid out £4453 in payments and interest and STILL have £3000 to pay off!!!!

I want to work to help out, but childcare costs will outweigh what i will bring home, even thought of working a few hours at night say from 9pm til 1am so that husband is at home with the kids. I have even tried applying for mystery shopping with the idea of taking little one with me in the pram but it states that you must do the assignment alone.

Not sure what else to do, theres only so much pasta and rice a person can eat and husband is fed up with chicken drumsticks and prefers boneless chicken breasts which cost nearly 3 times as much!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Have tried selling bits and bobs on ebay,but thats only small change in the grand scheme of things.

I think hubby has had his lightbulb moment and has given me his cash machine card, which i cannot find (LOL). EDIT i have found it but will "lose" it again!!

Any suggestions are gratefully received,thanks.

Smashing

Considered knocking the cigarettes on the head? There's another £1800 a year in your pocket. Plenty of support threads on this board, not to mention NHS clinics etc.

roswell

A hard one but for the quickest gain CIGARETTES£150 a month

ELECTRIC £35 a month on key meter - change to energy saving bulbs (about 80 p each in home bargains) and unplug everythign that isnt actualy being used turn tv dvd player etc off at the wall at night. (quick easy savings)

roswell

the flexi loan is probably your biggest head ache, do you know if you have payment protection on this .. its sound like it or the loan has been increased at some point

achtunglady

Hi Roswell thanks for your reply. I don't think the loan has payment protection on it, and all the bulbs in the house bar the kitchen (florescent) have the energy saving bulbs, our cooker is electric so uses a great deal of of it.

Hubby bought himself a push bike so I will try and encourage him to use it more to get to work, he works about 2 miles from home, so hopefully that will help cut down on the petrol, but if its raining he can have the car. Last thing I want is him getting ill in the rain and being off work as he won't get paid full pay only ssp.

He did give up cigarettes for a few months but started again when we had a car accident 3 months back. He says he can quit and does not need any help but its obvious he does. He makes every excuse for not giving up, like the fact that there are men in their 80's who smoked everyday and are still alive, to which I reply that some men are paedophiles, doesnt mean you have to follow what they do. He wont go to the doctor for tablets like Zyban as he said that they have killed a few people trying to give up.

I wonder if hypnosis will work, he absolutely hates eating kidneys, liver and other offal so maybe if the hypnotist put this in his head and to imagine that everytime he put a cigarette in his mouth and smoked it that he was actually eating the offal :rotfl:

CLAPTON

your car is costing you 263 + 66 + 40 +( not include car tax 10 + servicing / maintenance/MOT 20 and any RAC/AA) well somewhere about 400 a month...do you absolutely need it..can you sell it and repay the loan

skintas_2

wel done for admiiting you have a problem. you didnt mention child benefit what do you do with tht, how much do you spend on shooping a week/month

achtunglady

CLAPTON wrote:

your car is costing you 263 + 66 + 40 +( not include car tax 10 + servicing / maintenance/MOT 20 and any RAC/AA) well somewhere about 400 a month...do you absolutely need it..can you sell it and repay the loan

Hi Clapton, the car isnt ours yet it stiil belongs to the finance company,and we had to get a bigger car (this one) as carseats would not fit in the old car.
Old car was a Fiesta, husband is tall so his seat was right back against the backseat almost,leaving no room for anyone to sit behind him.

The new car has just had new brakediscs and pads fitted as I will be using the car with the kids in it as I have recently passed my test. Will get back and let you know how much longer and how many more payments we have on the car.

achtunglady

Hi Skintas,thanks for your reply, the child benefit I spend on my mobile bill, and the £40 debt on credit card, and £5 for youngest childs trust fund,the rest for emergencies such as for nappies for daughter. This is the only money I get.

We do a "big shop" once a month from Asda (£100)and once/twice a week we do top up shopping for perishables such as milk and bread (£10 a week).

I really want to sort ourselves out,and by coming on here and reading about other people, i think to myself, ah well we are not so badly off, but could be better off with a few months of sacrifice.
Shame my husband does not see it the same way. The only thing is, i hope he doesnt go round borrowing from his work mates to buy his ciggies!!!!

achtunglady

The council tax will have been paid for the year at the end of this month, with a two month break, starting again in april.
I have just called up the company who are dealing with my old Capital One debt and they have said if I pay off £140 this month, they will write off the rest, I have until the end of this month if I can find the money but I know for sure I cannot, otherwise its 5 more payments till its finished.

Hopefully in april I should get some child taxcredits, even if it is only £547 for the year.

Car insurance due for renewal in June, bed payments have another 24 months to go, car payments another 2 years.

lynzpower

couldnt you now downgrade your mobile contracts to lower tarriffs?

I have to say, you say your OH has had his LB moment, but Im not 100% in agreement.

My OH has a cahoot flexi loan and fell into the trap of paying it off & reborrowing the money. He has now seen the error of his ways :T and has transferred this ( after umpteen APR rises :eek: to a 0% card which remains somewhere safe and unused. Is this an option?