Sorry old chap, the money has run out!

backinbusiness

Will the Vet accept installments for his bill?

I know ours did when something similiar happened.

Good luck op

tony_ack

Thanks for the replies, quite a lot of suggestions, so I'll go through them one at a time...

-Sky - I'm in the process of switching line rental to Sky as well, so I think I've listed that twice, as well as the broadband. We have the Sky World + HD package along with broadband, calls and now line rental. I keep looking at this to try to make savings, but the package discounts are structured in such away that you save very little by taking away, say movies and the entertainment packs you don't need. I may try the cancellation ploy, but I may have been entered in a new 12 month contract 6 months ago when I needed a replacement box to replace the failed one which was 2 years out of warranty.

-Mobile phones - the cost is for both mobile phones. To be honest, my partner can't be far from the end of her contract and I don't understand why she pays so much as she's not had a new phone for about 3 years. My monthly line rental is £32 - this is because Orange messed up my upgrade last December and removed my free internet. After lots of wrangling they agreed to add an internet bundle to my account at £5 per month, then credit my bill with what the bundle would cost me over 12 months. Not perfect, but the best they would do. I have only ever used 12 month contracts, so mine is up in December. I have already decided to go PAYG when it is up - partly because I'm happy with the phone I have, partly because I know I'll save a lot, and partly because I've had enough of Orange.

Garage and third car - as mentioned, I already know the car needs to go, though at this time of year and with no MOT I'm only going to get about £150 - £200 for it max. I know the garage is going to have to go too, but I'm a bit wary of paying out repair bills for jobs which I know how to do myself and quite frankly I don't trust many garages to do repairs/servicing properly based on previous experience. Both cars are running fine, though I need to look at the brakes on my car soon. Both are quite old, but are very reliable when looked after. We have joint AA cover which is paid for by my partner's parents (annual birthday present to her)

Entertainment - we can and will cut down on the meals out and takeaways. Football subs are £5 per week and helps to keep me fit and is also a social thing. I also run the work football team - this is paid for in theory, but I need to pay the subs in advance (£26 per week) then claim back from the company, who are horrendously slow at paying out expenses.

Food shopping - this is one area we haven't been able to control in the past. We end up running our food stocks down so much that we don't eat much, get really hungry, then go out and splurge in the supermarket. I know that we're doing this wrong, and I am going to change things. The sad thing is that I know a lot of the buying rules to save money - I just don't always follow them consistently. Unfortunately cotton nappies are something my partner won't consider.

Electricity/gas - we're currently with Ovo and switched about 8 months ago. They were the cheapest by far at the time, and £15 per month cheaper than the old supplier. We're using more gas though at the moment for hot baths as we can't afford to fix the shower.

Clothing - £30 was a bit of a guess - I know my partner buys herself something cheap-ish every month, and some clothes for the little one too (usually from Sainsbury's where my partner's mother works and gets discount). I haven't bought any clothes for myself since winter.

Presents - I think this is higher than it actually is - we're just coming out of 'birthday season II' (the worst one is Jan - Apr when we have 6 family birthdays) so that may have skewed my calculation.

Other assets - This is basically everything I have, excluding the house and cars. I keep a spreadsheet of my monthly budget and it includes a tab listing everything I own, plus an estimated value. Most of the stuff is not very exciting - it includes computer, tv, etc, but also mundane stuff like the sofa, dining table and kitchen utensils (I don't list all the utensils separately - I'm not that sad!).

Family money repayment - I can probably scale this down a bit

Credit cards - All cards are up to the limit. I don't think I'll get any deals on new cards, given my total unsecured debt.

Council tax - I don't like being one month in arrears but we have insider knowledge and know that our council don't pursue with bailiffs until you're 6 months in arrears.

E-bay/Gold - unfortunately a lot of what we have is junk which isn't worth a lot second hand. Anything that had a decent value (TV, amp, etc) is now 3-4 years old so isn't worth much any more. I've also had bad experiences on e-bay - the last 3 things I've sold have all gone for 99p, which, when you take into account the time, effort and cost of getting to the post office, costs more money than you get. I also have a room full of car parts which are worth a fair bit to the right person, but at the moment I can't even give them away. We also have no gold - I'm not a jewellery person, and the missus prefers silver.

Pet insurance - we have a retired racing greyhound which no-one will insure, other than on an annual policy at an extortionate fee.

Child benefit - this is included in the 'benefits'. We don't qualify for anything else.

Travel - I have cut down on car journeys where I can, but my work is just too far away. I already work from home on Fridays to save a bit of money. My partner pays the parking - it's a monthly season ticket which she shares with a part-time co-worker who does the opposite days to her.

Vets bill - I've already paid this, it's just left me short now!

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I will look into an interest free CC
I've got to sort out my grocery budget - I need to set myself a weekly limit and possibly look at using online shopping.
I will put feelers out for the project car
I will see if we can get enough stuff together for a car boot sale

Amatheya81

tony_ack wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, quite a lot of suggestions, so I'll go through them one at a time...

-Sky - I'm in the process of switching line rental to Sky as well, so I think I've listed that twice, as well as the broadband. We have the Sky World + HD package along with broadband, calls and now line rental. I keep looking at this to try to make savings, but the package discounts are structured in such away that you save very little by taking away, say movies and the entertainment packs you don't need. I may try the cancellation ploy, but I may have been entered in a new 12 month contract 6 months ago when I needed a replacement box to replace the failed one which was 2 years out of warranty. Why do you need sky? It's a nice to have but it's £60 per month you don't have when you could have phone, line rental and internet for £22. Even if you cut down to a basic package it would cut your bill in half.

-Mobile phones - the cost is for both mobile phones. To be honest, my partner can't be far from the end of her contract and I don't understand why she pays so much as she's not had a new phone for about 3 years. My monthly line rental is £32 - this is because Orange messed up my upgrade last December and removed my free internet. After lots of wrangling they agreed to add an internet bundle to my account at £5 per month, then credit my bill with what the bundle would cost me over 12 months. Not perfect, but the best they would do. I have only ever used 12 month contracts, so mine is up in December. I have already decided to go PAYG when it is up - partly because I'm happy with the phone I have, partly because I know I'll save a lot, and partly because I've had enough of Orange. Glad to hear you're planning on going PAYG to reduce your bills but also shop around the contracts. If you're happy with your phone there're are some amazing deals you can get if you shop wisely which will be cheaper than PAYG. Do some research and then go inyo Fones for U. They will bend over backwards to get your costome.

Garage and third car - as mentioned, I already know the car needs to go, though at this time of year and with no MOT I'm only going to get about £150 - £200 for it max. I know the garage is going to have to go too, but I'm a bit wary of paying out repair bills for jobs which I know how to do myself and quite frankly I don't trust many garages to do repairs/servicing properly based on previous experience. Both cars are running fine, though I need to look at the brakes on my car soon. Both are quite old, but are very reliable when looked after. We have joint AA cover which is paid for by my partner's parents (annual birthday present to her) You could spend forever saying if I wait I'll get more for the your spare car but right now you need the money. Just close your eyes and do it, there's nothing to stop you getting another hobby car when you've sorted out your finances. The garage is another unnessesary cost. Can you not store your tools in your house? You say you want the garage in case your car breaks down but that's a big if and mean while you're paying out all that money. Can you not you fixing your car at home or asking a parent/friend if you could use their drive for a day or so to do some work if it's needed?

Entertainment - we can and will cut down on the meals out and takeaways. Football subs are £5 per week and helps to keep me fit and is also a social thing. I also run the work football team - this is paid for in theory, but I need to pay the subs in advance (£26 per week) then claim back from the company, who are horrendously slow at paying out expenses.

Food shopping - this is one area we haven't been able to control in the past. We end up running our food stocks down so much that we don't eat much, get really hungry, then go out and splurge in the supermarket. I know that we're doing this wrong, and I am going to change things. The sad thing is that I know a lot of the buying rules to save money - I just don't always follow them consistently. Unfortunately cotton nappies are something my partner won't consider. Try going to the supermarket with a list and sticking to it. Change as many of your items as you can bare to, to shops own brand or a cheap brand, try different supermarkets the price of the same shope can vary widely, also taking cash to the supermarket instead of cards makes a difference as it's much harder to give someone a £20 note than it is a peice of plastic.

Electricity/gas - we're currently with Ovo and switched about 8 months ago. They were the cheapest by far at the time, and £15 per month cheaper than the old supplier. We're using more gas though at the moment for hot baths as we can't afford to fix the shower. Your Gas/Elec does seem incredibly high. Try the comparison sites again and if there isn't anything cheaper really pay attention to what you're using. Do you always give a meter reading?

Clothing - £30 was a bit of a guess - I know my partner buys herself something cheap-ish every month, and some clothes for the little one too (usually from Sainsbury's where my partner's mother works and gets discount). I haven't bought any clothes for myself since winter. Sounds like you should have a word with your partner about how tight your finances are. Can she not buy things for the little one at a bootsale? It might not be what you're used to but lost of people sell off their childrens cloathes there for 50p each.

Presents - I think this is higher than it actually is - we're just coming out of 'birthday season II' (the worst one is Jan - Apr when we have 6 family birthdays) so that may have skewed my calculation.

Other assets - This is basically everything I have, excluding the house and cars. I keep a spreadsheet of my monthly budget and it includes a tab listing everything I own, plus an estimated value. Most of the stuff is not very exciting - it includes computer, tv, etc, but also mundane stuff like the sofa, dining table and kitchen utensils (I don't list all the utensils separately - I'm not that sad!).

Family money repayment - I can probably scale this down a bit

Credit cards - All cards are up to the limit. I don't think I'll get any deals on new cards, given my total unsecured debt.

Council tax - I don't like being one month in arrears but we have insider knowledge and know that our council don't pursue with bailiffs until you're 6 months in arrears.

E-bay/Gold - unfortunately a lot of what we have is junk which isn't worth a lot second hand. Anything that had a decent value (TV, amp, etc) is now 3-4 years old so isn't worth much any more. I've also had bad experiences on e-bay - the last 3 things I've sold have all gone for 99p, which, when you take into account the time, effort and cost of getting to the post office, costs more money than you get. I also have a room full of car parts which are worth a fair bit to the right person, but at the moment I can't even give them away. We also have no gold - I'm not a jewellery person, and the missus prefers silver. One mans junk is another mans treasure. listing things on ebay for 99p is free and as long as you get your postage right you should make money. Yes it's frustrating when something you think is worth more goes for pennies but as long as those pennies go against your debt it's help you get there in the end. I've personally made around £250 profit on junk I found around the house and listed on ebay and most of those items were waiting for me to make a run to the tip!

Pet insurance - we have a retired racing greyhound which no-one will insure, other than on an annual policy at an extortionate fee.

Child benefit - this is included in the 'benefits'. We don't qualify for anything else.

Travel - I have cut down on car journeys where I can, but my work is just too far away. I already work from home on Fridays to save a bit of money. My partner pays the parking - it's a monthly season ticket which she shares with a part-time co-worker who does the opposite days to her.

Vets bill - I've already paid this, it's just left me short now!

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I will look into an interest free CC
I've got to sort out my grocery budget - I need to set myself a weekly limit and possibly look at using online shopping. I wouldn't do online shopping were I you as you'll have to pay delivery fees. Unless the supermarket is a very long way away you won't be saving anything.
I will put feelers out for the project car
I will see if we can get enough stuff together for a car boot sale

I've made comments above. I know some of them are harsh and I don't mean to be nasty but at the end of the day if you have no money and need to pay off your debts you need to stop spending money you don't have. That's the only way you will get the comfortable life you want in the long run.

greenanne

i'm afraid i have to agree with Amatheya81.i can hear myself talking in everything you are saying.i found a good reason not to do things to help my situation and believe me there is only one way it's going to go.
don't be put of ebay just because you've had a bad experiance.it's amazing what people buy on there.i mainly sell clothes.everyone has stuff that they no longer use.also if you have a little girl i bet she grows out of stuff really quickly.the only other thing i'll say is is your partner as aware of your situation as you are.there are lots of things you can do together to help.

tony_ack

My partner knows about our situation now, I told her earlier. She has always known that we have not been able to spend freely, so it wasn't such a shock. Not too sure she's taken it on board properly yet as she just glossed over it to be honest. I told her to start putting some of the clothes she doesn't wear any more on eBay - she was quite happy to put them in charity bags before, but a couple of quid an item may add up.

The problem with Sky is that we're locked in at the moment. I signed up to the line rental last month as it saved about £5 on BT, and also committed to another 12 month contract on the broadband as it lowered the price from £10 to £7.50 (and we had no intention of leaving the broadband anyway). We also needed to sign up to HD for another 12 months to get out replacement box. If I remove all the channels we don't use, leaving us with the basic package, and the sports channels, we only save £10 per month. Removing the sports saves another £20 per month. Out of all the channels (other than sports), we really only use Sky One/Atlantic regularly.

I never realised our electricity/gas was high - it's less than average? Our local council is doing a free insulation scheme, area by area, and it should be our turn soon.

Good point about the home delivery.

topcat9

Hi tony-ack, As a 'been there, done that, got the DMP T-shirt' veteran I have to agree with the last few comments. You have had a run of really rotten bad luck in the last few weeks (I'm so sorry about your dog), but it has just brought to a head a situation that had clearly been getting worse for quite some time. In particular, you have built up an awful lot of credit card/loan debt which really needs to be tackled. The good news is that people have identified lots of areas you could save on - the bad news is I'm sensing a certain reluctance on your part to get tough?

Re. Sky. I phoned them when I was first having financial problems and they came up with a reduced deal for me (can't remember the details but they were quite helpful, so worth a go). Also, you refer to 'only' saving £10 or £20 a month if you go on a basic package, but you're more likely to get out of your situation by shaving off a few tenners here or there than by finding one huge saving somewhere.

It is also really important that you get your partner on board. I recognise the 'glossing over' stage - we've all been there, but you'll really struggle if she doesn't understand the situation you're in and is still picking up outfits for the baby or expensive groceries which aren't in the budget.

To be blunt, and this is meant helpfully, it's better you make the tough budgeting decisions now than when you're got a trashed credit record and debt-collectors knocking at the door!

Amatheya81

I completely agree with topcat. There's a reason why the saying goes that if you look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves. If you shave off little bits here and there it will all add up. It feels like a backward step going without and reducing your standard of living so I understand your reluctance. I remember when I used to use my cc's to live. At the time I thought every one of my expenses were justifyable and I was reluctant to cut back. I thought that if I could only find a way to keep my head above water I could catch up with myself but it just doesn't work like that. Debt perpetuates debt and until you take a hard line you'll never get anywhere. Up until now you've had the comfortable buffer of your credit cards to keep yourself afloat but now that money has run out and you're going to start finding that it's a choice between your luxuries and being able to feed let alone cloath your child. I'm sorry, again that sounds harsh but many, many people here have found themselves in that situation.

You've taken the first and most important step by accepting you have to do something before you reach the critical point but there is not easy way out of the situation, you will have to make sacrifices that are difficult and that you don't want to make in the short term in order to move forward. There are some awsome people on this board who will give you a million and one ideas for living on a lower budget and cutting down. If you take their advice you will cut the time you're in debt in half and be back on your feet in no time.

Good Luck

painted_lady

Hi, I second getting child clothes at boot sales, I haven't paid more than 50p for my sons clothes last 2 years, all next, animal, Quicksilver, pumpkin patch etc. Last year got him bag of stuff for 5p an item as guy was going home, included next coat like new. Just sold it on eBay for £6 now he grown out of it.

Pollycat

Have you looked at the OldStyle board for tips to reduce your pretty hefty (imho) grocery bill?

Lots of excellent tips about meal planning (as opposed to impulse buying because you haven't got anything for dinner), cooking in bulk, using cheaper methods for cleaning etc.

Drop a brand - if you usually buy premium brands (e.g. Napolina chopped tomatoes), try Supermarket's own brand. If you usually buy those, try the 'value' range.

Ask yourself - can you really tell the difference in a Bolognaise sauce?

There are some things I will not compromise on (toilet rolls, coffee, tea etc) but I usually manage to buy these when on offer (preferably BOGOF) which you can start doing when you get to the stage of having a bit of spare cash, assuming you have space to be able to store them. My garage is like a corner shop with all my bargains.

If you can reduce your grocery bill by even £150 to £250 (lots of people on here feed large families on that) you'll be breaking even.

You have £30 per month in for clothing yet say that your £400 grocery bill includes occasional clothes for your little one.
I think your wife is overspending (given your current circumstances) on clothes.

At age 1, your tot is going to grow out of stuff pretty quickly, Primark do stuff that looks nice and it doesn't matter if it doesn't last at age 1 'cos she'll be into a size bigger before it falls apart at the seams.

Does your wife need to buy something every month, even if it is cheap-ish (and is it really cheap-ish)?
A bit of frugality now will give her more to spend (should you both wish to) in the future.

You need to concentrate on finding that shortfall of £141 per month (maybe by reducing your grocery spend) and then cut back a little more (at least halve the clothing spend) and throw that additional cash at your partner's Capital One card as you're paying a whopping 29.9% on it.

Re presents - maybe now is a good time to have a conversation with friend and family about reducing what you spend on Christmas/birthday presents.

NeverAgain_2

The good news is your biggest and most important debt - your mortgage - is relatively low in relation to your income.

You also have a good grasp of your budget, which many people don't.

But I'm afraid some hard decisions will have to be made.

Most obvious is bin Sky and the third car/garage, which will raise a small amount of cash and put a useful £100+ into your monthly budget.

You appear a little more on board with debt reduction than your partner, but you both need to grasp the nettle more firmly.

She 'won't consider' proper nappies.

I'm afraid Mrs T is going to have to consider an awful lot in the coming months and years.

If she doesn't, people outside your control will do it for her.