New. gifted and broke (well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad)

lilybet_2

Hi,

I'm new, although I've been lurking for a bit, and I've had what you call that 'lightbulb moment' where you realise just how bad things are :eek: and that you can't carry on like this.
I have listed my SOA below, and although I think I've worked my budget out fairly well, I'd still be open to any help and suggestions anyone can make.
Finally, a bit about me, if anyone's interested.
I'm married, have 4 kids (1 at nursery, 2 at school and 1 working but still at home - although she intends to go to Uni after the summer) and work 30 hours a week. We have been in debt to a lesser or greater degree for the last 16 years when child no 2 was born. So, yes as you can see it's about time we did something about it.
Oh yes, almost forgot, we have been to CCCS who were very helpful. They helped draw up the budget below. Main problem is trying to stick to it especially during moments of weakness.

Hope I haven't bored you too much Thanks for listening

lilybet xx

SOA:

Monthly Income - My wages - 1199
Hubby's wages - 1431
Benefits - 334
Other income - 120 (digs money from daughter)
TOTAL - 3084

Monthly Outgoings - Mortgate - 304
Endowment - 27
Council Tax - 185
Gas - 40
Electricity - 55
BT (line rental & internet) - 40
Carphone Warehouse (calls) - E25 (usually less though)
Contents Insurance - 17
Buildings Insurance - 11
Car Insurance - 23
Life Assurance - 20
Union - 10
Charity - 15
Contact Lenses - 28
Childminder - 210
Nursery - 205 (get nursery vouchers from work for rest)
Food - 476
Milkman - 21
Cigarettes - 100
Petrol - 160
Train fares - 50
Kids pocket money / clothes allce - 50
Mobile top ups - 10 (PAYG - emergencies only)
My / husbands spending money - 175
TOTAL - 2257

Debts - Me: Bank of Scotland Credit Card - £4123 (0%) - minimum monthly payment = £84.13
Tesco Credit Card - £953 (1.313 % per month) - minimum monthly payment = £29.00
Husb: Bank of Scotland Credit Card - £2705 (0%) - minimum monthly payment = £55.00
Northern Rock Credit Card - £799 (0.82% per month) - minimum monthly payment = £16.00
Asda Credit Card - £2705 (0%) - minimum monthly payment = £80.46
MFI Slate Account (interest free) - £607 (£21 per month)
Sainsbury's Bank Loan - £4977 (£97.50 per month)
Alliance & Leicester Loan - £3461 (£96.16 per month)
Bank overdraft 1 - £1500
Bank overdraft 2 - £500

TOTAL DEBT - £22226.

Savings - absolutely nothing

angelavdavis

Hi Lilybet, welcome to MSE and well done for getting this far.

My suggestions are detailed below, sign up to quidco and use to access uswitch, etc to make use of the introductory bonuses you will earn. Hope they help. x

lilybet wrote:

Hi,

I'm new, although I've been lurking for a bit, and I've had what you call that 'lightbulb moment' where you realise just how bad things are :eek: and that you can't carry on like this.
I have listed my SOA below, and although I think I've worked my budget out fairly well, I'd still be open to any help and suggestions anyone can make.
Finally, a bit about me, if anyone's interested.
I'm married, have 4 kids (1 at nursery, 2 at school and 1 working but still at home - although she intends to go to Uni after the summer) and work 30 hours a week. We have been in debt to a lesser or greater degree for the last 16 years when child no 2 was born. So, yes as you can see it's about time we did something about it.
Oh yes, almost forgot, we have been to CCCS who were very helpful. They helped draw up the budget below. Main problem is trying to stick to it especially during moments of weakness.

Hope I haven't bored you too much Thanks for listening

lilybet xx

SOA:

Monthly Income - My wages - 1199
Hubby's wages - 1431
Benefits - 334
Other income - 120 (digs money from daughter)
TOTAL - 3084

Monthly Outgoings - Mortgate - 304
Endowment - 27
Council Tax - 185
Gas - 40 Have you seen how this compares on Uswitch with other providers?
Electricity - 55 as for gas - I think some savings could be achieved.
BT (line rental & internet) - 40 Its worth checking out other internet providers
Carphone Warehouse (calls) - E25 (usually less though)
Contents Insurance - 17
Buildings Insurance - 11
Car Insurance - 23
Life Assurance - 20
Union - 10
Charity - 15 This really should go if you are struggling to afford things
Contact Lenses - 28 Look through quidco at other suppliers - this is pricey, I pay £18 per month for daily disposables
Childminder - 210
Nursery - 205 (get nursery vouchers from work for rest)
Food - 276 Check out Old Style for ideas to save on food - such as store cupboard challenges, meal planning etc.
Milkman - 21 Buy milk from the supermarket, you are paying over the top for this service
Cigarettes - 100 You should try to cut these out altogether if you can
Petrol - 160
Train fares - 50
Kids pocket money / clothes allce - 50 Join freecycle, people are always giving away kids clothes, etc to get this down
Mobile top ups - 10 (PAYG - emergencies only)
My / husbands spending money - 175 This is a lot to be spending on nothing substantial - start keeping spending diaries for you both to monitor what its going on and have a competition between you both - who can spend the least.
TOTAL - 2257


Debts -
What are the minimum payments on these? If you packed up ciggies, you could clear your o/d 2 within six months!

Do you have anything to eBay to throw the money at the debts?

Have you cut up the cards to prevent further use?

Me: Bank of Scotland Credit Card - £4123 (0%)
Tesco Credit Card - £953 (1.313 % per month)
Husb: Bank of Scotland Credit Card - £2705 (0%)
Northern Rock Credit Card - £799 (0.82% per month)
Asda Credit Card - £2705 (0%)
MFI Slate Account (interest free) - £607 (£21 per month)
Sainsbury's Bank Loan - £4977 (£97.50 per month)
Alliance & Leicester Loan - £3461 (£96.16 per month)
Bank overdraft 1 - £1500
Bank overdraft 2 - £500

Savings - absolutely nothing

CLAPTON

can you add the actual APRs to the debt (including the overdrafts)
and the total minimum monthly payments
and the total debt
and the total minimum monthly repayments

have you put the debts into the snowball calculator?

http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx


why are you paying into an endowment...how much is it worth..it may be better using it to pay off some of the debt.

flowerofscotland

Welcome to the Forum.

You have listed endowment payment and life insurance. Do you need both? Endowment policies usually provide life cover.

A spending diary will probably be the best thing you can do (apart from giving up smoking but you already know that!) - you should find that you can save a considerable amount to add to your debt repayments.

lilybet_2

Thanks for the welcome
I've just realised that I made a mistake in my original post - food should be £476 per month instead of £276 (I wish)
Angela, thank you for your suggestions. They look very useful.
Clapton, I'll try out the snowball calculator tonight.
Flowerofscotland - the endowment policy was from the first mortgage we had. It is due to mature in 2 years and is on track to pay out what we thought it would. The life cover we have is to pay the rest of the mortgage (not covered by that endowment).
We did keep a spending diary when we first got help from the CCCS. I think it might be a good idea to do it again though, as we have probably lapsed quite a bit.
The cigarettes are my husband's and, beleive me, I have tried to get him to stop. He has cut down though.
Thanks again.

lilybet xx

lilybet_2

I've now added the minimum monthly payments for the credit cards and also the total debt. It's quite shocking to see the final figure down in black and white :eek: :eek:
This is probably a silly question, but is £175 a lot for our pocket money. It certainly doesn't seem that we're extravagant but it just seems to go. Hopefully, if we do the spending diaries it'll show us where.
Am off now to look at the Old Style moneysaving threads and do the snowball calculator
Oh and any further help / ideas from anyone would be very gratefully received.

Thanks again

lilybet.

lilybet_2

Well, after the lightbulb moment, the difficult bit.
I did the snowball calculator and we should be totally debt free in 58 months, which seems a long time
But, if we are very good and very careful, we could have the credit card debts cleared in 2 years, which would be fantastic. And there's the rub, can we manage to cut down and scrimp and save and pay off our debts in this time. Looking back, over the many years we have had money problems, I think the big thing we do wrong is serious backsliding. We cut back etc, etc, etc for a while and then, we get a little bit of money (whether it's unexpected overtime or even just the regular payday) and we go a bit (not a lot, honest) mad and end up using the credit cards or going over the overdraft limit again. Our reasoning being that 'we work hard and we deserve it' or 'other people do it, so why can't we'. Illogical, but there you have it.
Now, I know that this is something we have to fight, but can anyone give me any tips on how to not feel so 'deprived' over the next two years that we end up backsliding again.

Thanks lilybet xx

misspoppy

lilybet wrote:

I know that this is something we have to fight, but can anyone give me any tips on how to not feel so 'deprived' over the next two years that we end up backsliding again.

You will have to have money in your budget for socialising, just a small amount and may be once a month go out and do something.
get an orange sim card or 2 and take advantage of orange wednesdays at the cinema.

Plan days out a good walk in the woods can be a lot of fun and cheap. May be you could sign up for mystery shopping and you and your hubby could use this time to go out for a meal ok you may have to spend £15 up front but you'd get it back.

I suppose with life changes like this its about changing, where as in the past you may have gone up town on a saturday now you will need to fill that time with another activity.

If you stick at it though you will have more cash and new lifestyle so you wont spend in the same way.

Good luck

dumpy

What I've done with my OH who is a bit like you in the "I've earnt it, I'm spending it" is to make it a game.

We compete to see how little we can get the weekly shop top to be (Look on the OS board for hints, yous is very high). We comment (quietly but rudely) on other peoples shopping trolloys, fancy spending x amount on that etc etc.

We try all kinds of routes and systems so that when we do buy, we maximise the quidco, piggy points etc.

We love opening the "free money" envelopes from pigsback. I normally go for boots vouchers and then spend on triple point weekends, to get more money back.

If you make it a game to see how little you can spend it might help you with the resentment which is what pulls you back into spending. Not spending can be just as much fun as blowing your cash and then regretting it, if not more.

I think some people on here have found it a real buzz when they start crossing out the debts and cancelling cards. More than the buzz they used to get from shopping.

Personally I earn more than you and my mind boggles at the thought of £175 spending money a month, what do you spend this on? Defiantely write everything down. With that and his cigs your OH is spending about 20% of his income on him alone!

wannasavemoney

hi lilybet. I managed to reduce outgoings by questioning everything i want to buy and by trying to find a different way of achieving what i want which is inexpensive. ie: needed a new occasional table in the living room when we rearranged it and had forgotton that we had just the thing in the spare room! silly things like that and then once you realised that your have saved yourself £50 or more by doing this, it gives you a feel good buzz when you realise thats £50 can go towards debt or food or mortgage overpayment etc it makes it worthwhile. I have recently stopped working and we have had to readjust our outgoings accordingly. (A huge shock i can tell you)! But i had the same problems as you. When i was working, i used to buy stuff to make me feel better about the children being in full time nursery while i did my job. Time was a big factor and so it was easier to just buy something rather than think of a way around it. When you work hard and are juggling all the balls in the air especially family life it does tend to be easier to just throw money at the problems rather than try to solve them. The children have now adjusted to only having toys and presents on birthdays or christmas. They now have pocket money that they save themselves. They save it up and if they really want a particular toy i take them out to buy it with their own money. Its amazing that even at a young age this simple thing had taught them so much about money. Admittedly they are still only 6 and 4 years old but they now accept that when i say something is too expensive, it is not going to get bought. They do not feel deprived about this especially when i explain the work/money treadmill to them! Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Good luck on becoming debt free, we are working at becoming debt and mortgage free so that my other half can ease up on the amount of hours he now works to pay for everything! With a little effort we will get there! Have a good clear out and sell it all on ebay. You would be amazed at what sells on ebay and for quite good money. That was my first job and it payed dividends.

lilybet_2

Thank you all for your suggestions. They were very interesting.
Misspoppy, I think that your suggestion about having something in our budgets for socialising is a good one. Better spend a small ammount to stop us feeling too 'deprived' than eventually crack completely and spend a fortune treating ourselves on something we regret later.
I have already done some mystery shopping, but never a restaurant one so that's an idea.
Dumpy, I've just signed up for quidco and piggy points, so hopefully will get something from them soon (ish). To be fair, the 'pocket money' does often end up getting spent on things like additional train fares and food basics between big shops when we run out. Also dh plays football once a week and I go to karate so that's £4 and £5 respectively. I will keep a diary to see what the rest goes on.
Wannasavemoney, I will definitely try your suggestion about selling stuff on ebay. The house badly needs a clear out anyway
The bad news is that at the moment, I'm off work sick with a flu-type virus thing, which I just can't shake off. Will start on the clear out once I feel better.
The good news is that, not having been out of the house all week means that I haven't spend any money
Thanks again for your help everyone

lilybet xx