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Frustrated and Stressed Out

karenjeanadams
Posts: 15 Forumite
Hi. I'm a newbie to MoneySavingExpert. I just don't know what to do to help our situation anymore. David and I are in our 40's. We have been married for almost 4 years and have two small children. We started off with nothing, and four years later still have nothing. Any money that we have come across seems to have just flitted through our fingers. We have 80p in savings, and currently have about £3 in our checking account available. It makes me sick. If something happened to David tomorrow, I would be up the creek without a paddle.
David works full time and earns £14,500 from his employer. We do get childtax and child benefit, but our WFTC was cancelled in August (just as we were expecting our last little boy) and won't resume again until April. They claimed that they had over paid us the year before. When this happened it was a huge impact on our monthly income and things started to go wrong. We ended up having to take a consolidation loan from our bank Llyods TSB, but they would only consolidate their own debts and not from other creditors. That reduced the payment we were making to them beforehand, but we are still struggling. I am a SAHM, more because it is impossible to work outside the home around David's work. I have searched for things to do from home and come up with nil all the time. I had a go at ebay, but it is a huge waste of money and I've ended up spending more on things to sell than we are making back.
I don't want the rest of our lives to be about living in debt all the time. Scraping to make ends meet, and trying to figure out what we can sacrafice in order to get this or that. Today I haven't enough formula to get through the day, now that is realy sad. Please help because I'm getting more depressed each day. Thanks, Karen
David works full time and earns £14,500 from his employer. We do get childtax and child benefit, but our WFTC was cancelled in August (just as we were expecting our last little boy) and won't resume again until April. They claimed that they had over paid us the year before. When this happened it was a huge impact on our monthly income and things started to go wrong. We ended up having to take a consolidation loan from our bank Llyods TSB, but they would only consolidate their own debts and not from other creditors. That reduced the payment we were making to them beforehand, but we are still struggling. I am a SAHM, more because it is impossible to work outside the home around David's work. I have searched for things to do from home and come up with nil all the time. I had a go at ebay, but it is a huge waste of money and I've ended up spending more on things to sell than we are making back.
I don't want the rest of our lives to be about living in debt all the time. Scraping to make ends meet, and trying to figure out what we can sacrafice in order to get this or that. Today I haven't enough formula to get through the day, now that is realy sad. Please help because I'm getting more depressed each day. Thanks, Karen
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Comments
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Hello there
Why don't you post what you spend and see if we can suggest areas where you might save a little?Warning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac0 -
Rent: 58.70 per week (council house we just moved in from private rent)
Gas: not got 1st bill yet, but owe 265.13 from old house have to pay £89 this month, and £88 April and May - no way we can afford this.
Electric: Never got billed from last house, a dispute between the company that we did have and the one we switched over to, were told to not to worry about it right now because it is between the two companies. Not been billed for this house yet.
Phone: with BT owe £34 from old house and new house: £55 because we moved
Internet: £14.99 a month for Freeserve/Wannadoo, very disappoited with service.
Petrol: £34 a month, we travel to ASDA to get the cheapest price
Personal Loan: Consolidated loan with Llyods, £175 a month 12 years
Credit Cards: Capital One David's £11.55 a month, his account is closed Mine: £30 a month
Groceries: $30-40 a week for a family of 4
Life insurance: £15 a month
Contents insurance: £10.50 a month
Onetel: £6 a month
Nappies: £23 a month, Morrison's own brand
Abound: £25 a month (Not using them anymore
LxDirect: £5 a month (Not using them anymore
Kay's: £10 a month
Vertoboudet: £10 a month (Not using them anymore
I think that is about it. We do tend to eat a bit too much junk food, although that has cut down loads because there are just no pennies. We don't go out, no movies, no out for a proper meal, etc.
I really would like to start buying organic foods, but it is just so bloody expensive. We buy store own brands of things if we can, it gets ridiculous.0 -
OK - first off you don't go out for proper food. You make it at home. I make absolutely everything from scratch including stuff like steak & kidney pie, cottage pie, casseroles. I even make bread, ice cream and my own tomato ketchup! Maybe that's going too far
Your food budget is not too bad, though. If you could shave a couple of quid off by cooking more from scratch, then it would help.
Re the Gas. You should work out how much you can afford each month to pay off the bill from the previous house. YOU tell THEM how much to pay. It would help if you enclosed your family budget to show how much (little) you can afford to send them each month. If it's only £10, then that's all they get. They can't take what you don't have!
Same with the Electricity bill, when that comes in.
Have a look at this. It's to help people deal with debts, but it includes budgeting. It's important that you "prioritise" your outgoings. There's a lot of information, but it's easy to follow. Why don't you have a go and see if it helps? Please post back, would like to know how you get on.
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_factsheets/debt_advice_england_wales.php3#3Warning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac0 -
Try visiting us over on the MoneySaving Old Style which is here. They are experts at making money stretch further.
I really do feel for you. I remember not so long back when i had no money in the bank and had no money for bread for the kids. by chance i remember seing a £ coin on the floor up a side alley on the way back from the school. It might as well have been a £100,000 the relief i felt in my heart. Those were bad times and would hate to go through it again.
Big hugs to you, you have come to the right place.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
Couple of quickies, totally agree with Debt_Free_Chick (as usual!) with the utility companies. You tell them what you can afford, don't struggle just for the sake of it. If it takes a year to pay the arrears, then it takes a year. Please do a proper budget, you've missed some items like TV licence, Car Tax & Insurance and so on.
Your LLoyds/TSB loan, can I ask how much it was originally for? You'll be paying back £25,200 and I would imagine that a huge amount of that is going to be interest.He huihuinga taangata he pukenga whakaaro – A meeting of people; a wellspring of ideas (Maori proverb)0 -
Couple of quickies, totally agree with Debt_Free_Chick (as usual!)
I only hope you will disagree if I am wrongWarning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac0 -
Hi Karen
Sorry to hear how you are feeling. I just wondered if there is any chance you can get one of the credit cards offering a low rate until balance cleared. Check the articles on Martin's links to the best buys etc. Check how much they require as a min payment as the percentages differ from card to card. Just thought this could ease the worry of the amounts such as Kays etc who will be charging a high rate of interest. Someone mentioned a while ago that if you haven't signed a consumer credit agreement (such as with kays catalogue) that I THINK the debt can be written off - can anyone advise if this is the case or have I misread.
Please have a good trawl around this site, it is brilliant and I'm sure that having found this site - you will be on the road to a better future. There is some great advice on here.
I will try and find you some good links - and get back to you.A penny saved is one you don't have to earn! :wave:0 -
This is the link to the Best Buys articles on this site.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/buys.phtml#LOANS and on that page there are links to other sections.
Have you signed up for Martin's newsletter as that will keep you up to date with the cheapest deals?
If you haven't already please try and get time to read through the other debt - free wanabee posts, there is so much info on there and I'm sure some of it will be helpful.
Good Luck and I hope this helps.A penny saved is one you don't have to earn! :wave:0 -
Karen
Does your Asda deliver as you could do a month's shop and have them deliver. If you make out a menu plan and then a list you would then just need perishables each week - it really does save and would save on your petrol bill as well.0 -
This might better help so we can get a solution.
For the stuff that accrues interest can you tell us what the percentage on each Card/loan is?
Have you checked whether your entitled to any more benfits? (there is a benefit checker on here I came accross somewhere)
Can you detail your incomings for us so we can suggest ways of getting more?
What type of job are you and your partner in and is there any free training you could get to help you get a pay rise? (ECDL and the like) Are there any job oppertunities you can think of that would get yuou more money?
Do you have any relative you could borrow off for cheaper?
Scour, really scour, the freebies board for anything you can get for free, nappies are a good one. (every quid helps)
Thinking latterally if you have a TV do you really nead it? Books can be so much better for the children! (librarys are a wonderful government funded thing)
Do you have anything you could sell (at a car boot) to give you extra income?
I'm sure you dont already but as a thought don't buy brand named food if cheaper alternatives are available. Where do you shop?
Which bank accounts do you hold?
Erm thats all I can think of at the moment. Remember though you have each other no matter what happens.Nothing's free.....but we'll see what we can do!0
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