un-hinged!

mary_hinge

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

:D

Most of your SOA you seem to have under control. Few things if you don't mind?

Mobiles - I know there's 2 in that, but any way you can drop to a lower tariff or SIM only deal?

Groceries you say you're stuck on that so will move on!

Clothes - can you put off for a month or 2? Hard with kids growing so fast I know!

Pet is costing you a lot. But I get where you're coming from ref rehoming. Just keep eyes and ears open for somewhere suitable

Haircuts - can you stretch an extra couple of weeks or DIY? OH used to get his hair cut in town. Only cost £5 a time. But last year he bought a set of Wahl clippers from TK Maxx for £11ish, and I'm his new barber! (never had a lesson in my life so if I can do it anyone can!!! )

Entertainment - can this be reduced or cut out for a few months? Swimming/riding are under a different category so the kids won't miss out on their big stuffs.

Holiday - I'm loathe to tell you to forget a holiday!! lol

Not sure if any of that will be any good to you. Others on mainland will have more of a clue as to water/elec bills etc.

go ahead HaW no one stands on ceremony here!

The pets i have worked out cost us a whooping £444 a year before food and bedding so easily £600 a hear :eek: they do need to go and i am really going to work on this.

Haircuts :eek: i dont think we spend £360 a year on these mine is every 2-3months and the boys are about the same, i used to do Mr Hinge's hair with the clippers but superman can't tolerant them at all. We struggled for 18months to get superman to have his cut!

Contracts i wish i could reduce but we are tied in with contracts for another 10-11months but will certainly be keeping our phones and going sim only when renewal is due.

Clothes wise miss hinges boots are £180 a pair and the boys grow so quickly, we hand down what we can. We may be able to cut this alittle

:cool: dont even go there on the holiday it is a must for my [STRIKE]insanity[/STRIKE] sanity :rotfl:

On a positive side we have had a letter to say we are entitled to £4 a week council tax rebate :rotfl::rotfl: every little helps and all that!!

Nice to "see" you HaW how are you?

mary_hinge

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

You should NEVER feel hopeless or a failure!! You are outstandingly awesome! Xx

Oh Plmbl how very kind of you to say so but really i am just plain old Mrs Hinge!

Eager_Elephant

mary_hinge wrote: »

having studied this for too long I need to get our finances cut I logged in to stepchange and the thought of this hanging around my neck for another umpteen years is too much to bare. I also need to save money I want my own house, not someone elses where I pay through the roof to live here... I want to pay for MY own roof and some bricks would also be quiet welcome

Hi Mary

I have lurked for ages on your diary and decided to post after seeing this post.

I won't comment on your expenditure but wanted to comment on the debts.

Are all the debts with CCCS in your name? (I was going to assume they were as you say your DH has perfect credit)
How many debts are they dealing with and what are the individual balances?

Remember you can always self-manage a DMP (although I appreciate you work and have disabled children so you might not have time).

I was just wondering about you self-managing and then saving up some of the surplus income and making full and finals (ie if you owe a Creditor £500 they may accept £250 to end the account - although this would be marked as settled on the credit file and not paid in full).

Unfortunately you cant do full and finals with CCCS unless you have enough money to clear them all or offer the same percentage to them all.

Alternatively could you pay more off your DH's credit card each month (will only work if you are not spending on it still) as this is charging interest whereas your DMP debts probably arent.

If you don't feel like you have the surplus income every month (it's probably because your money all comes in on different days) could you round down each payment of income you get? A bit like a Tilly Tidy but say you get Child Benefit of £47.10 per week could you pay £7.10 to a debt (or savings if you are doing full and finals) or 10% of the income so in the case above it would be £4.71.

That way you are overpaying debt/saving without really doing without but the amount you could pay off/save would add up to quite a bit over the month.

If that works and you manage, after 3 months you could up the payment to 20% or £17.10 instead of £7.10.

Going back to the comment about owning your own home - how easy will this be? Do you and DH have a high enough income to get a mortgage?
The problem with saving for a deposit is that while you get some income related benefits they count savings over £6,000 and of course a deposit is likely to be more than this and then you lose some of your income which you want to save.

I think you need to clear the debts first and then save for a deposit - a lot can change in a few years. If this is too disheartening can you start saving £10 per month in a savings account and call that your house fund so you feel like you have started saving?

Crikey, I've rabbited on - feel free to ignore me:rotfl: (or if you want more advice on your debts let me know about the DMP and I will be back!!)

mary_hinge

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Hi Mary

I have lurked for ages on your diary and decided to post after seeing this post.
Welcome EE please stay de-lurked
I won't comment on your expenditure but wanted to comment on the debts.

Any help appreciated!

Are all the debts with CCCS in your name? (I was going to assume they were as you say your DH has perfect credit)
How many debts are they dealing with and what are the individual balances?

Yes all my DMP is in my name as Mr H pulled out just before we completed the first DMP so had to redo it all in just my name with my debts

they look after
creations finance £8300ish
barclay card £8300ish
hsbc loan £471
hsbc od £2700ish

Remember you can always self-manage a DMP (although I appreciate you work and have disabled children so you might not have time).

the dmp seems to be working and all interest is frozen

I was just wondering about you self-managing and then saving up some of the surplus income and making full and finals (ie if you owe a Creditor £500 they may accept £250 to end the account - although this would be marked as settled on the credit file and not paid in full).

I think I will keep my dmp as it is and save up the surplus for FF, I'm worried about increasing repayments and them re-starting interest as they would be close to the min repayments

Unfortunately you cant do full and finals with CCCS unless you have enough money to clear them all or offer the same percentage to them all.

IF I saved up the money then left CCCS Could I then make FF when I have enough money?

Alternatively could you pay more off your DH's credit card each month (will only work if you are not spending on it still) as this is charging interest whereas your DMP debts probably arent.

the Apr % is eye watering but I am very reluctant to clear this as it is not my debt and Mr Hinge needs to take responsibilty and in all honest man up!!

If you don't feel like you have the surplus income every month (it's probably because your money all comes in on different days) could you round down each payment of income you get? A bit like a Tilly Tidy but say you get Child Benefit of £47.10 per week could you pay £7.10 to a debt (or savings if you are doing full and finals) or 10% of the income so in the case above it would be £4.71.

I get 2 different lots of money every week on different days with different amounts then my monthly wage... the main problem is cash flow I have some weeks where I am loaded and others where I am scratching from schrapnel, this sounds something I could try!

That way you are overpaying debt/saving without really doing without but the amount you could pay off/save would add up to quite a bit over the month.

If that works and you manage, after 3 months you could up the payment to 20% or £17.10 instead of £7.10.

Going back to the comment about owning your own home - how easy will this be? Do you and DH have a high enough income to get a mortgage?

I think at the moment owning my own home is a pipe dream and very unobtainable, our income is 75% benefits and 25% wages but a girl can dream right? I mean I hope the Hinge house hold can get to a position where I can get my career back and I can get back to earning my own money and not living on handouts.

The problem with saving for a deposit is that while you get some income related benefits they count savings over £6,000 and of course a deposit is likely to be more than this and then you lose some of your income which you want to save.

alot of the money we get are the childrens income from DLA and can be saved in there own right. I believe I can have £16k in savings before it affects anything unless this has changed?!

I think you need to clear the debts first and then save for a deposit - a lot can change in a few years. If this is too disheartening can you start saving £10 per month in a savings account and call that your house fund so you feel like you have started saving?

i think you are right and i deep down I know this is the case but again pipe dreams and all that shanazz!

Crikey, I've rabbited on - feel free to ignore me:rotfl: (or if you want more advice on your debts let me know about the DMP and I will be back!!)

EE thankyou so much for taking the time to reply I am overwhelmed by your help and grateful for any suggestions to dig myself and my fmaily out of this debt pit we are in.

Mrs H x

Eager_Elephant

Hi Mary

I have lurked for ages on your diary and decided to post after seeing this post.
Welcome EE please stay de-lurked
I won't comment on your expenditure but wanted to comment on the debts.

Any help appreciated!

Are all the debts with CCCS in your name? (I was going to assume they were as you say your DH has perfect credit)
How many debts are they dealing with and what are the individual balances?

Yes all my DMP is in my name as Mr H pulled out just before we completed the first DMP so had to redo it all in just my name with my debts

they look after
creations finance £8300ish
barclay card £8300ish
hsbc loan £471
hsbc od £2700ish
I think a self managed DMP is feasable as you only have 4 creditors, if you had 6 or more then it can get complicated to manage.

Remember you can always self-manage a DMP (although I appreciate you work and have disabled children so you might not have time).

the dmp seems to be working and all interest is frozen

If you self managed the interest would still be frozen, it's just instead of you paying CCCS and them paying the creditors you cut out the middle man.

I was just wondering about you self-managing and then saving up some of the surplus income and making full and finals (ie if you owe a Creditor £500 they may accept £250 to end the account - although this would be marked as settled on the credit file and not paid in full).

I think I will keep my dmp as it is and save up the surplus for FF, I'm worried about increasing repayments and them re-starting interest as they would be close to the min repayments
I would not be suggesting you increase your payments, you could keep them the same and save the surplus ready to make full and finals.

Unfortunately you cant do full and finals with CCCS unless you have enough money to clear them all or offer the same percentage to them all.

IF I saved up the money then left CCCS Could I then make FF when I have enough money? Yes of course you could, basically the longer you are on a DMP the more chance of full and finals being accepted. They just want your account gone because they want money back in the bank rather than a little bit back each month.

Alternatively could you pay more off your DH's credit card each month (will only work if you are not spending on it still) as this is charging interest whereas your DMP debts probably arent.

the Apr % is eye watering but I am very reluctant to clear this as it is not my debt and Mr Hinge needs to take responsibilty and in all honest man up!! That's fine, I was the same with my DH while he ran rampant with his credit cards. I just dealt with my own and that is how we came to have seperate bank accounts.

If you don't feel like you have the surplus income every month (it's probably because your money all comes in on different days) could you round down each payment of income you get? A bit like a Tilly Tidy but say you get Child Benefit of £47.10 per week could you pay £7.10 to a debt (or savings if you are doing full and finals) or 10% of the income so in the case above it would be £4.71.

I get 2 different lots of money every week on different days with different amounts then my monthly wage... the main problem is cash flow I have some weeks where I am loaded and others where I am scratching from schrapnel, this sounds something I could try! The thing is you can try it and if it doesnt work then you move to something else but at least you tried.

That way you are overpaying debt/saving without really doing without but the amount you could pay off/save would add up to quite a bit over the month.

If that works and you manage, after 3 months you could up the payment to 20% or £17.10 instead of £7.10.

Going back to the comment about owning your own home - how easy will this be? Do you and DH have a high enough income to get a mortgage?

I think at the moment owning my own home is a pipe dream and very unobtainable, our income is 75% benefits and 25% wages but a girl can dream right? I mean I hope the Hinge house hold can get to a position where I can get my career back and I can get back to earning my own money and not living on handouts. I agree, we all have to have a dream and owning a house is a good one!!

The problem with saving for a deposit is that while you get some income related benefits they count savings over £6,000 and of course a deposit is likely to be more than this and then you lose some of your income which you want to save.

alot of the money we get are the childrens income from DLA and can be saved in there own right. I believe I can have £16k in savings before it affects anything unless this has changed?!
If you save the children's DLA you have to make sure it is saved in an account with the childrens names on the accounts - I have met a few people who saved money for the children but in an account in their own name and for benefit purposes that is not allowed.
You can have £6000 before it affects income related benefits (Housing/Council Tax Benefit etc). Once you get over £6000 they deduct £1 for every £250 over so if you had £10k they would deduct £12 per week from the benefits you get. Once you get over £16k you lose all your Housing/Council Tax Benefits (different rules for Tax Credits)

I think you need to clear the debts first and then save for a deposit - a lot can change in a few years. If this is too disheartening can you start saving £10 per month in a savings account and call that your house fund so you feel like you have started saving?

i think you are right and i deep down I know this is the case but again pipe dreams and all that shanazz! It;s not a pipe dream, it could be reality and only you can make that happen.

Crikey, I've rabbited on - feel free to ignore me:rotfl: (or if you want more advice on your debts let me know about the DMP and I will be back!!)

EE thankyou so much for taking the time to reply I am overwhelmed by your help and grateful for any suggestions to dig myself and my fmaily out of this debt pit we are in.

Happy to help but I do bore myself sometimes!!!

Now if only I could follow my own advice!!

mary_hinge

EE it is always easier to advise others then practise what you preach! :rotfl::rotfl: I have spent the week helping a colleague at work plan her budget and cut her bills yet I can't manage to do it for myself :cool::cool:

Mr Hinge and I have always had separate bank accounts and other then his carers allowance I deal with the house holds finances.

I think my dream for my own house stems from the nightmare we are having finding suitable housing to meet miss hinge's mobility needs that gives us enough bedrooms to keep master Hinge safe from Superman :rotfl: alongside I am working hard to do my best for the family yet the money is lining someone else' pockets and giving us naff all in return.

All 3 children have their own bank accounts which we need to make a effort to save for them, currently birthday/xmas cheques are paid in and sit in there unless something comes up..... Miss Hinge has used some of hers to pay half of her residential trip at the end of June at over £280 for 3 days it made my eyes water! :eek: almost as much as those blinking gothic barbie type dolls she likes do

I have just worked out Aprils budget and have allowed extra spends for petrol and entertainment as the schools are off for 2 weeks, we have 2 trips booked through a autism charity at greatly reduced prices (£10 for a family ticket per trip :money:) and I have enough Tesco vouchers to have 3 days out .

I plan on printing out a CEA form at work tomorrow for miss Hinge to apply for her carers card to reduce cinema costs, it is only £5.50 a year and allows an adult in free as her carer. Superman also has one and it would mean we could go to the flicks as a family for £3.50 at kids club :money: or £10 for any other showing :beer:

please-let-me-be-lucky

Glad you are aware of the CEA card. DH has one and it really helps to reduce costs. I've just found out this week that the National trust do Carer's cards too so that has drastically reduced our membership there. It's made me think about asking everywhere! If you don't ask, you don't get!!! Xx

mary_hinge

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Glad you are aware of the CEA card. DH has one and it really helps to reduce costs. I've just found out this week that the National trust do Carer's cards too so that has drastically reduced our membership there. It's made me think about asking everywhere! If you don't ask, you don't get!!! Xx

Lots of places do carer discount, Plmbl if you are on facebook there is a group all about DLA carer discounts..... we went to Lego land and only paid for miss Hinge and Superman. It is a great help :j

How are you Plmbl?

Mrs H x

debtfreewannabe321

Hello *waves* just catching up! I seem to have missed all your udpdates

I always made my cut backs on these areas when I wanted to save/buy something we needed
1) grocery - I would shave off £10 a week to start with. I did this by bulk cooking and getting lots of tupperware! For example I would put a spag bol in the slow cooker and portion it into two dinners. Freeze one and eat one. I'd do this for the whole first week of eating (always made sure I made dinners that could be frozen in that first week) and the last week of the month you will find you won't hardly spend anything. Fridge stuff and any cupboard bits may need topping up but that is it.
2) Hair cuts. I you tubed it and now cut my own hair (with layers and feathered) It helps I trained as a hairdresser many moons ago but they never taught me how to do my own, so I learnt on you tube :rotfl: And surprisingly I always get compliments :T I also cut the smaller two kids hair. DH and DS1 go into town and pay between £7 and £9 to get theirs done.
3) Clothing budget- I halved it if we were broke on any particular month and make it my mission to scour ebay/boot fairs/charity shops/fb sales pages for things we needed. I also sold nearly everything on again (aside from DS2's clothes....i'm not sure how he does it but everything is destroyed after he's had his hands on it :rotfl:) but my clothes and dd's always sell well :T. I would go to clarks and get them measured, promising to be back on pay day and go and get the shoes from ebay :rotfl: always clarks too as i had the right sizes to hand :rotfl: and they were mostly as new :T
4) Mobiles- I called DH's when we first signed up with CCCS and begged for a lower tariff which they gave me when I told them how poor I was :rotfl::T I got rid of mine and got a PAYG sim, ds1 had the same as me so £10 for each. When you can get a new contract, tesco do a good one where you can ask for the bill to be capped to a certain amount and you won't go over. DS1 has this now and I pay £10 and he got a new(ish) windows phone with it

If you don't want to change your DMP payments I would take off all extra income you have as soon as you are paid and put it into an ISA. Save for some f&fs and try and pay the smaller debts off. I know you're not supposed to but I paid off two smaller debts whilst on my DMP with f&f's and when I told stepchange (cccs) they didn't shout, they just took them off their system so they didn't pay them anymore. I'm well aware what EE says is right though and I was very naughty doing that I should have offered all of them at once some money but I just didn't have the money to do it :D

Take care

debtfreewannabe321

Also it says you have £340 left after paying everything, could you perhaps put £100 aside for emergencies during the month so you know you have something to fall back on and perhaps sweep the £240 straight into a savings? And if any is left from the £100 put that across end of the month. Over 4/5 months you could potentially have saved over £1000?

Cash tins work well for me and I pay for most things in cash now to stop me just putting it all on a card which I found far too easy to do before and I would overspend constantly. You can over spend cash