Stuck in my overdraft :(

clairelg88

Hi, I'm really struggling at the moment to keep out my overdraft, is there anything I could be doing to keep out of it? I live with my partner and the £100 a week is his contribution. We only share essential bills, the loan repayment, childcare and mobile phone are my responsibility. He does pay for the shopping most weeks, but some weeks I do, so it averages around £200 a month, he usually spends between 80-120 weekly on food shopping!
The car is shared between us, but the insurance is in my name. He drives it every day so he puts the petrol in, unless I'm using it. I have to get the train to work. I only work 3/4 days a week so its not worth buying a weekly or monthly pass.

If anyone has any advice I would appreciate it.
Thanks



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 368.33
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433.33
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.29
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411.67
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.17
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,301.67

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,773.91

LittleMissGiggles123

First thing, is there any way to increase your income? A second job? Babysitting for friends/family?

Mobile phone is high, try cutting your package down or go on PAYG.

Water is really high. Is this arrears? We're a family of 4 & on a water meter and we only pay £24 per month, always in credit too.

You say you spend about £200 on groceries, but your partner also spend about £80-£120 per week when you don't do the shop, so is about £400 right for you? This is really high & could easily be cut down by meal planning, batch cooking etc. Try cutting to £300 for now & then maybe join in some of the challenges to cut back a bit more.

Shopping for fun £100 - you can't afford this!
Clothes shopping - I can understand the kids clothes shopping as I know how quickly they grow, but you could ebay old stuff & use that money to buy new for your child. For yourself though, make do with what you have for now. Sell stuff you don't wear. You can't afford to spend this money every month while you're trying to clear debts.

Eating out - £50 - you also can't afford this at the moment. If it's for special occasions why not have everyone round & offer to cook a meal. Ask everyone to bring along a drink & some dessert, just try to cut down on the spending.

Birthdays, Holidays & Christmas - these all need to be cut back while you're paying off debts. How many people do you need to buy for Christmas & Birthdays? Can you have a chat with them, explain you're a bit skint at the moment, see what other ideas people can come up with. Instead of buying a present, offer to babysit their kids for a few hours/mow their lawn/bake a cake. I love receiving gifts, but my favourite Mothers Day present yesterday was not having to do ANYTHING all day, just being able to sit on the sofa all day while my husband cooked, cleaned & looked after the kids.

By cutting back on the things I mentioned above, you should get closer to closing that gap between income & expenses.

cod3

If he is driving the car every day while you have to take the train, does this not make him the main driver for insurance purposes?

Learning2Budget

cod3 wrote: »

If he is driving the car every day while you have to take the train, does this not make him the main driver for insurance purposes?

Im sure that's how the insurance company would see it!

Cut back on groceries and presents and eating out. Also are the holidays already booked? Maybe just one holiday instead of two to save for.
With a couple of months of tightening your budget Im sure you'll be out of your overdraft.
Good luck!!

camuk81

clairelg88 wrote: »

Hi, I'm really struggling at the moment to keep out my overdraft, is there anything I could be doing to keep out of it? I live with my partner and the £100 a week is his contribution. We only share essential bills, the loan repayment, childcare and mobile phone are my responsibility. [/font]

Claire the car insurance should be in his name or you run the risk of if he has an accident they won't pay out. We got into a similar thing with my Mother in law where I was the main keeper as it still had a bit of value after 4 accidents (all none fault) I was advised to disassociate with her so its signed over to her.

The reason I posted the above link is he sharing on the childcare costs I want really sure and how much is not covered by benefits.

The reason I ask I was in a similar boat but didn't realise how much dinners/ trips etc were costing. So I now keep it all in spreadsheet as near as I can! I.e. if the bills are £367.99 he pays that then an extra £64.49 on top to cover costs.
Children are expensive and it can tot up before you realise

Verbatim

Apart from the car insurance legality issue if your partner is the main user of the car why are you paying for tax and insurance as well as your own travel costs?

dancingfairy

Based on the figures you've given you appear to be spending over 450 pounds a month more than you are bringing in. I appreciate some of that is perhaps covered by your OH (on top of any income you've mentioned from him?) but that's going to make you struggle. You need to try and cut down.
df

dancingfairy

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 368.33
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433.33
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 can you downgrade a tariff or 2?
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 Would a bundle with the phones/tv/interenet work out cheaper? worth looking into.
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.29
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411.67
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67 This sounds quite low but you've said your partner buys some as well? Can you cut down in this area?
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Nothing here?
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.17
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.00 is this the cheapest?
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 or here?
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00 Very expensive. Can you make better use of the car? can you buy a season ticket? can you use tesco vouchers to buy train tickets? lift share? anything you can do to save money here?
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 can you save here at all? share childcare with family/friends? use childcare vouchers?
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00 You can't afford this sorry. Really has to be cut down.
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Sorry but you can't afford this either
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 do you need this much a month? can you stick to essentials only for a bit?
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67 This seems quite a lot, presuming there are 3 or 4 of you? That's nearly 500 a year.
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 These 4 are costing you a massive amount each month Can you forgo the winter holiday and concentrate on Christmas. Can you have a cheap holiday in the summer - maybe go camping or a few nights in a travelodge or a cheap Sun holiday (from the paper).
Odds & Sods
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,301.67

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,773.91

Can your partner contribute more? or if he has sole use of the car pretty much can he pay for all associated expenses? Can you ditch the car? I presume he needs it for work? can he walk/cycle/bus/lift share or anything?
You may need to get help from a debt charity and negotiate payments on the personal loan but you will still need to make quite harsh cutbacks as well in order to balance. Hopefully it will just be for a couple of years and after that you won't have such high nursery costs etc and the loan will be getting paid off as well.
Best of Luck
df

clairelg88

cod3 wrote: »

If he is driving the car every day while you have to take the train, does this not make him the main driver for insurance purposes?

Yes the insurance policy is in my name but I've put him as the main driver. The only reason its in my name is because its my car and when he moved in I put him on my policy. We have only just renewed it and changed providers so I have named him as the main driver.

clairelg88

Thanks for your replies!

Camuk81 - my childcare is taken into account with my tax credits so I think part of my tax credits are to go towards my childcare costs. I don't think I would be entitled to free school dinners or anything like that just because my partner earns quite a bit at the moment. He has a lot of debts himself.

The holidays are already booked. The one is only to Pontins and the other is our main holiday which hasnt yet been paid for in full. The only reason I put that amount for holidays is because we do tend to have camping weekends away throughout the year.

I will definatly try and cut back on the spending and eating out. The food shopping shouldn't be too difficult either. I just need to be more careful and think what I'm spending on. I'm quite impulsive so that doesnt help either!

camuk81

can you cut back on the kids clothing for a while or sell the old clothes on ebay?