Hippymam's Debt Busting Diary 23 April 2012 at 12:06PM in Debt free diaries 1 reply 547 views

Hippymam

Hello :wave:

I'm a long time member of these forums but have name changed as I would rather I was a little less identifiable

I have got myself into a bit of a mess with money and I really need to sort it out. I'm married with a 6 month old son and live in the middle of the countryside. I'm on maternity leave at the moment but will not be returning to the place where I worked before as I will not earn enough to pay for childcare and petrol and also because I was treated very badly by my employers when I was pregnant.

I have been receiving SMP whilst I have been on maternity which is approximately £128 a week. My husband earns a fairly good wage but is also paying off some debt accrued before we met each other. We share our finances but have certain expenses coming out of each of our accounts, e.g. hubby pays the rent, I pay electricity, water, council tax, tv licence, etc. If there is any spare cash we share it

And here is where there the problem has been. I have an overdraft with my bank and am permanently in it In the last couple of months I have incurred charges as I have gone into my reserve (car needed repairs) and then this has been compounded the next month when I have had to pay the bank charges and have ended up going into my reserve again. I NEED to get rid of this reserve. I know next month I am going to have approx £120 of bank charges to pay :eek::eek:and so the problem keeps going on and I can't see how I am going to get out of it. I had direct debits returned on my account this month so have been charged for these too.

I have a credit card with £1350 on it and a store card with £980 on it and am struggling to make the repayments on these. I am up to date with the cc but a month behind on the store card and am getting charged a late fee each month.

I am looking for work at the moment (going back to my old job is really not an option, at all, so please don't suggest it) and will be starting back at a pub where I used to work but this is not going to be lots of hours as it is just not busy enough. Due to my husband's shifts I will be able to work part time and he will look after our son whilst I am at work (if I get a job). We have no family in this part of the country and no friends who would be able to look after the baby. I do not really want to put him in a nursery for a number of reasons, some financial and some other issues.

We have sat down and worked out that in order for us to have enough money I do not need to work full time and even if I did, the monetary gains would be wiped out by childcare as we do not qualify for tax credits since the rules changed I am very crafty and am trying to set up a business selling my handmade goods as this is something I would be able to do at home with the baby. I have done a couple of craft fairs in the past and the response I have had from customers has been very favourable so I intend to do this properly, but it is not an income I would like to rely on (at least not at first)

Hippymam

So, I need to come up with a plan of action.

• First thing is going to be to make an appointment with the bank and try to come to some agreement about this reserve and the bank charges. Has anyone had any experience of doing this?
  
• We need to sit down and work out a SOA to work out exactly what is coming in and out each month and where we can make savings (I can think of one or two things already)
  
• I am also thinking of going down the CCCS route. Does anyone have any advice for me on this? Would it be an option in my situation?
  
• Get a job (any job) that fits around my childcare issues
  
• Continue to work on building my handmade business
  
• Ebay, ebay, ebay all my junk
  
• Look at other ways of upping my income, surveys etc.

If anyone can think of any other suggestions I would be really grateful to hear them :money:

Thanks for reading,

Hippymam xxx