Help! Excellent plan of action but don't know how to begin

NoMoneyMummy

Hooloovoo wrote: »

I'm sorry, I'm clearly not understanding exactly what advice you are looking for. You asked for suggestions, you have received them.

Surely you already know how much your outgoings are? To work out your weekly figure, add up all of your expenses over the last year and divide by 52. Add say 20% to cover contingency.

Not sure I understand this bit at all. Why do you need to phone and upset anyone? If you're behind on payments, presumably you already have an arranged payment plan?

Sorry, I'm not so great with the explanations.

We need to look at expenses going forwards, not what we spent in the last year because that is so completely different from the year ahead. I've used previous utility bills as a guide of course.

The aim, is to put money aside each week in order to cover everything throughout the month and by the end of each month. I know exactly how much we need to do this as we already have done something similar to a SOA.

We have some outstanding bills from last month which need paying and currently have zero to pay them with, until Friday. We have no savings etc as we've had some issues and this is me getting us into a place where we're organised. So on Friday, as much as I'd love to put the money aside for the categories above, it wont happen as I need to pay all of the income to the outstanding bills.

I can't see us getting out of the late paying loop unless we have a windfall. So how do I get into a good healthy organised method of putting the money aside each week for each thing if come every Friday we're paying all of the income to cover late payments?

(Basically my other half was badly injured and off work for a long period of time a couple of years ago, no sick pay from the company but job left open. He finally returned but had missed a year of wages so we lived on ESA, SSP, CB, CTC and family help plus my measly contribution. We are still catching up and I feel we forever will be unless things dramatically change. )

Feel free to say I should give up on this thread...

bargainbetty

NMM,

Yes, you should contact anyone who is not going to receive a full payment. However, I would do this in writing or by email wherever possible, so there is a record of it. You may incur charges for doing it, and you need to bear that in mind for your overall debt.

Focus on priority debts first - rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities, food. Then contracts like phone and telecoms, then repayment of credit cards etc.

If anyone contacts you to pressure for more, stay strong, say no, and politely decline to discuss it further, beyond saying that you are paying every penny you can to each debt this month to get you past a difficult time.

Also, have a look at eBay, boot fairs etc to declutter and make a bit of cash, cash4clothes too, do a stock take of your kitchen and bathroom cupboards to minimise your spends this month by using up everything you have, even the random stuff (I found chocolate shampoo in my stash) and throw the extra bits at the debts too.

Good luck

NoMoneyMummy

bargainbetty wrote: »

NMM,

Yes, you should contact anyone who is not going to receive a full payment. However, I would do this in writing or by email wherever possible, so there is a record of it. You may incur charges for doing it, and you need to bear that in mind for your overall debt.

Focus on priority debts first - rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities, food. Then contracts like phone and telecoms, then repayment of credit cards etc.

If anyone contacts you to pressure for more, stay strong, say no, and politely decline to discuss it further, beyond saying that you are paying every penny you can to each debt this month to get you past a difficult time.

Also, have a look at eBay, boot fairs etc to declutter and make a bit of cash, cash4clothes too, do a stock take of your kitchen and bathroom cupboards to minimise your spends this month by using up everything you have, even the random stuff (I found chocolate shampoo in my stash) and throw the extra bits at the debts too.

Good luck

Thank you. I think it's the 'saying no' part on non-urgent's that I struggle with as most of those are a low amount so I think I'll just get them out of the way, but they all add up.

I have been eBaying some children's clothes but had NO idea about cash4clothes I'll definitely have a look into that. I already spend about 5 hours doing a weekly stock check, writing a recipe/menu plan and working my shopping from that - in two weeks my grocery shopping has totalled £45 for a family of 3. You see...I'm the sensible one often swimming against a strong tide.

Helpful advice thank you.

Hooloovoo

NoMoneyMummy wrote: »

We have some outstanding bills from last month which need paying and currently have zero to pay them with, until Friday. We have no savings etc as we've had some issues and this is me getting us into a place where we're organised. So on Friday, as much as I'd love to put the money aside for the categories above, it wont happen as I need to pay all of the income to the outstanding bills.

I don't think you're going to be able to "populate" all of your accounts at once. You will have to build up the important ones first and get the system going.

Then start building up your less important accounts like "Replacing goods" and "holidays".

Unless you're really unlucky your fridge isn't going to break any time soon, and you've presumably accepted (obviously unhappily) that you wont be going on holiday any time soon, and so those accounts don't matter too much yet. You can worry about getting those "up to budget" once you have built up the buffer you want in your important accounts.

Have you defaulted on anything yet? If your credit rating is still intact I would be hesitant to enter a debt repayment plan whilst you can still make the repayments. Yes, your pots might not build up as quickly as you had hoped, but that's better than trashing your credit file.

Don't forget to make use of cashback credit cards to help give you a couple of weeks interest free and also earn you a little discount on all your spending.

NoMoneyMummy

Hooloovoo wrote: »

I don't think you're going to be able to "populate" all of your accounts at once. You will have to build up the important ones first and get the system going.

Then start building up your less important accounts like "Replacing goods" and "holidays".

Unless you're really unlucky your fridge isn't going to break any time soon, and you've presumably accepted (obviously unhappily) that you wont be going on holiday any time soon, and so those accounts don't matter too much yet. You can worry about getting those "up to budget" once you have built up the buffer you want in your important accounts.

Have you defaulted on anything yet? If your credit rating is still intact I would be hesitant to enter a debt repayment plan whilst you can still make the repayments. Yes, your pots might not build up as quickly as you had hoped, but that's better than trashing your credit file.

Don't forget to make use of cashback credit cards to help give you a couple of weeks interest free and also earn you a little discount on all your spending.

Oh we have debts already and have had a DMP in the past that we just manage ourselves now. They are small monthly payments and seem so manageable so I don't like to miss them, but other things do suffer because of course they add up.

Well we currently have a broken freezer (BIG problem) and a broken fridge (using a borrowed one), a broken dishwasher (not that important tbh) and car repairs we cannot afford. Freecycle and local selling groups aren't coming up with anything so far.

I know the holiday fund isn't important, it's just part of my future plan. It's not even really holidays that we take to be honest, it's just having money there for a trip to the beach which needs extra petrol and a picnic, or a visit to a national trust place that kind of thing. We like days out more than a week away!

When I do the income and expenditure it's frustrating because now we aren't in a terrible place financially when you look on paper - the annual income is healthy enough to cover it all it just needs to be organised and controlled (by me). The credit card/loan debts although large and constantly a worry are being handled.

I will be handing my other half an allowance if he needs one, he doesn't have a card to any of these accounts which is great. I feel bad about it, because as I said he's the one going out every morning to do a job he isn't that keen on anymore and it brings in good money most of the time, but he just spends on things we don't need and wastes too much of it. He has accepted that it needs to be this way for our financial health (and sanity).

NoMoneyMummy

I have to say, it's really helping to clear my head on it all to just write it all down. Thanks for everyone who has contributed also.

NoMoneyMummy

Well having spent yet more time on this I now have a solid plan of action...fingers crossed.

I'm really hoping this can mark a turning point for us.

NoMoneyMummy

I wanted to update this. It's all working so well I couldn't be happier. I have been setting aside an hour or two every week when my daughter is out of the house to work out the DD's upcoming for the following week and any other expenditure we expect. We are paying more and more bills as we get more organised with it all, less and less is getting missed and if they are, they are the ones right at the bottom of our priorities.

I love it, I really do. I can look at the bank mid-week and there is still money there, set aside for important things like the mortgage and council tax. I love the organisation.

fullauth

Congrats! Being on top of things is the best feeling in the world. Keep a clear head, and sleep well at night - it all helps.

Yorkie1

Well done and keep it up!

Hope freecycle comes good for you on the fridge and freezer front soon, if it hasn't already done so!