Please Help!!

petereverton

My SOA is

Debts
£500 cash till payday, to delay its £70 every month.
£9514.90 Welcome loan. paying £264 a month.
£1266 Council Tax, I have an errangement on paying £50 a month.
£700 Catalogues
£1180 Provident paying £25 a week.
£150 Electric paying 12.50 a fortnight.

Regular Bills
£450 Rent a month
£89 Council Tax a month
£36 Water , behind on one
£20 TV lisence fortnightly.
£58.50 Gas a month
£40 electric a month
£60 NTL roughly, usually no higher.

Earnings
£1080 wage a month
£29.50 Child Benifit a week.
£72.68 Child Tax credits a week.

I need to sort this out, I seem to have more to pay than what I earn,
Please help with some advice.
Sorry if this isn't the way to do it. First time posting.

rog2

Hi Peter - Other, more experienced, people will be along to show you where you might save some money - I just thought I'd welcome you to the board and I hope that you will get something out of it.
Do you have any particular creditors on your back, or have you just recognised the warning signs? - if so you're in the right plac.
Good luck:beer:

Welshlassie

Hi
Well done posting, its the first step to getting your debts sorted.
Posting an SOA is a good start, however you haven't included everything that you spend each month. A good way of doing this is to complete Martins budget spreadsheet as it will make you think about everything you spend all year, including birthdays, Christmas, car insurance, maintenance etc. You also haven't mentioned food, mobiles, house insurance, car related expenses, etc.

Do you know what the APR's are on your debts, and how long you have left to pay on the loans. The Catalogues one should be split so we can see exactly who you owe what to and the APR, this will help you decided who to pay off at what time, to save you the most interest in the long term.

Do you have any savings anywhere and these should be used as soon as possible to pay off the dets costing you the most.

You TV licence seems very high - is this paying off arrears as well. I only pay just over £11 per month.
You NTL bill is also very high, what does this cover, internet, phone, TV? If so can you cut you package anywhere.

Are you claiming all the benefits you are entitled to? Have a look at entitledto.com for an idea of if you are missing out on anything.

Good luck.

petereverton

Hi took your advice,
Christmas and birthdays, I just spend what is aviable at the time, so finding it hard to work them out. Something I will change.

I don't have a car. Don't drive to be honest.
I have a pay as you go mobile, but haven't topped up for about a year now.
So thats not a problem.
My Ntl covers House phone , Tv basic package and Internet.
My welcome loan has 3 years left, and the APR is 48.30%.
I am just going through the process, of getting rid of my PPI on the loan.
Which sould get it down to £174.80.

The ones I could work out are -
£140 food a month
£10 Maintainence a month
£40.10 a month Travel to work and back again.(I can't walk as my work is the other side of the mersey)
£15 food at work
£20 smokes, which me and my wife are quitting.

The one whats bothering me the most, is The money shop.
I have to either delay my cheques at £70 a month, and it only pays the interest, or pay each £100 cheque (which I have 5) and delay each one I can't afford at £14 each Cheque.

I hope thats clear, am not that much of a good writer, or with my words.
Thanks again all.

rog2

petereverton wrote: »

My welcome loan has 3 years left, and the APR is 48.30%.

48.3% - Ouch. Would it be possible to get a settlement figure and a loan with a lower apr?

mrsspendalot

Can you take a packed lunch to work? That would save you £15 a week/month straight away

I reckon you could chop your food bill down as well. I wouldn't have believed it, but the last two weeks I have done my shop for less than £30 for the week and that is for 2 adults and 3 children. I popped over the moneysaving old style and asked for some advice. I posted up the last receipt from shopping and they had a pick through it all.

petereverton

rog2 wrote: »

48.3% - Ouch. Would it be possible to get a settlement figure and a loan with a lower apr?

I know bad in it.
I couldn't get a loan anywere else at the time.
But will look into finding a cheaper one, and getting a settlement figure.
Thanks.

onedayiwill

Oh Peter! What a pickle you've got in to - what with Welcome, Provident and The Money Shop your interest rates are the main problem. My heart goes out to you :grouphug: I have no advice to offer, only a warm heart that is sending good vibes.

I know that the more experienced folk here will offer you great advice. I wonder if it might also help to go to the CAB and have a chat about this with someone in person?

Take care and try not to stress too much. It will get sorted.

Storm

Hi Peter,

I agree with you that the Moneyshop is the first thing to tackle - £14 a month per hundred quid works out to an apr of 168% :eek:

Can your wife get a job, even part-time? Is overtime available where you work? If you go all out to get the £500 together to pay off the moneyshop once and for all then that will free up £70 a month in the interest payments alone!

Your monthly outgoings at the moment are £1537.60, and your income is £1522.78 - that's with me allowing £50 a month towards the catalogues.

Therefore, I would recommend a short-term challenge between you & your wife to clear the moneyshop loans asap - ebay anything not nailed down, do a car boot if you can find a mate with a car to help, join pigsback, quidco etc to get vouchers for clicks.

Also, it's a good idea to start a spending diary for both of you so that you note down every single thing you buy - it's amazing how small things like newspapers or cans of drink can soon add up (I know, I've done it!). The TV from NTL can go to be honest, reduce the phone package & BB speed too and be mean about phoning people (I never leave the answerphone on, so everyone has to phone me back rather than leaving a message & me phoning them!)

With the smoking - switch to roll ups until you quit, and make sure you go to the GP so you get the nicotine replacement on prescription.

Good luck!

Lara44

Hello Peter

I rearranged the totals a bit monthly so we can see the figures, hope you don't mind

petereverton wrote: »

My SOA is

Debts
£500 cash till payday, to delay its £70 every month.
£9514.90 Welcome loan. paying £264 a month.
£1266 Council Tax, I have an errangement on paying £50 a month.
£700 Catalogues
£1180 Provident paying £25 a week. £108.30 per calendar month
£150 Electric paying 12.50 a fortnight. £27 per calendar month

Total debts: £13310.90
Debt total pm: £519.30

Regular Bills
£450 Rent a month
£89 Council Tax a month
£36 Water , behind on one
£20 TV lisence fortnightly. £43.33 pcm
£58.50 Gas a month Need to look at switching these or minimising usage at home. Try uswitch via Quidco for cashback
£40 electric a month
£60 NTL roughly, usually no higher. Is this for all calls and internet? You could be halving this - read Martins home phone cost cutting article for override call providers etc.
£140 food a month How many for - see the old style board for big savings, and ways to cut costs like couponing.
£10 Maintainence a month
£40.10 a month Travel to work and back again.(I can't walk as my work is the other side of the mersey)
£15 food at work Switch to pack lunches this should be coming out of your shopping budget
£20 smokes, which me and my wife are quitting. Try roll-ups in the meantime - much cheaper

Total living: £978.60

You seem a wee bit unsure as to your figures - why not keep a spending diary with your OH for a month - it is really good. Also I still think you are missing loads from this soa - Christmas, clothes, haircuts, dentists, prescriptions anything like that.

Earnings

£1080 wage a month
£29.50 Child Benifit a week £127.83 pcm
£72.68 Child Tax credits a week. £314.94 pcm

Total incomings: £1522.77
Total expenditure debt and living costs: £1497.90

Ok so I have you within budget here just about, but it seems that you feel that you're spending more than you earn. Your priority is a spending diary because this will let you see what you are really spending.

Immediately I can see that you can make savings on the food shop, on your lunches and also on the NTL bill.

Do you have any bank/card charges you can claim back? This would be great to do as you could put it straight onto the debts. Tell us a bit about this interest rate - is there any chance your credit rating has improved enough to get a new loan/card to transfer the balance. That rate is crippling. It would be great to talk your soa over with payplan or cccs, they can advise you about options like a dmp, where the interest on your debts is frozen to allow you to pay it back.

It seems like cashflow has been a problem - I don't really get the cash until payday thing but it seems like it's costing you loads. Can you or your OH get a job part time in the evenings? This would really help you out in terms of a short term boost to your income until you get your spending diary done and budget worked out. I would really recommend it for a short period at least like 3 months.

You have done the right thing in coming here, people will be really supportive and cool. It seems like the worst part totalling up all the debt, but now you're in control

For birthday presents and stuff check out the many cashback sites where you can do clickthroughs for points which you can then get out as vouchers I do Pigsback but there are many more. Also have a look at Quidco the cashback site. There are a few things you can do such as taking free trials that earn money without you having to spend any. The best ones are the free DVD trials and free magazine trials, but remember you have to be really organised enough to remember to cancel them.

Do let us know how you are getting on.

Lara

chevalier

The other thing to check is whether you are in the correct banding for council tax, if you are in too high a banding, then you can get a refund for all the time you have been in your house
best of luck
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