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Time to stop pretending it will be ok!

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Comments

  • Hi,
    Good luck with everything. We have the same problem with childcare, it seems wrong that is is more than or nearly equal to the mortgage!
    To me your big spends are childcare and loan repayments. The obvious way is to sell and move somewhere cheaper but you obviously don't want to do that.
    On child benefit, will you lose any due to your income, as your take home + company care allowance would probably push you over £50k?
    Good luck
  • vics199
    vics199 Posts: 135 Forumite
    I'm not an expert on this at all, but could you put your debts onto your mortgage? If you have paid off a large chunk of your mortgage then this could be possible. My bank keep offering this option to me but I share my mortgage with my dad so its not an option for me. May be worth looking into? Then you would just be paying the one mortgage payment a month.
  • nearlyrich
    nearlyrich Posts: 13,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Hung up my suit!
    vics199 wrote: »
    I'm not an expert on this at all, but could you put your debts onto your mortgage? If you have paid off a large chunk of your mortgage then this could be possible. My bank keep offering this option to me but I share my mortgage with my dad so its not an option for me. May be worth looking into? Then you would just be paying the one mortgage payment a month.


    It is not recommended to add unsecured debt to a mortgage although it does look like a simple option it can become a problem. Have you seen the snowball calculator OP ? This will help you work out the order in which to tackle your debts :)
    Free impartial debt advice from: National Debtline or Stepchange[/CENTER]
  • julie2710
    julie2710 Posts: 1,381 Forumite
    Rob404uk I know I'm going to use my child benefit. Depressing isn't it! Ideally I need to find myself a man who earns about £42k then start paying into my pension with abc to reduce my income down too! We'd be loaded (comparatively!) OK maybe that's not the answer.

    I am definitely going to take up the extra work offer. I will have bonus for sure in February so that will help. I also have some quite reasonable value items to sell that don't really get used.

    I can't unfortunately add on to my mortgage to clear the debts as the multiples for my salary wouldn't allow that.

    That's probably a good thing though I guess.
    MBNA [STRIKE]£2,029[/STRIKE] £1,145 Virgin [STRIKE]£8,712[/STRIKE] £7,957 Sainsbury [STRIKE]£6,870[/STRIKE] £5,575 M&S [STRIKE]£10,016[/STRIKE] £9,690 Barclaycard [STRIKE]£11,951[/STRIKE] £11,628 CTC [STRIKE]£7,629[/STRIKE] £6,789 Mortgage £[STRIKE]182,828[/STRIKE] £171,670
    LBM Dec12 excl mort 47,207/42,784 Dec13
    Excl mortg and CTC 39,578/35,995 Dec13
    Incl mortg 230,035/214,454 Dec13

    Extra payment a week:this week £0 / YTD£1,457.55
  • Are you sure that £150 a month for groceries is right? That seems very low for 3 people. Also, £20 a month for 3 of you for clothes seems a tad low too.
  • julie2710
    julie2710 Posts: 1,381 Forumite
    Thanks I'm going to fill in the snowball calculator once I've finished helping the boys with their scrapbooks.

    I'm liking the idea of a debt free date that it gives! Working in sales I like a target to beat!
    MBNA [STRIKE]£2,029[/STRIKE] £1,145 Virgin [STRIKE]£8,712[/STRIKE] £7,957 Sainsbury [STRIKE]£6,870[/STRIKE] £5,575 M&S [STRIKE]£10,016[/STRIKE] £9,690 Barclaycard [STRIKE]£11,951[/STRIKE] £11,628 CTC [STRIKE]£7,629[/STRIKE] £6,789 Mortgage £[STRIKE]182,828[/STRIKE] £171,670
    LBM Dec12 excl mort 47,207/42,784 Dec13
    Excl mortg and CTC 39,578/35,995 Dec13
    Incl mortg 230,035/214,454 Dec13

    Extra payment a week:this week £0 / YTD£1,457.55
  • julie2710
    julie2710 Posts: 1,381 Forumite
    edited 29 December 2012 at 12:49PM
    Are you sure that £150 a month for groceries is right? That seems very low for 3 people.

    My boys are only 4 & 7 and get two meals at school each day. I try and have a cooked meal in the working day too so I don't need to cook at home. (Daytime meal I can claim back on expenses and as its usually hospital canteens they are cheap!)

    I was hoping to economise on that to be honest. Certainly for the next few months anyway as I'm going to be trying to use what's in my cupboards and freezer.

    All my older sons clothes get handed down. I get hand me downs from some of the parents at the school as my son is quite small and I always buy second hand from the uniform shop. I seriously have enough clothes to last me for ages and if I need new I've started selling on some of the clothes I don't wear. Hope that makes sense!
    MBNA [STRIKE]£2,029[/STRIKE] £1,145 Virgin [STRIKE]£8,712[/STRIKE] £7,957 Sainsbury [STRIKE]£6,870[/STRIKE] £5,575 M&S [STRIKE]£10,016[/STRIKE] £9,690 Barclaycard [STRIKE]£11,951[/STRIKE] £11,628 CTC [STRIKE]£7,629[/STRIKE] £6,789 Mortgage £[STRIKE]182,828[/STRIKE] £171,670
    LBM Dec12 excl mort 47,207/42,784 Dec13
    Excl mortg and CTC 39,578/35,995 Dec13
    Incl mortg 230,035/214,454 Dec13

    Extra payment a week:this week £0 / YTD£1,457.55
  • rob404uk
    rob404uk Posts: 177 Forumite
    just a thought. do you or can you claim childcare vouchers?
  • julie2710
    julie2710 Posts: 1,381 Forumite
    I don't claim child are vouchers at the minute. I will need to check that the school accept them then have a word with my HR dept.

    I've emailed finance today at work to see if I can claim back any of my phone rental. My company install and pay for the broadband at home but they insist on a BT landline. I'm sure I could get cheaper line rental elsewhere so I've asked if they could contribute.

    I've added my debts to my signature so I can track payments each month and I've also joined the payment a week challenge so I'm going to try and clear the little MBNA card first.

    I've just found some money owing to me on Topcashback and I've now hit enough points on the you gov survey site to claim £50 so I'll pay both of those off the card as soon as I receive them that way they won't get swallowed up in living.
    MBNA [STRIKE]£2,029[/STRIKE] £1,145 Virgin [STRIKE]£8,712[/STRIKE] £7,957 Sainsbury [STRIKE]£6,870[/STRIKE] £5,575 M&S [STRIKE]£10,016[/STRIKE] £9,690 Barclaycard [STRIKE]£11,951[/STRIKE] £11,628 CTC [STRIKE]£7,629[/STRIKE] £6,789 Mortgage £[STRIKE]182,828[/STRIKE] £171,670
    LBM Dec12 excl mort 47,207/42,784 Dec13
    Excl mortg and CTC 39,578/35,995 Dec13
    Incl mortg 230,035/214,454 Dec13

    Extra payment a week:this week £0 / YTD£1,457.55
  • vasseur
    vasseur Posts: 3,093 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper Debt-free and Proud!
    julie2710 wrote: »
    I don't claim child are vouchers at the minute. I will need to check that the school accept them then have a word with my HR dept.

    I've emailed finance today at work to see if I can claim back any of my phone rental. My company install and pay for the broadband at home but they insist on a BT landline. I'm sure I could get cheaper line rental elsewhere so I've asked if they could contribute.

    I've added my debts to my signature so I can track payments each month and I've also joined the payment a week challenge so I'm going to try and clear the little MBNA card first.

    I've just found some money owing to me on Topcashback and I've now hit enough points on the you gov survey site to claim £50 so I'll pay both of those off the card as soon as I receive them that way they won't get swallowed up in living.

    :Twell done. It does start to become a bit obsessive seeing where you can make cuts and save money. I used to do the Payment a Day challenge on top of my usual monthly repayments. I just used to round down my bank balance by a quid or two each day:T. It was really motivational seeing the balance on my c/card come down. So if you haven't already get your credit cards and loans set up online.
    It's not how far you fall - it's how high you bounce back.... :j
    Happiness is not a destination - it's a journey :)
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