I can't see how we'll ever be debt free & SOA

ellesbellesxxx

How long have you been with your mobile phone provider? If over a year, (in a 2 year contract) you can drop a tariff whilst still being locked in - but still with the same contract end date? Worth looking into x
GOOD LUCK!X

PS have you had a selling/ebay frenzy?

SusieT

If you work it well thats not a huge task, and Feb could be a good month to start
Firstly open a bills account, write down the dates that the direct debits go out, then from there and working with the lowest amount your husband is likely to take home each week one at a time start to change the direct debits to the new account and transfer the amount for that bill to the new account rounding what you transfer up to the nearest £10 so if your bill is £34.20 you would transfer £40 to the bills account. If he gets paid more than tha minimum that you based your budget on throw it at the credit card with the highest interest
Council tax is normally over 10 months so assuming you don't pay any put Feb and March amounts in the bills account, also stop the credit report and put that £15 into the bills account. Just doing that will give you a cushion or emergency fund of £190 that you do not touch unless it IS an emergency! You can then carry on perhaps with the smallest first until all the direct debits are covered. As you will know when the direct debits come out you can gradually have the money in the account at least a week in advance so that you will not get any charges.
In 8 (?) months your hire purchase will finish, so that can be thrown at the debt with the highest interest rate.
Others can help you reduce your spending, but to give you ideas of how to change your thinking and as those mobile phone bills really do need reducing, until you can get out of the tarriff use them as little as possible (perhaps use the work phone for calls that you must make if its allowed), try to talk to people face to face rather than on the phone or pop round and have a cup of tea and a chat with friends/family which would cut back on mobile bills, make you stop and relax for a few minutes and would reduce the need to go out thereby reducing the entertainment. Also you could have 1 or 2 nights a week where you would normally go out or have a drink playing games with your husband and children instead? would be a break from the tv and give you some more family time. Just ideas but once you do get control of things you will feel so much better

mum2one

clothbum-mum wrote: »

Hi, I'm new here, a bit desperate and don't know where else to begin.
We have a HUGE overdraft and visa card balance and a few store cards, a loan and the usual bills.
We've recently had another baby and I've dropped some hours at work, my husband works all hours god sends and i think financially we're starting to spiral and I'm scared. My husbands ex wife has just had her maintenance payments increased from us also.

I've completed a SOA and I can see where we need to cut back on a few things. The problem is with one or two of them is that we're tied into contracts.
I cant see us ever not having any debts, we're both absolutely shocking with money too. balances don't seem to be going down, when they do I use the credit cards again because we'll be skint

I don't know whether to (or even if we can) consolidate so we have fewer payments going out. The hardest thing is getting our finances prioritized and or bank accounts straight. My husband gets paid weekly into our joint account, from here we pay all out bills. The only problem is we have a £3,900 overdraft which we're up to the limit on. Because he gets paid weekly and bills are coming out all over the place, sometimes we go over our limit and some direct debits get returned. I cant figure out how to start from scratch and straighten this account out .

I get paid monthly into an account with no overdraft. We live off my monthly pay, pay for food, petrol, treats, clothes etc. I don't earn enough to pay all the bills. We still seem to have no money at the end of the month in this account either

According to my SOA we have over £200 disposable income but I cant tell you we don't see this, I've no idea where is goes but it goes. My husbands weekly pay varies depending on whether he takes holiday/sick or does any over time. He has a really crappy hard job and we would love him to spend more time with us as a family but at the moment he works about 60-70 hours a week just to keep us afloat. The overdraft and visa are like a giant millstone around my neck. My husband doesn't deal with the finances at all. It's all left to me and I can't do it anymore without some help.

I'm sorry to pour my heart out but I don't know what else to do.

xx






Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,800.00
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). . . . . . . . . . . 134.80
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113.00 - this needs to be reduced, if your on contract ring and say you can't afford the payment and they generally let you go down a grade - how long are you tied in for with the contracts
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 - can you tie internet and phone package together
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 - its not too bad, but look at things such as making sure items not on standby, lights not left on
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 - can you turn the thermostat down
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 - are you metered or just billed
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 - need to try and reduce the overdraft
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.68 - is that contents only or both
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728.59
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.99
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.66
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77.00 - you really need to shop around for this, - I ended up using a comparison site and saved £400 on previous quotes
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196.81
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.00 - how long have you got left on the loan
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
child support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238.00 - you say this has gone up is that through the csa

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 - sorry but this is a luxury at the mo, go freeview
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00 - luxury that needs to be reduced
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.33 - luxury at mo
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.33 - need to look at reducing the xmas budget, cull the list, look at buying in sales, homemade etc

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and 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
professional registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.66
credit expert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.99 - a luxury you don't really need at the mo


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,934.80


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,719.17

I've popped a few suggestions, the 1st thing I can think of is keep a spending diary and pop everything you spend at the mo it says £200 spare,
If your struggling have you thought about taking some debt advice - stepchange - there a debt free charity and on the boards, theres no obligations. xx

chevalier

i think you have been offered a lot of good advice. tell you hubby that the credit report is 190 a year and aphonecall free, so flipping well do it. or else write a letter up cancelling it, and get him to sign it

FatVonD

Re your cable/satellite. Even if you are under contract they would have no choice but to end it if you were to say you were moving house, would they? (Can you tell I've considered this in the past ) If your phone and internet are with the same provider do you and your OH have different names, could one or the other of you be the new tenant or better still sign up with a cheaper provider?

I've recently cancelled my cable (luckily I was out of contract but in the past I've considered saying I was moving and getting my DH to pretend to be the new tenant to take advantage of the better rates for new customers) and my bill has gone down by over £30. We have pretty much all the channels anyway on freeview (built into TV), we just need to make sure we watch what we want when it's on (or hunt out a DVD recorder.)

datlex

FatVonD wrote: »

Re your cable/satellite. Even if you are under contract they would have no choice but to end it if you were to say you were moving house, would they? (Can you tell I've considered this in the past ) If your phone and internet are with the same provider do you and your OH have different names, could one or the other of you be the new tenant or better still sign up with a cheaper provider?

I've recently cancelled my cable (luckily I was out of contract but in the past I've considered saying I was moving and getting my DH to pretend to be the new tenant to take advantage of the better rates for new customers) and my bill has gone down by over £30. We have pretty much all the channels anyway on freeview (built into TV), we just need to make sure we watch what we want when it's on (or hunt out a DVD recorder.)

Lying to companies is not wise.

bargainbetty

clothbum-mum wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Total monthly income.................... 2934.8

Monthly Expense Details

Mobile phone............................ 113 Keep trying with Vodafone, ask to move to better contracts that suit your usage more, even if it means signing up for a longer period.
Groceries etc. ......................... 360 Already been said, but this can come down a lot.
Life assurance ......................... 47.99 Shop around for this, it seems a bit high.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 43 Can't afford this. Reduce to kids in immediate family only, politely ask everyone else to just do cards this year.
Haircuts................................ 13 Use beauty colleges, clippers, or go less often.
Entertainment........................... 200 Sorry, this has to be cut drastically.
credit expert........................... 14.99 Stand over job, until he calls them!
Total monthly expenses.................. 2386.6

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Visa card......................6300......186.8.....0
visa card......................200.......10........19.94 Can you use your surplus to clear this (force it by paying at the beginning of the month). If you can clear it, speak to the provider about getting a low life of balance transfer offer and use it to bring down the rates on the Next and Argos card, which might be closed off. The transfer would also count as a monthly payment for each card, which puts £54.99 into the bills pot for next month, which might help towards the £200 to clear it.... Cancel the empty cards immediately.
next directory.................550.......62........25.99
Argos card.....................600.......30........29.9
Total unsecured debts..........7650......288.8.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Amount left after debt repayments....... 259.4 Spending diary, for you both. Where does this go?

Good luck, just a new idea on the cards to consider.

LannieDuck

You can definitely get this sorted. You and your OH need to agree to spend a month getting things sorted. That means sorting out his payments, switching utility providers if appropriate etc, having a low-spend month (i.e. no going out, get that spending under control), and use the excess to get your cards out of the overdraft.

You both need to be on board. But you should be able to be organised in a couple of months.

simeyb

Hi there - as others have said - try not to worry - we're all here to help and your aren't alone. Haven't had an opp to read through everyone else's suggestions, but something that me and the OH always used to have a problem with was cashflow - we kept our finances separate and as I earn alot more, most/all the bills would go through my account - my OH is paid monthly, like me, but on the 21st each month and I'm on the 28th - now we pool our pay in one joint account so that, in effect, we're paid every three weeks - it then gets rid for both of us the issue of running out of money in the last week - as your hubby is paid weekly and you monthly, if you were to pool your money together that would help cashflow and then try and work out when all the bills go out to see where you dip over your overdraft - then speak to the companies and you'll find alot of them are happy to move a DD to another date i.e. to when there is money in the account - reduces the risk of unauthorised overdraft fees and if you can pool your cash it helps you to not have to use your credit cards each month - bit rambling - sorry but good luck!

[Deleted User]

According to your SOA, you have £260 left each month, so why do you have a £200 balance, on a 20% Visa Card :huh:

At the rate you are paying (£10 pm), it will take you 24 months to pay it off, and you will pay £40 in interest.