Help with budgeting for May?

falko89

OK let me paint the picture for you, at the moment me and my partner are on a DMP with CCCS/Step Change, we are both min wage workers, I work full time my partner part time.

In May we have got a lot of things that require money and we don't know how to prioritize them or how we can afford to pay for them.

1 - My mothers birthday
2 - My wifes godsons/nephews birthday
3 - Our daughters birthday
4 - Her brothers wedding
5 - My wifes birthday
6 - My birthday
7 - Car tax
8 - Car MOT
9 - Godsons/Nephews 1st Holy Communion

So as you can see quite the list. Our DMP does allow for some emergencies but thats minor £50 per month if even. Obviously we can cut out our birthdays but thats not gonna have any impact.

Any advice?

katy_ann

Morning

I would say that car tax and MOT are your priorities here as for everyone elses birthdays/weddings etc - do they know your money situation? If so I would just apologise and say that you cant afford to give any gifts and when it comes to your birthday etc not to accept any gifts from said people.

You need to spend on your needs and not your wants x

falko89

katy_ann wrote: »

Morning

I would say that car tax and MOT are your priorities here as for everyone elses birthdays/weddings etc - do they know your money situation? If so I would just apologise and say that you cant afford to give any gifts and when it comes to your birthday etc not to accept any gifts from said people.

You need to spend on your needs and not your wants x

Yes they know we are struggling, but they are all considerably better off than we are so I don't think they understand what it really means to struggle so we could really end up offending, Its all family politics I guess.

Yes I was thinking the car was our number 1 priority, Car tax is £98 for 6 months, and god knows what work will need done to the car for MOT, last year I spent over £300 on parts and fitted most myself to save on costs, We don't have that kind of money this year.

katy_ann

If they are family they will understand that you need to feed and house yourselfs before buying presents for people. It might be difficult to say but will work out in the end x

harrys_dad

You have a month, why not make birthday presents? The last thing any family member will want is for you to get further into debt to buy them a present. They may be better off and currently not understanding, but maybe this will help?

The car should be your priority, but without knowing your circumstances it is hard to know how essential it is to you. If it is essential, for example as the most cost effective way of getting to work, then surely it should be allowed for on your DMP. If it is not essential this may be a good time to get rid of it.

falko89

harrys_dad wrote: »

You have a month, why not make birthday presents? The last thing any family member will want is for you to get further into debt to buy them a present. They may be better off and currently not understanding, but maybe this will help?

The car should be your priority, but without knowing your circumstances it is hard to know how essential it is to you. If it is essential, for example as the most cost effective way of getting to work, then surely it should be allowed for on your DMP. If it is not essential this may be a good time to get rid of it.

Yes its essential as we live in an area with poor public transport.

Trajal

Are they used to expensive gifts and extravagent gestures from you? I'm sure they wouldn't want you to get into debt or be unable to get to work because you used the available money to buy a present rather than get the car sorted.

Fully appreciative that there is pride at stake here, and believe me I also know what it's like to have wealthy family who don't understand the concept of debt, but actually my lot didn't think twice about it when I explained that they were getting a card and probably nothing else for a couple of years while I sorted out my finances.

I'd suggest having a word and spelling out what it means to them before it becomes a problem. Means swallowing your pride but you will be surprised by how supportive everyone will be.

When I told my mother that she was only going to get a card and a cheap bouquet of flowers on her birthday because of our finances she actually offered to help me out. I did end up borrowing money from her to pay several high interest items off and then just repaying her which sped up my debt free date considerably.

It can be a mixed blessing. Good luck.

c85

falko89 wrote: »

So as you can see quite the list. Our DMP does allow for some emergencies but thats minor £50 per month if even. Obviously we can cut out our birthdays but thats not gonna have any impact. Any advice?

The £50 per month emergency budget you should be saving this every month. So do you not have this fund you could dip into? Also your car tax and mot/servicing/repairs should be in your stepchange budget you should be saving monthly figures for these. I myself save £15 for road tax and £15 for spares/servicing as they state in the budget (mot really). For example my tax/mot due in november so since last november i have £180 already saved towards these expenses. You should talk to stepchange if this is not the case in your budget.

R_P_W

Sorry but the only priority on that list is your car tax and MOT. As min wage workers on a DMP you cannot afford the others.....any spare case you need to save into your emergency fund.

foxgloves

Agree with above post. Either make a few little keepsake type gifts if you are crafty type people & have most of what you'd need for this already knocking around the house. If not, then presents just cannot be a priority for you. If I knew someone was struggling with debt & was spending their much needed hard-earned cash on presents for me, I'd feel bad about it. Another option would be to design some vouchers to give your time in a way that would be pretty much free for you, but would benefit the recipient. For instance if someone has a lot of home improvements to do, offer a half day of decorating, or gardening, or a night of baby-sitting or something along that line. But please don't get more into debt to buy presents for people because it's the 'expected' thing to do. One Easter, a few years ago, when my nephew was about 5 years old, I received quite a lot of expensive chocolate, eggs, money, etc, for Easter, which was of course very nice, but the present that meant the most to me was from my nephew. He'd made a sort of box from recycled cardboard, filled it with compost & sown it with some spicy salad leaves. They were tiny seedlings when he proudly presented it to me with my name on. I potted them on & was still cutting leaves from them by the end of the summer. It somehow felt more effort had gone into that than going into a shop & forking out for a posh chocolate egg. When I've been short of money, I've also made fudge & bagged or boxed it up (all recycled packaging), added a pretty label using cut up birthday cards & saved ribbons & that has gone down very well for the price of some butter, milk, sugar & carnation milk. So I second the people who have said your MOT & car tax are the priorities here. Don't feel guilty. Keeping your heads above water financially is what's important here, So many people are in this position & there is absolutely no shame in it x

matttye

R_P_W wrote: »

Sorry but the only priority on that list is your car tax and MOT. As min wage workers on a DMP you cannot afford the others.....any spare case you need to save into your emergency fund.

Agreed.

---

Just apologise to the people you can't afford to buy presents for. I'm sure they'll understand.

Do you have an emergency fund? Have you planned for the possibility that your car might need repairs to go through the MOT?