Getting Desperate

TiredOfDebt_2

I have been browsing this site for about 6 weeks now and have just plucked up the courage to post. Please be gentle on me. I have been worrying a bit over the last few days as my husband is in hospital and hasn’t been well for sometime. It has made me realise that we cannot go on with the debt we have, he may be off sick work for a few months and our SOA is not including his income dropping by about £60 per week for about 9 weeks, if any longer I daren't even think about it. As you can see from the figures they are not good at the moment. I work part time at the moment and could get another job, but I also have 2 children to look after and soon a husband to look after. Does anyone have any advice to offer.

Monthy Incomings 2318.33

Outstanding Debts
Halifax credit card 10839.27 (9.95%)
MBNA 1353.36 (14.88%)
Littlewoods Catalogue 591.84
Morgan Stanley credit card 954.38 (3.99%)
Mint Credit Card 410.00 (14.88%)
Alliance & Leicester Loan £15000 (7.9%)
Overdraft 1132.99 (16.8%)

Total Debt £30281.84


Monthly Outgoings
Loan 319.62
Credit Cards Min payments £277
Littlewoods £75
Phone £15.00
Petrol £65
Mortgage £775.93
Xmas/Birthdays £25
Clothing £15
Haircuts £10
car insurance £22.29

Road Tax £15
Contact Lens £8
Car repairs/mot £15
Gas/Electric £50
Sky 36.00
Life Ins 6.80
Water 36.16
Internet £14.99
Tv Licence 11.37
Council tax £85.92
House Ins 12.05
Interest on overdraft £16
Childcare £146.25
Food £216
Pocket Money £216

Total Spend £2485.38

Shortfall of £167.05 which I have been able to make up on cashback sites and eBay and overtime that my husband has, but can’t do this forever.
The pocket money includes fags for my husband mainly, but he is adamant this time he will give up once his operation has been done.

Hope you can help, seems hopeless to me at the moment.

brainfreeze

Hi

Welcome to DFW forum. I've only had a quick look and am sure someone more experienced will be along shortly but here's my first thoughts.

TiredOfDebt wrote: »

Total Debt £30281.84


Monthly Outgoings
Loan 319.62
Credit Cards Min payments £277
Littlewoods £75
Phone £15.00
Petrol £65
Mortgage £775.93
Xmas/Birthdays £25 it's good to save for these, but think about cutting it (even if only by £5 pm and it will make a huge difference)
Clothing £15
Haircuts £10
car insurance £22.29

Road Tax £15
Contact Lens £8
Car repairs/mot £15
Gas/Electric £50
Sky 36.00 could you change to a multi pack option for tv/internet and phone, ie 3 for £30 or are you tied into this and phone and internet
Life Ins 6.80
Water 36.16
Internet £14.99 see note under sky above
Tv Licence 11.37
Council tax £85.92 have you checked you are in the right banding
House Ins 12.05
Interest on overdraft £16 do you have any charges you could claim back
Childcare £146.25
Food £216
Pocket Money £216 This seems wildly excessive and could bring your budget almost into balance just by cutting this

Total Spend £2485.38

Shortfall of £167.05 which I have been able to make up on cashback sites and eBay and overtime that my husband has, but can’t do this forever.
The pocket money includes fags for my husband mainly, but he is adamant this time he will give up once his operation has been done.

Hope you can help, seems hopeless to me at the moment.

blackangeluk

Hi there

Please don't feel too down, I know there will be lots of people who post on here who can offer good advice.

Had a quick look at your SOA and I am certainly no expert but:-

can you swap your cards to 0% by reshuffling and then pay a certain amount? I have done this and makes a huge difference to when I can pay things off.

Can you get rid of Sky or reduce it to the basic package, seems a big deal but we have got rid of loads of stuff which we now realise we didn't even watch.

Also pocket money - seems a huge amount. Maybe you should tell your children money is time and it has to be reduced. I was paying money into a savings plan for our children but I have cancelled this as I'm sure they would rather have us well off and less stressed in the long run and I will make it up to them later.

I'm sure others may have better suggestions, but huge hugs and hope your DH is better soon

x

taxi73

Sorry to hear your husband isn't well...hope he gets better soon.
You've come to the right place and you have a little room for manouvere...The pocket money £216 could stop and you could pay littlewoods off within a couple of months then put it onto another debt...
Shopping ...how many is this for?...have a look on the Old Style boards..there are many cheap meals to be made from there...
Water seems really dear ...do you pay it over 12 months if you don't give them a ring and see if you can pay over 12 months..
Do you need sky...freeview is good and you can buy a box for £20 or less...
Sorry if these sound a little harsh but they are the ones that stick out to me..

TiredOfDebt_2

Thanks brainfreeze, its great to see a reply, probably not a good time to post a thread. I am not tied into Sky, but I am tied to my internet provider for 12 months, just taken that out. I will try to cut the pocket money but difficult while my husband is still smoking. Council Tax is the right banding as far as I know but I will check it out. As far as bank charges are concerned, I am in the process of claiming about £800. So that should cut the debt down a bit.

Snaggles

Hi Tiredofdebt, sorry to hear about your husband, hope he has a speedy recovery.

I couldn't think of any other savings apart from the ones that have already been suggested, but it does look as if by making a few cuts, you could get rid of your shortfall. It's horrible when you first start having to cut back but it does become addictive to see how little you can live on, and you soon get used to it.

Definitely keep working on getting your husband to get rid of the cigs, it would be so beneficial to his lungs and your wallet if he can stop, although I know it's not always that easy.

TiredOfDebt_2

Thanks blackangeluk and taxi73. The pocket money is for our spending each week, which works out about £50 per week, £30 of which is used for my husband smoking, could monitor the other £20 and try to reduce. Hopefully my husband can succeed in giving up smoking. The food bill is for 2 adults and 2 children, one still in nappies in the night only. Do you really think this could be reduced?
taxi73 water is over 12 months, didn't really think I could reduce this, even going on a meter surely it would be high with 4 of us in the house.
We do watch quite a bit on Sky one, otherwise I would switch, I could reduce it down to the basic package and willl definitely look into that.

Snaggles

We're with Virgin Media so we've recently had to 'give up' Sky One. I was gutted at first because we watched it quite a lot, but it's surprising how little it bothers you after a couple of weeks. We've found substitutes for most of the programmes we liked, ie 'House' on channel 5 instead of 'Bones' etc.

We were addicted to 'Lost' too, but it had got so confusing, I was almost relieved not to have to try and follow it any more!

TiredOfDebt_2

Thanks Snaggles, I hope I too can enjoy and become addicted to Money Saving. Thanks all for your best wishes for my husband.

With regards to Sky one. I am thinking of my 9 year old mainly, he loves the Simpsons and watches Nickleodeon quite a bit too.

Snaggles

I have the Nickelodeon problem too, and also Jetix (I've got a 6 year old son) - I've weaned him on to CITV and CBBC, but they might be a bit young for a 9 year old?

TiredOfDebt_2

Come to think about it I am sure he watches those channels too, TrickyTV I think is one of the programmes he watches. I will look into this a bit more.