does my plan make sense

pavlovs_dog

another thought - are you on a fixed rate? with talk that another rate rise by august being highly probable, it could work in your favour - at least you'd know exactly how much had to go out each month

debtfree1day

Thank you all for your questiosns and thoughts

General theme - cut back. we will. I am keeping spending diary (even having to write it down makes you think)

Kids.....5. Thats why food is so high and sky etc etc.Cant get freeview in this house even though the website says post code is good here, I have bought 2 boxes before and both went back.....think we have old aeriel

car.....difficult to go without. we are rural, 5 kids, and hubby gets within wage a car allowance as he has to use it to travel some time

parking....will try harder

Credit card and debt surfing......done that for years, quite successfully (ignoring fact should have been paying off not spending) - BUT its all dried up. Every application has been denied

Mortgage...fixed until July 08----good rate. Point about changing to longer term is definitely worth looking at.....we are paying 1370 a month for 13 yrs.....IF I do that will they make us lose our decent fixed rate, I wonder?

Savings...lots of comments about not bothering when we have so much debt. we agree BUT again its complicated. One of the bonds is £20 per month, but having paid in for 3 yrs and 10 months we would get back ZERO if we stop. Once we pay for 5 yrs can get back all the premiums (although no interest). Share scheme exit and tax payment seems sensible option, and OH will phone on Monday to investigate.....

Utilitiy question...job for tomorrow get water, gas and leccy bills out and go to u switch (+ turn off the lights)

Thank you...........going to try and get some sleep now

Lisa
x

pavlovs_dog

sweet dreams hun. things often look brighter in the morning :wave:

the bigger the picture we have, the better we can help you. we're not just nosy parkers. will add some more tomorrow when im not so sleepy (unless peeps beat me to it )

debtfree1day

Utilities costs

Water 59.31 pr month
Gas + electric 145 pr month (thats a combined bill)
Council Tax 119.04 (10 months from 12)

Website says small savings capable with fixed water meter, but I am not convinced. Young children, and a meter scares me. What if it goes up. Think I will stay put

Gas and Electric - Website reckons we can save £219 pr year. Thats good news, BUT we owe current supplier approx £400 where they under estimated, so not sure whether to scrape together £400 and pay them off and then switch - or whether that money would be better spend on one of the 20%+ credit cards

welcome views.

Overall, still not sure whether I should be trying to consolidate to cheaper debt via secured loan on house (which I know is risky) - enter a DMP - send a please reduce my interest begging letter - or just carry on throwing every peeny at the debts and hope I can pay more than the monthly interest AND eventually make it

By the way, we found in my other halfs pay slip he makes an additional voluntary contribution on his pension of £60 a month. That is matched by the employer and I know its tax free at the moment, but if he stops that will be about £40 odd extra we have each month to throw at debt - so some good news...................lisa

azjh77

Lisa, I've 'only' got 4 kids, so know how hard paying off the debts can be! We have managed to get our food bill down to £40 per week (+ nappies & wipes, not sure how young any of your kids are and whether you have to pay out for them)

Having said that, my girls are getting fed up of spagettii bol. !!

debtfree1day

My 5, are 15, 12, 8, and 2 and 2...i know I can reduce a bit although to get to the level you at is inspiring. think we spend nearly £15 a week on milk!. We are rural and have a local coop here which charges on some things getting on 20% more than the shops in town, so need to get good at doin 1 off bulk shop and then if we run out we run out

By the way - the £1500 I am cashing in tomorrow, we spend £22 a month on decreasing term insurance with an investment element in it.....does anyone know if we could see this to a private company for more rather than surrender it to the CIS?????????????

Thx

hypno06

Hi again, just a thought regarding a possible DMP - if you go down this route you may find that your options for changing your mortgage when your current fixed rate comes to an end are limited as your credit rating will be completely trashed.

I believe that it is still possible when on a DMP to change mortgage, but you may find that the rates are not that favourable.

Others on the DMP mutual supporters thread may be able to give more advice on this but just something to give some thought to.

Have you done the snowball calculator yet on https://www.whatsthecost.com and did it give you anything positive?

Sea78

Hi

I agree with Hypno about the DMP messng up your credit score, but perhaps this isn't such a bad thing? While yes, it might mean you don't get such a great rate for your mortgage next year, if you spread it over a little longer, just until you get your debts sorted it might help things. Remember you can always ring an org like https://www.cccs.co.uk for independent advice - you don't have to take it and they will give some really good helpful advice.

Others on here have had a lot of debt and are slowly getting it down (or quickly as you can see from Hypno's sig!).

Can you get the supermarkets to deliver to you? might be worth doing the menu planning etc and doing the big shop in this way.

Hugs

Sea xx

hypno06

Basically, if you could change your mortgage to a long term reasonable payment, then you could always enter into a DMP once the mortgage has been arranged - just don't do a DMP then try and change your mortgage immediately afterwards!

Hope I'm not confusing things here, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, as I have never done the DMP thing so may be talking nonsense!!

Sea78

No Hypno - you are talking sense - if the OP changes mortgage now then enters DMP then this would sort the issues I think, but of course, it's up to OP if this is most suitable for her.

Sea xx