Time to get proper advice, please help me if you can.

mumof42013

I have ebayed everything that I can and put it straight onto paying debts. Yes it will be in addition to the £630. I don't have any space left on any of my cards to juggle on to for next month. I have a telescope worth about £300-400 but despite trying to sell it for the last 3 months, I haven't been able to. I've listed it on all of the sites (gumtree, preloved etc) and ebay, but the ebay person let me down and I was going to have to pay over 10% straight to ebay.

harveybobbles

Why are the catalogues so high? That is SCARY figures!

Contact them and ask to freeze interest etc and offer them a reduced fee.

Also, even though its a low figure - what is the £15 fee for your bank? What does that get you, as you already have life insurance and home insurance elsewhere.

mumof42013

Harvey as I said earlier, it has been cancelled but will not go through until January (it covered mobile phones, car breakdown, holiday insurance and some other bits).

The catalogues got so high because we did buy now pay later on things, never thinking about the pay later, and when it came and we couldn't afford it, they whacked the by now pay later (6-12 months) interest on in one go.

Can I offer just the catalogue a reduced fee? I thought if I did that then I would have to do the same to all of them.

sweetpea26

hi mumof4

It would be good if you could make a list of all the food stuffs that you have and see if you could make a meal plan from that this week. You might need to only buy bread, potatoes milk etc.
I honestly feel that a meal plan for each week is vital to shave every last penny of your budget.

There is a board on MSE called OLD STYLE MONEYSAVING. There are some great recipes and tips that can really save you money.

Also you would be very surprised what people buy on ebay. Empty bottles of perfume etc. There is a thread on the forum which deals with these items.

Another tip is not to use the car unless its really really necessary. Cutting back £5 per week on its usage may be possible which would save you £260 per year.

Its the little cutbacks that really add up.

Would you consider baby sitting or cleaning for someone else.

I wish you well and there are so many people on here that will support you. Have you contacted any of the people you owe and asked them to freeze you interest or give you a break in payments


What about a car boot sale? Even if you made £20 it would help towards your groceries for the following week. Do you have parents that could help you? Show them your Soa to prove that you are tackling the issue and you might be able to have some help. The catalogue is your main worry isn't it?

Hope this is of some help to you.

mumof42013

Sweetpea, thank you for your good advice. I am doing a meal plan, and I've got the food shopping down to £60 per week for the 6 of us, I really don't think I can get that any lower.

I will make sure to cut the car use down, but mostly it is used by my husband for work, and I have a lot of hospital appointments at the moment so I have to use the car to get there. I have used the car when available for the school run just because I have been feeling so ill, but I will do my best not to do this again.

I recently did a car boot and raised £80 which went straight to paying the monthly payment on a card. Unfortunately I had some trouble recently with the tax credits (they did not change my address despite me calling them) so I didn't get paid for a month, so I ended up using a credit card to live on and pay the other bills that I didn't have the money for (on a very bad credit card with a stupidly high apr) so it pushed me to the edge of coping.

Happier_Me

Hi mumof42013

Your gas and electricity bill per month is high - are you in arrears or do you have do you have a large credit on your account?

You seem to have and be in the process of cutting back all unnecessary spend.

I think it would help if you listed all your debts including your overdraft (I see you pay £10 per month), APR's and the terms left to pay where applicable so we can see the full extent of your debt, in addition to the big catalogue bill due next month. The advice you receive will be more specific to your situation if we have all this information.

And finally well done for posting and asking for advice - the people on these boards have a wealth of knowledge and experience and I'm sure you will find the support you need here to get through this.

mumof42013

Thank you Happier.

Yes I am in arrears with the gas and electric. We currently owe £308 so are paying that off as well as what we use each month.

Debts are as follows:

Creditor
Vanquis - £3000 at 39.99% ( I know, it's awful)
Very (husband) - £5890 at 39.7%
Very (mine) - £2875 at 39.7%
Capital One - £1000 at 34%
Capital one (husband) - £800 at 30.4%
Next - £2800 at 25.9%
Natwest Overdraft - £1000 at 25.9%
Natwest Credit card - £2500 at 19.9%
Barclaycard platinum - £1500 at 16.9
Barclaycard initial - £800 at 29.9%

Nationwide loan - £3140 (paid off by August 2014)
Natwest loan - £5286 (paid off in 2015)

Very payments due
November - £954
December - £382
January - £112
February - £189

theoretica

Also, have you seen this website? Run by the Royal British Legion.

https://www.moneyforce.org.uk/Managing-crises/Debt-trouble/Where-to-get-help-if-you-are-in-debt

mumof42013

Thank you, I had not seen that site before.

haycorns

Well done for posting - that;s the hard part , but the first step to things getting better.

You have a home phone and internet . Are these witht he same provider? Can you get a better deal. If you have mobile contract s make sure you are using your free minutes before you make calls on the home phone.

What pets do you have? Can you switch to chaeper food?

Do you have two salaries coming in or just the one? i suspect with 4 children and the nature of your husbands work it would be hard to find work that fits round everyone, but worth considering - even iif its just for a few hours a week as it would keep you busy.

When did you last apply for credit? Are you currently up to date with payemnts? maybe you could get a 0% balance tranfer and get one of those high APr transfered over. Depends on your credit ratign - don't apply if you think they will say no.

You said you thought it was your fault - maybe maybe not. Did you know where the money was going? I can see you have already made changes so perhaps you have solved this bit. Have you tried a spending diary to see where the money is going now though.

Keep working at it every little change will help.