Help with living below means

Nickynoo1

Hi,

Thought i'd pop back here as i've not visited much since becoming debt free. But I need help again.

I am still debt free with a bit of savings too, but there is danger of losing all savings and going back into debt if I dont do something soon.

A lot of changes since becoming debt free, the biggest one is having a child, boy does it get expensive when they need child care.

Anyway I'll list my SOA and see if anyone can blast it.

Mortgage£530.00
Buildings Ins£12.00
Contents Ins£8.00
Council Tax£71.00
S.water£13.11
P.water*£7.12
Powergen*£36.91
NTL*£28.00
mobile£20.00
Endownment£76.90
T.V. Licence£11.37
Level term£18.46
child trust fund £10.00
Car tax£10.00
chilcare£435.00

Total out £1,287.87

Income

Wages 558 per month
CTC 489 4 weekly
WTC 237 4 weekly
Child Benefit 72 4 weekly




Income monthly £1420.41

Surplus £132.54

Which would be tight but almost manageable, but cos the tax credit are paid 4 weekly if feels more like I'm only getting £1353 per month (until Nov when i'll end up with 2 payments in one month) which is only a surplus of £65 per month fo food clothing etc.

BTW I cant remortgage as I only work part time at the mo, so no-one will give me a mortgage on my earnings.

Sure people on income support have more money than this!

Any help appreciated,
Thanks

Nickynoo1

oops_a_daisy

Hi there Nickynoo1 :hello: sorry got loads of questions

Im not sure but can you request the WTC, CTC and CB weekly in certain circumstances ?
have you looked at your household insurances via cashback websites to see if you can get a better deal lately ?
have you looked into switching utilities lately ?
are you in the correct band for council tax ?
if you are on NTL can you combine broadband, digital tv, home phone & mobile for 4 for £40 per month ?
not sure what level term is
you dont seem to have an amount budgetted per month for food - sorry just noticed it further down. Is this the amount you are actually spending ?
Do you do a spending diary ?
have you re claimed bank charges ( if you have any )

sorry about all the questions

Snaggles

Officially you have to fall into certain categories to get your benefits paid weekly (I can't remember what the categories are, sorry - maybe single parents, that type of thing), but unofficially you can write to them explaining your circumstances and they may agree to pay weekly. Don't know if that would help at all?

Nickynoo1

hi,

Not looked at home insurances lately cos thought they were pretty good rates. But will look again for further shavings
Gas and electric with powergen at 36.91 p/m. This is the cheapest.
Band b council tax (get 19p p/w council tax benefit - WOW)
NTL is for tv, phone and broadband. When mobile contract runs out may switch this to virgin for £10 per month. Contract runs out August
Not had any bank charges - been here too long!
Level term is life insurance with critical illness. I need to cancel this and get cheaper. It was an ins i took out before i was moneysaving savvy which i need to sort.

I've not done spending diaries for ages, but think i'll restart , just so savings will last longer. Trouble is £1287 on essentials is pretty crippling.

My thinking was that the only way to reduce bills was to change mortgage from repayment to interest only for a few years. Not and ideal solution but i really cant see anyway of going forward.

oops_a_daisy

Hi Nickynoo1 - me again

dont forget Quidco when changing any insurances ( or if you have been around here for a while am I preaching to the converted :rotfl: )
can I just ask why you are paying into an endowment on top of a repayent mortgage ? and if you have an endowment I think ( not sure ) but doesnt that have life insurance already attached ?
FYI - I have just looked at Virgin mobile today and they have reduced their £10 per month tariff to 100 minutes and 100 texts so am not sure if this is wold still be the best deal for you it used to be 300 minutes and 300 texts for £10 per month. If your current mobile contract runs out in August dont forget to put your notice in a month before it runs out so you can get out of it as soon as the contract expires.
Can you make any extra money

right thats the last of the questions - im off to bed

GirlRacer_2

Hi nickynoo, Its difficult being a single parent and trying to do everything on one wage. As asked by Storm, do you get any child support money from babies dad? You should be getting something and hopefully that would relieve the pressure every month.

SeaBreeze

How many hours do you work now? When I went full time I was pleasantly surprised to find that my tax credits stayed very similar to when part time...they give you extra for working over 30 hours and your childcare element will also rise. I don't think you'd be better off on income support. I lost my job recently and get £59.45 a week for me, £147 tax credits for 4 children and the usual child benefit. Although you can claim council tax benefit you wont get your mortgage paid and will still have more or less the same outgoings. I was definately much better off working full time ( and I'm sending applications off like mad to get back to work) but the hardest thing of all is that no one can tell you how much you'll get until you actually make the change. I've always had to hold my breath and hope things work out ok but it does make me mad that the council and tax credit people can't (or won't) give an accurate sum when your hours change.

brummiebabe

Why don't you consider cashing in the endowment? You can just increase your life cover elsewhere - for considerably less than nearly £77 p/m! I understand what you mean about it being a saving plan etc...but cashing it in would ease your situation considerably...you'd have an extra £76.90 p/m and some extra savings.....surely then you wouldn't need to increase your hours/switch to interest only mortgage etc etc...

At the end of the day..what's the point of keeping this for the future ...when you're struggling now ?? You can always (if possible) continue to put some of it away in a savings account and, when the situation improves, then increase the level of saving.

We cashed in our endowment a few years ago (&switched to repayment) as it was never going to meet the original amount it was mean too, I'm sure there are much better ways of saving for the future.

Nickynoo1

Hi,
No, unfortunately baby's father doesn't pay a penny, useless t**t. He's in Portugal so cant chase through CSA, have to go through Portuguese courts which is taking forever.

Well i phoned tax credits today and if i went full time i would be a lot better off this year, but because of the way they work next year would be really tight again.

Phone Bank and if i pay interest only for a couple of years payment are around £366 per month. I think I might take this route as it gives me breathing space and I still get to see my boy while he's small. If i do it for 2 years, then go back to repayment i can try and make up the £4000 capital payments when i'm a bit better off. Also I can make overpayments during this period if i'm really good with my budget and dont spend too much.
Also, vodaphone have offered a new contract for £15, and i reckon if i cancel the cover with abbey @ £18 i could get cheaper cover for around £9.

So those 3 things will reduce outgoings by £178 per month, giving me around £300 per month to live on which i think is quite manageable.

Thanks for everyone's help. Makes things clearer when you post on here.

Nickynoo1