Please help me get a plan together to manage our debt.

penaltychargenotice

Hi everyone.
I have been reading on this forum for a little while now and trying to get to grips with debts we have run up over the last five years. We are paying over £500 a month in CC/loan repayments and struggling to manage our money. I've had a massive lightbulb moment but hubby is a bit slower on the uptake.

About three months ago I started trying the pots of money/piggybanking thing which I understand but I am struggling to make it work in real life. It all adds up on paper but we are still getting further into debt.

We are a family of 2 adults, 4 children, 1 car and hubby has a company car too.
I feel so despairing about it all right now.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,582.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 1,057.12
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.03
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126.98
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.54
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
HB repayment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
fine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124.58
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543.03
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247.43
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.52
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.67
Breakfast club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.17
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
cigerettes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.42

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,639.12


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,851.83

double_mummy

penaltychargenotice wrote: »

Hi everyone.
I have been reading on this forum for a little while now and trying to get to grips with debts we have run up over the last five years. We are paying over £500 a month in CC/loan repayments and struggling to manage our money. I've had a massive lightbulb moment but hubby is a bit slower on the uptake.

About three months ago I started trying the pots of money/piggybanking thing which I understand but I am struggling to make it work in real life. It all adds up on paper but we are still getting further into debt.

We are a family of 2 adults, 4 children, 1 car and hubby has a company car too.
I feel so despairing about it all right now.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,582.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 1,057.12
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.03 how long left on these?
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.13
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 33.00have you shopped around?
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126.98shop around!!!
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.54
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
HB repayment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
fine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124.58have you shopped around?
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543.03are these all min payments?what %s are they on?
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247.43how much longer on this?
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 17.33possible to cut this down?
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.52
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.67
Breakfast club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.17
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
cigerettes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.42quit or switch to tobacco-thats over £1600 a year

Education & Courses

University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One-Offs

Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67

Odds & Sods

Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,639.12


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,851.83

comments in blue

marliepanda

Food is high even with 4 children and the smoking obviously has to go.

You say it adds up on paper but not in real life. That's technically impossible. Keep a spending diary of your actual spends, not what you think, and it will add up. Then you can pinpoint where you are going wrong and where you can make savings.

Jackie132

I think you should avoid or reduce some expenses including Birthday party, smoking, and shopping expenses until you complete pay back the loan, which causing your expenses more than you earn.

Murphy2011

Hi PCN, I have a lot of sympathy with you, we just couldn't figure out where the money went but the debt kept rising. My LBM was the best thing that ever happened to me, we started a DMP & haven't looked back but that doesn't mean it's the solution for you. There do seem to be some obviously things jumping out like the smoking (I put my OH onto roll-ups & he has cut down dramatically!) and you probably could cut down the groceries with meal plans & thrifty cooking. You have 4 children but no life cover which I find frightening tbh, does OH get anything thru work? Your electric is ridiculous, have you checked the meter readings are correct? Same with car insurance, way too high. also what are the HB payment and fine, that's £1200 in a year? You also seem to be putting £ aside for birthdays & Xmas but no home insurance, that is not the right set of priorities at the moment!
The loan and cc payments are the issue, when does the loan finish and are you making minimum payments on cards? Also what interest rates have you got? If you can post a list of the debts including the do that you are paying for then that would be helpful.

Lastly, don't panic. I thought there would never be light at the end if the tunnel but there was & there will be for you and you have done absolutely the right thing asking for help on here, it will be offered.

Toomuchdebt

I have 5 children at home and pay £400 a month on food so I definitely think you can reduce your food shopping.Electric seems high unless you're paying off a debt there too.Is your water metered or rates?Check if your area has the watersure scheme-if you have 3 or more children and are on a meter and get housing benefit or some other benefits(not sure which ones) you can get your bills capped at around £320 a year which would work out cheaper for you.

FireWyrm

Re, the smoking. I know it's hard to give up, but it is a luxury you can ill afford at the moment. Have you thought abut E-cigarettes? About £40 a month in consumables and best of all, clear indications it leads to giving up in the end.

Why are you struggling to make piggy-banking work in real life? That is probably the issue. The term 'budgeting' is just piggy banking without the piggy banks as such. Some of us can do it cold (I cant) and some of us need different bank accounts and clearly demarcated spending. What is causing your problem and likely therein lies the answer to your problems overall.

There are several coping mechanisms which you can employ such as meal planning, different accounts, excel spreadsheets, real pots of money etc. For instance, the yearly school uniform bill can be eye watering and I find it helpful to budget well in advance for it. It only takes £40 a month, but by the time it comes around, there's £480 for you to spend as necessary.

You can shave money here and there off the SOA, but if you cant even stick to that in reality, it is useless. You need to find out where your money is going and on what exactly. All those little trips to the shops add up, the unexpected new school shoes, the school event etc. Those are also almost guaranteed requirements which you must account for in order to stand any chance of making headway.

penaltychargenotice

Thanks for all your replies everyone. I am going to try and answer questions in my next post.

penaltychargenotice

Hopefully I can answer questions here:

Regarding the mobile phones, one contract is due to finish in May 2014 which will reduce the bill by £23.00 a month. The rest is for two phone contracts one for approx £6 a month and the other for £12 a month.

I forgot to add the electricity is a dual fuel bill so covers gas and electricity. I am unsure of the actual division. We recently changed suppliers to reduce our bill.

The car insurance is due to hubby having had a crash in our last car and also having had a ban and points previously. We also had no "no claims bonus" when we bought our current car.

The pocket money is £1 per child per week. They don't actually see the money as it goes towards holiday spends. Although as I am so crap with money it often doesn't make it to their accounts.
:-(

It is hubby who smokes, he has tried to give up numerous times and has tried an E cig but didn't find it helpful. He is trying to halve his smokes at the moment.

I am really stuck with reducing the food bill any further. It was about £150 a week and now it averages at about £115. I do menu plan and use Aldi/Tesco. Not sure what to do next with this one.

The HB is our repaying of an overpayment from three years ago. It will take another four years to pay it off but it is interest free.
The fine has another two months to run and then will be paid up.

This is our debt breakdown.

Credit card Amount APR Monthly payment
Barclaycard 1- 1050.00 - 29.9% 27.00
Barclaycard 2- 6920.00 - 19.9 160.00
Tesco - 3600.00 - 1.527 (monthly) 71.00
Visa - 2970.00 - 3.43 (monthly) 135.00
AA - 3400.00 - 1.3133(monthly) 76.00
RbS - 310.00 - 1.385(monthly) 10.00

We have two loans,
Tesco, current balance £2000. and past payment Oct 2015
Rbs current balance £4500 another four years to pay.

penaltychargenotice

Also to FireWyrm - you are correct. It is the actual seperating money out that I struggle with especially as hubby may need to spend something while at work (often away overnight) and I don't realise where it's come from until I see the bank statement.

I've made approx £30 on ebay last month which I will use to buy my daughters birthday present as all my pots are empty. So even though it says on the SOA that there is money in little pots for things there isn't in real life.

spacey2012

You look like a candidate for bankruptcy, this lot is going to take 20 years + to pay off.