wanting to clear debt by half by christmas please help.

welshsarah1

Yay hubby has found a job after being made redundant in august 2 weeks after our third was born. However Im shocked to find out that we are much better off money wise and hes working only 30hrs and at minimum wage which is leaving us with a lot of disposable income left over. Iv been building debt since August. He is having his first pay on 21st april.
We owe 700 to his mum for work done on car.
800 overdraft
695 very
255 next
= 2450
I want to clear at least half the debts by xmas

income is...

work 189 a week
child tax 165 a week
child ben 47.5 a week
working tax 55 a week
housing benefit 52 a week

so 2203.5 a month?


Our outgoings are
45 council tax
450 rent
145 gas and elec
35 car insurance
100 petrol
12 tv licence
10 overdraft fees
40 very
30 next
50 mum
mob (contract until june) 25
sky 30 (tv, internet and phone)
31 water
90 school dinners for 2 children
450 food (inclues baby items, nappys, milk, teething gel, creams, finger foods (dont buy the jars he eats what we eat but buy the baby rusks, rice cakes)
6.99 netflix for kids

1540

and we will have 663.50

all I can think at the moment is wow. so want to pay off debts and save some for birthdays and xmas Please help, Iv never been this well of before!

thecassman86

Hi there!

Firstly, i'd recommend you fill out a proper SOA here : http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php. This is in a format that is easier to work through and will ensure that you don't miss any of those little monthly payments. Fill it in, press "Calculate" then "MSE" and paste the results into this thread

Initial thoughts though:

You're expecting to have over £600/month left over but are expecting it to take until Christmas to only pay off HALF of your £2200 debt!?!? Why?? pay £500/month and you can be FULLY paid up in less than 5 months.

The catalogue debts are going to be incurring huge interest charges - these need to be got rid of ASAP. If you're mum is happy with her current £50 payment then i'd leave that as is and blast through the catalogues.

£450 is a lot of money for food. Even for a family of 5 with a baby (congrats by the way! )... Look at meal planning etc.

£145 gas and electric is high too - have you looked on comparison sites?

Council tax is very low! Why is that?

No contents insurance?? You need some!

Best of luck

charlotte4940

Have you informed benefits of your income changes as they might go down with your income increasing?

Florida2013

Congratulations! I think pp is right - first thing to do would be to confirm that you're still entitled to all your benefits and then complete a detailed SOA.

Only once you know what you REALLY have left over can you plan how to clear those debts!

Brightspark87

its great to have this goal of paying things off, I would love to see your SOA and try and help with encouragement too.