Maternity - spanner in the works

HGBeast

Thanks for all your lovely replies

£200 on entertainment is too much you are right. This weekend we have both turned down birthday nights out I estimate I saved £12 train fare say £20 drinks so feel quite chuffed.

OH now has some Saturday work which meant he didn't want to go out Sat night another £20 saved.

I do feel mean saying we can't go out especially as we won't be able to go out when bubba is here. £200 was based on £25 each for a weekend to spend how we liked, I think your going to be right in telling me this needs to be stopped

We do need 2 cars as we both work - I looked at getting the train in but more expensive I'm contemplating selling his and getting a diesel but the cars a good runner and I reckon we'd only get £600 for it.

I'm £1000 in my overdraft this month :eek: I'm hoping to put petrol and food for the month on one of the 22% then move the balance to 0% eradicating the overdraft.

We live in e south east our rent is quite cheap for where we live and I negotiated a rent freeze this year.

My OH does work but he's on the government training thing so min wages he's not qualified in nothing else so at least he is working towards a better paid job only 18 months left!

I need to do a soa for maternity leave.

Barclays sent me a letter saying I've been approved for a 30k loan.

Pay of debts would leave me 20k to play with which could be used to pay off the loans monthly and help with the rent.

Baby is quite happy with second hand stuff, in fact all our furniture etc is second hand and nothing wrong with it xxx

Thanks for your comments xx

Sedge123

I wouldn't go down the loan route, just adding more debt to the problem and don't forget you need to be able to afford the repayments!

HGBeast

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet before maternity
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 600
Child benefit ".......................100
Benefits................................0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1200
Monthly Expense Details
Rent ................................825
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Council tax............................. 136
Electricity + gas............................. 44 elec 33 gas
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... (Includeed in Sky )
Mobile phone............................ 16.34
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 63 this includes telephone internet and sky sports (cheaper than him going to the pub)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 30 (for 2 vehicles)
Car Insurance........................... 25 (for 2 vehicles)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 16.66average
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance.....................0 we rent nothing worth nicking inthe house and dont have receipts for any of it anyway!
Life assurance ......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 8 nieces nephews £20 each a year including xmas and partne pressie £21.66
Haircuts................................ £5 i cut my partners)
Entertainment........................... £0
Holiday.................................£0
Emergency fund.......................... 0(I know there should be something here)
Capital one credit card.............................£25
Tesco credit card £25 (min 0%)
RBS credit card £50 (min 0%)
Nationwide loan £438
Barclaycard £25
Total monthly expenses.................. £2000

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

Secured & HP Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
loan...........................5258.64....438.22.. .... .4.8%
Capital one cc........................1523......100........22%
Tesco cc......................1741......25....... 0%
RBS...........................2281.22......55..... .. .0%
Barclays..........................725......200.... ... .22%
Total unsecured debts..........11528.....818.22


Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

mary_hinge

If your OH is a student do you get 25% of council tax? you would also be entitled to some housing benefit and possibly some tax credits.

I would consider going down to one car when you finish work, even if you can SORN it to save running costs will help.

Presents can be reduced, £20 each per year is alot, with sale shopping and planning ahead you could half this easily. Have alook at survey sites like Ipsos, valued opinions, Pinecone...... they usually pay out in amazon/love to shop vouchers. I have 3 children and this helps me afford their presents!

Can you negotiate a cheaper deal with Sky? if not you really can't afford the package you have.....

henna123

Hi, just a rough guide for you. Having a 11 week old and a 21 month old. nappies are around 6-10 PER DAY to start with so depending on where you buy from around £30 a month. if you need to bottle feed the milk is around £8 a carton depending which brand so approx another £40 a month. keep an eye out on hotuk deals as we managed to get all our size 2 nappies on offer before the baby was born.
you should recieve 90% of your wages for the first 6 weeks then smp, although definately check your companies maternity options as I had some friends who were on full pay for 3 months then down to 90% then smp.
I would save the money rather than overpay between now and the baby arriving as there is nothing worse than being housebound once the baby arrives.

Congratulations x
P x

Tixy

You say you are currently overpaying your debts, however on your current SoA you seem to have a shortfall. That suggests that something is wrong with your SoA.
I'd have another look through it and check bank statements etc to see if you have overestimated something. It might also be worth keeping a spending diary so you can see where it differs from your budget.

I can't see that considering a £30k loan to pay off £11k of debts is going to help you in the long run. I do see the logic that you would have funds left over to help through maternity but I'd really be focusing on having a clearer look at your post baby SoA. I would check out in more detail what benefits you will be entitled to and have a really careful look at what you can reduce to a minimum for the months you are off work.

bargainbetty

I've got to ask the question - have your parents repaid the money owed that began your difficulties? If not, can this be recouped?

You will really need to establish exactly what your income could be during maternity. Can your OH defer for a year and take care of the child so that you don't have to take full maternity? Would he be able to study and look after the little one? Once you have a full idea of what your options are then you are in a better position to do this.

I can see that you don't want to give up the entertainment, but you are living beyond your means as it is if your SOA is correct, and cuts will have to be made to get you into the black on a monthly basis, much less overall.

To be honest, you should not look at taking out more debt. If you can refinance what you have so you pay less monthly but over a longer time then this would give you a little breathing room, but cost you more in interest. This is not always the recommend route on MSE, but in this situation it might well be the lesser of two evils.

kindofagilr

Once baby is here if you are only getting £500 per month and OH £600 per month, so £1100 total you would def qualify for tax credit.

If you go here http://taxcredits.hmrc.gov.uk/Qualify/DIQHousehold.aspx on monday 7th April which is the start of the tax year and put in those figures and make up a baby dob make it the 7th april, then it will tell you roughly what you can expect for 2014-2015 for tax credits