Thriftkitten by name NOT by nature....

Thriftkitten

egrescrimp wrote: »

You could increase your groceries to £400 to help with what luvchocolate mentioned.

Your clothing budget is far too low, with their being 3 of you go for £75 (you could possibly try £100 but that may get pushed down).

What is in your other child care related costs? £40 seems pretty low! specially for things like school dinners, school trips, after school clubs.

Add a holiday fund of £40, £20 for you and £10 each for your children.

I notice you don't have contents insurance, you may not have it now due to expenses but you can put down £10 to £15 for this.

Hi thanks for that, I use the child maintenance for things like clothes and any school trips/after school clubs, but yes I will list it.
I don't have any child care costs because kids are 12 and 16 the £40 quoted is for school dinner money/packed lunch. As far as a holiday fund... would they see that more necessary, surely if i can't pay my bills, i shouldn't be thinking about a holiday... the ciggies I will have to make up somewhere else... in a perfect world i'd like to quit, however, with the stress I'm feeling it would be a total fallacy to try. Thanks for the help will have another juggle with it and see if I can make it a bit better/more realistic.

longtermplanner

Sorry but it is highly unlikely that the OR will let you make the HP payments on a car that costs that much.

I suggest you need to stop making any payments to your unsecured debts with the aim of buying a cheap (£1000) car that the OR will let you keep. When you nearly have enough, stop that month's payment to the HP car to get the rest. Then the HP car will be repossessed and the debt will be wiped out along with the rest when you go bankrupt.

Thriftkitten

longtermplanner wrote: »

Sorry but it is highly unlikely that the OR will let you make the HP payments on a car that costs that much.

I suggest you need to stop making any payments to your unsecured debts with the aim of buying a cheap (£1000) car that the OR will let you keep. When you nearly have enough, stop that month's payment to the HP car to get the rest. Then the HP car will be repossessed and the debt will be wiped out along with the rest when you go bankrupt.

Thank you for that advice, this was my train of thought, however it is really a scary thought to stop paying and for a while it incurs more charges and that worries me. I am awaiting a call back from a stepchange advisor today, so hoping they will also confirm this.
Most of my unsecured debts are paid by DD do you suggest I cancel these? or do I need to contact the companies first before doing this to send them a SOA and offer a token £1 payment until the BR gets rolling...

egrescrimp

Providing you actually go bankrupt, it doesn't mean you then have to lead a life of poverty and eat bargain basement foods and sit in the house for the 12 months (36 months if you get an IPA) and do nothing.

The money you get in is allowed to give you a reasonable standard of living, nothing excessive as surplus money goes into an IPA if you have more than £20 spare. Please keep in mind that things like Child Benefit will make up part of your income, so it all needs to be accounted for in your SOA.

Having a holiday, normally UK based is allowed in bankruptcy so please make the most of it even if you don't go on holiday during your bankruptcy it's another £40 you can save each month for those emergencies that will and do crop up.

If you stop paying and are going bankrupt, worrying about extra charges is pointless as they will be wiped out in your bankruptcy When I went bankrupt, StepChange said I could either pay my creditors a token payment of £1 or not pay them anything. I chose not to pay my creditors anything once it was established I was going bankrupt and my examiner had no problem with that

If you have two children, you should really account for 1 after school club each, 1 school trip each per month. I know they don't go on school trips every month but they don't come cheap, a 3 day over night school trip recently cost us £80! if you don't budget for things like this, you will struggle when these things come around. How much would it cost your children to have school dinners 5 days a week? you don't have to put them on school dinners, but its something you can account for in your SOA.

If you end up getting a car for under £1,000, then you'll also need to factor in things like road tax which will be £20 to £25 per month and maybe more depending upon the cars age.

I see you have a £90 allowance for mobile phone also, this maybe tricky to get through - you could all switch to pay-as-you-go from someone like GiffGaff and get unlimited calls and texts for £12 each per month, £36 per month combined. Some OR's do allow Sky TV through, some don't - you could leave it present and chance it with your OR

I see no Emergency fund either, add £30 here - I missed that earlier, also after further thought try and push your housekeeping/groceries to £450

Prescriptions, chuck in £10 here also

Hair cuts, £40 to £45 per month - remember getting your hair cut costs money and it costs more for females to get theirs cut (thats not taking into consideration everything else women get done at the hairdressers lol, I'm just covering a basic cut)

Please consider the above and remember you don't need to live in poverty if you go bankrupt

Thriftkitten

Hi Just an update, I have just had a very nice hour long phone call from a step-change representative who went through everything on my SOA, RE groceries he told me I would need to bring it to approx £300 per month and shave off a few others.
Based on this i have £1929 coming in per month and £1884 going out, so not really much to save for as far as a vehicle because an OR would not let me keep the £170.00 HP for my vehicle for work..
The options available to me are either BR or DMP. DMP would enable me to keep the car but offer a lower payment which would go toward something else and I would be debt free in 7 yrs as opposed to 36 yrs to pay off my debt struggling on my own. It was nice to speak to someone, however it all seemed a bit rushed and I found myself not understanding everything.. So I am still unsure which option to choose.. Obviously I would prefer to be free somewhat after 12 months like with BR, but the attraction of the safety of the car for work which is my living is also something, however, knowing that these repayments will drag on for 7yrs with probably all kinds of letters and threats of further intervention is not something my brain can cope with for another long period of time.... help advice welcomed.

egrescrimp

Perhaps get a second opinion by calling back or even calling the national debtline : https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/Pages/default.aspx

£300 works out at £25 per head, per week for food, toiletries etc - 1 person on their own can claim between £150 and £200 so 3 of you can easily achieve £400 and the OR would be happy with that no doubt Don't take everything that StepChange say about budgets as being set in ice! my budget is very different to the one agreed with StepChange and works more in my favour than the one they drew up with me (My OR even helped make it that way). I've still got an IPA, but it's very reasonable considering I was paying out way in excess of 50% of my income previously on credit agreements.

7 years isn't that long, but if it's going to mean you struggle - then thats something to consider! something to weigh up, is having a brand spanking new car worth potentially struggling for when you can get a decent car for less than £1000 and be free of the burden you find yourself facing? they also don't have to default your account under the DMP straight away and that would trash your credit file for longer, 6 years after bankruptcy they would all fall off your credit file allowing you to start applying for mainstream credit again.

Something to also consider, 4 or 5 years down the line you may find your circumstances have changed and you can no longer afford the DMP and you're then back to this stage again considering your options and having paid the money into your DMP and not really having anything to show for it!

Get a second opinion, it doesn't hurt and then pick which is going to benefit you and your family the most

Thriftkitten

Ok so the next course of action.... could I start going through my unsecured debts ie sky, cc,overdraft etc and explaining that I a currently seeking advice from professionals ie step-change and would like to offer a token payment as i am unable to continue with regular minimum payments????? do I offer to send my SOA to these companies as well as stopping my direct debits for these minimum payments? sorry if I have mentioned this but my brain is in turbo overdrive on a major roundabout with no exit.:eek:

egrescrimp

You don't need to send your SOA, but if you want todo it don't do so until your SOA is finalised and at this stage it appears to be far from finalised

If you chose to cancel your direct debits and the companies start calling you, which they will! just explain you are currently seeking advice from debt charities and give them your StepChange reference and they should then leave you alone for 30 days, they don't have to stop contacting you but most will put your account on hold for 30 days and then start bombarding you every day when that expires.

If you want todo minimum payments, make sure you do it in a way that the companies cannot take further money by you saving a debit card on their systems for example. Use your online banking to pay £1 where possible. Pay all your essentials such as Rent, Council Tax, Electricity etc and what you manage to save by not paying your creditors put to one side to possibly pay your bankruptcy fees if you take that option.

With regards to your overdraft, I'd recommend getting a bank account sorted with another bank so that the bank doesn't take money off you as it comes in. Check out the co-op cash minder account, but dont mention you are considering bankruptcy or the barclays cash account. Use their switching service for the essential direct debits you plan to keep, along with having your wages paid into the new account.

Good luck and post up your revised SOA when you get chance

Thriftkitten

egrescrimp wrote: »

You don't need to send your SOA, but if you want todo it don't do so until your SOA is finalised and at this stage it appears to be far from finalised

If you chose to cancel your direct debits and the companies start calling you, which they will! just explain you are currently seeking advice from debt charities and give them your StepChange reference and they should then leave you alone for 30 days, they don't have to stop contacting you but most will put your account on hold for 30 days and then start bombarding you every day when that expires

Many thanks for your help.... is it only the unsecure debt that I do this with... Obviously the HP, rent, council tax and living stuff have to continue.

egrescrimp

Thriftkitten wrote: »

Many thanks for your help.... is it only the unsecure debt that I do this with... Obviously the HP, rent, council tax and living stuff have to continue.

Yes, if you chose bankruptcy as your option I'd stop paying the HP on the car and save for another car and your bankruptcy fees.

Good luck with everything, if you have anymore questions fire away - we are here to help and not judge in anyway