SOA-please help me reduce costs

lindsaygalaxy

Hi

Please please please help me to cut the cost of things.

I intend to go bankrupt soon, but I am waiting for a personal injury claim from a car accident in feb, and dont want to go BR now incase i get a settlement.

here is my SOA: For me and my nearly 3 year old daughter

Income:
Wages: 1204
CB: 78
T/C: 511
HB: 138
Total: £1932

Outgoings:
Rent 775 ( cant get council house as too few points, average rent in area)
CT 72
Insurance 14
Water 30
Gas/Elec 50
Home phone 22
mobile 50
Car Insurance 40
Car Tax 9
Petrol 108 ( a lot of this is for work)
Debt Plan 100
Nursery 267 ( luckily my mum has her 3 days a week for free)
TV licence 11
Internet £5
Housekeeping 303
Emergencies/clothes/haircuts etc £43
Old Electric Bill ( £862 my ex left me with) £33

This Totals 1932

Remaining = 0

I also have sky but pay nothing as a friend works there and had a special offer on for friends.

HELP. If an emergency comes up im in trouble.

hypno06

Hi there, the only things that jump out at me are your mobile at £50 which seems very high, and your housekeeping at over £300. If this is for you and a toddler, then I would reckon you can easily shave £100 off this, or even bring it down to half.

Have a look at the old style board on here, plan meals, use cheaper alternatives (without reducing quality) and you will see this coming down. My shopping budget for this month is £150 and that is for 2 adults, a teenager and an 11 year old, plus a cat, and includes food, cleaning stuff etc! It can be done, and will give you "emergency" money in your budget!

I am sure others will come and give you plenty of ideas!

Karmacat

Hi LG - the same for me, actually. You're spending just over £70 a month on phones - its the mobile thats shooting you up to that level, there has to be a better deal around. And yes, if housekeeping means food etc, that can come way down. As hypno says, check out old style here - it means more cooking from scratch, so you may have ingredients to buy initially, but that amount honestly will halve without too much trouble, just a bit of effort.

Good luck!

bananakinz

When is your daughter 3? You will be entitled to funding for nursery 5 sessions a week so this will reduce.

I agree with the housekeeping, we do 2 adults and 2 kids for less a month.
And same with mobile phone - are you in a contract?

Good luck!

Spendless

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Hi

Please please please help me to cut the cost of things.

I intend to go bankrupt soon, but I am waiting for a personal injury claim from a car accident in feb, and dont want to go BR now incase i get a settlement.

here is my SOA: For me and my nearly 3 year old daughter

Income:
Wages: 1204
CB: 78
T/C: 511
HB: 138
Total: £1932

Outgoings:
Rent 775 ( cant get council house as too few points, average rent in area)
CT 72
Insurance 14
Water 30
Gas/Elec 50
Home phone 22
mobile 50
Car Insurance 40
Car Tax 9
Petrol 108 ( a lot of this is for work)
Debt Plan 100
Nursery 267 ( luckily my mum has her 3 days a week for free)
TV licence 11
Internet £5
Housekeeping 303
Emergencies/clothes/haircuts etc £43
Old Electric Bill ( £862 my ex left me with) £33

This Totals 1932

Remaining = 0

I also have sky but pay nothing as a friend works there and had a special offer on for friends.

HELP. If an emergency comes up im in trouble.

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not understanding how going bankrupt is going to help? As far as I can see you'd just be £100 better off (the money being paid to debt plan). As others have said you could find that money by looking at phones and housekeeping as starting points. You could also look into getting a better deal on your other bills such as gas/electric and insurances. How long is it before your daughter goes to f-time school as that will then reduce your childcare costs. You also don't seem to be in receipt of child maintainance from childs father.

chunky79

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Hi

Please please please help me to cut the cost of things.

I intend to go bankrupt soon, but I am waiting for a personal injury claim from a car accident in feb, and dont want to go BR now incase i get a settlement.

here is my SOA: For me and my nearly 3 year old daughter

Income:
Wages: 1204
CB: 78
T/C: 511
HB: 138
Total: £1932

Outgoings:
Rent 775 ( cant get council house as too few points, average rent in area)
CT 72
Insurance 14
Water 30
Gas/Elec 50
Home phone 22
mobile 50
Car Insurance 40
Car Tax 9
Petrol 108 ( a lot of this is for work)
Debt Plan 100
Nursery 267 ( luckily my mum has her 3 days a week for free) TV licence 11
Internet £5
Housekeeping 303 You can cut this drastically, i spend around the same as this for 2 adults and 4 children 1 on formula and in nappies.
Emergencies/clothes/haircuts etc £43
Old Electric Bill ( £862 my ex left me with) £33

This Totals 1932

Remaining = 0

I also have sky but pay nothing as a friend works there and had a special offer on for friends.

HELP. If an emergency comes up im in trouble.

For me if there is only 2 of you, your housekeeping could become less than half of that.
Start to do a spending diary and also make a shopping list, meal plan and only buy for those meals. It will save you a fortune believe me, My bill used to come in at around £500 its now between £250 and £300 and as i have previously stated that is for 6 of us.
Nip into old style board and get your tips from them, there are loads of tips thats save a fortune in the end. I used to go barmy on nice smelling cleaning products, now all i use is stardrops and my house doesn't smell and is very clean. i now also use white vinager for the windows, mirrors, stainless steel taps etc. So much cheaper than sprays and just as quick and easy.

lindsaygalaxy

Thank you for all your advise.

i am going banktupt because i have £25,000 debt plus student loan which I will never be able to pay off.

With the phone bill, im just not very good at keeping it under its limit! My contract is £35, and that means i get the broadband for £5, but i always seem to go over it. Does anyone know if you can get a bar level set on contracts? Its still got 12 months of contract let do cant get out of it.

alwaysonthego_2

I thought that you can't get rid of a student loan even if you go bankrupt?

anniestar

alwaysonthego wrote: »

I thought that you can't get rid of a student loan even if you go bankrupt?

I htink that is correct. Student loans are not included. They (sadly) HAVE:eek: , to be paid back.
Regarding the food budget you can easily trim htat back significantly. Try the OS board which is fab. However there are enough OS'ers arround here htat can give you hints. Good luck anyway.