Please Help Me Find A Way out!!!

pnq06

Hi There,

I was wondering if someone could please help me to find a more managable solution to my monthly outgoings....

My partner works full time and I am not currently working and 7 months pregnant.

Our Income is-

£1200.00 Monthly (Partners wage after tax and N.I)
£50.00 Monthly (Tax credits)

Total Monthly Income-

£1250.00

Our Outgoings are-

£385.00 Monthly (Rent)
£214.17 Monthly (Personal loan)
£92.00 Monthly (Council Tax)
£15.00 Monthly (Sky)
£88.00 Monthly (Powergen/electric)
£22.90 Monthly (Water)
£25.00 Monthly (Internet)
£185.04 Monthly (Child support)
£10.95 Monthly (TV license)
£14.08 Monthly (Legal aid)
£20.00 Monthly (Gym membership)
£9.37 Monthly (House insurance)

Total monthly outgoings-

£1081.51

The remaining money has to cover food shopping, petrol, travel allowances for me (as don't drive), clothing and any household stuff that might brake in the month or need replacing!

We also have a £2000.00 overdraft which we are always in as our income doesn't cover the cost to get out! The interest on that each month is approx £30.00 so I guess our outgoings are actually- £111.51

I know i am very lucky as my debts may seem like nothing and for that I am grateful but with a baby on the way and nothing yet brought its kind of scary!!!

(Forgot to say that we managed to clear 2 credit cards last year thanks to the help on here :j )

Any help will be much appreciated as I'm almost at my wits end trying to save...

Many Thanks xx

hypno06

Hello! Have you put your details in www.entitledto.com to see if you are able to get any other benefits?

Put in your current details and also as they will be after the baby is born so you can see what you will be getting in.

ltm07

Any way that you can cancel Sky,or are you still in a 12 month sontract? You will still receive all the free to air channels if you cancel. Also Virgin media doing Broadband for £10 a month for 12 months. Could you cancel the gym for a bit,or freeze the payments? Hope this helps a little.

Reya

Firstly, well done on clearing those two credit cards already. That's no mean feat!

Secondly, there will be other, more experienced MSE members along soon, who can probably offer more advice than I can, but I'll see what I can do to help

pnq06 wrote: »

£1200.00 Monthly (Partners wage after tax and N.I)
£50.00 Monthly (Tax credits) Have you checked at [SIZE=-1]www.entitledto.co.uk/ to make sure you're getting everything you can?[/SIZE]

Total Monthly Income-

£1250.00

Our Outgoings are-

£385.00 Monthly (Rent)
£214.17 Monthly (Personal loan) What's the interest rate on this, and how much is left to go?
£92.00 Monthly (Council Tax)
£15.00 Monthly (Sky) Can you ditch this and switch to Freeview?
£88.00 Monthly (Powergen/electric) This is very high, especially for just electric (unless you're overpaying to catch up?) I pay £41 a month for both gas and electric, and that's with Powergen, too. Try uswitch and go via a cashback site such as Quidco.
£22.90 Monthly (Water)
£25.00 Monthly (Internet) As above, can you get this cheaper?
£185.04 Monthly (Child support) Ouch! I'm guessing this is a CSA payment.
£10.95 Monthly (TV license)
£14.08 Monthly (Legal aid) Is this for an ongoing thing, repayment, or pre-payment just-in-case? If the last, can it be ditched?
£20.00 Monthly (Gym membership) Got to go, if you can wriggle out of it.
£9.37 Monthly (House insurance) Buildings, or contents? The latter would be more important (imho)

Total monthly outgoings-

£1081.51

The remaining money has to cover food shopping, petrol, travel allowances for me (as don't drive), clothing and any household stuff that might brake in the month or need replacing! Can you break this down a little more? Dig out old shopping receipts and see just how much of that is shopping etc. Keep a spending diary to see where it all goes, and you might be surprised. Head to the Old Style board on here for tips on feeding a family very cheaply.

We also have a £2000.00 overdraft which we are always in as our income doesn't cover the cost to get out! The interest on that each month is approx £30.00 so I guess our outgoings are actually- £111.51 Is there any way you can get an account with overdraft elsewhere, that doesn't charge? I know it's hard, especially when you're already in the mire a bit, but it might be worth checking around.

My other suggestions are to join cashback sites and do daily clicks. It might only be a couple of quid a week, but every little helps. Also, ebay everything that isn't nailed down and try carbooting, too. Survey sites are good for cashback and vouchers, and definitely join Pigsback: it has weekly clickthroughs and competitions, and you can take your rewards in the form of vouchers from Boots etc (handy to treat yourself and the forthcoming baby!) There's a Pigsback competition answers thread on the Freebies forum, to help you out

You don't mention phone calls, either landline or mobile. Are landline calls included in your internet package, and do you use mobiles? Savings to be made there, too, if so.

HTH, and I'm sure someone else will come along very soon with more detailed info.

Robflh

Hi pnq06

I seem to be saying this a lot lately but do not worry about the debt. I know that is easy to say and very difficult to do but worrying about it will do nothing to help you manage these debts.

I am also in debt, so I know just how difficult that is to do but worrying about it can very easily make you anxious and or depressed and you have enough on your plate with the pregnancy.

You have said that you are not working at the moment but was you working before the pregnancy, do you have a job to go back to and if not are you going to go back to work after the baby has been born.

To make suggestions to help you it would help us to know if this is a temporary drop in income, a long-term drop or just the extra expense of having a baby.

As already pointed out, we also need to know what you are paying for food, petrol, travel, clothing and any other expenses that you can put down as a monthly outgoing.

Can you clarify what the limit is on the overdraft, how much it is now and what the APR is for it and the same goes for the personal loan. Please put the £30 interest per month and the other outgoings into you SOA.

One other thing, do you still have use of a credit card and if so, what is the APR on it and what is the limit for it.

ltm07

I agree with Rob. Don't worry about the debt. OH & i are £32k in debt & we were at each others throats as the debts were getting me down big time. However through the help from this website &people on here & also cutting out a few 'luxuries'( i say luxuries but they can't be that luxurious as we aren't missing them at all)(sky sports,national & local newspapers) we are starting to get on the right track to sorting this mess out . The whatsthecost website is a great way of planning how to best pay your debts off. Good luck.

chevalier

Ref overdraft, can your OH get an A&L current account? They will match your current overdraft at 0% for a year, which would save you a fair bit in charges. Also if you go via www.quidco.com, then you can get £50 cash back too.

Ref the baby sign up to your local freecycle group - www.freecycle.org there are always people offering various baby things on my area. All you have to do is pick them up, the items themselves are free!

Also don't be proud if you get offered hand me downs from other friends/relative who have older children. My DS1 had virtually no new clothes for the first 18 months, because I got given clothes from two friends. Fab! We also had a family cot so didn't have to buy that.

See if there is a National Childbirth Trust group in your area, as they often have nearly new sales where you can get stuff fairly cheap.

You may have a charity run, or social services run furniture store in your area where you may find cot etc cheap in there.

Remember to get your child benefit claim in as soon as possible after the birth as they only back date it 28 days I think. Also you will get the baby grant too which will help a bit. Also I think if you get tax credits, you get extra when the baby is born for the first year.

Hope this helps
chev

pnq06

Thanks everyone for the replies- I feel like a weight has been lifted just by talking and admitting that we have a money (Or several) problems!!!

Unfortunatley I have tried to cancel sky and my internet as I realise they are not essentials to life but can't do so as I am tied in a contract...

My partner has also tried to cancel his gym membership but can't as he is in contract... I have showed him that walking/jogging costs nothing but its a bit to late!!!

Thanks for the link to entitled to- Its not playing ball at the mo, can't seem to get it past next! So I shall try again soon...

I still owe £15,420.28 on my loan at 6.4% apr (Can I just if optional credit insurance is neccesary? Or can it be cancelled?)

I got wacked with huge bill from powergen recently- I was paying DD of £50 which seemed fine but the 3 winter months I had my storage heaters on constant so only got myself to blame and £88 is the lowest they'll go.

Stuck with the csa payment :-(

I'll phone legal aid tomorrow to see how long or how much is left.

House insurance is contents only.

An average shop at tesco's is between £120- £140 Monthly.

Luckily my partner works for his parents so we get most of the petrol and car insurance/tax paid for but any unexpected repairs and long journeys we have to pay for.

I didn't realise that other banks could/would take you on if you were already overdrawn so I will definatly search around!!!

Although I did make a mistake above my overdraft is actually £2700.00 and not £2000.00 :-( The interest is 18.6% (Thats shocking!!!)

I think I've covered all the above questions.. Thanks ever so much your help and time- I shall have a nose about some of the suggested other areas on the forum... xx

Robflh

Hi pnq06

The loan is at quite a low APR and at over £15k there is not much chance or need to move it to a credit card. The insurance only pays out if you loose your job or you are off sick for more then two months but it would be best to get that confirmed first.

If that is the case and as you are not working, there is no point having it. Cancel the insurance and get them to backdate it as far as you can.

If you still have a credit card, see what percentage they will give you for a balance transfer of £2,700 (Overdraft). There are normally two, a low one for a few months and a higher one for the life of the balance either will be a lot less then 18.6%. These days there is a charge for BT’s of about 2%.

£2,700 paid back over four years at an APR of 6% plus 2% equals 6.5% per year. Over ten years it would be 6% plus 2% divided by ten 6.2%. I am sure someone will point out that it is not quite like that but I think it is close enough

If you no longer have a credit card, you would need to apply for one. If it has a 0% offer, you will need to work out how much you will be able to pay off in the 0% period and how much the interest will cost you until the debt has been paid off. Remember that it is a variable APR and it can go up at anytime

Then you need to know what percentage they would give you for the life of the balance from day one (Ie no 0%.) and how much interest that would cost you. This is not variable and it will not go up but neither will it go down.

pnq06 wrote: »

I had my storage heaters on constant so only got myself to blame and £88 is the lowest they'll go.

Wintertime my heating goes off about 20:30. If it goes off much later then that, we are too hot under our duvets. When I go to the toilet in the middle of the night, it is not cold but neither is it warm.

I know you have a baby on the way but in the winter I wear a jumper in doors and if I only need to wear a shirt the house is too hot.

You have said rent and not mortgage. If it is a council house find out about getting the house better insulated. That is assuming it is not already.

pnq06

Thanks for that info...

Unfortunately my house is privately rented and the winter months here were truely unbearable even with extra layers of clothing. The storage heaters needed to be on practically all the time cos if they were turned off they would take until the next day to come back on again.... No good if your cold there and then but if I would of known the cost of using them then believe me I wouldn't of touched them!!!

We're trying to move but the local authorities don't think we're entitled to a house from them, so we have to save a deposit... hmmm can't see that happening any time soon :rotfl:

What o you think the best way to clear my bank overdraft would be? Its £2700.00 on a high apr so would a credit card benefit us in this situation?

Hopefully I'll cotton on to this money saving stuff soon- its just so foreign

lynzpower

It definately looks to me like you should be recieving council tax benefit and housing benefit, if not the full amount at the least a contribution.

If you privately rent you can get the housing benefit paid to you directly,- council tax benefit, should give you a reduced bill.