New DFW - any suggestions much appreciated

kayak83

Hi, I’m new here but have looked through the forums and the site a lot recently and found it very helpful so thought I’d sign up. Hope I've got this in the right place!
I split with my ex about 18 months ago and now am left with mortgage and bills to pay on my own. I have done many of the things suggested on site/forums and am running out of ideas. Regrettably I spent a lot of money last year after we split up but I have made some new friends and met my new girlfriend so I don’t regret the time just the spending!
I did help my friend out at a hotel until recently when he left. I am trying to find a second job (closer to home) for evening and weekends in local pubs, hotels or even delivering pizzas. My new girlfriends grandfather works for council and is hopefully getting me a accounts job that I can do from home (accountant by trade) – hope to do this as well as a my full time job and a second job.
Luckily I live very close to my full time job so fuel costs for my car are very low, and I try to walk as much as I can (not enough though maybe!!). I am considering selling my car and getting something with a smaller engine (currently 1.6) to save on tax, insurance etc. I am hoping to get £2k for my car, but obviously not wanting to spend more than what I get for it on a new one. I thought about getting a cheap run around for couple of hundred pounds, but worried that could be expensive to maintain if things go wrong. My thoughts are that if it costs £250 and last a year it has only cost around 70p a day!?!?!
I am currently in process of trying to reclaim bank charges – hopefully around £800.
I seem to ‘just get by’ each month with no room for saving or paying more than minimum payment on debts.
I seem to be running out of things to Ebay and think I have about met my limit for the time being on quidco.
I also think I have made most of the cut backs I can make too.


Income:
Salary: 1645 - after tax/NI
2nd Job: 350 – need to replace this income
Other: 100 – Ebay, quidco, other little jobs I can find.

Total: £2095

Out goings:
Mortgage: 922 (this is the killer!!!)
Scottish Widows: 8
Council Tax: 91 – 25% single persons discount
Utilities: 60
TV license: 26 – DD for 6 months
Car Insurance: 55
Pet Insurance: 16
Contents Ins: 15
Maintenance Charge: 71 – inc. Building ins, garden, electric gates etc (has to be paid)
BT: 35
Mobile: 30
Lottery subscription: 16 – know it not essential but just know I’ll win if I stop
Food: 200 – think I need to knock this down

Total £1545

Debts:
Loan: 295 Outstanding: £17000
Barclaycard: 35 Outstanding: £1400
Mint: 85 Outstanding: £3900
MBNA: 15 Outstanding: £4000 – intro rate, guess will shoot up to around £90 in Nov
Abbey: 15 Outstanding: £700
Egg: 0 Outstanding: £0 – like the look of that one
Overdraft: 0 £500 O/D which I do use each month but is interest free!

Total: £445

Left over: 2095
-1345
445
£105

Although this left over £105 seems to disappear each month too. And some months I am even forced to use a credit card!

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Storm

Can you let us know what the aprs on the various credit cards are and your limits? You maight be able to do a bit of a shuffle.

As the Egg is at zero it's probably worth looking at cancelling this, unless you're coming up to your 'anniversary' with them as you'll get a 0% transfer deal.

If you send for your credit report (you can get this free from experion for a month online trial, go through Pigsback for some points) you can see what sort of shape it's in to see if applying for a low LOB card is a possibility.

Mortgage: 922 (this is the killer!!!) Could you get a lodger in?
Scottish Widows: 8 What's this for?
Council Tax: 91 – 25% single persons discount
Utilities: 60 Check you're on the best deal
TV license: 26 – DD for 6 months
Car Insurance: 55 This is high - follow Martin's tips when it's time to renew
Pet Insurance: 16 Is this absolutely neccesary, and if so is it the cheapest?
Contents Ins: 15 Is this the cheapest?
Maintenance Charge: 71 – inc. Building ins, garden, electric gates etc (has to be paid)
BT: 35 Guessing phone & BB - this could be lowered by getting basic BT phone package & BB deals start from about £10 a month
Mobile: 30 This is high - see if you can lower your tariff or go PAYG
Lottery subscription: 16 – know it not essential but just know I’ll win if I stop Have a look at the lottery tool at www.whatsthecost.com - nearly £200 a year is a lot!
Food: 200 – think I need to knock this down Yep! Have a look at the old style board for recipe suggestions & meal planning ideas

What's really worrying is without the 2nd job & Ebay stuff you're not going to have enough even for minimum payments - finger's crossed that the new 2nd job comes off.

Alternatively, could you advertise your services to small start up businesses in the area? Sole traders are rarely very confident with accounts, so if you could get maybe 10 or so that you give a couple of hours a month to this would bump up your income.

lynzpower

16 – know it not essential but just know I’ll win if I stop

I thought the same, do you know what since I stopped, Ive made huge savings. Ive saved more than Ive ever won in 10 years of playing the lottery :rotfl: . At the moment, everything you spend is effectively coming off the CCs. ( as you are choosing not to pay off debt, instead spending on these luxuries)

If you absolutely must gamble, have you thought about premium bonds instead? You can still have a crack at those million pots, but the stakes still there so if you get strapped in the future you can jsut cash them back in.

kayak83

Storm wrote: »

Can you let us know what the aprs on the various credit cards are and your limits? You maight be able to do a bit of a shuffle.

As the Egg is at zero it's probably worth looking at cancelling this, unless you're coming up to your 'anniversary' with them as you'll get a 0% transfer deal.

If you send for your credit report (you can get this free from experion for a month online trial, go through Pigsback for some points) you can see what sort of shape it's in to see if applying for a low LOB card is a possibility.

Mortgage: 922 (this is the killer!!!) Could you get a lodger in?
Scottish Widows: 8 What's this for?
Council Tax: 91 – 25% single persons discount
Utilities: 60 Check you're on the best deal
TV license: 26 – DD for 6 months
Car Insurance: 55 This is high - follow Martin's tips when it's time to renew
Pet Insurance: 16 Is this absolutely neccesary, and if so is it the cheapest?
Contents Ins: 15 Is this the cheapest?
Maintenance Charge: 71 – inc. Building ins, garden, electric gates etc (has to be paid)
BT: 35 Guessing phone & BB - this could be lowered by getting basic BT phone package & BB deals start from about £10 a month
Mobile: 30 This is high - see if you can lower your tariff or go PAYG
Lottery subscription: 16 – know it not essential but just know I’ll win if I stop Have a look at the lottery tool at www.whatsthecost.com - nearly £200 a year is a lot!
Food: 200 – think I need to knock this down Yep! Have a look at the old style board for recipe suggestions & meal planning ideas

What's really worrying is without the 2nd job & Ebay stuff you're not going to have enough even for minimum payments - finger's crossed that the new 2nd job comes off.

Alternatively, could you advertise your services to small start up businesses in the area? Sole traders are rarely very confident with accounts, so if you could get maybe 10 or so that you give a couple of hours a month to this would bump up your income.

Thanks for quick response.
I suppose yes I potentially I could get a lodger as do have 2 bedrooms, but second bedroom is very small and I am not sure that my flat is big enough to have 2 people living seperate lives in.
scotish widows is basically mortgage protection - much cheaper then having it linked to mortgage through C&G.
Pet/contents ins do seem to be the cheapest but i think i may cancel pet insurance. I started it when cats started going outside is case they got run over, but they seem to have learnt to stay away form road now.
Yes BT does include BB but i use it alot and found it cheaper to have option 3 as was paying penalties for exceeding limits each month!
I dont really use the landline but as BB is with BT I cant cancel it.
Mobile is stuck in contract until April next year.
Really going to start loking at cutting down shopping and am going to ring around a few more pubs for a job tomorrow.
Abbey and MBNA are both in Intro rates and Egg has a 0% offer so will transfer.
thankyou for suggesting about using accounts skills I will see about finding local small businesses that require bookkeeping services, this is something that I will be able to do in my space time - even during my lunch break.

Many thanks

kayak83

lynzpower wrote: »

I thought the same, do you know what since I stopped, Ive made huge savings. Ive saved more than Ive ever won in 10 years of playing the lottery :rotfl: . At the moment, everything you spend is effectively coming off the CCs. ( as you are choosing not to pay off debt, instead spending on these luxuries)

If you absolutely must gamble, have you thought about premium bonds instead? You can still have a crack at those million pots, but the stakes still there so if you get strapped in the future you can jsut cash them back in.

I thought about premium bonds - but isnt there a minimum you have to lay out?
maybe i will cancel lottery, i dont remember what numbers i chose anyway so i wont notice if i would have won - provided ther dont send me an email saying "haha"

kayak83

just had a bit of good news.
email from William Hill - signed up through quidco (£10) put £10 in account and used £10 free bet, so cost nothing.
I haven't got a clue about betting but i places some bets anyway.
Just taken £29.82 out!