In debt - please help

Sonstream_2

Hoping someone can help. I'm in around 5k debt, suffering from depression, and don't know where to start.

I've been paid wrong from work - they are trying to sort it (had 2 weeks off sick - had a sick note but wasn't paid) so I've now not paid Maintainencefor my DD. I have 2 payment plans with child maintenance. One comes direct from my wages, inc arrears. The other is pay direct, I've defaulted on the pay direct but we've agreed I can pay this when work sort my money out.

My debts are:

Next Card - £318.78 - 24.99% APR
Credit Card - £1700 - 29.90% APR
Over draft - £200 - £6 a day fee
CSA - £3000 (money coming straight out my bank)

I've done an SOA and I should have £200 a month left after everything but that isn't happening. I'm going to keep a spending diary though this month

Can anyone suggest anything?

FireWyrm

Welcome to the board. Without a bit more information about your outgoings, it is hard to say, but as a starter for ten, stop paying everything that is not absolutely required this month. Dont pay anything that is not a priority and in this case, your Next and Credit cards are not priority - skip them. It would do you well to write to those creditors explaining the issue and that your salary has been messed up this month and asking for some leeway. Likewise, you can go into debt with water and electricity for a month without too much in the way of repercussions so cancel those DDs temporarily. Continue to pay Council Tax, but you need to keep a tight reign on the rest of the money - so that means you need to know what you have in the house to eat, what money you have available to buy food etc.

You say you supposedly have £200 a month to use, but dont believe you have this in reality - why? Are you fond of skipping meals because this is one of those times when you simply do not have any slack to play with. You need to count those pennies and that means no extraneous spending of any sort. It is that simple.

sourcrates

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.

If your SOA says you have 200 quid left at month end, and you haven't, then i think a spending diary is the way to go.

You will be spending it on odds and sods without thinking about it, i know i do.
Some folk on here are really good at budgeting, its not really my thing, but i`m sure someone will be along with some good advise for you soon.

Tixy

Hi and welcome to the forum

Definitely a spending diary is a good idea to work out the difference between reality and your estimated SoA.

What items in your SoA could you cut right back on for a few weeks - all the non essentials etc to help get things sorted and whilst you wait for your employer to get things corrected.

Given the situation this month then instead of trying to see what you spend in a normal month make a list of the essential things you have to pay for this month before you receive your next pay - such as rent/mortgage / travel costs / some food etc / any priority bills and see if you have sufficient funds to cover those items.

National_Debtline

Hi Sonstream and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your situation.


It looks like some (if not all) of the above commitments will have to give right now. The CSA is the most important of the lot given the enforcement powers they have. If you have DD payments due to go out for either of the cards, it might be worth cancelling those for now until you can get your head back above water.


I would contact CSA simply to make them aware of the pay mix-up - it can only be better if you're seen to be communicating as opposed to ignoring the issue.


As for the overdraft itself, £6/day is a steep rate to pay. It may be best at present if you can open another account somewhere else altogether, or even in the short-term use a family member's account if you don't have any "dormant" ones of your own that can be reactivated at short notice.


If your SOA doesn't seem to tally with real life, it may be that you have had some recent unexpected and one-off expenses that you wouldn't normally. Equally, you may simply be underestimating what you need to budget for areas like grocery shopping and fuel - it's easily done in my experience. Keeping the spending diary is definitely a good idea to combat this.


There are lots more questions I could ask you but the above is just some simple advice for starters. I would suggest that you contact one of the free advice agencies:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4228011


when you're ready, in order to make sure you've got all your bases covered.


Dennis
@natdebtline


EDIT - Already some useful advice above in the time it took me to type that!

Sonstream_2

See that's the thing, I have very little overheads.

I'm renting a room off some friends for £40 a week Inc bills

£20 a week on food
£30 petrol

Then mo though I pay

£48 car insurance
£120 maintenance (direct pay)
£30 mobile
£50 sky - in contract, they won't lower or let me cancel

I really need spending diary

CSA take one lot out my wages, the other one is direct pay and I can't afford it. I've agreed to pay this once my money has been sorted though

andyfromotley

Post your full SOA, it would be helpful.

katy_ann

£48 on car insurance is very high, can you use a comparison site to get this down anymore?

swanseajack91

katy_ann wrote: »

£48 on car insurance is very high, can you use a comparison site to get this down anymore?

Wish my car insurance was £48!! he must be young like me I pay 110 a month! (Not a even sporty car)

xHannahx

katy_ann wrote: »

£48 on car insurance is very high, can you use a comparison site to get this down anymore?

No it's not, unless he's either a female or a middle aged male living in a rural area.

kendall17

Sonstream wrote: »

£50 sky - in contract, they won't lower or let me cancel

You should have the right to cancel and add the remainder of the contract to your list of debts. Alternatively, seek a lower package.