Worse than we thought......

foolofbeans

anna_m wrote: »

Hi,
you've already pointed out the obvious savings. Although TV doesn't need to be that much even with BB for work...cancel the TV side? I will look into that.
Only other comment really is about pocket money for the child at Uni... looking at your earnings you take home under £25,001 per annum is this correct? If so your child will be receiving maximum uni grants, this is a lot so why are you also substituting?
Our gross annual income is £34,000 so uni child is assessed on that and doesn't get the full grant/loan. I know the £10 a week we send is spent on fresh food so I would like to continue that and will cut back on our groceries if I have to.
Magazine subscription can go and that will save £180 per yr. That is partners trade magazine for his profession but I will ask if he will cancel it.
Entertainment @ £200 is pretty shocking when you look at the shortfall you have...
That is for partners sports clubs and occasional visits to the pub. I have mentioned it is a high percentage of our overall income but he has not yet volunteered to reduce it. I have not included any money for myself or the young children.

Thank you for your comments

foolofbeans

FinallyGettingFree wrote: »

If you have 1000 cash on hand, then maybe that could be your emergency fund and you could put the 50 a month towards your debts instead?

That's a great idea, thank you.

anna_1977

Thanks for clarifying the Uni pocket money - I totally agree that £10 should continue.

Good luck in your journey, I'm at the start of a very large uphill struggle so know how daunting it can be !

foolofbeans

andyfromotley wrote: »

However there are saving to be made, check out my notes above. i reckon you can make these savings each month.
Council tax £26 I had already spread the 10 payments over 12 so the amount is what it is. Nothing to pay until April now though.
Energy £20 We aren't on the grid for gas and are tied in for another year before we can switch supplier.
Sattelite £65 Will £20 cover land line and internet service?
Food £25 I had put down a lot less than we currently spend and this includes pet foods but I understand something has to give so will really try.
Entertainment £200 This is purely partners spending. I'm not really sure how I can ask him to never go out again but I will mention (again) how much he is costing us.
Emergency fund £50 (when you have your £1k)
Magazines £15
Smokes £100 This is partners habit. He knows he needs to give up but hasn't tried very hard yet.
This totals £501 pcm so you will still need to find more savings or increase income even more. I'm looking for additional work so can hopefully boost our income.
However your debts are large. I suspect that they have awful APRs (which means they will take even longer to pay off.
well done for sorting this out, and it will be sorted out. Not overnight, it wasnt built up overnight, but you will resolve this.

Thank you for your positive comments.

foolofbeans

tallyhoh wrote: »

Are 2 cars really necessary? based on £300 salary & taking off car expenses you must be working for very little.

We live in a very rural area so even if I wasn't working we would still need a car. We could maybe get away with just the one but it is handy to have the backup for when the inevitable break downs or repairs happen e.g. at the moment one car is off the road as it needs some work and we wouldn't be able to get the kids to school if we didn't have another car.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

I think you're just into DMP territory here. All the lifestyle changes above bring you to break-even... almost... while still paying the minimum on your debts. You need to get the interest stopped and payments reduced, AS WELL AS everything posters passim have recommended. Might be worth talking to stepchange.

foolofbeans

Lemonsqueezer78 wrote: »

Out of interest, how old are the teenagers and what proportion of that £135 are they getting? Are they old enough to get a paper-rounds or weekend jobs?
Teenagers about to turn 16 and 17 and get £10/week. Older child at uni gets £10/week.
Teenagers definitely old enough to get jobs but we are rural with nearest shop 2 miles away and they don't do newspaper deliveries. There will be ample opportunity for summer work as we are in a big tourism area.
Also, what is that Loan E - with the "0" in the monthly repayment?Eek.....you've just devastated me with one sentence Loan E should have monthly payment as £160 so although it looked bad it looks so much worse now :eek:

I'll have a look to see if I can edit it.

foolofbeans

Sanctioned_Parts_List wrote: »

I think you're just into DMP territory here. All the lifestyle changes above bring you to break-even... almost... while still paying the minimum on your debts. You need to get the interest stopped and payments reduced, AS WELL AS everything posters passim have recommended. Might be worth talking to stepchange.

Monthly income will increase by £500 in a couple of months and if I can get more work without paying out for childcare that could increase further. I can understand that the high amount of debt would point to a DMP but I'd much rather struggle through as I really think with cutbacks we could get the debt down quicker than a DMP would take. Of course I realise I may be being unrealistic

KirstyO

My advice is a DMP. You generally stop getting hassle from your lenders, if you don't want to self-manage then someone else can do the work for you and you don't have to pay them a penny for their efforts.


Also it means you talk to someone on the phone who knows exactly what figures you should be aiming for in each category based on the size of your family etc.


They will be blunt and challenge you on what you spend but then so will everyone on here. And it does take time. But a DMP will allow you money for the essentials, and your debts will be paid but you'll only see one payment a month leaving the bank.


My debt was only 4.5k at its height, but I still needed a DMP because I was trying to live on my own with my only income coming from a minimum wage supermarket job. The life I was trying to live and the life I could afford were very different, but it took the DMP way of life to show me this!


Once you come out of the other end, you will have a different attitude to money, and hopefully partner and the older kids will learn something too.


I don't know what your credit file is like at the moment but a DMP can sometimes prevent 6 year+ markers going on. I know a DMP doesn't look good either, but it shows you took control of the situation and committed to paying off the debts. Once you start getting defaults, ccjs and bankruptcy markers on there, you're messed up for a long time and even once the immediate debt is gone you could struggle with phone contracts, insurance and other things for way longer.


Just my two pence worth, you need to do whatever is best for you and your family. If you think you can make it work, then good on you.

homelovin

Hello. There is a lot of advice coming at your right now and I expect it all seems overwhelming but this is useful stuff.

I started my debit free journey by realising that we were increasing our debt by £200 each month because of our shortfall. I looked on here and didn't feel better at first, but I re-looked at many of these ideas and chipped away at our outgoings bit by bit and found it addictive. Now we decrease our debt by 600 a month but it happened gradually. Try just doing one thing at a time - like look into reducing the TV and internet, and even it it is a fiver less, make the change. Limit yourself to spending say £400 a month on groceries and stick to it by changing brands, cooking from scratch etc etc. Take small steps but keep going and you will sort this out. Good luck.