Any help welcome

EssexHebridean

Your sixteen year old needs to be taking responsibility for his own mobile now really. I presume at that age he's got some form of spare time job?

The APR's for the debts you don't know currently should be on the statements.

I agree that your ex OH needs to be "persuaded" to pay you the correct amount. Do you actually have a court order stating what he should be paying? If so if he refuses to increase to the correct level go back to the court - they can enforce. If you don't have an order then it may be worth strongly hinting that the time has come for you to have to get one - at which point he may decide that a voluntary increase is a good idea.

The fact that you guessed at haircuts and presents is almost a good thing - in the first instance it means you should have a surplus some months at least. Presents need to be cut to only absolute essentials at the moment. Others have made great suggestions on the haircuts too.

determined_new_ms

when my kids were in older teens (similar ages to your son, not sure how old your other child is?) I reduced their birthday & christmas gifts to £100 each. So in your case that would be £400pa not £600. Now they are 23 & 24 it has been reduced further to £50/60.

Shopping can be reduced while you are in a difficult position but understand you have a lot on your plate in terms of time demands so that does make it harder. Have a look on the old style board there is a threaded called "feed a family of 4 for £20 a week" (it's actually now £25 to take into account rising costs). It might give you some ideas of a few low cost meas you could throw in to bring the overall cost down slightly. Also look at Jack Monroe's website for low cost meal ideas - honestly all of the recipes I have tried from her are delicious.

get rid of sky next month completely, freeview is good enough and teenagers are savvy enough to find whatever they need online. If you are getting your bb through them there are lots of better deals out there. And you have the added bonus of getting the Murduck corp out of your life. Win win!

I agree with speaking to your dad about stopping/reducing debt payments for a while.

As others have said really focusing on bringing your energy usage down by getting a better deal/being energy conscious is good sense really in any ways including environmental impact. It's good to be a low energy user.

bobcat2

£24 a month for buildings insurance looks horrendous, that's £288 a year, even if it includes contents its still way over the top! For a similar value property I pay less than £50 for a year buildings or less than £90 for for buildings and contents. When its up for renewal it would be worth changing this for a better deal. easy £200 a year saving.

bobcat2

If it were me Id ditch the mobile phone insurance and self insure, i.e. put the money in a jar in case you need to buy a new one as not good value in my opinion. That's my view though and depends how much they would cost to replace if you had to as to whether thats a good idea or not.
Based on the monthly cost of the CCs it looks like they may be at a high interest rate. As far as I know Tesco CC for example is 1% minimum payment plus the interest, so the minimum payment would be approx £40 on that balance.
Are there ways you can gradually reduce the interest rates you have on the cards so that all of your payment is going to repayment instead of interest?
In the past I've done this by taking advantage of balance transfer offers from existing cards to get everything down to 0%. I.e. just shuffling the balances.
I.e. if I had available credit on one card even if it had a balance outstanding I would use that to pay off a higher interest rate card, and then with that one use the newly available credit once its paid off to transfer the higher rate balance from the first card. This works as they will have to allocate the payment the higher interest rate. I was able to get all my interest rates down to 0% which then mean all of my payments were going to repaying the debt instead of paying the interest.
You will have to factor in the balance transfer fee of approx 2-3% depending on the provider. Once the 0% offer runs out you must repay in full or transfer again.

The best solution, however, if you are able to would be to transfer to a new card as these will have a much longer interest free period, up to 40 months at 0%.
IMO Its very important to completely stop using any of the credit cards for any purchases, dont even keep them with you, so theres no risk of the debt increasing.
If credit cards are used it should only be if they offer cashback, buyer protection and are paid in full at the end of very month, or for genuine emergencies.

bobcat2

Another thing I have done is look at every single bit of money that its spent and ask yourself how can this be reduced, I have found that nearly every payment can be reduced substantially, if not immediately then when a contract comes to end, so look at every payment that goes out and see how they can be reduced.

bobcat2

Smodlet wrote: »

Hi and welcome. Most of it has already been said but have you looked into the possibility of getting free solar panels? These could save a huge chunk off your electricity bill, especially if you often work from home as you will be there during the day. Just a thought.

Who does free solar panels?? Isn't there usually some sort of loan against them, I would look at reducing the energy bill by switching to the cheapest tariff, replacing bulbs with LEDs when they need replacing and cutting down
Can the OP see if they are eligible for a free energy efficient boiler and insulation? I got one a few years ago completely free but I'm not sure if the scheme is still going.
Would be worth checking eligibility on one of the energy providers websites to see what is available.

bobcat2

Just to add, looking at your SOA, based on your income, this is definitely a situation that can be resolved and with a bit of planning and putting effort into cost cutting you have a really good chance of getting this under control

Smodlet

A Shade Greener do free solar panels, as other companies may but they are the only one I know of.

Mods, it is not my intention to advertise, I was merely answering a question.