Anything else we can do?

lhead123

Hi All

I've finally got our spending down so that we're surviving on just OH's wages. That means the money we get in Housing Benefit, Tax Credits and Child Benefit is going straight towards our debt.

Is there anything else we can do to get our spending lower?

Here's our SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1821.02
Benefits................................ 610.78
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2431.8

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 650
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 113
Electricity............................. 69
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 27
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 87.31 (in contract for another year)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 71.15 (non-negotiable with OH - we watch tv and films instead of going to the cinema etc. This includes home phone and internet)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400 (working on getting this down to £300-£350)
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 12.68 (one car, other one is off the road)
Car Insurance........................... 74 (for both cars - I had points on my licence)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 5
Other travel............................ 5
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 30
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 75 (we spent £800 total last year which is where this comes from. We're going to spend less this year)
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1818.76


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2300

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
BC Standard....................1786.49...44.66.....17.18
Tesco..........................707.96....25........0
Halifax........................710.5.....7.11......0
BC offer 2.....................308.7.....7.72......0
BC offer 1.....................1248.19...31.21.....0

The BC credit card is one card with 2 offers and a standard balance on it so I've separated them out.

We're currently hammering away at the only card that's charging us interest at the moment.
I'm no longer earning (stay at home mum) so can't get a new 0% credit card, and OH's credit rating isn't good enough.

We've recently switched Electricity supplier and home insurance, so they're the cheapest they can be.
Car insurance's renew in September and January, so we'll do those again then (we did switch them last year, but now my points have expired so they'll be cheaper)

Thanks

enthusiasticsaver

If you are not working and one car is off the road can you not sell that and save on the insurance too?

The mobile and satellite tv are very expensive. Have you tried getting it down by threatening to cancel. Netflix would probably be cheaper for films. The presents figure is high but 0 entertainment with 2 children seems unrealistic. If you are paying £600 per month it should be clear within about 8 months then. Are you targeting the BC one first? Are you actually saving an emergency fund as nothing shows under cash?

zippygeorgeandben

Should child benefit go towards paying off your debts? Hardly seems fair that they lose out due to no fault of their own and your own financial failings. I'm not sure that's what benefits are for. I agree with the above, the mobile and satellite are expensive. Give them a ring, tell them you are looking elsewhere, OR, do a bit of research (look at virgin/BT) and tell SKY that they have a certain offer on and it's cheaper than you currently have so you're looking to switch. If you've been with them a long time and paying for a high package (like it seems you are) then you've got more to bargain with. They won't want to lose you!

Pixie5740

According to your SOA you have almost £500 left over each month. Is that really the case given that you have £0 cash?

lhead123

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

If you are not working and one car is off the road can you not sell that and save on the insurance too?

The mobile and satellite tv are very expensive. Have you tried getting it down by threatening to cancel. Netflix would probably be cheaper for films. The presents figure is high but 0 entertainment with 2 children seems unrealistic. If you are paying £600 per month it should be clear within about 8 months then. Are you targeting the BC one first? Are you actually saving an emergency fund as nothing shows under cash?

I'd love to sell it, but it's half owned by my OH's brother who's currently doing lots of work on it like rust removal and repair (hes a mechanic). He can't afford to buy us out and refuses to give permission for us to sell it to someone else It's a 1980's ford escort van that's actually appreciating in value the longer we keep it.

We tend to do free activities at the weekends like trips to the local park where there's free parking with a picnic, so don't spend on entertainment that's outside the house. My oldest has a couple of after school activities (included in the other child related expenses) that keep her happy, and my oldest has just started his free nursery placement, so they are well entertained for now.

Thanks for your help x

On_a_Shoestring

My first instinct is to sell the SORN car as well. Why keep it when you're not using it, and you're wasting money monthly on car insurance?

lhead123

zippygeorgeandben wrote: »

Should child benefit go towards paying off your debts? Hardly seems fair that they lose out due to no fault of their own and your own financial failings. I'm not sure that's what benefits are for. I agree with the above, the mobile and satellite are expensive. Give them a ring, tell them you are looking elsewhere, OR, do a bit of research (look at virgin/BT) and tell SKY that they have a certain offer on and it's cheaper than you currently have so you're looking to switch. If you've been with them a long time and paying for a high package (like it seems you are) then you've got more to bargain with. They won't want to lose you!

I could word it another way that we live on all but £600 of OH's wages and the benefits, and then pay £600 to debt? It's all money that gets paid into our joint account and then gets spent. The kids don't lose out on anything.

Unfortunately despite living in a town, the management company of our flats has banned sky dishes so we cant get Sky or freesat. The internet through the phone line is 1-2MB, and there's 1 digital tv aerial for up to 100 televisions meaning the signal cuts out multiple times a day (and we're too far from the transmitter for indoor aerials to work)...We've tried everything over the 6 years we've been here and the only way to get decent tv and broadband is through Virgin. We have said we are going to leave, a few times and the only offer we get from them is to match the new customer offers (virgin are horrendous and don't seem to care if you want to switch to sky or bt etc). My OH refuses to budge on the package we get as the only channels he watches are the ones in the top package (and the only other place to get those channels is Sky). We have argued many times about it We're in a contract with them until September at which point I'll say we're leaving again and I'll also cancel the home phone as we don't use it...hopefully we can save a bit more that way.

Thanks for the help x

MakeAChange_2

Threaten to cancel the TV, if with sky they will give you a better deal & if they don't on the spot the go ahead and cancel because within 2 weeks you will have an amazing offer of "come back to us for half price" etc. I once got sky TV free for a year in an offer from them

lhead123

On_a_Shoestring wrote: »

My first instinct is to sell the SORN car as well. Why keep it when you're not using it, and you're wasting money monthly on car insurance?

Believe me, I would love to sell it, but it's not an option - please see one of my previous replies x

lhead123

Pixie5740 wrote: »

According to your SOA you have almost £500 left over each month. Is that really the case given that you have £0 cash?

No, we're actually a month ahead of ourselves with money (e.g. all income for May pays for June etc) thanks to YNAB. OH get's paid every 2 weeks and too many bills that we can't change the dates on come out at the beginning of the month. We've discussed using that 1 month buffer to pay some of the debt off, but it would mean we'd go back into our overdraft each month which would incur more fees than we pay in interest on the credit card, so we decided not to do it.

Any and all extra income is being sent to the Barclaycard at the moment, which is the only one with some of the balance not on a 0% deal. x

MEM62

Crack on as you are. You are getting to grips with this well and you'll be out of debt within a relatively short period.