It's all such a mess and I don't know where to turn

Scarlett.1974

Morning all,

Just a quick up-date from me, just about to leave to take daughter to get her braces fitted!

I've been checking out our house insurance this morning and I have 2 options, what would you do?

1. Admiral are by far the cheapest at £15 per month, but they're not on quidco, so no cash back option there.

2. Natwest are £30 per month, but.... they will pay £25 towards the cancellation fee from Direct Line (which is one month's premium: £36) and through quidco I will get £120, which is clearly not to be sniffed at.

So, what's more important; cheaper monthly or lump sum payment & help towards the fee?


The pet insurance I'm going to leave with our current insurer (Petplan) because the cheapest I've found is only £1.20 a month cheaper and none of them offer cover for 'conditions for life' like Petplan do.

I've done an online shop this morning with Asda and having taken advantage of as many offers as I could and using a free delivery code from the discounts board I managed to spend £62.00, instead of my normal £100 ish

Just to quickly try and answer a couple of questions:

Some of you have mentioned selling/downsizing the house - unless we reach a position where we have no choice at all (:() this is something I want to avoid if possible. Anyway, there would be nothing else in this area for cheaper than what we owe now (ex-council house) and moving area and taking the children out of their schools (esp. son, as I mentioned, he has ASD - Autism to those who don't know what I mean) would be the most last of last resorts. It's not something I'm saying "No way, over my dead body" to, it's just that I want to avoid it IF we can.

Obviously once I speak to Payplan tomorrow I'll have a better idea of our options

Got to dash now, just wanted to post a quick update to you all and say again, a big thanks for your help, advice and support. I'll try and get on later this afternoon if I get chance.

Love Scarlett xxx

angela6834

Just a point to note....you say that your husbands debts were big? It may be worth looking into bankruptcy for both of you. There would be two sets of fee's to pay but looking at the figures you'd have all your debt written off with no income payment arrangement entered into.

You may lose the car but if you have no equity in your home, you would not be asked to sell it.

Also...I wouldnt advise consolodating at all but it may be worth looking into trying to re arrange your secured lending. You may find that you can arrange your mortgage and secured loan together cheaper than they are at present.

Just a few things to think about but im sure Payplan will cover it all with you tomorrow.

Good luck

Alan1973

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

Morning all,

Just a quick up-date from me, just about to leave to take daughter to get her braces fitted!

I've been checking out our house insurance this morning and I have 2 options, what would you do?

1. Admiral are by far the cheapest at £15 per month, but they're not on quidco, so no cash back option there.

2. Natwest are £30 per month, but.... they will pay £25 towards the cancellation fee from Direct Line (which is one month's premium: £36) and through quidco I will get £120, which is clearly not to be sniffed at.

So, what's more important; cheaper monthly or lump sum payment & help towards the fee?


The pet insurance I'm going to leave with our current insurer (Petplan) because the cheapest I've found is only £1.20 a month cheaper and none of them offer cover for 'conditions for life' like Petplan do.

I've done an online shop this morning with Asda and having taken advantage of as many offers as I could and using a free delivery code from the discounts board I managed to spend £62.00, instead of my normal £100 ish

Just to quickly try and answer a couple of questions:

Some of you have mentioned selling/downsizing the house - unless we reach a position where we have no choice at all (:() this is something I want to avoid if possible. Anyway, there would be nothing else in this area for cheaper than what we owe now (ex-council house) and moving area and taking the children out of their schools (esp. son, as I mentioned, he has ASD - Autism to those who don't know what I mean) would be the most last of last resorts. It's not something I'm saying "No way, over my dead body" to, it's just that I want to avoid it IF we can.

Obviously once I speak to Payplan tomorrow I'll have a better idea of our options

Got to dash now, just wanted to post a quick update to you all and say again, a big thanks for your help, advice and support. I'll try and get on later this afternoon if I get chance.

Love Scarlett xxx

Nice going on the progress so far :T Shame it wouldn't be easy to get a cheaper house as it would free up a lot of money.

Al

Scarlett.1974

Hi Angela - yep, if we *were* to go down the BR route it would be for both of us; I didn't realise that would mean two sets of fees though :eek: I still have a lot to learn it would appear!

Really, is that true, that we might not be forced into selling the house, due to no equity? Wow. So, (sorry for being dim here) would that mean that the First Plus loan would "go" and we would just continue with the mortgage payments?

Hi Alan - well I guess the only way to do that (free up more cash) would be to go BR, lose the house (& mortgage) and the FP loan and then rent, which would I assume, be around the same as the mortgage, thus freeing up the FP money? Like I said, if it came to it and we had NO choice in the matter then we'd do that, but I'd really love to avoid than scenario if at all possible

lyghthouse

Scarlett

Cancel Sky and your NSPCC donation NOW! Its been just over 24hrs since you posted and these are instant savings. With sky if you cancel you can use your box as a freesat box which gets most of the freeview channels so you don't need to go and buy a new freeview box.

Do it now...what use is your sky subscription if you don't have a house to watch it in.

RosieMacDoo

Hi Scarlett

In bankruptcy, you may well be able to keep the property as no equity, but you might well need to find someone (eg family member or friend) to buy out your 'beneficial interest' in the property - this is usually equivalent to the amount of equity in the property, but in the case where a property is in a zero or negative equity situation, the Official Receiver would usually put this at a nominal value of, say, £1, but there is a fee of around £200 AFAIK for someone buying out your beneficial interest....

however this would also mean that the First Plus loan would not be included in the bankruptcy and you would still have to pay it in full each month. Also, there would be a risk that if the Official Receiver decides that by staying in your property you are having to pay out disproportionately high housing costs (ie lots more for mortgage and secured loan than it would cost you if you were to sell up and rent somewhere instead) then s/he may force oyu to sell up anyway

TBH, property in bankruptcy can be quite complicated and you'd be best getting professional advice (eg CCCS, Payplan, CAB) if you're considering the bankruptcy route - you could also bob over to the bankruptcty board - I'm sure people there would be able to advise too

hth

Rosie x

princess234

ok, so this is my first ever post on this website, i usually just use it to look for vouchers etc but felt the need to register and reply to you. Admit that i haven't read every single post from top to bottom but just in relation to a couple of questions you've asked and haven't had a response to yet.

Your switching of house insurance:
Option One: £15pm x 12mths= £180 for the year
Option Two: £30pm x 12mths= £360 - £120 from Quidco - £25 towards cancellation= £215 for the year

Option One is the way to go and well done for not being blinded by the cash upfront without asking people's advice!

The other thing I noticed seemed to be your water bills. Not sure if you clarified whether you're on a meter or not. If you're not, give them a call and ask what they might expect it to cost for your family to be on a meter. I believe that you can try it for 6 months and revert back to rates if you want to (but check that first).

Finally, if you're now an ebay queen, get your stuff advertised anywhere you can!! put a link on this site to your ebay, tattoo it on your forehead, just get it out there for people to see. All publicity is good publicity right???

I hope all goes well for you x

MissKJ

Good luck Scarlett!

Can I just add that, if you can check that you are getting all the benefits that you are entitled to, and OH is onboard with the money making- saving efforts, and he is clearly computer literate, yoiu may well be better off with him not working right now. The reason i saw this is that we both work so hard, we never get time to budget properly, advertise goods for sale properly, research best deal etc...etc... I am convinced if I didb't work so hard, I would spend a huge amount less. So tempting after a hard day to order a take-away rather than cook fresh cheap meal. Fatigue pays a big part in spoiling my budgets. If OH is recovering from stress and depression,it may well benefit him more to stay at home and have some important and achievable targets that will make him feel more in control of the situation. And hopefully improve his health? When my OH has a day off, I feel the strain of being a working mother lift off me.

Alan1973

Hi Scarlett
Nice to see the steps your taking so far :T . I can't offer much advice regarding either the house or bankruptcy as I know very little about it.

These should be your priorities now with regards to making more / spending less, in my opinion:

1. Enquire about payrise, however small. Also think about retraining for the long term to give you a bigger salary.
2. Sell everything you don't need on Ebay. Also look at the possibility of maybe a little Ebay business as a sideline either for yourself or hubby if he is up to it.
3. Ditch all the monthly expenditures that are not required - mobiles etc.
4. Switch to cheapest provider of everything.
5. Sell car. Buy something cheaper. A few hundred quid would probably get you a decent runner with MOT.
6. Speak to debt consolidation people.
7. Ask family if they would help with a deby consolidation credit card or loan.

Keep up the good work .

Al

Floss

Hi Scarlett,

Hope the birthday & brace went ok....look forward to hearing from you tomorrow how you're getting on.

Love Floss xx