Help please. outgoings huge

Candyapple

phil_rich1983 wrote: »

We had a ccj from an electrician but we had it set aside as the court sent the papers to the wrong address, then the electricain dropped the claim. So, no ccj.

All credit cards are up to date, not sure how listing them will help? There are 9 with between 300 and 1k on the, most at 18.9% and 2 at 21.9%

Kitchen has 3 years to go, 0% finance.

So what is the total debt you owe on the cards then?

Good to see at least the kitchen is on 0%.

Have you tried entering your details into the eligibility checker to see if you qualify for transferring your debts onto a 0% card?

Credit Card Eligibility Checker:
https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?balance-transfer

phil_rich1983

Candyapple wrote: »

So what is the total debt you owe on the cards then?

Good to see at least the kitchen is on 0%.

Have you tried entering your details into the eligibility checker to see if you qualify for transferring your debts onto a 0% card?

Credit Card Eligibility Checker:
https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?balance-transfer

yes, tried the checker. 0 % chance with anyone for a balance transfer. off the top of my head, its roughly £5200.

MoneyMission

Second the proposal to buy a set of clippers and cut hair at home (for the males anyway). When we were broke we did this and it made a difference. Not huge on the face of it but we also reduced our food budget, kids clubs, utilities (by turning things off) and present budgets.

What I'm trying to say is that by cutting back a little bit on each of the 'pots' it will add up to a bigger saving overall. So you might think that reducing music lessons to once a fortnight, for example, isn't going to make any impact but added to all the other little tweaks you can make it will mount up and be worth it.

Just gotta start with something and keep chipping away. Good luck!

phil_rich1983

Been on the phone to British Gas, gave them a reading, slightly in credit, new DD set up for £53 p/m, so £20 saved.

will speak to music teachers about alternative weeks, but we had to wait a while to get in as there is a waiting list, so will see what he will do. Possibly keep 1 slot and alternate kids, as 2 see the same teacher 1 after the other on a saturday.

MrsSave

Your best bet is filling in and posting a proper soa. If your cc debt is £5200, you should be able to get that down quickly. I agree with others that Christmas and birthdays are too high with you. It doesn't appear as if you've had that lightbulb moment quite yet, when you do you will take (most) of the advice given and put as much as possible into practice.

bertiewhite

MoneyMission wrote: »

What I'm trying to say is that by cutting back a little bit on each of the 'pots' it will add up to a bigger saving overall.

Exactly - I used to think that "£20 for a takeaway won't hurt" but when it's every week - that's a lot. Add that to £25 for haircuts, a tenner less by shopping around for insurance, a bottle of wine less per week, cutting out the couple of pints in the pub on a Friday and you're on your way to a saving of £200 before you know it.

Seems obvious now but it didn't at the time.

MrsSave

phil_rich1983 wrote: »

Been on the phone to British Gas, gave them a reading, slightly in credit, new DD set up for £53 p/m, so £20 saved.

will speak to music teachers about alternative weeks, but we had to wait a while to get in as there is a waiting list, so will see what he will do. Possibly keep 1 slot and alternate kids, as 2 see the same teacher 1 after the other on a saturday.

You posted this as I was typing......well done. Just keep an eye on your account to make sure you're not using more than your dd comes to (difficult I know, as Winter will be more expensive than Summer).

tallyhoh

I'm a recent convert to the Dave Ramsey shows on youtube. I think he talks a lot of sense & brings things down to basics.

OP, watch a couple

warby68

How long til your phone, coffee and catalogue commitments expire - that will be a vital £250pm back in the pot?

Your remaining unsecured debts don't seem massive in the context that you will quickly make inroads if you can bite the bullet and cut back on the discretionary spends.

If you are willing to 'stretch' rather than completely cut out things you can probably free up a few hundred - make the music lessons less frequent, don't let all the children learn to swim at once, packed lunches some of the time for school, stretch the haircuts to 4-5 and 8-9 weeks and shave a % off the food and relatively ENORMOUS gift and Christmas budgets.

Your budget doesn't include clothes, any personal/social spending, school extras, vet bills, any home maintenance, medical etc etc which is probably unrealistic for anything other than the very short term so you need to allow for these.

Do you have £1500 put by for Christmas now that its October? I'm guessing not so how will Christmas be funded this year.

Not sure that I'd want to give up a car as the first choice with a family of 6 plus pets. No car but £45 on coffee and haircuts every 3 weeks is not the most obvious order of priority.

If you put your mind to it and cut back, you can probably muddle through until the contracts and unsecured debt are gone provided there are no big bumps in the road but your answers so far suggest you're still looking for a miracle cure rather than the boring, disciplined, chipping away at everything grind, which is more realistic.

Although you say the mortgage is fixed, the amount is a hefty one so have all options been considered and will it change in the medium term? I suspect you have no wiggle room as you only remortgaged in the last year.

Could mum take a couple of weekend or evening shifts somewhere especially in the run up to Christmas just to boost the coffers a little temporarily? Not sure of the children's ages and demands of course.

I'd also look at your personal insurances - whilst its another expense your family is extremely vulnerable with 100% reliance on your self-employment. Presumably you have zero breathing space if anything goes wrong especially with your credit shot.

Candyapple

phil_rich1983 wrote: »

yes, tried the checker. 0 % chance with anyone for a balance transfer. off the top of my head, its roughly £5200.

This needs looking at urgently. It could also possibly lead to lower rates for a remortgage in future so don't disregard how important it is.

How you can earn £80k, have £5k debts and not be eligible for any cards?

What negatives are on your credit files?

The free versions to check your credit files are below:
Experian: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub
Equifax: https://www.clearscore.com
Call Credit: https://www.noddle.co.uk