Depressed with Debt

chevalier

Me Wages - 1550
Hubbie Wages - 1115
TOTAL INCOME £2665 can either you get another job to up the income? Even if it is just a christmas job? Can you sell stuff on ebay, sell books on amazon etc.

Overdraft - 250
Rent - 520
HSBC Loan - 470 what is the apr on this?
CSA Arrears - 82
Trust fund - 130
Council - 98
Electric - 40 you have electric but no gas?
Water - 26
Mobiles [joint] - 80 this is pretty high, if you can't get out of the contract, can you down grade it?
BT - 29
TV - 11.41
Car insurance - 20 but what about saving for MOT, servicing?
Food - 350 just an observation but I feed (and get cleaning toiletries etc) for 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats for £100 less than this a month, and this includes formula milk!
Travel - 127 what are these for, can this be done cheaper?
Smoking [not me] - 40
Wine - 40 could you give this up until christmas, or swap to lager/beer (ie more alcohol for your money.
Cosmetics - 20 do you need anymore make up?
Petrol - 60
lunches - 50 I think someone has already mentioned taking packups.

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £2133.41

INCOME - EXPENDITURE = £2655 - 2133.41 = £521.59 this is good it is positive!

BUT you have not put down anything for
MOT, servicing, contents insurance, birthday, xmas, presciptions, dental, optical charges, sky or cable, so these need to be budgeted for out of the 520 odd that you have left over. Also you have mentioned a loan repayment, but no credit card repayments. Is that right?


We've started shopping on line so that we can stick to a budget more and are not tempted by uncessary things, but we like fresh things and run out quick quickly.
Buy veg and fruit from your local market, it will be miles cheaper and mine regularly keeps for a week in the fridge.

. I do buy magazines and I think I tend to fritter things away. Maybe to some it may not seem like I have a problem, but I just feel like there is never enough money and I'm not sure why. If you don't know where this money is going then you BOTH need to do a spending diary to note down every little thing you buy. £500 odd is a lot to fritter away!


Thank you so much again for your responses, this is clearly a good friendly place to be.

Harrie xx
Best of luck sorting this out you will get lots of support on here. And just to note that babies don't have to be expensive if you look on freecycle for cots etc, and friends for the cast off clothes etc.
chev

In_Search_Of_Me

Cutting back is tugh and in my experience I've done it over time...used to shop in sains & wouldnt be seen dead in Aldi but now go in head held high! The makeup thing I suspect is making you "feel" better & Know that feeling BUT spending loads actually makes you feel worse so bear that in mind next time you have a body lotion splurge. Mags the same - they just convince you that you need more stuff and you then get depressed that you cant! I've cut right back now & dont even get Tv listings anymore but look it up online instead! Things like that save a bomb as you will see when you start a spending diary! Hang in there!

MissKJ

Hugs to you. You will find cheap ways to enjoy yourself and bring your debt free date forward, because you have good reason to. Don't put off the child for too long, there is always something else to save for

Harrie2010

chevalier wrote: »

Me Wages - 1550
Hubbie Wages - 1115
TOTAL INCOME £2665 can either you get another job to up the income? Even if it is just a christmas job? Can you sell stuff on ebay, sell books on amazon etc. I earn as much as I can for the job I do. I do always look, but where I am is well paid, the occasional bonus etc. My husband isn't well qualified in anything, but he is applying for jobs as best he can with the skills he has. We haven't got anything to sell on ebay. We moved into a one bed house to save money and sold anything surplus that we could then. (extra TV, DVDs, Clothes etc)

Overdraft - 250
Rent - 520
HSBC Loan - 470 what is the apr on this? 6.9
CSA Arrears - 82
Trust fund - 130 - we control the trust fund not her. we have heard that she' s putting in a claim with the CSA for more money, so this will have to be closed eventually in place of money going out to the CSA.
Council - 98
Electric - 40 you have electric but no gas?- No electric. One bed flat, economy seven
Water - 26
Mobiles [joint] - 80 this is pretty high, if you can't get out of the contract, can you down grade it? - looking into this
BT - 29
TV - 11.41
Car insurance - 20 but what about saving for MOT, servicing? - only just got the car so haven't budgeted for this yet.
Food - 350 just an observation but I feed (and get cleaning toiletries etc) for 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats for £100 less than this a month, and this includes formula milk! - don't know what we're doing here, but yes, needs to be looked into.
Travel - 127 what are these for, can this be done cheaper? - my train fair to get to work. I don't drive and the train is the most economical way. I could get the bus but that would extend my commute by about 2 hours a day!!
Smoking [not me] - 40
Wine - 40 could you give this up until christmas, or swap to lager/beer (ie more alcohol for your money. I only drink red wine as I don't like lager or beer. I have again cut down on this, so maybe I could cut down to 1 bottle a week. It's my weekend treat.
Cosmetics - 20 do you need anymore make up? Just wanted to clear this up. It's not £20 a month on make up, this is things like shampoo, conditioner, razors etc. I really wasn't sure what I spend, but I just added up everything I buy and averaged it out for a month. I've never done this before so not sure if this is actually how much I spend. I know I've only bought shower gel this month as my jumbo sized shampoo had lasted me over two months, so maybe it's not as bad as this.
Petrol - 60
lunches - 50 I think someone has already mentioned taking packups. how I'll miss my M&S sarnies. I

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £2133.41

INCOME - EXPENDITURE = £2655 - 2133.41 = £521.59 this is good it is positive!

BUT you have not put down anything for
MOT, servicing, contents insurance, birthday, xmas, presciptions, dental, optical charges, sky or cable, so these need to be budgeted for out of the 520 odd that you have left over. Also you have mentioned a loan repayment, but no credit card repayments. Is that right? no credit cards, everything was consolidated into the one loan. The car was given to us free and it's an old banger. The MOT was due to run out in June so dependant on how much it costs to put it through the MOT it may be worth doing without again for a while or picking up another cheap banger. Don't really have any perscriptions, or optical (dental is free as my Mum is a dental nurse and we're friends with the dentist - I know, v lucky!!), don't have sky or cable.


We've started shopping on line so that we can stick to a budget more and are not tempted by uncessary things, but we like fresh things and run out quick quickly.
Buy veg and fruit from your local market, it will be miles cheaper and mine regularly keeps for a week in the fridge. Our town only has a market on a Friday and as we both work we can't get to the market, so this is difficult.

. I do buy magazines and I think I tend to fritter things away. Maybe to some it may not seem like I have a problem, but I just feel like there is never enough money and I'm not sure why. If you don't know where this money is going then you BOTH need to do a spending diary to note down every little thing you buy. £500 odd is a lot to fritter away!


Thank you so much again for your responses, this is clearly a good friendly place to be.

Harrie xx
Best of luck sorting this out you will get lots of support on here. And just to note that babies don't have to be expensive if you look on freecycle for cots etc, and friends for the cast off clothes etc.
chev

Thanks again for your advice and comments they are definately some things to look into. I'll keep at it :j

Harrie
x