I've mucked up. Really badly.

SuperMoose

A prescription repayment certificate will save you money if the prescriptions in your budget are just for you.
https://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/PPC.aspx#

The only food in your budget is for your dogs - do you make stews and share? :think:

ohbumstoitall

Candyapple wrote: »

That's good news at least.

Still heed my advice regarding Barclaycard, Tesco and Halifax. If you can increase your limits on those (assuming you have 0% offers, easy enough to check) then you can at least transfer some of the Amex onto 0% as well.

TSB don't offer balance transfer deals to existing customers - at least they didn't in my experience when I held a card with them for 3 years. So assuming once you've cleared that balance onto HSBC, I'd close the TSB one as otherwise it will just be an open card and temptation for you to spend if you are feeling weak.

Yes Barclaycard I know do it, I've got £600 "free" on the BC at the moment but obviously that doesn't really help at the moment. No offers I can see at the moment. I'll close the TSB one down as that will reduce my available credit which is a good thing. Doesn't help my ratio though but not sure anything would help apart from winning the lottery. I do have a halifax offer but no credit to transfer unfortunately.

lika_86

ohbumstoitall wrote: »

Well, see this is the thing. He is studying for a degree he isn't going to use as he had a bad experience on a placement and doesn't want to pursue that path. He's interested in Human Resources but has been unable to get on a graduate scheme and has no experience. His degree is totally unrelated and he has worked in retail for 10 years. Hence doing a masters in HR.

His would be a taught masters with the aim to be able to work in HR. He sent his CV off to a few recruitment agencies who implied he would have no luck.

They said he could either work in management in retail (but he went to uni to try to get out of retail) or he'd be on a relatively low paid admin job

If he doesn't have any experience in HR then how does he know he wants to do it? What if he has a bad experience and decides against it? He'll have spent another £10k+ doing another useless qualification and racking up more debt. There are HR jobs which aren't at graduate scheme level. He needs to look for an entry level job, earn some money, decide if it's for him and maybe, if absolutely necessary, look for a part-time course to complete whilst working.

ohbumstoitall

marliepanda wrote: »

Am I misreading or do you have nothing on there for food?

Contents insurance? (actually Im guessing thats down as home insurance? Home usually covers building as well, can you get a cheaper contents only one as you shouldnt be paying to cover your landlords property)

Car insurance?

Unfortunately there are a lot of things on there that are luxuries, the cleaner (can you not use rubber gloves) spotify, the pocket money even, RSPCA money. You will need to make sacrifices if you want to save money...

Also seconding the ebay link for any skincare you want to sell

Whoops! £400 for food and petrol. Ok well that increases that shortfall considerably from £700 ish to £2700. Oh "shoot"

Home insurance is contents insurance. £10 is fairly cheap though? Car insurance isn't due until November, I should have added it in though.

The cleaner - no I can't use rubber gloves. It used to be just down to my husband to do the cleaning but he just can't do it. I don't want to be sexist and say its a man thing but....

I literally have only had a cleaner since I got the condition, I never used one before. As an example, my thumb throbs when I'm not touching anything, I have a crack down the side of it and constantly have to bind my fingers to stop the skin splitting further. It's honestly horrific, you know when you see frostbite in films - its like that without the swelling. It's called psoriasis palmoplantaris.

Spotify is a luxury you are correct. But it's one that costs very little and brings us quite a lot of joy, we're that family that drives alone singing to songs we like. Even the 6 year old joins in.
The pocket money isn't actually pocket money, it is required. Husband uses it to buy his books for university if he can't get them at a library. Considering the price of a psychology text book he does really well. I also am studying and use mine for books and moving forward will cover my toiletries out of it.

ohbumstoitall

lika_86 wrote: »

If he doesn't have any experience in HR then how does he know he wants to do it? What if he has a bad experience and decides against it? He'll have spent another £10k+ doing another useless qualification and racking up more debt. There are HR jobs which aren't at graduate scheme level. He needs to look for an entry level job, earn some money, decide if it's for him and maybe, if absolutely necessary, look for a part-time course to complete whilst working.

He did two weeks work experience and enjoyed it, I meant no experience as in hasn't worked in it

bertiewhite

ohbumstoitall wrote: »

Dog Walker: £88 Once a week whilst we're both out all day

Is this really necessary? On the rare occasions I have had to leave my dogs alone during the day, I've walked them before I go to work and then as soon as I get home.

ohbumstoitall wrote: »

Pet Food: £50 the dogs eat a high quality kibble and some tins. They also get YS cooked fish and offcuts from the butchers for free

Have you tried Dr. John's kibble? We go through a 15kg bag every 2 weeks (£11.49 each) and we have 2 x giant breeds.

System

Hi,
Is there any reason why you would want to get credit / more credit again?
To me it feels like you should just bite the bullet and go into a DMP. Cut your payments down to a realistic level and run a budget which works for you all so that you can live and not struggle. If you are going to get to this point in July possibly anyway, you might as well start now, as the sooner you can get the ball rolling and get things defaulted, the sooner the defaulted debts will drop off your credit file.

Hugs to you.

ohbumstoitall

bertiewhite wrote: »

Is this really necessary? On the rare occasions I have had to leave my dogs alone during the day, I've walked them before I go to work and then as soon as I get home.

Have you tried Dr. John's kibble? We go through a 15kg bag every 2 weeks (£11.49 each) and we have 2 x giant breeds.

Both dogs are 10 months old, one is a spaniel and the other is a terrier. They only have run of the living room and destroy things if left alone too long. I have a dog walker just for the Monday, they are alone on other days but for shorter periods. We're out of the house from 8am on a Monday to 4pm and it would be unfair to crate them for that long. If I was to leave them in the house without a walk they'd rip the sofa apart. They're out for two hours and then pass out in their crates until OH gets home.

I'm really picky about dog food, it's got to be grain free, potato free blah blah. I'm a dog food snob. I didn't even realise that £40 for 10kg was expensive......But, having said that you don't need to give them much because it's got so little filler (in fact no filler). I use Akela

The £50 includes kibble, meat, training treats and any toys (they destroy toys).


I can definitely see there are areas that most of you think I am wasting money on and I will take that on board and have a think about it. Unfortunately the cleaner makes my quality of life a lot better than living in a filthy house and the dog walker is because I just don't think I can leave the dogs for that long at 10 months old.

lika_86

Just a thought, could you do something like Borrowmydoggy for the day you're out?

ohbumstoitall

ramblehan wrote: »

Hi,
Is there any reason why you would want to get credit / more credit again?
To me it feels like you should just bite the bullet and go into a DMP. Cut your payments down to a realistic level and run a budget which works for you all so that you can live and not struggle. If you are going to get to this point in July possibly anyway, you might as well start now, as the sooner you can get the ball rolling and get things defaulted, the sooner the defaulted debts will drop off your credit file.

Hugs to you.

Would like to own a house one day, having dogs and renting is awkward - we're stuck in this small house because no one will take dogs. Owning would remove that inflexibility. But obviously we cannot afford that. I see a lot of my friends owning houses and I'm stuck in a rented house with broken double glazing