Help Dire Straits

theoretica

This table shows what type of contact lens is in brand name boxes and may help you ring the same thing cheaper.

https://www.visiondirect.co.uk/opticians-own-brand-contact-lenses

sourcrates

"Our council tax has bounced every month for three months, my car payment has bounced for two months and they've served me with a default notice."

This is worrying, council tax is a priority debt, you need to speak to them tomorrow to organize a payment plan, otherwise, very quickly, they will obtain a liability order, and you will have bailiffs knocking on your door, once they become involved, your bill will double due to their fee`s.

This needs sorting straight away.

Likewise the car, if they have issued a default notice, and you do not comply with the contents of that notice, depending on how many payments you have already made, they will apply to the court to repossess the vehicle.

To avoid that happening, you must speak to them urgently and make arrangements to pay.

System

Your building insurance seems high? Obviously I do not know the size of your house or the area you are in, but we pay £11 a month for combined building and contents on a 3 bed end of terrace.


Also your car insurance seems very high?? £158 per month??? Is this correct?
As others have said, mobile phone cost is also very high?
Seems as though you need to go through your details again.

lovesmakeup

sourcrates wrote: »

"Our council tax has bounced every month for three months, my car payment has bounced for two months and they've served me with a default notice."

This is worrying, council tax is a priority debt, you need to speak to them tomorrow to organize a payment plan, otherwise, very quickly, they will obtain a liability order, and you will have bailiffs knocking on your door, once they become involved, your bill will double due to their fee`s.

This needs sorting straight away.

Likewise the car, if they have issued a default notice, and you do not comply with the contents of that notice, depending on how many payments you have already made, they will apply to the court to repossess the vehicle.

To avoid that happening, you must speak to them urgently and make arrangements to pay.

I've emailed the council tax people today to say I will pay the £143 on March 16th. So it will still go out in the month it's due so not so bad.

Same with the car, I've emailed to say I will set up a new DD from the new joint account to pay them from April payment and I will clear the £900 outstanding weekly for the next 10 weeks. I've got 4 weeks left of £815 a week income so I need to get into the best position I can do.

I've paid 11000ish for the car and have around 7500 left so hopefully they'll see the benefit of letting me clear the arrears and keep the car. It did say in their letter as I'd paid that amount they'd have to get a court order to reclaim it but I am two payments late already. I've explained my situation with my dad killing himself, I know its wrong to exploit things like that but it really is why I went off the rails.

lovesmakeup

ploppy57 wrote: »

Your building insurance seems high? Obviously I do not know the size of your house or the area you are in, but we pay £11 a month for combined building and contents on a 3 bed end of terrace.


Also your car insurance seems very high?? £158 per month??? Is this correct?
As others have said, mobile phone cost is also very high?
Seems as though you need to go through your details again.

Well, we got the insurance from the mortgage broker. I have done a quote today and am gobsmacked at the difference. I have no excuses, ignorance is not an excuse as I could have done the legwork myself. I just need my new account to open and then I will switch. LV have quoted £160 a year. I'll need to pay monthly to start with as I can't afford it all in one whack.

Car insurance is high yes, OH had points from speeding. Looks like its just about to drop by £30 a month at renewal though.

Mobile phones, we have two contracts at £45.99 each plus another one with a different provider which I forgot to cancel months ago (hadn't even noticed it) so am cancelling that. I have a year left on the other contracts unfortunately.

enthusiasticsaver

Ok. You have explained it all but you are very obviously overspending I feel you not only pay £860 in non essential personal spending but also the £80 per week from your lodger.

It seems the urgent things are your car and the council tax. Reduce your personal spends down as you cannot afford the amount you have allocated given your other outgoings are high too. Good that you know things have to change. How much of that personal money is fuel for both you and OH to get to work?

You could probably get your food shop to £250 if you were more careful and shopped at discount supermarkets depending on whether you feed the lodger too or not. This would mean £270 of your shortfall would be covered if you put the lodger money straight in your bank so you are not tempted to fritter it. This means you need to find an additional £360 savings from your personal expenses and cutting down on the categories you are overspending like mobile phones, pet costs, medical expenses and electricity. Turn the thermostat down slightly and investigate cheaper tariffs.

A DMP will affect you remortgaging although if you stick with your current lender they may not credit search you. You are on a good rate now so you don't want that to increase. You both need to be more disciplined with your money. Alternatively you can sell up and clear it and go back to renting. That would not be my choice and you would lose all your inheritance. It looks like you overstretched with the house purchase as the start of your problems and then carried on overspending which is easily done if you don't keep an eye on where your money is going.

If your OH is a smoker get him to quit or use cheaper alternative like roll ups or nicotine replacements. The usual culprits for overspending are alcohol, takeaways and coffee shops or pub outings. Allow yourself a small budget for this each month and keep to it to stop you feeling too deprived. Maybe once a month takeaway on pay day. Don't buy lunches out, take them from home.

theoretica

I get the impression personal spending may include rather a lot on makeup. Use up what you have!

Haylescom

I have daily contact lenses from specsavers, a specific type because of my astigmatism, but nowhere near £50pm. Can you take a holiday from them and wear glasses for a while?

enthusiasticsaver

£300 a month on overdraft fees is not sustainable on your budget. Is there any option of a 0% deal or can you talk to Lloyds. I think a DMP would have to be the way forward if you cannot get that sorted.

Good that you have sorted the council tax but to stop the robbing Peter to pay Paul mentality you will have to set a budget and keep to it and not at the level shown above in your soa. Otherwise the debt will continue to rise and you will default eventually.

DCFC79

Apologies if mentioned already but Road Tax and Car Ins (so due to speeding, check the copmparison sites as could be cheaper) are both high, is that really a monthly amount ?

To make any changes you have to want to change, you have to be prepared to stick to these changes.

Both your personal expenses at £862pm is a lot, the cigs is that fags or roll ups, what I wrote above applies here.