My SOA

catwoman54_2

I posted yesterday, need advice please. Didn't get many responses so have been advised to post this in case anyone has some ideas.

JUst a brief background first. Partner & I split up in JUly, living apart. 3 children, all living with me. I cannot work due to ill health & I am also my youngest son's carer. Trying to rebuild relationship with partner. He has been on JSA until a few weeks ago, is now working freelance but has not been paid yet.
£33,000 worth of debt. Struggling to make repayments, so would love to be able to cut down some of my expenses if poss.

One debt company advised me to go bankrupt, another told me to go for an IVA. I don't particularly want to do either.

Anyway here goes, be interested to hear what you think.

All figures given are monthly.


My Income -

Carer's allowance £194.60

Income support £150.60

Child tax credit £922.88 ( this is so high because I have 2 sons who get DLA )

Child benefit £169.20

Housing benefit £720.00

TOTAL £2157.28


Outgoings -

Life ins for me & partner £12.49

TV lic £11.37

Internet £9.99

Pet ins £69.28 ( We have 6 cats and I have tried, but cannot find a better policy than this one )

Elec £28.00

Car Ins £33.75 ( I live in London, so that is why this is quite high. This is the lowest policy I can find using comparison sites )

Child savings bonds £20.00

House Ins £19.45

Water Rates £33.19 ( but this is only over 8 months of the year )

Landline phone £25.00 ( I have just switched from BT this month to see if I can save money, not had a new bill yet though)

Mobile £20

Petrol £20

Rent £815.00 ( Like I said this is London, this is only for a 2 bedroomed house, we are very overcrowded )

Groceries £650.00 ( Yes I know this is high, but I was spending up to £800 per month ! I'm trying to cut it to £130 per week. That includes lots of cat litter, cleaning stuff etc. We are vegans & I don't know if that is why food bill is high, also my youngest has food intolerances so special food has to be bought for him. I really need to bulk buy things, but don't know of anywhere in my area. Can anyone help? I'm in East London)

The debts I am clearing are

Loan £229.77 will be cleared in 4 years time. This is in joint names.

Egg CCard £60.00, owe 2894.95

Coop VIsa £125.00 this has been reduced by them as I am struggling with payments, owe 12098.77

M&S storecard £50, owe 353.98

M&S mastercard £50 0% interest till January, owe 1476.95

First Direct Visa £200, owe 6455.32

TOTAL OUTGOINGS £2482.29


AS you can see, this is higher than income, so big problem. My partner is not in a position to help me financially right now.

PLease be kind to me folks !!!

Lucy1982_2

Hi!

Welcome aboard.

Have you thought about contacting CCCS or Payplan? The are both charities who do Debt Management Plans, they should be able to reduce your debt repayments to managable amounts.

As you know things are only going to get worse if something doesn't change. Is there no way that you can cut the food bill more? How about shopping online? you might get a better choice of supermarkets/products and you dont have to take the kids with you.

But try to keep smiling, this place is wonderful and people will offer you as much advise as they can.

I don't know much about DMP myself but I know other people do and would be happy to help, if not give them a ring you never know what could happen.

Take care x

Fortheloveofmoney

Well done for posting your SOA. It's a hard thing to do.

A few things are missing from the SOA. Car MOT/Service/Repairs, Council Tax, gifts for birthdays, xmas etc. Also things like hair cuts, prescriptions, clothes. I know this will make the negative figure worse but you need to know the whole picture before you can tackle it.

I see from yesterday's advice that the Payplan and CCCS were mentioned. Have you contacted them?

Have you looked at the old style board to see how you can reduce your food bill?

Do you need to keep the saving bond going? At the moment, you could really do with this money.

riddlesticks

catwoman54 wrote: »

My Income -

Carer's allowance £194.60

Income support £150.60

Child tax credit £922.88 ( this is so high because I have 2 sons who get DLA )

Child benefit £169.20

Housing benefit £720.00

TOTAL £2157.28


Outgoings -

Life ins for me & partner £12.49

TV lic £11.37

Internet £9.99

Pet ins £69.28 ( We have 6 cats and I have tried, but cannot find a better policy than this one ) This does seem way to high. Have you tried moneysupermarket or compare?

Elec £28.00

Car Ins £33.75 ( I live in London, so that is why this is quite high. This is the lowest policy I can find using comparison sites )

Child savings bonds £20.00 Can you cut this out until you are a bit better off.

House Ins £19.45 - seems about right to me

Water Rates £33.19 ( but this is only over 8 months of the year ) What do you do with the money for the other 4 months. You are used to paying it so I would pay it off debts.

Landline phone £25.00 ( I have just switched from BT this month to see if I can save money, not had a new bill yet though) Can you combine this package with your internet and TV? I pay £25/month for Broadband, phone and freeview channels with Virgin.

Mobile £20 Can you cut this to £10

Petrol £20

Rent £815.00 ( Like I said this is London, this is only for a 2 bedroomed house, we are very overcrowded ) Not very much you can do as it is probably the same wherever you go in London.

Groceries £650.00 ( Yes I know this is high, but I was spending up to £800 per month ! I'm trying to cut it to £130 per week. That includes lots of cat litter, cleaning stuff etc. We are vegans & I don't know if that is why food bill is high, also my youngest has food intolerances so special food has to be bought for him. I really need to bulk buy things, but don't know of anywhere in my area. Can anyone help? I'm in East London) Yes this is high but as I am not a vegan I can't really help. All I can suggest is shop around. Lidl and Aldi usually have offers on for cheap fruit and veg or could you buy big packs of frozen veg - they do everything. These shops also do other types of foods for vegans. If you can buy as much as possible from there and whatever else you need - buy from where you normally shop. This might cut back a little.

The debts I am clearing are

Loan £229.77 will be cleared in 4 years time. This is in joint names.

Egg CCard £60.00, owe 2894.95

Coop VIsa £125.00 this has been reduced by them as I am struggling with payments, owe 12098.77

M&S storecard £50, owe 353.98

M&S mastercard £50 0% interest till January, owe 1476.95

First Direct Visa £200, owe 6455.32

TOTAL OUTGOINGS £2482.29


AS you can see, this is higher than income, so big problem. My partner is not in a position to help me financially right now.

PLease be kind to me folks !!!

I would seriously look at your shopping bill. I know it is difficult but surely it can be drastically reduced. Even to £100 per week. If your income wasn't as big what would you do as far as food shopping. You would have to shop about. Also I have heard a lot of people talking about places like payplan. They might be able to do something for you. Hope you are able to sort something out soon.

Conor_3

ALL PET INSURANCE IS A RIP-OFF.

Bin the pet insurance - it's a con. They're designed in such a way that they'll not end up paying a penny for 99.99% of vet bills due to the "Excess" or in the case of cats "Accident injury" which is the most likely thing that'll happen to one.

Lavendyr

catwoman54 wrote: »

Outgoings -

Life ins for me & partner £12.49

TV lic £11.37

Internet £9.99

Pet ins £69.28 ( We have 6 cats and I have tried, but cannot find a better policy than this one ) this may sound harsh but at £70 a month, are you really benefiting from this? Would your cats' health cost you more than £840 per year otherwise? Can you cancel it until you are in a better situation?

Elec £28.00

Car Ins £33.75 ( I live in London, so that is why this is quite high. This is the lowest policy I can find using comparison sites )

Child savings bonds £20.00 cut these out, until you have your own situation sorted out.

House Ins £19.45 have you shopped around for this?

Water Rates £33.19 ( but this is only over 8 months of the year )

Landline phone £25.00 ( I have just switched from BT this month to see if I can save money, not had a new bill yet though)

Mobile £20 is this pay as you go or contract? can you get it down at all?

Petrol £20

Rent £815.00 ( Like I said this is London, this is only for a 2 bedroomed house, we are very overcrowded )

Groceries £650.00 ( Yes I know this is high, but I was spending up to £800 per month ! I'm trying to cut it to £130 per week. That includes lots of cat litter, cleaning stuff etc. We are vegans & I don't know if that is why food bill is high, also my youngest has food intolerances so special food has to be bought for him. I really need to bulk buy things, but don't know of anywhere in my area. Can anyone help? I'm in East London) this is massive!!! get thyself to the money-saving old style board for meal planning tips, also look to see if you can buy cheaper cat litter, cleaning stuff etc.

All in all you really need to focus on the groceries bill, but also look at the pet insurance and work out if it is really worth it. I hate to say it as I am a cat-lover myself, but it is a huge expense.

duchy

Can the cats not "go" outside. We have just aquired a third and I'm sick of his cat box already (but as yesterday he mastered the cat flap I guess this won't be an issue for long !!) Where do you usually shop ? One particular chain ? Lidl and Aldi are noticably cheaper for many products-probably worth a wander alone to see what they sell and how it compares (leave the kids with OH so you can have a good explore) Pulses and lentils-have you checked out local markets ? Often cheaper.

You are not showing any income from OH or child support if he isn't resident-either way he should be contributing if he's living with you or if the kids are his.

catwoman54_2

Hi

Hopefully this will answer some of your questions so far !

I didn't include council tax because I don't pay any as I am on income support. My road tax is free because of DLA. Also don't pay for prescriptions.


Ok I didn't inlcude MOT & Service or repairs, likewise with clothes, Xmas etc.

I have not contacted Payplan or CCCs as I don't have phone numbers, anyone got them ?

I do use the money I usually pay on water rates to help with the debts.

I totally disagree about the pet insurance, if it wasn't for that I would not be able to afford my vets' bills. There is no excess on these policies either. Several of my cats have ongoing conditions which can run into thousands per year, so yes it is cheaper to pay the insurance rather than the bills myself. If I switched insurers then the ongoing conditions would not be covered, so I might save a small amount on the premiums but then pay out thousands on the illnesses the cats already have !

catwoman54_2

No the cats cannot "go" outside, we only have a tiny yard area which quite frankly would stink if 6 cats were "going" in it.

Generally I shop at Asda or Tesco.

There is no income from my other half, he is not living with us. As I explained he was on JSA for weeks at £59 per week.

I also mentioned that he is working now but not been paid as he is working freelance. I have spoken to him about all this but he cannot give me any money which he does not have yet.

catwoman54_2

I do agree with many of you that it is the food bill which is the problem. Which is why this week I have set myself a much lower target & am cooking just about everything from scratch. If I can regularly get my food bill down & get used to cooking more again then I think it will make a big impact.

sylviemylove

Hi I hope this doesn't sound too harsh, but I would be tempted to have the cats "adopted" and save quite a bit of money that way. Desperate times and all that.... x