Struggling to float - I am drowning!

drowning___2

chupachups4 wrote: »

Hello, sorry for my poor English, but I'm french and only learnt it at school many years ago.

Does your son have a job? Then, maybe he could pay a little towards groceries… I would stop takeaways ASAP and have one any other time with surveys money.

Could your son walk the dog some times and may be minimise the price of dog Walker?

Could you stop Netflix and Spotify fora few months?

Your English is fab, all I remember from school is bonjour! Which I could communicate as well as you in another language. Thanks for the tips :T

drowning___2

Kittencat wrote: »

Good morning Drowning.

The good news is you have realised what is going on and want to change it. That's half the battle. Now you can plan and figure out different ways to go about this.
The 2nd job is good. Well done. Keep the spending to a minimum and you will do just fine.

Keep positive

Kitten

Thanks kitten, the second job couldn’t come at a better time, what a mess I’ve gotten into!

UncannyScot

Hi

The best place I have found for FREE debt and money advice is the local Citizens Advice Beaureau (CAB)
As you now know, it's a matter of eliminating the unnecessary outgoings, reducing the necessary outgoings and therefore maximising what you have coming in...

AVOID any of those offering to get you debt free for a fee, as you can get debt free without them as I said speak to an advisor at your local CAB, it's FREE

Also based in Scotland so can give some advice and info on what's what here, not an expert by any means but happy to help with what I do know

JohnJ76

"A company contacted............ saying if I pay back £160 a month for 4 years I will have paid off around £7000ish and the remaining £16000 ish would get wiped?!...........Anyone any experience on these?"

I can't comment on this but if you are considering some form of debt management plan I think Stepchange would be a good place to start from what I've read on here. I would never go with cold callers for something as important as this.

Spotify - good to see youve cancelled. netflix - luxury if you have virgin, although to be honest they are both luxuries with the debt looming over you. We had Sky but now we are tackling debt it's gone, good old freeview for a while, although we don't miss it and find we actually do more interesting stuff rather than watch another series of rubbish although the eldest misses his Man utd fix. The dog walker - my sister had a walker but then she got into an arrangement with a neighbour whereby they would take each others dogs out and ditched the walker.

The extra £480 a month will be great news, but the first step you need is to make sure every month is cost neutral or you have a small surplus. You can't afford to have your debts creeping up anymore. In your SOA/budget be brutally honest and make sure you cover everything so you know exactly what you need. As you say there are some items missing (water, insurance, birthdays, car mot, servicing etc) from it and based on current income you cannot afford your current outgoings. Things will look better when the extra job kicks in though.

Barclays - £11,060.00 (£6630.69 0% until June 2020) costing approx £21.77 interest per month
If you have £6630 on 0% the remaining on standard rate, say 19% then you will be paying approx £70/m interest on the remaining £4430. If the 0% deals have dried up it can be because the lenders now see you as a higher risk, which then could put you in a vicious cycle of higher transfer rates.

This new second job - is there scope for a few extra hours? I know you said you will start with surveys but to me it's just not worth it, if for example you could pick up a few hours here and there at work, far more productive as the hourly rate will me much higher. Some people like surveys but spending what seems like ages doing surveys to finally get a £10 payout just demoralizes me and I tend to focus on things which have the highest cost benefit, but whatever works for you.

We are a family of 4 and a food budget around the same as you do. We don't have an 19yr old but our 8yr old could give him a run for his money in the eating stakes haha Single biggest money saver for food we found is plan a menu for the week. Then stick to it, do a shop and no 'just popping to the shop for this, or that'. Bulk cook, plan lunches for work etc. I
If you have money left over and want a weekly spends budget, withdraw the cash and 'when its gone, it's gone'. Looking at the debt to income ratio you really cannot afford to use the cards anymore. Diesel - £180 a month can this be cut down? try making unnecessary trips, easier said than done i know.

It's hard, really hard, I know, we are doing it, but it is possible and there are lots of people on here that are far more experienced than I on here who will be able to give great advice. The hardest step is the first one and if you really want this to work then you can do it. It will mean some real sacrifices if you want to stay away from debt management plans etc but there may become a point when you may want to give consideration to it. In the meantime reduce everything for the next month or two, get the extra money from the second job and see how much you can afford to pay the debts down by. There will be times you will feel like chucking it all in, but it will be worth it.

Moan to us lot all you like :-)

a_silver_lining

drowning__ wrote: »

I’ve cancelled Spotify today, ends end of the month and no more payments to come out! I will call virgin and see what they offer, might even get rid if tv completely and just keep Netflix. Yes my son has a part time job whilst he is at uni, he does football refereeing at the weekend so isn’t that consistent but what he earns he runs his little car with and has it to socialise with friends without asking me for a penny so I can’t get much from him, sadly :rotfl: the dog walker is at the minimum he is £10 a day I work 4 days, and my son is around 2 days around his classes so I can’t scale back the dog walker but I will in summer when he is off hopefully!

You are right with takeaway they need to stop. Getting to the point I’ve had them so often aren’t even a treat or enjoyable anymore and at £20 a pop can’t afford them.

Your son sounds like a good un I'd be tempted though to ask for either some monthly money towards bills or food shopping from him. Even if it was that he bought the bread, milk and fruit each week. It will get him in the habit of paying monthly for the expenses of living and may encourage him to get a more consistent part time job? I worked through uni whilst paying rent and bills, I realise he would get less maintenance grant due to living at home, but I imagine he will have as much free time as most students to fit in a part time job. Good for you in that your food shop will be less, also good for his CV!

Moneywhizz

A trust deed in Scotland is a form of insolvency and can affect your other assets. If you own your own home it probably isn't the best solution for you but you could get more information about it from Stepchange, who are a debt charity and won't charge you for advice/help. There are other places you can get help like Citizen's Advice or Cap. The main thing is not to get involved with companies who charge to help you with your debt. It would appear from you SOA that you need to organise some kind of payment plan to deal with this debt. Your income is really only going to cover your normal living expenses so reducing your debt payments is essential. Even with a second job it is quite a tight budget. with some things not accounted for, and working two jobs may not be sustainable long term. My advice would be to contact one of the charities and begin to set up a plan that will allow you to pay off the debt in a manageable way and reduce your stress over a difficult situation. Good luck.

drowning___2

Thanks all. You’re right Virgin is a luxury and tbh I watch mostly freeview channels and Netflix so I will give them a call on Monday and see what they can do. Diesel can’t really be reduced as I work quite a bit away and in all honesty I’m quite boring and mostly at home when not at work so not like I’m going loads of other places, but it is something to bear in mind and could probably walk the odd place at the weekend. I condensed my hours into 4 days a few years ago and sadly can’t fit into 3 which would be ideal. My petrol calculations could be off though!

I know what you mean about the surveys as from what I am seeing some make pennies a time, but I am hoping to maybe do them as I watch tv/spare 5 minutes in work...we will see! I am full of great plans for now. There was scope to do an extra night or two given to me today with the second job but no way could I sustain a full time job plus 4 extra shifts a week. I will see how I go with my full time job and then one week I will be working 1 shift with job 2 and the next week I do 2 shifts and so on.

The dog walker kinda needs to stay. My neighbours either work full time/elderly and the 2 who have dogs are stay at home mums and doubt would commit to my dog plus I wouldn’t ask them as not that friendly with any of them. Working around my son at uni/placements and my job I really need those 2 days as don’t think it’s fair to leave him all day and I can’t pop back at lunch as I am too far away.

My son is studying medicine (not sure where he got the brains from!) so does a lot of placements which are long shifts plus days and nights and he does study a lot so the referreeing suits him as can do it as and when he can and loves football! So not much scope for him getting a part time job/contributing much. I did tell him I really need to cut back so all the extras like cans of juice/crisps etc I will be stopping and if he wants can buy himself, plus it’s not healthy! I need to keep him focused on studying since he needs a good job to look after me well in my old age!

I was so tempted to have a fish supper tonight, didn’t want what I was meant to be having but luckily talked myself out of it. Funny thing is I was having fillet steak, hardly a horrible dinner! Was opening the packet and think it said £8.32 so told myself to enjoy it as this won’t be on the weekly menu! In the end it was lovely. I am a case of can cook, won’t cook. I’ve just gotten lazy of the years as can often be cooking for one, was different when was with my ex husband and my boy was younger but need to start.

I have a good bit of food, so I will be creative this month and shouldn’t be too much of a stuggle, will cancel my contacts, reduce Netflix/virgin and try and get an accurate cost of how much fuel I am per month. This month I would love to be able to pay my minimum credit card payments, pay off Scottish power and ideally pay off my overdraft - £957.18 those 2 debts add up to, god loves a trier!!

drowning___2

Ps thanks for the StepChange advice and to speak to CAB - I think I will make a point of doing this this week. The offer from a cold caller does seem to good to be true and I am a firm believer if something seems too good to be true, it probably is! I will just need to suck up up paying interest, stop using the cards, live within my means and pay as much back as I can and hope the 0% deals come back before the next lot run out of their deals. All easier said than done I know!

Hope you all have a good weekend. Thanks for reading and replying!

drowning___2

Barclays £10,778.38
Virgin £6537.29
MBNA £6032.56
Overdraft £304.04 – once all direct debits have come off.

Paid off Scottish Power, so that’s that debt gone.

Banked the money made from job 2 at the weekend on Monday, only working 1 shift this weekend but will probably need a chunk of that for diesel.

Forgot my car went into for a repair a few weeks ago and was told I needed 2 new tyres. Quoted £120 each!!! Had a look on black circle and can get the same ones for £82.50 but I will try find a cheaper alternative. Car is also due a service, dealer is £250 but going to think about going elsewhere aslong as that’s ok with my warranty, need to double check this.

Council tax free month which is a small blessing. Looking at what my overdraft is at and the fact I still need to buy food and petrol plus those tyres, I think a more realistic plan will be to have the overdraft cleared in 2 months rather than 1. So by pay day on April I am hoping to have cleared the overdraft.

I had an issue with Barclays recently and I had a late payment (due to system issues) and they removed my 0% deals on everything, I called and they were reinstated, this was last month and this month with my minimum payment it has come off the entire balance without costing any interest?! Maybe the interest will be applied in a few days time, I’m not quite sure…wishful thinking to hope it has all went onto 0%.

Food spends been minimum, but will need a few things over the next few days I think and def need fuel. Still not called Virgin def need to get onto that. That’s all for now!

drowning___2

Typed that up last night but hadn't sent. Fuel light came on so had to add £45 onto the overdraft. Really need to research the tyres today, no point delaying it when I def need them and risk maybe getting a fine!! Current overdraft at -£281.06 is costing me £0.46 per day right now.