Need some control

stinabean

I am starting a new diary as I've not updated the old one in some time and my situation has changed now I am back from maternity leave.

The situation is me and my partner have to work full time to cover the mortgage and other essential expenses. Of course this incurs further expenses with nursery fees.

Luckily work have let me edit my hours so I squish a full time week into 4 days, this means the boy is at nursery 3 days a week and a friend is having him the other day.

However my credit card spending has been out of control and I'm really going to struggle to get going with paying it back. It's not a colossal amount of debt, but it's enough to make me feel hopeless especially as it's subject to interest.

I'll be holding myself accountable here and recording how much I pay off of each card, and looking for tips and ideas for paying it off quicker!

As a minimum, this is what it looks like below:

Halifax - 1655 owed. Paying £54 a month.
BarclayCard - 1223 owed. Paying £38 a month.
MBNA - 1643 owed. Paying £41 a month.

This leaves me with my child benefit money of £80 a month to spend on bits for boy, such as nappies, formula, and clothing.
I feel bleak. And it'll be a long journey. But I need to start it.

enthusiasticsaver

Good luck with reducing the debt.

Are you in a position to move any of that debt to 0% cards? On relatively low repayments and interest being charged it will take a long time to get the debt down. Are you making best use of government schemes for childcare costs like tax free childcare scheme?

Ideally you would now stop using the credit cards altogether and live within budget especially as you have less disposable income for the next three years until you get your 30 hours free childcare.

stinabean

My credit score is pretty bad, I assume from the low income coupled with credit card spending. I can get a 6 month 0% but not sure it's even worth it.

We're going through a universal credit claim but they can't find proof of the OH so he's waiting on an appointment etc.

Definitely not spending more on the cards!

Do I definitely get some free hours when he's 3, or does it depend on finances etc? 3 would be great as I'm currently picturing having zero money until he's 5 and at school!

enthusiasticsaver

My DD gets free hours for her eldest DD who turned 3 last September. They have two decent incomes but she only works part time but my son in law is full time. There is an upper limit but if you and your DH are on low income you should definitely get it from the term after your sons third birthday providing your nursery offers it. Until then the tax free childcare scheme works for children under 12 as DD gets that for her second DD. You put so much into an account to pay nursery fees and the HMRC tops it up by 20% so you should get that for your son now. I am not sure how it works with UC though as DD does not get that.

enthusiasticsaver

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/tax-free-childcare/

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary
You can do this.
Keep posting.

jwil

As long as you are both working 30 hours or more, you'll get the free hours when your child is 3. It's a real help.

Good luck!

Have you looked at snowballing the cards? Pay as much as you can to the one with the highest interest and then minimums on the rest. Once that one's gone, throw all the money at the next card etc. Depending on what the interest rates are on the existing cards, it might be worth getting that 0% deal for 6 months, help you throw some extra at the others for a few months.

enthusiasticsaver

jwil wrote: »

As long as you are both working 30 hours or more, you'll get the free hours when your child is 3. It's a real help.

Good luck!

You don't need to be working 30 hours or more. That is term time only so you can do 22 all year round. Some nursery providers are more fussy than others when it comes to free hours like insisting you take them all or only using them on full sessions. DDs is very flexible and she can use the 22 hours whenever but I know some others are more difficult.

stinabean

jwil wrote: »

As long as you are both working 30 hours or more, you'll get the free hours when your child is 3. It's a real help.

Good luck!

Have you looked at snowballing the cards? Pay as much as you can to the one with the highest interest and then minimums on the rest. Once that one's gone, throw all the money at the next card etc. Depending on what the interest rates are on the existing cards, it might be worth getting that 0% deal for 6 months, help you throw some extra at the others for a few months.

Yeah I tried to snowball in the past and it worked ok, but at the moment the minimum payments seem to be all I can do!
Will look at the 0% again and see if I can do that to buy some time.

Baby's only (almost) 9 months so it's going to be a while for help but nice to know it's not too far away in the grand scheme of things!

enthusiasticsaver

stinabean wrote: »

Yeah I tried to snowball in the past and it worked ok, but at the moment the minimum payments seem to be all I can do!
Will look at the 0% again and see if I can do that to buy some time.

Baby's only (almost) 9 months so it's going to be a while for help but nice to know it's not too far away in the grand scheme of things!

You can use the tax free childcare scheme now. That is for children under 3.

VadersDad

Good luck to you. It's a long road but i'm sure you will get there.