What a mess

Skintmum86

JayRitchie wrote: »

Does your partner live with you full time? If so why are they only paying £100 a month? Thats not enough to cover their share of food, council tax etc.

Hi Thanks for replying

I know they need to be paying more but up until last month they only earnt £250 a month and they have their own car to run mobile bill etc. hopefully the £100 is going up to £300 soon

SM

Skintmum86

redpete wrote: »

Regardless of whether the presents aren't every month you are spending far too much on them. I'm not sure I've ever spent that much (family of 5 and a good income). Also you can't afford the £73 a month on entertainment.

£40 a year on car maintenance sounds very low.

Hi, thank you for replying

I didn't know what to put for my car maintenance, its only 4 years old so its in good nick and just get the MOT done every year so I just divided that by 12. I should have included some money for new tyres etc really shouldn't I.

The £73 is actually takeaways which is going to stop immediately I was gutted when I worked it out and saw it was that much!

I think the presents amount is reasonable but then my ex used to pay for Christmas, now I'm paying for it myself I will massively cut back this year and just buy stocking fillers for the boys and one present each for them and my partner and nephews and everyone else will have to go without.

SM

Willing2Learn

Skintmum86 wrote: »

Hi, thank you for replying

The iPad is on interest free credit with my childs school, they all have to have an iPad its ridiculous. The table is on credit aswell but that is finished in about 3 payments.

Partner should be increasing to £300 very soon which will help a lot. they are younger than me and first full time wage started last month, I feel bad taking too much.

I am hoping to be able to afford token gifts for the children and my partner and not buy for anyone else at Christmas

The iPad and the table need to be listed as unsecured debts and not as expenses.

If your partner is able to afford £300/month contribution to your monthly income then that could be the difference between needing to start a DMP and defaulting your accounts, or snowballing your debts (initially focussing on Very, as their interest rate sky-rockets once BNPL 12 month terms expires).

Skintmum86

sourcrates wrote: »

I think £1200 on christmas/birthday is not doable given the financial state your in, a quarter of that would suffice, also your shopping bill could be cut by at least £100 just by shopping more savvy, your rent is the stumbling block nearly £700 but i guess thats par for the course these days.
Well there are different ways of dealing with this, if you want to maintain your creditworthness, which i expect would be the case due to the fact you rent, then cutting back on your spending, and trying to increase your income, is the only option.

Anything else will affect your credit file, even asking the creditors to reduce or freeze interest can result in arrangement to pay (AP) markers placed on your file, so if you intend to go down the debt mangement route, you might as well go hell for leather as it will have the same effect on you creditwise.

Debt mangement requires you to pay back what you owe, at a reduced rate, over a longer period, its an informal solution, hopefully with creditors approval to stop all interest and charges, that is not always guarented, but they normally do so eventually.

More information is available from the debt charities listed in my signiture below.


Those are your available options, anything more formal would not be appropriate due to your income levels, so its your call really.

Hi, thank you for your reply

I want to avoid any defaults if possible as we would like to buy a house in the next couple of years (partner due large inheritance) and we want to both be on the mortgage.

If we did not want to buy a house I would definitely be trying to set up a DMP as I can't go on like this, I had been supplementing with credit but its all maxed out now.

I am sat doing a meal plan now and going to try and reduce my shopping bill by £100 meaning I only need to find £82 to break even which will be sorted when my partner starts giving me more.

SM

Skintmum86

lopsyfa wrote: »

Well done for coming out and trying to address the issue.

Firstly, your partner need to increase their income so they can contribute more. I will say the same to you.

Also, you can’t afford spending £1260 on Christmas and birthdays. Most people whose income are much higher and with similar households don’t even spend half that in birthdays and Christmas presents. If the debts is not addressed now, you may not be able to afford any gift at all in the future.

You also can't afford the £73 a month spent on entertainment. While you are in debt, this need to be cut down significantly.

Is your water metered, £45 a month is a lot. If no, consider getting a meter. If yes, you need to reduce your water use. We are a similar size household with the kids here 100% and only pay £25 for water.

Lastly, the groceries a bit high for a family of 3 people (2 children 50% of time is approximately 1 child groceries). Consider batch booking, meal planing and shopping at Aldi/Lidl to cut cost.

Also, consider selling some of the things you bought (eg the iPad) to get into the debt to pay down some of the debts.

All the best.

Hi, thank you for your reply

My water is metred!! in a larger property than this I used to pay £29 and in this property I started out paying £27 but they wrote to me last month and said it needs to go up to £45. there are no leaks anywhere and we don't use a hosepipe or anything so I will have to try and have quicker showers and put the washing machine on less. I don't know why it is so high

My partner started a new job last month but previously was only earning £250 a month, the amount I will get from now on is increasing thankfully.

I do try and shop at Aldi but Tesco is closest to me and even with a staff discount car its still pricey so going to make the effort to go to aldi more.

SM

Willing2Learn

Hi, it is me again!

Just thought I would give you something to read.

First up - is to get to some information on a DMP.
https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp

Second - There are two methods of snowballing debt and they are described in the link below:
https://www.thebalance.com/debt-snowball-vs-debt-stacking-453633

And finally, a snowball calculator. You can play with your figures on that, to see which snowball method is preferable. (This link is a bit slow to load, but just have a bit of patience and it will appear. )
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

macman

You have a 4 year old car but don't have an annual service? That's a real false economy, as when you come to sell it, the lack of any service history will hit it's value very hard. And, should it have a manufacturer's warranty of more than 3 years, as many cars do now, you have invalidated that warranty.
At 4 years you will soon be needing things like new tyres, which can be as much as £100 each. So £40pa is just not a realistic budget.

enthusiasticsaver

If you don't want to go on to a DMP then your only option is to cut back or increase income. Regardless of your partners income £100 probably barely covers his food so that needs to be increased. Technically he should be covering 50% of the costs so that should be nearer £500 or he has to start buying his own food.

The groceries can be reduced especially if the children are only with you 50% of the time and your partner is not covering his own food. The takeaways have to go and the presents can be cut drastically so you only buy for your children. You really need some emergency savings but as there is little leeway for that until your partner ups his contribution or the ipad or table payments stop. In the meantime if you reduce the food shop by £100, the entertainment is reduced by half and the presents cut down by 50% your shortfall is found. Tight but doable

just_trying

How often does he stay with you? You say he's going to be contributing more but why if he doesn't stay there? You have your children 50% off the time but claim a lot of benefits so is it so your benefits don't reduce? I'm presuming you don't share them with the other parent are they not entitled?

The takeaways can go, food reduced and presents most definitely that's far to much.

DCFC79

Skintmum86 wrote: »

Hi Thank you for your reply.

The TV is in a contract and includes the internet and line rental and they are both watched and used a lot so worth the money I reckon.

Netflix or Now TV have kids content or even Freeview, much cheaper too.