desperate SOA

k1mmie

Sorry forgot to add -
no clothes shopping at all
no hairdressers
no dentist (only kids)

So as you can see I am walking around with no clothes, bad hair and a mouth full of rotten teeth. lol. Should be anyway. No such luxuries.

POSSETTE

best thing we did when our debts got too much...move house..it felt sooo good getting £170k for 4 bed house and buying brand new £138k 3 bed house.it paid everything off and we are so much better off.:T .i have packed in second job, and go away on hols 3+ times a year now.
i was one for liking what people thought, such as big house new car etc...then i saw the light and decided i dont give a flying fig what folk think..and we so much happier now.Go for it!!!

Lavendyr

k1mmie wrote: »

Mortgage is repayment - because we are paying arrears we cannot switch to interest only. So this amount includes arrears also of £300.

Have you considered downsizing as mentioned above? Really, paying over half your income towards the mortgage is a bad situatino to be in, so please do think about this seriously.

k1mmie wrote: »

Sky- this is high at £65 - but we do not smoke or drink. We have no money for entertainment or to entertain the children so this is a small price to pay to entertain the whole family per month. We go nowhere and buy nothing!

k1mmie wrote: »

So as you can see I am walking around with no clothes, bad hair and a mouth full of rotten teeth. lol. Should be anyway. No such luxuries.

So you can't afford to have your teeth checked out because it's a luxury, but you can afford to spend over £750 a year on television?

At the end of it all, it doesn't really matter what else you do or don't do, you need that £65. You could buy a Freeview box for half the monthly cost of Sky which gives you more than enough channels, you could rent DVDs monthly for £4 a month if it's films you want, you could buy videos and DVDs at charity shops/garage sales, you could get the kids to read books instead of watching TV...all sorts of possibilities to help you save this money. If you can't bear to do that, at least see if you can get a better deal with Sky, as in your situation, you cannot afford this.

k1mmie wrote: »

Phone - this covers our landline / internet and husbands mobile (as he needs it for work)Husband works from home and it is a condition he has phone/internet access at all times.

Have you tried to get a package phone/internet/TV/mobile deal? these usually work out far cheaper. E.g. the Virgin offer for £40 for 4 would more than halve your costs currently.

k1mmie wrote: »

Car insurance. This is for a ford fiesta 1.4. S reg. This is my daughters car, we got rid of ours recently to cut costs down. The reason the insurance is so high is she is 18 and passed a few months ago. So for all three of us one car this is the cheapest we could get it.

Does your daughter really need a car? It's a hefty expense (and you still haven't mentioned repairs/maintenance/MOT/tax costs - does she meet these herself?).

Alternatively, if she has a car, why does she need to get the train to go to college - can't she use the car, thus putting her fares money towards it?

k1mmie wrote: »

Transport for kids. My daughter goes to college and has to get a train 3 days a week. There are no concessions for students so its £20 a week. (she has just got a little part time job - so is paying her own fares now)

As above, if she has a car why is she getting public transport - and if she can get public transport, why not give up the car for the time being until you are back on your feet financially?

k1mmie wrote: »

LATEST BULLETIN- I have an interview tomorrow at cough cough (local KFC). Not what I want but it all helps and If I can get it I am prepared to stick it out till something else comes up. Will let you all know if they are interested in a 40year old mother who has not worked for 18 years...........

Good luck

I'm sorry if some of my points sound harsh, all is intended to be helpful but it does sound as though you have not quite taken on board the severity of your situation as yet. Halving your income is a massive, massive step and you will need to be very careful with your outgoings to make sure that you don't head straight into even more debt.

consultant31

LouiseS987456 wrote: »

as a real long shot we have set up our website (nothing ventured, nothing gained - (edited to remove link)

tigtag02

I too am gonna mention the sky but I'm not gonna make you feel bad or judge you for it :rolleyes:

Sky is too our only form of entertainment and we also pay £65 a month ~ HOWEVER for this we have ALL channels, sky+, mutiroom, broadband & free evening and weekend landline calls so there still is some savings to be had here. Maybe you could get rid for a month and then rejoin with one of their deals.

I just wanted to say that moneysaving is NOT about having nothing, we still have to live day to day and afford ourselves some of lifes little luxuries. Please people BE NICE to all moneysavers.

I am almost sure that car ins can be done cheaper. Who is the main policy holder ~ who has the most NCB between you and DH?

tigtag
xx

AMG2B

Hi, just a suggestion for your daughter's rail fares - she would be eligible for a Young Persons railcard, which costs £20 per year and then you get 1/3 off all journeys. You can have one until you're 26 whether you're in education or not!

krayzechick

For the time being would it be cheaper to have either you or your husband as the main driver on the car and your daughter as a named driver? ...When I passed my test I did this with my mum for 6 months. Saved us £350 a year, and we both still had full cover on the car.

Lavendyr

tigtag02 wrote: »

I just wanted to say that moneysaving is NOT about having nothing, we still have to live day to day and afford ourselves some of lifes little luxuries. Please people BE NICE to all moneysavers.

If this was directed at me, I do suggest you reread my post, as at no point can I see any comment made which was less than polite.

tigtag02 wrote: »

I am almost sure that car ins can be done cheaper. Who is the main policy holder ~ who has the most NCB between you and DH?

If your suggestion is going to be to put someone else as the main policy holder, be very wary of this. Please do a search for "fronting" on these forums - this is the practice of putting someone as a named driver on a car when they are actually going to be the main driver. Doing this can invalidate your insurance entirely, so please do be careful if you consider doing this.

tigtag02

Lavendyr wrote: »

If this was directed at me, I do suggest you reread my post, as at no point can I see any comment made which was less than polite.

It wasn't directed at any one poster - do you have a guilty conscience?

Lavendyr wrote: »

If your suggestion is going to be to put someone else as the main policy holder, be very wary of this. Please do a search for "fronting" on these forums - this is the practice of putting someone as a named driver on a car when they are actually going to be the main driver. Doing this can invalidate your insurance entirely, so please do be careful if you consider doing this.

Pardon my frankness but what a load of old tosh!!! An ins policy ASKS who is the main driver ~ the policy holder or the named driver!! There is NOTHING wrong with what I am suggesting the OP look into.

Lavendyr

tigtag02 wrote: »

It wasn't directed at any one poster - do you have a guilty conscience?

No, not in the slightest, but nor do I like to be rude, and if I came off as such, or caused the OP any distress, I would have wanted to apologise for it. It was simply that you posted regarding Sky, and I was the most recent person to have mentioned it.

tigtag02 wrote: »

Pardon my frankness but what a load of old tosh!!! An ins policy ASKS who is the main driver ~ the policy holder or the named driver!! There is NOTHING wrong with what I am suggesting the OP look into.

Please take a look at this link for more information:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/7052569.stm

I assure you I would not post such a warning without good reason; I was merely trying to help the original poster avoid the problems described in the above news item. If you do a search on these forums, as I suggested, you would find several mentions of fronting.

Clearly I have caused you some upset, tigtag, and if I have, I apologise. I was trying in good faith to help the OP. Since you seem to take issue at that, I'll leave the thread, but with a final message to the OP that I wish you all the very best in sorting your situation and I do hope that some of my suggestions helped. All the best, Lavendyr