Need help :(

CakeCrusader

My ex pleaded poverty and so the maintenance never increased. I took him to court when he stopped paying and was sent his bank statements. Poverty my a**! Shopping sprees, posh hotels, a second home, holidays etc. Don't believe them when they say they can't contribute anything. 'Can't', and 'won't' are often the same thing.

mark55man

I know its difficult to think about the long term when the short term is messy, but I think I agree. You say your partner can't afford it, but you can't afford not to it. Even with the many savings you are identified, things are still going to be tight for you - are you sure your partner can't make some savings to free up cash for your daughter. You seem to be reasonably amicable so it doesn't need t start with a fight, although it may end up there

With the bills its a bit difficult as you literally have one days notice ie tomorrow (assuming they go out at the end of the day), so I think it is already too late to cancel the DDs and it sounds like it is a bit late anyway and may have unfortunate consequences. So could you get online and see about an overdraft (for the least possible to avoid the crisis) or maybe taking a cash advance from your CC. You may not want this, and consolidation and this sort of juggling are poor from an MSE perspective, BUT bouncing DD all over the place tomorrow could cost a lot more.

Then you can recover this using all the ideas you have already had + many more. You may find calling rather than doing it online could be helpful, I certainly got out of jail a couple of times like that (very humiliating, but you need to harden your shell and get it done)

hoping to be helpful, but emergency financing is always difficult, and hoping that you can resolve the situation. In debt terms you owe far less than many on here who have come through with flying colours so take comfort from that even if the next few days are bleak

fatbelly

Jami74 wrote: »

Water might be okay if its a monthly direct debit. I had a water d/d not go out once and when I phoned the water company in a panic they said it took a while before anything happened. Since then I've started submitting monthly readings and paying by standing order, it means I'm only paying what we're using and I can adjust the amount or date I pay any time I like. Obviously don't stop paying, but if they are overestimating your usage it's a quick saving.

With council tax, if you are paying over ten months then January will be your last payment. If you switch to paying over twelve months it's slightly cheaper per month and easier to budget for. Maybe if you phone them tomorrow and ask nicely they'd let you pay January's payment over February and March instead.

Absolutely get her involved. Kids are much better at turning taps/lights off and reducing waste when they understand the cost.

Don't be too overwhelmed by the SOA, they're a sort of ongoing process.

Spot-on on all points.

There's a lot of flexibility with water companies. They also have schemes to help. Don't be afraid to cancel the d/d. You'll just get a paper bill at the end of the quarter.

Councils are usually OK as long as the year's bill is paid by the end of March, if you ask them.

Maybe your daughter could do a bit of research about your gas and electricity costs using MSE Energy Club and similar.

We'll have a look at your soa when you post it.

CakeCrusader

Please don't worry about cancelling direct debits. Don't do this for the vital ones, obviously, you still have to pay your mortgage so please don't stop this one (or your insurance), but it's often better to mess around with them instead of letting them bounce and then getting a charge. With gas and electricity they just spread the missing payment over the next 6/12 months, as long as you set it back up again it's fine.

DWhite

My SOA - it's not 100% with the outgoings for the variables. I took an average from 3 months worth of bank statements. It's taken this long jsut to get that far!


I can see, as will all of you quite quickly where the biggest issues are. I also worked out some of the bits not on the SOA as well. It's pretty shocking really!



With regards to mobile - it has myself and DD. Hers is £18.99 per month which includes the cost of the phone. Mine is the higher one, but due to end in 2 months and I've already found a sim only deal for £10 per month that I will switch to.


Holidays - was a once in 2 years holiday. We had 2 weeks in Cornwall in Haven, cost £190 per month before the holiday plus spending money for 2 weeks. I didn't work out exactly how much, took a good guess.



Sky is locked in until June, as soon as it's over I'll be ditching it and going to a much better deal I've found of £20 per month (includes boradband and landline).


Entertainment is a rough one of cinema (I get discounted tickets through work), amazon prime, netflix and eating out (which will be an occasional treat from now on and not a regular thing!!!).


A few things really surprised me when I went through it, it's more the micro transactions. The odd coffee, and all of my car parking which is 99% for work. But £2.80 per day adds up.
Amazone is another big one some of it is for work and reclaimed - but still! How much of it has been needed, really?



Question - energy - does it look about right? They just increased my DD as I'm in debit to them by £40. I was using far less in the summer, but then that's to be expected. Elcetricity seems high compared to what I'm used to, but DD isn't great at turning lights off despite being repeatedlt told.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1697
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 83
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1780

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 252.3
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 201.5
Rent.................................... 252.2
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 99
Electricity............................. 34.07
Gas..................................... 18.98
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 50
TV Licence.............................. 14
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 340
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 125
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 38
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 120
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5.32
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 160
Holiday................................. 200
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2063.87


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 69000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 13000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 82000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 69000....(252.3)....2
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 11000....(201.5)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 80000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan number 1..................125.19....125.1.....0
Loan number 2..................63.79.....63.79.....0
Next...........................65........5.........0
Barclaycard....................550.......15........0
Total unsecured debts..........803.98....208.89....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,780
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,063.87
Available for debt repayments........... -283.87
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 208.89
Amount short for making debt repayments. -492.76

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 82,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -80,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -803.98
Net Assets.............................. 1,196.02

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

CakeCrusader

Is your home shared ownership, which is why you're paying mortgage and rent?



Your grocery bill's too high. There's just me and my adult kid here, I spend £280 a month, can you look at reducing this? A whole chicken can stretch for a few meals so works out cheaper than portions or diced chicken breast. Do you really spend £20 on haircuts every month? That's £240 a year. I go once a year and colour it at home which saves loads.



It's worth looking at entertainment too as that's high, £160 a month times 12 £1720 a year. You can have a DVD night in for practically nothing, just pop some corn and stick a movie on. If you do go to the cinema skip the snacks or take your own.



Your holidays work out at £2,400 a year by the way, are you sure this is right? Your gas and electricity look OK.

theoretica

DWhite wrote: »

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,780
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,063.87
Available for debt repayments........... -283.87
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 208.89
Amount short for making debt repayments. -492.76

So you need to cut nearly £300 just to break even without anything on the debts. From what you say, your past holiday has been paid for already - so going forward you don't need that £200? If you can cut all the £120 on parking (!) these two changes to the SOA alone will put you in a much better starting position to then squeeze a little here and there from other categories.


Just to confirm - you are getting the single adult discount on council tax?

username901

As above, £200 a month on holidays is a hell of a lot for your wage. You also have no buildings insurance, nor life insurance. Doesn't sound like the Dad contributes anything. Other issue is you're running a budget for someone on twice your wage

£160 on entertainment! Need to drop this by £100 or more.

Between reducing the presents budget ( I presume you just buy for your daughter), reducing shopping bills, slashing the holiday and entertainment budget and telling Dad to pay for his daughter too - even if just £100 a month that should find you the £400 you need to stop sinking.

DWhite

Thanks for the replies, I haven’t worked out how to do quotes on here yet, so please bear with me.

I do get the single person discount on Council tax. I have a small 2 bed house but council tax around here isn’t particularly low anyway.

Yep, shared ownership. The only affordable home owner option for me around where I live and it was still hard work to get it!
Holiday wise - it was around £1800 for the caravan for 2 weeks plus spending money. I probably over estimated the spending money, we had a great two weeks though and that is what mattered to me more. I saved around 2/3 of the spending money before we went so I knew we could afford it.

So yes the holiday spending money isn’t needed anymore.
The entertainment definitely needs to reduce. It has already tbf, this is average of the first few months of 2019.
I can see where I’ve been going wrong. Now I need to be held accountable and stop spending on things I don’t need to or can’t afford to!

DWhite

Forgot to add -re: building insurance it’s covered through the shared ownership so I don’t pay it separately, just contents.
Haircuts - myself and my daughter. We don’t spend £20 a month. We probably have hair cuts every 3 months and it’s around £35 a time. I like my salon and trust them.
Presents wise - it’s my daughter plus family bdays etc I don’t see why she should go with less because I’m over frivolous with my spending in other areas. She’s far from spoilt! She is a lovely girl who never asks for anything or expects anything! All the more reason for me to do my best for her.