need extra £200 any ideas?

lucielle

Hi

I have been reading the threads for a few weeks and have plucked up courage to post my soa and get some advice. A brief bit of blurb, please bear with me. Married with 4 children. Debts have got out of control and we have been borrowing off Peter to pay Paul. Finally emerged from the sand and visited the CAB on 11/12/07. They were ok but called CCCS who were indeed excellent. They have recommended a DMP but we really want to pay it all back without going down that route yet. We live in a rented property and hopefully maybe when we're 60 and the sproglets have flown the nest we could maybe get a shack of our own.

Well this is the scary bit so here goes:

rent £350.00
water £7.11
council tax £90.00
electricity £46.50 was paying £65.00 until last week
oil £40.00 was paying £50.00 until last week
coal £40.00
contents insurance £7.69
Telephone £36.00 was paying £49.00 until last week
mobile x 2 £20.00 pay as you go
tv licence £11.61
school dinners £44.00 term time only
school fees £31.65 youngest son is dyslexic and we have a bursary for the rest of fees.
life insurance £142.97 trying to change this for a cheaper one
petrol x 2 £100.00 live miles from anywhere
car insurance x 2 £58.17
food etc £425
clothing/ birthdays £30.00
aa membership £11.50
car tax x 2 £32.08
mot £37.50
horse ins £46.07
livery £151.00
farrier £40

total £1798.85

Income
husband £2079.61
me £468 term time only
child tax credit £40.03
child benefit £230
Avon income £166.66
husband's partime business £166.66

Total £3150.96

DEBTS (AAARGH)
Barclaycard OH £216.00 owe £9619.99 at 23.9%
Barclaycard OH £136.00 owe £6072.57 fixed 6.9% life of balance
bank of scotland OH £86.25 owe £4224.78 fixed 6.5% life of balance
HSBC OH £9.55 owe £334.99 15.9%
American Express OH £85.00 owe £3299.39 fixed not sure what apr is life of balance
Abbey (me) £113.00 owe £3594.00 0% August 08
Citi OH £121.00 owe £3830.32 fixed not sure what apr is
HSBC (me) £142.81 owe £5612.53 16.9%
Barclays (me) £23.00 owe £1036.00 fixed not sure what apr is.
tesco loan £324.60 owe £16554.60
car hp £188.33 owe £3177.88
student support £78.74 owe £2283.41 0% life of balance
educational back-up £7.50 owe £217.50
barclays o/d £1900.00
barclays o/d £300.00
hsbc o/d £700.00

Total monthly repayments £1531.78 total debt £59857.96
Total out goings £3330.63 shortfall of £179.67.

Have 2 childrens friendly bonds which we are going to cash in and pay off the car and the hsbc card £5612.53. I know the horse will have to go but I am clinging on yet. My husband works shifts so working evenings is very difficult, saying that I have been offered some waitressing which I will do but knowing the lady I'm not sure if I'll get paid. His shift work varies so working out his wages is a bit of a nightmare. My hours for my term time job have gone down to 3 days from January and not sure when they'll go up to 4.5 days. If you have any suggestions they would be appreciated. Please can you tell me what quidco is? Thanks

perfectlypoor

Hi there well done for posting I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you but off the top of my head could ther children have packed lunches to save some cash and if you look at the recipes threads they are some great ideas on feeding a family on a tight budget,do you meal plan this has saved me money, is the horse ins the best price you can get?

mintymoneysaver

I'm assuming that life insurance is for the year?

KiKi

Hi Lucielle, well done for posting.

Others will come round to help out, I'm sure, but you asked what quidco is:
Quidco is a consumer co-operative (www.quidco.com) to which consumers sign up in order to benefit from discounts when shopping online.

It's free to register. If you are going to buy, for example, something from M&S, instead of going straight to the M&S site, go to quidco, find M&S and use *their* link. What it does - in simple terms - is track what you have spent and then credit the discount to your Quidco account. (You can get the money you've 'made' from your quidco account by asking them to credit the money to your bank account.)

There are loads of different merchants - some are high street shops, some are specialist insurance providers, some are banks etc. They each apply different levels of discount. Some are percentages ("10% off every non-grocery transaction"), some are set amounts off ("£15 for each laptop purchased"). Others will actually offer money for signing up for trials or using their search engines, so you can get money for nothing!

Quidco make their money by taking £5 off every registered account each year (assuming you make some money every year). If you don't get any money credited to your account because you haven't shopped through them, they don't take anything.

Hope that helps.
KiKi

Gemmzie

A DMP still means that you can pay off all your debts, it just means quite often that you can pay it at a smaller amount per month sometimes without interest.
£200 a month is a large deficit and CCCS know their stuff. You really do seem to be working hard to bring in as much as possible (very impressed with your Avon income! We get about £20!) but please don't knacker yourselves trying to pay these debts in the current situation.

lucielle

mintymoneysaver wrote: »

I'm assuming that life insurance is for the year?

Hi Minty Money saver
nope that is the monthly amount. We each have life cover and then my oh has critical illness on another policy. We are in the process of finding something cheaper at the moment as I need to have a medical.

Thanks
Lucielle

penguin83

Hi Lucielle

I have a horse too and know what a strain they can be financially! Is there any way you can place your horse on loan to avoid having to sell? x x

Gemmzie

You have £1352.11 left on the months when you are paid but I'm guessing that the part-time jobs vary and then there's months when you don't get paid so I'd go with approx £900 for debt repayments. That way you know you can make them every month and this is still a high payment on your size debts.

DEBTS
Barclaycard OH (23.9%) - £9619.99 - £216
Barclaycard OH (6.9%) - £6072.57 - £136
bank of scotland OH (6.5%) £4224.78 - £86.25
HSBC OH (15.9%) £334.99 - £9.55
American Express OH (??) £3299.39 - £85.00
Citi OH (??) £3830.32 - £121

Abbey (me) (0% till 08/08) £3594.00 - £113.00
HSBC (me) (16.9%) £5612.53 - £142.81
Barclays (me) (??) £1036.00 - £23.00

Who's names are the following in?
tesco loan (??) £16554.60 - £324.60
* car hp (??) £3177.88 - £188.33
* student support (0%) £2283.41 - £78.74
* educational back-up (??) £217.50 - £7.50
barclays o/d (??) £1900.00 Are you making any payment to this?
barclays o/d (??) £300.00 Ditto?
hsbc o/d (??) £700.00 Ditto?

Total = £1531.78 before O/D payment

I can work out for you what the payments would roughly be on a DMP if you want. I'd leave the * -ed ones out of the plan and tackle them first with your extra income.
You need to do something because at the moment some of the payments mean that you'll be paying the debt off for a very long time. Stick all of the debts into the snowball calculator...http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx to work out how much your debts going down each month.
You might be able to just put one of you on a DMP and attack the other debts, but it depends how they are divided up.

lauradora

Hi there and welcome!

Its a bit last minute but if you've got anything to e bay theres a 10p listing day today!!

Congrats on starting on here it'll be the best thing you ever did

Firstly I think you could cut that food budgt down. I know there are a lot of you but once you've been hanging around on here for a while you'll get your head round it. I used to spend 45-50 quid a week on food just for me and my daughter but down i've got that down to less than a tenner on some weeks.

You've obviously been having a go at cutting down your utility bills. And that certainly is a long list of debts!!! I would look at the little ones first and try to get rid of them to maybe make the task a little less daunting

Keep in touch we'll be around xxx

In_Search_Of_Me

lucielle wrote: »

Hi


Well this is the scary bit so here goes:

rent £350.00
water £7.11
council tax £90.00 Can this be spread over 12m?
electricity £46.50 was paying £65.00 until last week check sites to see if you can get better
oil £40.00 was paying £50.00 until last week any cheaper locally?
coal £40.00 what about making logs? SOmeone on here suggested it - may help bring that down...
contents insurance £7.69 Is this the cheapest?
Telephone £36.00 was paying £49.00 until last week Thats quite high...make sure you're getting the best deal
mobile x 2 £20.00 pay as you go If you use ONLY for emergencies you can make 20 last ages....
tv licence £11.61
school dinners £44.00 term time only Can they changeto sandwiches?
school fees £31.65 youngest son is dyslexic and we have a bursary for the rest of fees.Is he statemented - any way to get no fees at all!
life insurance £142.97 trying to change this for a cheaper one :eek: Thats nuts!
petrol x 2 £100.00 live miles from anywhere make sure you find the cheapest local supplier...
car insurance x 2 £58.17again check this is the cheapest
food etc £425 have a look at old style boards & see where you can cut down...I've halved mine since I started...its all thse little extras that make a huge difference
clothing/ birthdays £30.00
aa membership £11.50tesco clubcard points can get you RAC cover for nowt!
car tax x 2 £32.08
mot £37.50
horse ins £46.07 The horse in current situation really needs thinking about - I know its really hard but they are very expensive to keep and if you managed to find him a new loving home this would break you even without even doing anything else...I know it would be heartbreaking though so hugs on that one
livery £151.00
farrier £40

total £1798.85

Income
husband £2079.61
me £468 term time only
child tax credit £40.03
child benefit £230
Avon income £166.66
husband's partime business £166.66

Total £3150.96

DEBTS (AAARGH)
Barclaycard OH £216.00 owe £9619.99 at 23.9%
Barclaycard OH £136.00 owe £6072.57 fixed 6.9% life of balance
bank of scotland OH £86.25 owe £4224.78 fixed 6.5% life of balance
HSBC OH £9.55 owe £334.99 15.9%
American Express OH £85.00 owe £3299.39 fixed not sure what apr is life of balance
Abbey (me) £113.00 owe £3594.00 0% August 08
Citi OH £121.00 owe £3830.32 fixed not sure what apr is
HSBC (me) £142.81 owe £5612.53 16.9%
Barclays (me) £23.00 owe £1036.00 fixed not sure what apr is.
tesco loan £324.60 owe £16554.60
car hp £188.33 owe £3177.88
student support £78.74 owe £2283.41 0% life of balance
educational back-up £7.50 owe £217.50
barclays o/d £1900.00
barclays o/d £300.00
hsbc o/d £700.00

Total monthly repayments £1531.78 total debt £59857.96
Total out goings £3330.63 shortfall of £179.67.

Have 2 childrens friendly bonds which we are going to cash in and pay off the car and the hsbc card £5612.53. I know the horse will have to go but I am clinging on yet. My husband works shifts so working evenings is very difficult, saying that I have been offered some waitressing which I will do but knowing the lady I'm not sure if I'll get paid. His shift work varies so working out his wages is a bit of a nightmare. My hours for my term time job have gone down to 3 days from January and not sure when they'll go up to 4.5 days. If you have any suggestions they would be appreciated. Please can you tell me what quidco is? Thanks

Have a hunt & start taking steps to pay things off and dont put the horse off...the longer you leave it the more youre paying...it would also be one less thing for you to worry about then...Keep posting & rerember youre not alone in this!

Alibi_2

Can't help with all the other stuff (sorry) as I've only just owned up to my own debt, but I have have horses too and know how much stress they cause and how hard it is to even think about selling them.

A sharer or loaning the horse out may be worth thinking about but get a contract drawn up (sample contracts are on the BHS website) so both parties know who is responsible for what costs, etc. Put an ad up at your local feed place or ww.newrider.com has a free advert section.

Horse Insurance can be cut, Petplan allow you to pick and choose which bits of the policy you want, I have mine insured for Public Liability (which is compulsory) and Vets Fees only and dropped the value of all the horses to £500 (minimum amount) which roughly halfs the premium (mines just under £20 a month but I get a discount for having 3 of the critters). And Petplan pay up quickly when you claim - I've found out recently!! You can get a quote from their website to compare www.petplan-equine.co.uk ( i think!)

Good luck and I hope you can work it all out without having to sell your 4-legged friend!