confused and desperate!!

CCCS_Sarah

Hi Tadpole,

Hope I can be of some help for you. You have made the first move towards dealing with your debt problem.

The most important thing at the moment as you have said is protecting your priorities i.e. mortgage, secured loan, Council Tax etc you need to try and keep these up to date.

So you don’t get trapped in the cycle of charges etc it’s a good idea to open a basic bank account with a bank where you have no debts then get you wages paid into this account. You can then pay the unsecured creditors an amount that is affordable to yourself based on your SOA.

Whist I cannot advise you fully on your financial situation via this forum we do have an online advice facility called Debt Remedy where you can complete a financial statement and be provided with advice on the best way to deal with your situation more long term. If you click here you can access our virtual counselling service.

Hope everything works out well for you. Let me know how you get on

Sarah

GeorgeUK

Council tax - can you spread this over 12 months instead of 10?
phones - do a search to see if you are getting the best price. PAYG?
Is sky necessery? Is it part of an internet package? - didn't see it listed
Food - Please tell me that's a typo. £500 per month??
Life insurance - i'd stop this for now.

Can you tell us the APR's for the cards & loans? Are there any late payments or defaults on these? And what are the limits?

As Alisonbel says, there are a number of charities that will be able to advise you for free - they do what those companies on the TV say without actually costing you anything.
(Taken from Fermi's signature)

Professional, free and impartial advice on debt problems can be obtained from several charitable and 'not for profit' organisations. They never make a penny from the advice they give, which means it will be given with only your best interests at heart. You can contact:

Your local CAB Office and ask to speak to a 'money advisor'
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) - Tel: 0800 138 1111
National Debtline - Tel: 0808 808 4000
Payplan - Tel: 0800 917 7823

itsgototstop

tadpole13 wrote: »

Ok here goes


My salary - £1,300
Partners salary - £1400 (variable)
Benefits - £60

Total - £2,760

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £700
Council Tax - £100
Childcare £350
Gas - £25
Electric - £40
TV License - £12
Sky £23 ( can you cut to basic package about 15?)
Phones - £65
Food - £500 ( cut down to 200, visit old style money saving)
Car Insurance - £25
Petrol - £120
Life Insurances £120 ( high, have you looked at uswitch?)
Buildings/Conentents £45 ( high, i pay 27 in london)
Loan £250
Car £250 ( sel and buy cheaper car?)
CC payments £400
Misc £100 ( what!!!)

Total: £3125

Debts
£12k Loan (HSBC)
CCs £10 (John Lewis, HSBC & Natwest all maxed!!)
Car £8k (RFS) can you sell car, buy cheaper and settle this?
Overdraft £600

As it stands we are over our overdraft already so have the £60 cash in our pockets to last the month.

I think you could easily save a bit!

misspixierocktastic

Many people cut dont their food bill by popping over to the money saving old style food board
Great ways to cut back on food spending which seems to be eating away at a lot of your income

Good luck :-)

misspoppy

Hi

Your food bill is incredible how much food do you throw away each week it must be a lot?

Your life insurance is also very very high get some quotes from else where i'm sure you can cut that down.

You really should look at cancelling sky, call them up and tell them you can't afford it and they often give you a reduce rate for a while but then cancel it, your mobile phones are also expensive call them and ask for a reduced tariff and see what you can get but if you are out of contract go to pay as you go. I think you should be able to easily gain £300p/m through these savings.

MoneyGypsy

tadpole13 wrote: »

Ok here goes


My salary - £1,300
Partners salary - £1400 (variable)
Benefits - £60

Can either of you work more to earn extra?

Total - £2,760

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £700 Can you arrange a new deal with you mortgage provider or move to a new one to lower this?
Council Tax - £100
Childcare £350 Is this a nursery? Any way of reducing it such as paying a friend who is a stay at home mum herself? Could your family help mind the kids for some of the time?
Gas - £25
Electric - £40
TV License - £12
Sky £23 Needs to go - can get a freeview box at a later date if needed.
Phones - £65 Can you move to PAYG and only spend £10/month each?
Food - £500 Way too high - see old style board for lots of tips for families to live on a shoestring. Could be cut to £250/month. Also brill ways to spend nothing on food by doing the cupboard and freezer challenges (that is usoing everything you have before you buy another piece of food) all on OS board.
Car Insurance - £25
Petrol - £120 Can this be reduced? Walking/public transport?
Life Insurances £120 Can this be temporarily put on hold/reduced?
Buildings/Conentents £45 Use comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket to see if you can get this cheaper.
Loan £250
Car £250 Is this a repayment plan? Could this car be sold and a cheaper one bought? or borrow one from other family members?
CC payments £400
Misc £100

Total: £3125

Debts
£12k Loan (HSBC)
CCs £10k (John Lewis, HSBC & Natwest all maxed!!)
Car £8k (RFS)
Overdraft £600

As it stands we are over our overdraft already so have the £60 cash in our pockets to last the month. have your monthly outgoings left your a/c for this month? If so what and what is left?

Just some suggestions.

You have made a brilliant start just by coming on here.

Look at the others suggestions for places to ring for help.

I hope it all works out for you.

Lol.

debrag

Things that can be reduced.

Sky £23
Phones - £65
Food - £500 3 people on that, some people spend much less for 5 people
Life Insurances £120 I'm sure this can be much cheaper
Buildings/Conentents £45 I'm sure this can be much cheaper also


There are compare price sites out there - try http://www.moneysupermarket.com/

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Well done for taking that first step and starting the journey to sorting out your debts.

From you SOA the two things that jump out immediately are your food bill. Mine is around £175 a month including cleaning products etc for 2 adults and 1 toddler.

Life insurance - seems extremley high, might be worth shopping round to see if you can get similar cover cheaper elsewhere.

Good luck.

tadpole13

Thanks for all the messages. Will try and clarify some areas.

Food bill - this can def be cut but also includes nappies baby food and milk which is all pricey . But the shop lunches etc will all be going.

Childcare is already half the price of other options, a nursery would be over £700 in our area!!!

Am seeing our FA to try and reudce the insurance costs, the 120 includes redundancy, critical illness mortgage cover and life for the both of us.
The phones are line rental for bt and 2 mobiles these could go in april when the contracts end.
The sky includes internet which i do ned as i work from hime 1 day a week (to keep childcare dpen!!)
misc covered baby clothes, and office supplies for home and was a worst case month.

My main concern is trying to reduce the cc payments and loans, the car would cost me to return and then i would still need to buy another so i don't think that is going to save an awfull lot in the long run
A secured loan seemed to offer some solution but not ideal - although we would obviously prioritise that payment as we do the mortggae.

We are both owed £1k each for some freelance work but have been waiting 2 months and may not get it this month. so that would at least allow us to eat.

CC's John lewis £5k at 14.9%
HSBC £3k 15.9%
Natwest £2k 16%

will def contact cccs - thank you