Help - we feel like we've done everything we can, and we're still piling on the debt!

chevalier

I was going to suggest a bursary for the 6th form. There are some fairly painless ways to cut spending such as.

Either bundling your sky, broadband, landline together with sky/ntl or else get rid of sky altogether, and get freeview.
Ask to pay council tax over 12 months not 10 to spread the cost.
If you food shopping bill for a month is more than £300 (that is for food and cleaning), then you can shop smarter and cheaper to get this down.

Have you EVER switched you gas/electricity suppliers? If not then regardless of the current round of energy price rises, you will still save money by switching to another supplier.

Do you have big cars that can be traded down for more economical models? Do you just renew your car insurance every year with the same broker, without checking you are getting the best deal. I found that by doing this I save nearly £200! Plus got cash back from www.topcashback.co.uk.

With regards to work, I would suggest you get ANYTHING right now, and then try and get something in your field later. You need extra money, and it doesn't matter where it comes from. One lady on here gritted her teeth and worked in KFC and it made a significant difference to how close they were to the line each week up to xmas.

What about mystery shopping?

Selling things on ebay?

good luck
chev

BlushingRose

Right, here it is, we think - if there's anything else you need, please just yell?


Monthly details:

Incoming:

Salary £1,721.79
ex wife contribution to school fees £500
fee for column in paper £100

Outgoing:

british gas electricity £22
home insurance £36:91
school fees £823
life insurance (him) £24:65
council tax £90
internet £17:98 (cannot change this as no other service provider where we live)
british gas gas £36
bank loan £443:70 (£14,799:20 - due to be paid off by Jan 2012)
mortgage insurance £43:68
mortgage £500:20
car loan £165:57 (due to paid off in oct 2008)
car insurance £16:82 (we switched from zurich at £40pm to i love eco)
storage box £19:98
portrait loan £34:22
milk man £16
groceries £400 (we use a butcher and a green grocer for meat and veg and Asda for everything else) - we've been using a CC for this recently

credit card balances and payment per month

Total credit card balance was £8,500 on a capital one card with interest added for purchases & cash each month. We then took out an Egg and Virgin credit card and transferred most of the balances over to 0% interest accounts. These will run until feb 2009

Capital One £127:39
Egg £6,000
Virgin £2,400


other occasional outgoings

telephone bill £60 a quarter
TV license £140
car tax £60 (per 6 months)
water bill £49 a month between april - nov
school lunch card £40
petrol £20 as and when (we're planning to work out how much a month)


This is all the spending that we do. We spend nothing on ourselves (I know how pathetic this sounds!)
We don't get takeaways, go to the cinema, go to the hairdressers (that's me, not him) we don't buy anything really! We don't go out for meals...well, you get the idea!


HELP!!

BlushingRose

tesuhoha wrote: »

Hi, is there any chance of your son gaining a 6th Form scholarship. My daughter did this and it made the fees much more manageable.

No, I'm afraid not. We have asked the school, in the past, and they said no. Apparently himself earns too much!

twi1ight

Hi BlushingRose. Well done for posting your SOA, that's the first step to getting sorted.

I'm not too experienced on these boards but I'm sure lots of people who are will be along soon. The first thing that springs to mind is why have you got life insurance and mortgage insurance? Are they both needed? Also £400 is a lot for groceries, especially if there's just 3 of you. You could cut this down quite a bit, try looking on the Old Style part of this forum there are some real miracle workers there when it comes to groceries.

BlushingRose

What we tried to do re: groceries, it estimate what we spend a month.
maybe what we can do this week is write everything down and see what we've bought in the week.
I don;t think £100 a week is too much for groceries when we've got a 16yo boy and a cat?

hypno06

You can certainly shave a bit off the grocery bill if you try, especially as you are also paying for school meals.

I have a grocery budget of £250 a month, max, and that is for 2 adults, a 17 year old, 13 year old and 12 year old, and we eat pretty well.

Head over to the old style board and you will get loads of inspiration for cutting the shopping bill down. This could save you at least £100 a month.

mrsspendalot

£100 a week is loads for groceries!!! I spend £50 a week on a family of 5, and that includes a toddler in nappies and all the stuff for packed lunches too. Pop over to the oldstyle board for some ideas on how to reduce your food bill, they're fab over there

firesidemaid

£100 is too much to spend per week on groceries, especially when you don't have £100.

visit the old-style board for loads of ways to batch cook, meal plan and generally save money.

i don't know whether it will help, but think of your shopping list for each week as 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 dinners. ie. cereal etc for b/fast, hm sandwiches for lunch and a hm meal for tea. check what you have in the freezer, cupboards before you go shopping.

there families on the old style board who spend only £25 a week on groceries!

r.mac_2

try using this site to help you note down EVERYthing you spend. It really helps you identify where you are spending. http://www.spendingdiary.com/

Can i ask - why is your OH paying more than half for his childs school fees *sorry this is rather personal* just wondering why its not a 50/50 split in costs? could this be renegotiated?

£400 pcm for food is rather a lot - i would try and plan out your meals, then only buy what you actually need. This is a great way to save money - check out the old style section for more inspiration - perhaps try the grocery or store cupboard challenge.

what's a portrait loan?

Finally - don't panic. Its great that you have posted on here and i'm sure that everyone will find you some more savings elsewhere. Good luck with your employment agency.

chevalier

my comments are in blue

BlushingRose wrote: »

Right, here it is, we think - if there's anything else you need, please just yell?


Monthly details:

Incoming:

Salary £1,721.79
ex wife contribution to school fees £500
fee for column in paper £100
see my comments in an earlier post about getting ANY extra income from any job. Whilst you are not working are you getting working tax credits? And you also haven't put down child benefit?

Outgoing:

british gas electricity £22
home insurance £36:91how big is the house? we have a 4 bed detached and pay half of this.
school fees £823is this a monthly thing, or only term time? If term time could you ask them to pay this over the whole year not just in term? Bare in mind you half of this (ie less the £500 mentioned above ref wifes contribution) is a quarter of your income a month.
life insurance (him) £24:65What is this meant to cover? Can you see if you can get it cheaper? Also what benefits does he get from his work. Ie some employers offer death in service benefit which might be the same amount as you would get if this paid out. So may be able to get rid of this?
council tax £90ask to pay over 12 months not 10
internet £17:98 (cannot change this as no other service provider where we live)
british gas gas £36
bank loan £443:70 (£14,799:20 - due to be paid off by Jan 2012)
mortgage insurance £43:68again was this taken out with your mortgage provider, you do not have to go through them and can be cheaper if bought of an independant reseller.
mortgage £500:20
car loan £165:57 (due to paid off in oct 2008)so you will have this extra in just 9 months time!! Make sure when the loan is paid off that this is switched straight to another debt, not swallowed in the fritter black hole (been there done that:D :rolleyes: )
car insurance £16:82 (we switched from zurich at £40pm to i love eco)
storage box £19:98what is this for
portrait loan £34:22sorry does this mean you are paying to have a picture in your house ? If so then this has to be sent back to where ever,
milk man £16 If you use him for milk, what about for any veg is he cheaper than the grocer?
groceries £400 (we use a butcher and a green grocer for meat and veg and Asda for everything else) - we've been using a CC for this recently. Whilst I understand using local suppliers, if you are going to do this, then you still need to trim back. Use the butcher by all means, I use a good one too, and am sure I have less waste because I can get more than one meal out of most cuts I get. BUT with other stuff, then how about trying Lidl/Aldi instead of Asda for tins.

Also have an inventory of your store cupboards and freezer. Challenge yourself to see how far you can make this stuff go before having to do a big shop. It will save you money and also ensure that tins/packets are date rotated so that nothing has to be thrown away cos out of date. If you could do this for two weeks, that is say £140 saved to throw at a debt. Also try going down a brand, ie from branded to asda own brand. It really saves a lot.

With you now working, you can save money by meal planning and then only buying what is needed for the meal plan. I am sure you cook from scratch already so this is a refinement.

credit card balances and payment per month

Total credit card balance was £8,500 on a capital one card with interest added for purchases & cash each month. We then took out an Egg and Virgin credit card and transferred most of the balances over to 0% interest accounts. These will run until feb 2009

Capital One £127:39
Egg £6,000
Virgin £2,400


other occasional outgoings

telephone bill £60 a quarter
TV license £140
car tax £60 (per 6 months)
water bill £49 a month between april - nov
school lunch card £40
petrol £20 as and when (we're planning to work out how much a month)with all of these you need to get a monthly figure where necessary so that you can put that money in the monthly budget.


HELP!!

Hope the above helps. I would say that there is still a bit of fat to be trimmed! Good luck
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