Someone please help!

jacquicd

Hi, I am new to the forum but am really desperate. We are broke, I have worked out our budget and we need to find an extra £300 per month just to cover our bills and shopping. We have £100 to pay to a credit card each month and an overdraft of £6,000! We have two small children and I am pregnant due in May which means I can't even work to bring in any more money. My husband works full time. Our child tax credits were messed up and at present we are being paidnothing as they think we have been overpaid in the past. My husband earns £21K which I think makes us ineligble for working tax credits. Unfortunately are mortgage is big we have to pay £630 a month. We have remortgaged and this is the best deal we can get at the moment. I just have no idea how to make an extra £300 per month and wondered if anyone was in the same boat. I am beside myself about this! I have budgeted our shoppping at £50 a week and we don't have any extras that we can cut out from our direct debits. Any one have any ideas?
Thanks

hypno06

hi there, and welcome

at the top of this board there is a sticky for new posters - have a look at that and put together a Statement of affairs if you can, (SOA). Post it on here and the good people of the DFW community may be able to spot ways of helping the books to balance.

the support on here is invaluable, and you will get lots of help, and motivation if you stick around!

CharliesAngel

Hello jacquicd

Welcome to the forum and well done in asking for help... that's the hardest thing to do! Congrats on the impending birth of your little one..

have you looked at Southernscouser's sticky on the main forum page for advice on how to post your statement of affairs? We can then help you by reducing your outgoings..

I would also recommend asking credit card companies if they can freeze your interest on your cards for a while, giving you a change to catch up... or swap them to lower interest rates.

Also, give Payplan or CCCS a call, they won't charge you for your advice.

Good luck... we're all in a similar position.

CA x

rayday2

Is the only creditor you have a credit card, nothing like catalogues etc that are adding to the montly amounts?

CharliesAngel

lol hypno06... crossed typing hun!

xx

Numpty_Monkey

Hi hun
If you can post a full SOA , i'm sure the wonderfull people here will help
have a quick read of these

newbie guide
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=562271

And this
DFW Dictionary
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=672601

well done for doing the hardest bit, asking for help and the clever bods will help:A :A

the rest of us will offer support:A

Congratulations on your new baby:j

keep posting

take care xx

jacquicd

Thanks everyone for your support, I should have read the guides first but I was in such a state I just jumped in (something I am starting to realise I am good at) I will also try to write slower so I don't jumble my words! Here is my SOA

Incoming:

Hubbies Salary pm £1395
Child benefit £125.40

Total £1520.40

Outgoing:

Loan to my Dad £25.00
TV licence £11.75
Specsavers £22.00
Life insurance £24.77
Phone & internet £52.00
Endowment £169.19
Mortgage £633.60
Overdraft interest £12.00
Account charge £15.00
Pmt into fund
for my two boys £20.00
Water £87.50
Sky £38.84
Home insurance £23.36
Gas & electricity £80.00
Credit card £100.00
Council tax £118.00
Shopping £200.00
Petrol £80.00
Alcohol & cigs £100.00

Total: £1813.01

Difference £292.61!!!

We have an Egg credit card balance of about £4,900 (waiting for stmt) I have just transferred to this and no interest for 15mths on balance transfers

Also Amazon credit card £1015 no interest, I am hoping to sell some software to get rid of most of this!

Finally overdraft of £6,000 at the moment but I think I am going to need to increase this. We pay £15 monthly charge, I need to find out interest rate but last month was £12.00

My sons go to a swimming club and gym club and also a preschool. I pay these by cheque so need to go and find out how much it amounts to. I think the preschool is around £90 per month, th gym club £12 per month, need to find out about swimming club.

Just realised that we paid our car insce directly through the bank which was around £350 for the year, just paid and also Pet insurance which I need to find out how much we paid but has also just been paid for the year

I think that is everything, my brain is not working properly at the moment and I am hoping I havn't missed out anything else major!

Thanks again everyone for your support.

Jacqui

dancingfairy

Hi and welcome :hello Here are my thoughts;

Loan to my Dad £25.00
TV licence £11.75
Specsavers £22.00
Life insurance £24.77
Phone & internet £52.00 this seems awfully high - how much is calls and how much is the service charges?
Endowment £169.19
Mortgage £633.60
Overdraft interest £12.00
Account charge £15.00
Pmt into fund
for my two boys £20.00 lovely idea but you can't really afford this at the moment. Your boys need food,love and a roof over the head. You can catch this up when you are in a better financial situation.
Water £87.50
Sky £38.84 this really needs to go as well. Sorry but you need the money.
Home insurance £23.36
Gas & electricity £80.00 this seems high- can you turn all lights off when not needed,unplug mobiles, turn tv off standby, get energy savings lightbulbs? and look at switching and see how much you can save.
Credit card £100.00
Council tax £118.00 can you pay this over 12 months not 10 to make things a bit easier?
Shopping £200.00 pop over to MoneysavingOldStyle board - they should be able to come up with some cheap meal ideas for you.
Petrol £80.00
Alcohol & cigs £100.00 mmmm - this really needs to look at being cut back - perhaps the alcohol can be reduced and maybe switch to roll-ups - apparently they are cheaper and try and reduce as much as poss. I realise it is easy for me to say quit but it will really benefit your health and wealth and the health of your kids as well. I'm sure there is loads of help out there for this.

Swimming
Gym £12
Preschool £90 will you need to spend so much on sending the little ones to preschool when you are at home on maternity leave? Also won't your benefits go up slightly as well?
Car insurance
Total: £1813.01

I would do a spending diary so you can work out where else your money is going. Also speak to the benefits people (again) and check the latest situation.

Good Luck.

Scarlett.1974

How much were you overpaid by tax credits? Can you not pay them back at a lower amount of about £10.00 per month and continue to claim what you're entitled to NOW? You should be, I was able to do this - I was overpaid by £1500 from a few years ago and they allowed me to pay them back at £10.00 per month and I was still able to get my monthly payment from them.

On just your H's wage and with 2 children you would definitely be entitled to something. Have a look here www.entitledto.com and see what it says, then contact them about the overpayment.

Best of luck to you

MrsTinks

jacquicd wrote: »

Incoming:

Hubbies Salary pm £1395
Child benefit £125.40

Total £1520.40

Outgoing:

Loan to my Dad £25.00
TV licence £11.75
Specsavers £22.00 What is this for? Contact lenses - if so shop around for a better deal!
Life insurance £24.77 Seems high can you get a better deal?
Phone & internet £52.00 WHOA! This is high! Look at Martins articles about lowering this!
Endowment £169.19
Mortgage £633.60
Overdraft interest £12.00 Have you thought about moving bank to A&L? You get interest free overdraft for I think 12 months.
Account charge £15.00 What is this for?
Pmt into fund
for my two boys £20.00 Sorry but right now you cannot spare this. Keep track of how many payments you miss and make up for it when you are able to pay into it again.
Water £87.50 This is VERY high! Is this the monthly payment? Is the account in arreas?
Sky £38.84 Gotta go... At VERY least needs to be reduced to lowest package until you can cancel.
Home insurance £23.36 Check for better deal and go through Quidco
Gas & electricity £80.00 Check for better deal and go through Quidco
Credit card £100.00
Council tax £118.00
Shopping £200.00 Need this broken down a bit more...
Petrol £80.00
Alcohol & cigs £100.00 Quit smoking and reduce alcohol allowance to maybe £25 a month - I'm serious! You can get help from the NHS to quit and right now you are lighting up little rolls of cash everytime you light up...

Total: £1813.01

Difference £292.61!!!

I've made some suggestions - could your OH get a second job? Could you do ironing from home to bring in some extra cash?

splishsplash

Just a quick question- your water charges - they can't really be almost £90 per month, can they? Or are you paying arrears?
Your Sky, phone and internet total £90pm also - can you get a 3 for £30 deal?