My SOA - please look

SuzySu

Thanks for reminding me Bunny...... I'm surprised I sleep as well as I do. We have remortgaged twice hence the high payment each month. I wish they had refused us really as we would have had to deal with this years ago and maybe not incurred as much debt as we have now.

Totallybroke - my partner is from SA and obviously likes to keep in touch with family etc. Have looked at Skype, but Internet is expensive over there so only 1 family member has it.

Bunnyinthelights

Oh Suzy,
I hear you hunny.(consolidating!)
Good luck with everything.
It will be ok eventually x

SuzySu

Doing just that Bunny....we are selling the house and will rent. So sad to have to do this but I can't blame anyone else - they didn't spend our money. Just hope it sells soon (been posting on the House Selling thread so don't want to duplicate here).

If (when) we sell, it should save us about £600 a month

Bunnyinthelights

Brilliant!
It's a hard choice but then, you're healthy, and have each other-think how fast you will be able to beat down the debt then!

(would you consider child labour as you have 3? lol)

RAS

Hi

SuzySu wrote: »

There are 5 of us in the house....myself, partner, 3 teenagers.

I know Sky, gym etc is not essential, but I am now tied into contracts and I don't know what I can do about it.

Unfortunaely unless you can downgrade the contracts you will have to pay and it is not worth wrecking havoc with your credit rating if it is half way decent

Entertainment - £100 - we probably don't use this every month, but school hols might take the kids out. Will definitely need to slash this one.

I would suggest that you cut it right out. They are old enought to understnad. It may be painful telling them , but it has to be done.

Cars - we are thinking about selling one car but need to get it repaired first. Will only make £2000 I think (if that) but it's better than nothing and will save us on petrol, insurance, tax etc. We were only talking about this yesterday.

Good, as your unsecured debt is small

Mobile - only paying for DD at the moment. She doesn't get pocket money and does a lot round the house to help. I haven't paid the bill for my mobile for a couple of months so they have suspended my service but I'm still in contract until November. - can you down grade your contracts? Then go PAYG as soon as you can?

Landline - can't afford this bill either so we can't make any outgoing calls. Is this debts then?

Clothing - again, haven't bought anything new for ages but CCCS said to include something so I have. -

There is a bit of a difference between DFW and CCCS. What CCCS are doing is advising you on a realistic budget on which you can live long term, with a boit of slack to cope with emergencies./ What DFW does weel is find ways to pare that to the bone so you can survive short-term or find some extra to put towards the debts, depending on your inclination.

Sign up for www.freecycle.org if you have not already done so.

Mortgage - selling our house to try to clear most of our debts so no point in swapping now (haven't even made the full payment for the last 3 months).

You really need to try and pay this - before clothing and entertainment. Can you go interest only for a few months?

OK if you have spent £60K more than you have earned over the last few years, you will have some stuff that could go on e-bay, amazonor to a car boot sale. Get it out, listed or hunt down the best car-bbot and spend your entetainment money raising more money. Then pay the income towards the mortgage and sort out the telephones.

I would also go over to the Money Saving Old Style board and start by putting up a store cupboard challenge, list everything in the cupbaord and freezer and try to live off that for as long as possible, bar buying milk and bread.

SuzySu

Thanks all. Just had a bit of a cry as it all seems a bit poo at the moment. What didn't help today was finding out that my child maintenance has been paid into the wrong account (long story) so that is £300 swallowed up by my overdraft and I need that money.

I have recently swapped banks to a basic account to ensure that at least the mortgate gets paid in full. Can't go interest only until I have made up the deficit and can't take a payment holiday until we have paid 3 months in full by DD (hopefully by which time we have sold the house).

A lot of bills need paying and I don't know where to start.

RAS

Suzy

You start by making usre everyone in the house knows the seriousness of the situation and that it is going to be tough until you get the house sold.

1. Go round the house and start looking for stuff to sell. I would be inclined to try a car-boot if you need to money quickly rather than all the faff with postage and paypal. get the kids to contribute stuff that they have grown out of etc. And check all the pockets for money. if you are moving, this is a good idea anyway.

2. Your utilities are high. Go round and find every single thing that it plugged in and turn it off at the switch, except the fridge and freezer. Fine anyone who leaves anything on stand-by or leaves empty chargers turned on. Can you swap these? Check the utiltiies board here and use www.quidco.com or another cash-back site to swap.

3. I will post chev list of survey and click sites.

4. As i said, do the store cupboard challenge. If you can really cut the houskeeping this month, you can pay some of the other bills. If you are moving, this is a good idea anyway.

5. Buy anything essential from lidl or another discount supermarket. Menu plan and plan.

Remember, the mortgage takes priority.

SuzySu

Thanks for your time RAS. The children sort of know that things are a bit tough at the moment. Oldest one has a job and pays her own way in terms of entertainment. Younger two are too young for jobs but don't ask for any pocket money and don't demand the latest gadgets/clothing. They know the house is on the market but not the real reason why.

My partner and I were going to emigrate to SA later on this year, but she has now been offered a much better job doing something she has always wanted to do so we have postponed emigrating for another 12 months. We are sad about this, but it should give us a chance to pay off most (if not all) our debts. It will mean we will leave the country with nothing but at least we won't have this hanging over our heads.

I have also applied for a job which should bring in a bit more money, so fingers crossed. At the moment I work 10 mins from home, but if I get this job it will mean travelling to and from London every day which will add another 3 hours onto my working day, but I should get an extra £150 per month - not a lot I know, but it all helps.

Burlesque_Babe

Cry all you need to, I know I shed a few tears on my DFW journey - the enormity is a lot to take in, but once you've released the pressure and tension, you can move forward and start to plan.

RAS

SuzySu wrote: »

I have also applied for a job which should bring in a bit more money, so fingers crossed. At the moment I work 10 mins from home, but if I get this job it will mean travelling to and from London every day which will add another 3 hours onto my working day, but I should get an extra £150 per month - not a lot I know, but it all helps.

What would the extra cost of the journey be? You need to factor that plus any childcare into the equation.
glad the kids know something but I think you need to explain more, so they undertand the need to turn everything off etc.