Here are my ins and outs, as requested - sorry for delay

Bumbelina

OK, I posted 10 days ago asking for advice and was told I needed to post my income and outgoings. It's taken me a while to get the info together, but here goes (hope there aren't any space restrictions on here!):
Income (self, partner, child benefit, tax credits) £3,023.87
Outgoings:
Mortgage £479.00
Secured Loan 173.00
Term assurance 19.00
Life & illness policy 15.00
Council tax 77.00
gas and electric 80.00 (approx £200 owing due to dd being insufficient)
water 21.00
Phone, TV, broadband 75.00
T mobile 8.13
House insurance 28.00
car insurance 40.00
car tax 16.00
Car loan 196.00
Petrol 120.00
savings for children 50.00
cancer research 4.00
childminding 90.00
Childrens activities (karate, gym, swimming, brownies) 87.00
window cleaner and newspapers 7.84
TV licence 10.00
Pensions 130.00
National insurance 21.00
Husband's maintenance payments to ex wife 150.00
Exercise classes and health consultant 70.00 (I know, but I'm recovering from cancer and this is really important to me)
Food and children's clothing 450.00
MBNA card (min.payment) 33.24
Capital One card (min. payment) 20.93
Dentist 5.00
savings for holidays, christmas, car MOT etc 50.00 (pathetic, and inadequate)

Debts:
Mortgage (variable rate, no tie-in) 70,000
Secured Loan (APR 6.9%) 22,000
Car Loan (APR 14.8%) 7,000 approx.
MBNA Card (APR 6.9%) 2,240
Capital One card (APR 14.8%) 700
Overdraft (APR 14%) 300
Catalogue 40

On paper it looks as though we should be ok, but I'm horrified about the amount of debt and in practice we are only just keeping our heads above water. We never have enough for holidays, birthdays and Christmas and all it takes is a £300 bill to get the car through its MOT (which has just happened) to land us right up the creek. Don't know what our credit rating is like - it was bad a few years ago because we had to negotiate reduced payments for a while but didn't have any CCJs. We've paid everything on time for the last 3 years or so but don't seem to be making any headway with the debt and we are just living from hand to mouth, which I'm utterly sick of. If we go away on a short break even it seems to cost hundreds - even a camping trip - and it just puts us right back at square one. Please somebody tell us how to change this situation we are in - I just want to be normal and have holidays and buy decent clothes like other people instead of being permanently skint. We earn a reasonable amount I think but are both self-employed so that can vary and I've had to take an average for my earnings (my husband takes out the same amount from his business each month but mine can vary quite a bit). Anyway, advice and help would be much appreciated - sorry for length of this post.

Bumbelina

mountainofdebt

The first thing that struck me is the amount that is spent on TV, broadband and phone....how does this breakdown?

Secondly (and I know this is going to be hard!) but does your children need to go to all those activities? £87 is a heck of alot of money each month.

Do you read the newspapers or do you get them out of habit?

I think I would also be tempted to stop the £50 savings for your children....yes I know you want them to have something behind them in the future but we're talking about the here and now

Whilst we're on the subject, how does the £450 for food and children's clothes breakdown?

The other thing that I'm curious about is the life and illness policy. If its not too personal (and you can tell me if it is,lol!) has this provided any income for you whilst you've been ill?

Bumbelina

I have to confess I don't know how the TV etc breaks down - my husband deals with that (pathetic I know) but we pay about £45 to Ntl each month and 30 to Sky digital. The children's savings are non-negotiable - I'm not going to find they've reached 18 and I have no money to send them to uni if they want to go. The illness policy is my husband's - I'm not eligible for critical illness cover because of my medical history, but we thought we'd better have cover for him at least because we don't want to get caught out like that again, God forbid. The childrens activities are a lot, I know. I don't know what to do about that. There are 2 of them and I have to treat them equally. They're doing so well at everything I can't bear to tell them they can't go any more - I'd rather sacrifice something else if possible. The food - we spend about £100 a week on average I guess for a family of 4, with occasional extras like school uniform, clothing which we often buy at the supermarket. I'd love to get away from the supermarkets and use local shops, the Co-op etc for ethical reasons but that would probably be even more expensive. The newspaper - we only get the local paper once a week on Saturdays, for the classified ads to see what we can get second hand and catch up on local news. Yes, we do read it.

Oracus

Seems a stupid thing to suggest, and I've probably missed a previous post explaining it, but how much equity have you got in your home? An Equity Release Loan to cover all lending apart from the mortgage would reduce payments in the here and now as it'd be stretched over a longer term. Overpayments over time could bring the amount owed down, but I';m guessing short term at least you are just looking at lower monthly payments.

There is little point me saying 'that seems a lot' to individual sections as everybody tends to have different priorities, take a long hard look at everything you spend money on, and cut spending wherever you can - stop any impulse buying - that saved me a fortune - and for that reason I no longer carry any cash as I always think befor 'switching' anything. I got rid of SKY and bought Freeview, do miss the extra choice, but not to the tune of £40 a month.

Probably the most important one if you do go down the consolidation route - once consolidated, dont go building up C/C bills and loans again.

Hope there is something useful there.

Os`

homersimpson_3

sorry this sounds hard but you seem to be in a better position than most with 3k of income and only 2 children to support.
1. Shop around for cheaper gas and electricity-
2. Phone, TV, broadband 75.00 seems extortionate- is it cheaper to have all 3 with NTL- why sky and NTL? If you don't know find out.
3. T mobile 8.13- do you really need this? why can't you use pay and go?
4. do you really need a car? why can't you walk or use public transport. if needed for business, you live miles away from local amenities or health reasons different matter.
5. get rid of savings for children- priority is paying off debts- start saving again once debt payed off.
6. are there cheaper activites your children can attend. i take your point about not wanting to disappoint them particularly if they are doing well and more importantly enjoying them. can children make contribution to costs- can they do paper round etc?
7. why can't family clean windows and go to library to read paper
8. Food and children's clothing 450.00- seems extremely high. look at savings board for ways to save money.
9. why does a short break, even camping, cost you hundreds of pounds? don't understand this!- these are loads of cheap holidays and sites around. - all for camping is petrol costs, sites for pitching tent and the food. a little bit for spending money. you would buy the food if you were at home anyway! where are you going? take advantage of all the tickets for free admission or childern go free if adult pays etc.
the period from changing from being permanently skint to a position where you can have holidays and buy decent clothes is very hard & is certainly no picnic but it's worth it in the end and yes during this period you will almost certainly be sick of it all.

Murtle

Based on your figures you should have £497 spare each month?


http://www.geocities.com/schizeckinosy/Snowball.html

try using this to snowball your debts and use the spare cash each month to reduce your debts.

The telephone board will help you reduce your internet/mobile/landline costs - they are high!!

Everything is negotiable when it comes to clearing your debts, even your childrens savings, before you write off the idea - add the £50 per month into the snowball calculator and see how much quicker you'll pay off your debts? and if you'll then be in a better situation to save high amounts per month (and not line the banks pockets with all the interest you are paying them, your lowest apr is 6.9% I doubt you're getting that on the savings for your kids....)

You are paying £177 for other people to have your kids per month, I can understand that sometimes it has to be done, just take a check and see if you can reduce this time and spend more time with them yourself?

By snowballing you'll pay off the highest apr debts first, except where you can't overpay on them - check to see what you can overpay on.

Good luck

nelly_2

Im sure Ntl do all sky's channels anyway, at a price but I would have thought it'd be cheaper through just 1 provider.

My phone tv broadband is £35 a month, off NTL.

tattooed_lady

Hi there :hello:

I just wanted to say it can be done so hang in there!

We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids) and OH and I have an income of £1900 pcm (inc both incomes, child benefit and Tax credits).

We have a small, old car - but it gets us from A to B. To be honest I'd rather do without cos cars are so expensive to run, but I'll keep it till it conks out and then re-think it!

Our shopping budget is approx £80 pw, that's including clothes and petrol. I also use the local Sure Start facilities in the area where they have a clothing swap so I take my daughter's used clothes and swap them for sometimes new stuff. My boys get given loads of clothes and I buy from cheaper stores like Peacocks, ok not always great but kids don't wear stuff for long!

Food wise, we are trying to live OldStyle (check out the forum, it's brill). We now cook most things from scratch, therefore eating healthily and saving money. We still have the odd take away though .

We take the kids out at the weekends to free museums etc and set ourselves a budget to stick to. Admittedly, we would like them to do more activities, DS1 does swimming lessons but that's about it, but there is always the money issue. I take the other two to a free music and movement class while he is swimming so they don't feel left out.

We saved for over a year to go to Butlins for 4 days but the kids loved it and they appreciated the fact that it was something we all worked hard for.

Sometimes I get down that there isn't enough to do other things, but hey, we are a lot luckier than others so I always count my blessings.

Good luck in your moneysaving efforts

newmum1

hi there just to say it ca be done and one day you will be debt free, try cutting down on som stuff such as petrol £120 seems very expensive, childrens savings put the £50 towards repayments then when your in a better position save £100 per month. also food and clothing try to cut back by about £100, £450 seems way too much, personal savings forget that for the time being as you cannot afford to save again throw all savings at the debt it will reduce it quicker. try reading free newspapers i.e metro and local free ones or watch the national news that will keep you up to date on events. also do you really need a window cleaner could husband not do it.

dont mean to sound harsh but keep your chin up things will get better !

mountainofdebt

Please don't take this as criticism....and if it were I would be a fine one to be giving it, considering my user name!...only what I'm about to say could be taken the wrong way, especially as you can't hear the tone of my voice and I would hate to upset anyone, especially as I've received some great advice from this site.

So, having put that rider on it, here goes!

Given your expenditure, what would you be prepared to compromise on in order to solve your debt problem?

You say the children's savings are non-negotiable - but how far away is the prospect of them going to uni? Would it really be a hardship for them if they didn't do all their activities? I would imagine that the petrol bills would decrease as the running the children to and fro decreased as well.

Would you be prepared to cut back on your sky package? I assume you've got the middle package ...have you looked to see if the new pick and mix deals from Sky would be cheaper for you? (we cut back from the top all singing all dancing package to just 4 of the variety mixes and to be honest haven't noticed the difference apart from the DD amount that is!)

If NTL are for your phone and internet connection, then would a different provider be cheaper? I know Martin is on the verge of releasing some info about home telephone providers but even BT are only £10.50 for line rental (paying by DD) per month and then I use 18866 (OK MSErs I know I should use 18899!) This has dramatically brought down my phone bill.


As has been said before different people have different priorities and I'm in no way criticising you ...I'm just trying to give you food for thought.

johannamse

I'd first like to emphasise what mountainofdebt said - please don't take this the wrong way, it's just said to try and make you see things in a different light...

Hubby (and me) were like you when we first were trying to get out of debt,

"I can't live without Sky, I work all week, I DESERVE it."
"It's only a beer, what difference will one beer make?"

The fact is that debt is draining, and can make you sick with worry and having been through what you have been through, you will know all about stress. The fact is if you want to get out of debt, try and see everything as negotiable. It is quite scary striping your whole life to the bare bones and realising how much actually is negotiable.

When you are out of debt, and you have a great income, it will happen quickly if you put your mind to it, you will have changed your whole attitude to money and will find it easy to save. The reason you feel you have to keep saving your kiddies money is becase of the debt, because you feel out of control and because you don't beleive you will ever start again, once you stop. Basically you don't trust yourself. If you really make every effort to get rid of this debt, you will be like the rest of us, and will then become addicted to saving.

Anyhow...you can tell me to !!!!!! off if you want. But I have brought the T-shirt. All I am saying is BE OPEN MINDED. There is actaully no reason why you cant change cars, move house etc etc (just examples). I am just saying everything is changable, if you choose it to be.

Keep Posting. You will get there in the end.