Is there another option to bankruptcy?

Hi - I've got a hefty mortgage and lots of other debt, which, stupidly, I rolled into one with First Plus. The CAB are sending me out a debt info pack to wade through, but to be honest, I thought once you were talking secured loans, there wasn't much anyone can do? I posted on another website and the Debt Case Worker in no uncertain terms told me bankruptcy was my only solution & got quite annoyed with me when I asked if there was anything else I can do. I've posted my outgoings below - can you have a look and see what you'd advise?

Mortgage £912.36
Council Tax £117
TV Lic. £10.49
NTL £130
House Insurance £28.46
HP for Sofa £32.69
HP for Car £175
Life Cover £50.46
First Plus £661.65 :mad:
Egg Card £25.00
Electricity £34
Pet Plan £13.36
Cahoot £60.20

TOTAL £2250.67

Our joint monthly income is £2546, so we've currently got around £67 per week to live on - think this will rise by £37 when I have the baby due to Child Allowance & Tax Credits. I know the NTL is high, but we're not going out or anything, but I have asked my husband to have a look and see if we can at least cut back. The car at £175 is through my husband's work, its on a 9 month lease & we will be getting a cheaper one at £85 per month - so if all the above comes off, we should be up to around £137 per week. I shouldn't have any child care costs when I go back to work.

Is there anything else I can do? Has anyone ever known First Plus to be symphatetic?!? is £137 enough to live on per week for a family of 3?

J
Jaelor :hello:

We all make mistakes - that's why they put rubbers on the end of pencils

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Comments

  • Hi Jaelor :wave:

    I dont know the answers...sorry, but just wanted to wish you luck and im sure someone will be along soon to answer your post.

    Regards

    Penny-Pincher!!
    xxx
    To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it,
    requires brains!
    FEB GC/DIESEL £200/4 WEEKS
  • Bossyboots
    Bossyboots Posts: 6,746
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hi Jaelor

    Sorry to hear of your difficulties.

    I notice you don't include petrol, car servicing, car tax and car insurance. Are they paid for by hubby's work?

    You should be able to live on £137 per week albeit frugally. Pop over to the Old Style Money Saving Board for some ideas on keeping your food costs down each week.

    I am a bit concerned about how you are going to provide all the baby things you will need to start off with but hopefully you have friends and family who will give things as presents. You may have to scour the charity shops as well though.

    If it was me, I would definitely try to live on the sum you are saying you will have rather than go down the bankruptcy route. It won't be easy but I would have thought is was worth a try. At least you have a plus figure to be working with after all your outgoings. I would venture that you might be better off with towelling nappies than disposables so you can get someone to buy them for you and they then don't become a drain on your weekly cash.
  • Can I ask what NTL covers? Are you tied into any contract?
    2014 Target;
    To overpay CC by £1,000.
    Overpayment to date : £310

    2nd Purse Challenge:
    £15.88 saved to date
  • Ember999
    Ember999 Posts: 1,022
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Can I just ask:

    If you 'rolled' all your debt in to a First Plus Secured Loan, why do you have such debts as (1) Egg Card (2) Sofa Payment etc. in your list of outgoings?

    I notice you have 'pet plan' in your list too..cancel this! Pet Insurance is a waste of money. You have a large excess to pay and in reality, how often do you need to take your pets to the vets? I have 3 cats and until one died recently, they have never needed a vets, if they had, I would have paid and it still would have worked out cheaper than 14 years of Pet Plan. Pet Insurance is designed to make the insurance company make money! Insure Yourself! Put that money you currently pay them into a savings account every month, on which you will gain interest and you will have a 'large' lump sum should you ever need to use the vets.

    Yes, I think you can live quite happily on £137 per week. There are people on here who live well on a lot less. If you reduce your grocery budget and shop more carefully for clothes, you can even live on less than this. I would avoid bankruptcy at all costs. You will lose your house, everything you have worked for and you will have a very big black mark against your name for years and years! You will probably never be able to own your own home again.

    Lets work on reducing your outgoings and avoid bankruptcy huh?

    Ember xx
    ~What you send out comes back to thee thricefold!~
    ~
  • Jaelor
    Jaelor Posts: 80 Forumite
    NTL package (looking at latest bill as I don't really understand it all) consists of;

    Family Plus Sports & Movies @ £51.50
    Additional Box @ 15.00 (this is for me to watch TV upstairs)
    Broadband Internet 3MB £37.99
    Talk Unlimited 24 Plan £14.50

    The rest are call charges - I know i can get rid of the upstairs box, this would shave £15 off, and I'm not sure what the £51.50 actually covers in terms of channels.
    Jaelor :hello:

    We all make mistakes - that's why they put rubbers on the end of pencils

  • Your worried about food and clothing for your family when you pay over £50 for some TV channels. Forget that you don't go out, this is not needed. Just get rid of. If you want to avoid bankruptcy you need to have a complete rethink and really get rid of all the peripherals, that you THINK you need, but you do not actually. Braodband is expensive too.
  • First things first

    You really need to find out what you are paying for. £51.50 is a heck of alot of money to be spending on the TV. When you've found out what you are paying for, you really need to ask a) do I really really need it and b) would it be the end of life as we know it if we didn't have it. Forget the additional box as well.

    We recently downgraded from the top package on sky to the family pack and I can honestly say tnhat we haven't noticed the difference.

    Broadband internet - at £37.99 per month that is also alot of money. There are plently of providers that do it cheaper than that. (Tesco is £17.99 for example)

    Talkunlimited ....what does this actually give you? If you can do most of your phoning in the evenings/weekends then look to change your package - why pay a premium for being able to phone in the daytime if you aren't there? If you do need to make calls in the daytime then get signed up for 18866 - only 2p a call regarless of how long your call is. Also use saynoto0870.com - I bet your package doesn't cover calls to 0870 or 0845 numbers.
    2014 Target;
    To overpay CC by £1,000.
    Overpayment to date : £310

    2nd Purse Challenge:
    £15.88 saved to date
  • Jaelor
    Jaelor Posts: 80 Forumite
    Hi Ember - The sofa payment of £32.69 runs out in January and it was one of those niggly debts that I had completely forgotton about when doing the dreaded First Plus thing. The Egg card has crept up to £900 due to buying baby stuff - I now see that I could of shopped around, but I have capped my facility on Egg to a £1000 and have opted to pay £25 per month, its only £4 more than my oustanding balance, but its something.

    Hubby is doing overtime at the moment, so I will get him to sort something out on the NTL front.

    I do want to avoid bankruptcy at all costs - or at least give it a really good go for a year and see if I can somehow claw my way out of this.

    Thanks all for your advice.

    J
    Jaelor :hello:

    We all make mistakes - that's why they put rubbers on the end of pencils

  • Jaelor wrote:
    Mortgage £912.36
    Council Tax £117
    TV Lic. £10.49
    NTL £130
    House Insurance £28.46
    HP for Sofa £32.69
    HP for Car £175
    Life Cover £50.46
    First Plus £661.65 :mad:
    Egg Card £25.00
    Electricity £34
    Pet Plan £13.36
    Cahoot £60.20

    TOTAL £2250.67

    Our joint monthly income is £2546,

    Is there anything else I can do? Has anyone ever known First Plus to be symphatetic?!? is £137 enough to live on per week for a family of 3?

    J

    Hi there I am no expert on these matters but firstly suggest reducing NTL to basic family package and possibly get one of the unlimited dvd postal deals scour round they can be less than £10 per month that gets you extra films at lower cost .... Get rid of extra box saving you £15 per month and get shut of the Broadband again there are a lot cheaper deals around E7even does a good package if you can pay upfront for a 2 year contract its only £240 = £10 per month but not sure if it applies as I am BT line not NTL and is there an option for you to use 18866 or 1899 for calls and get shut of all inc calls package they are generally a plus for the company and a minus for the customer
    The life insurance is it an endownment /term and for who when was it taken out can possibly cut that down by finding a better deal on the net and home ins maybe
    When did you take out the mortgage or first plus is there any room to extend the terms and reduce monthly out goings
    Are the incomings including your wage as you say you are going back to work or will your income improve more when you go back to work
    Any money saved I would suggest you pay off sofa/ egg/ cahoot try snowballing to free up more money in the house and i didnt mention the car as you say it will reduce soon
    Like i say I am no expert and I am sure others can suggest more or even better ways to cut back without feeling destitute
    £2.00 savings club =£2.00
  • Flyer_2
    Flyer_2 Posts: 19 Forumite
    I certainly wouldn't cancel petplan as I have 3 cats and have used insurance a lot! It would cost a fortune for a serious condition/op.
    I would however look closely at NTL. My monthly bill averages £45 which includes 1mb broadband, family tv and unlimited phone. When money is tight I think you need to re think do you really require 3MB and films and sport!!!????
    Good luck.
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