I think it is time!

Heffi1 · 5 December 2007 at 10:18PM

Well here goes please be gentle with me.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,140
Partners salary – Only trying to sort my debts out at the moment Husband is managing his finances ok
Benefits - £0

Total - £1,140

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £0 Husband pays
Council Tax - £0 Husband pays
Gas - £0 Husband pays
Electric - £0 Husband pays
TV License - £0 Husband pays
Sky £0 Husband pays
Phone - £0 Husband pays
Food - £300
Car Insurance - £40
Petrol - £100
Life Insurance £0 Husband pays
Egg card

Barclaycard 24.90% £1,452.57 £50 pcm
Marbles 23.90% £935.73 £50 pcm
Amex 14.88% £1,591.50 £32 pcm
Debenhams 29.90% £269.32 £10 pcm
Capital One 26.48% £863.90 £40 pcm
Egg 17.9% £2820 £60 pcm
Bank Loan 24.00% £12,707.03 £264 pcm
Car Loan £228 pcm finishes in September '08

Smoking £150 pcm - I know this has to go.:o

Totals are from last month and I have not updated the balances yet but not much different.

Total: £1174

I know I spend way too much, but everything is going on bills and I have no spare at the moment.

It all started to go wrong in July. I started a new job and went from weekly paid to monthly paid, it is always a struggle, but work did not pay me for 9 weeks:eek: and for the first time I was overdrawn and did not have an overdraft to fall back on. I am extremely lucky that my Husband has a very good job that pays really well, he dug me out of a hole on more than one occasion. I cannot ask him to help any more as we have just extended our house and all of his savings went into the building.

I am really struggling to get my head above water again and would welcome any advice that you may like to give. I think the SOA is accurate up above. If you can see where I can help myself please shout as I clearly need to get this sorted out.

One of the really bad things was because I did not have an overdraft I got at least £280 in charges and this is what has led to my decline financially.

I need to stop smoking, I do not drink or have a social life, I cannot remember when I last had a night out and everything looks so bleak.

Thank you for reading this far, I feel such a fool for getting into this mess. Please help if you can.

Heather.

Heffi1 · 5 December 2007 at 10:18PM

I forgot to add £15.00 for mobile each month also.

squirrel_pigeon · 5 December 2007 at 10:20PM

Hiya Heffi

How many of you are there? Is there just the 2 of you?
xxx

Heffi1 · 5 December 2007 at 10:25PM

Hi squirrel,

No we have a very odd situation.
We bought my Parents council house because they are getting on in years and my Dad's health is not what it could be. When he goes Mum will be destitute so we decided as a family we would move in, buy their house and all live as one big family - so far so good.

I also have one son 22 in full time education not working, we decided we would support him while in education. Also one daughter 18 who is in part time education and also works 30 hours a week and contributes £35 per week. I know it is not much but it is a contribution. She pays for all other things herself.

My Parents are both retired and contribute to the mortgage and sky and also some of the shopping.

My Husband (bless him) pays for everything else

Sea78 · 5 December 2007 at 10:36PM

hi

I get your total at £1324? This includes the smoking - are you in the process of giving up or just intending to?

Is there any way you can increase your incomings? Maybe do extra hours? Is there anything you can sell on ebay to raise extra funds?
Sea xx

angelavdavis · 5 December 2007 at 10:37PM

Hi and welcome to DFW

Well done for getting this far. Its tough having the lbm and posting here is the first step in that right direction. I am sure there are plenty of folks with some suggestions that are sure to help. Here are my two-penneth:

Car insurance looks a bit on the high side, have you shopped around for this? Quidco offers cashback for switching car insurance suppliers, see if they can offer a better deal on www.quidco.co.uk. Ensure you sign up for an account to get the cashback and use their links.

How have you been at keeping up the payments? The reason I ask is that your interest rates are really high and you don't stand to get yourself out of a fix whilst you are paying these.

If you have been good at keeping up your payments on your cards, you could look to switch to a lower life of balance card or a 0% card. See Martin's recommendations here.

The next step in the process is to see if you have any way of bringing in some extra cash - selling stuff on ebay or local ads in the newspaper might be an option for you? You can then throw the money at the cards.

You really should make a concerted effort to chop up some of the cards. Make a note of the card numbers, etc in a little notebook but cut them up to stop you spending any more.

Can you look at least at cutting down on the ciggies?

An idea is to enter all your debts into the snowball calculator, it will hopefully help you realise how long it will take you at the current rates to pay off the debts, and see what the odd extra few pounds saved on ciggies will do to decrease your debt free date. It will also help demonstrate which debts are the best to pay off first.

Check out the Old Style forum - they have just started the December grocery challenge - aim to minimise your grocery bills. There are plenty of times on this forum to help you out and you still have time to sign up to the December challenge.

Also go over onto the reclaiming your bank charges forum for some tips here too on getting that cash back.

squirrel_pigeon · 5 December 2007 at 10:38PM

The best way that you can go forward here is to list EVERYTHING that goes in and out. Even if you list a category for 'husband's stuff' or whatever. If you break it down completely, it will give a more accurate idea of what is happening.

It's really difficult when you're in the situation you're in because obviously you don't know everything about what people spend.

BUT your food is high for 2 people, low for 4 people and way low if you're also supporting kids. If you can figure out who pays for what, who subsidises who, it will be easier for the wonderful people on here (not me - I'm too inexperienced!) to give you advice
xxx

Heffi1 · 5 December 2007 at 11:04PM

angelavdavis wrote: »

Hi and welcome to DFW

Well done for getting this far. Its tough having the lbm and posting here is the first step in that right direction. I am sure there are plenty of folks with some suggestions that are sure to help. Here are my two-penneth:

Car insurance looks a bit on the high side, have you shopped around for this? Quidco offers cashback for switching car insurance suppliers, see if they can offer a better deal on www.quidco.co.uk. Ensure you sign up for an account to get the cashback and use their links. Car insurance is so high as after 18 years driving I had an accident in August and they have hammered me with the renewal, Hubbys car is protected no claims but mine wasn't :mad:

How have you been at keeping up the payments? The reason I ask is that your interest rates are really high and you don't stand to get yourself out of a fix whilst you are paying these. I am about managing to keep up the payments

If you have been good at keeping up your payments on your cards, you could look to switch to a lower life of balance card or a 0% card. See Martin's recommendations here. No chance of a 0% as my bank loan was one of the bounced payments and now credit is awful!

The next step in the process is to see if you have any way of bringing in some extra cash - selling stuff on ebay or local ads in the newspaper might be an option for you? You can then throw the money at the cards. I do sell on ebay made £26 this week, but it is slow at the moment, I will continue though

You really should make a concerted effort to chop up some of the cards. Make a note of the card numbers, etc in a little notebook but cut them up to stop you spending any more. All cards are out of the purse and not used. Better late than never I suppose

Can you look at least at cutting down on the ciggies? I need to stop, but my willpower is non existent right now - I know that is a lame excuse and I will try

An idea is to enter all your debts into the snowball calculator, it will hopefully help you realise how long it will take you at the current rates to pay off the debts, and see what the odd extra few pounds saved on ciggies will do to decrease your debt free date. It will also help demonstrate which debts are the best to pay off first. I have used the snowball calculator and the Debenhams is the first one to get rid of, I agree the interest is massive on all of them

Check out the Old Style forum - they have just started the December grocery challenge - aim to minimise your grocery bills. There are plenty of times on this forum to help you out and you still have time to sign up to the December challenge. Grocery shopping at this time is awful, my daughter has helped out on many occasions and I feel really guilty asking her to help.

Also go over onto the reclaiming your bank charges forum for some tips here too on getting that cash back.

I asked the bank about reclaiming and they said because it is going through the courts at the moment they will not even consider it until a judgement has been made - a delaying tactic I am sure.

Thank you for your help so far.

floss2 · 5 December 2007 at 11:12PM

Heffi1 wrote: »

I also have one son 22 in full time education not working, we decided we would support him while in education.

As a parent with 2 DS's at Uni, I understand this bit....but are you "expected" to make a contribution because he isn't able to make an application for a full loan or because you feel "an obligation" as parents?

Both my DS's have a 25% reduction on their loans because of our household income and we top this up by an equal amount to each....but they also both work in the holidays to supplement this.

Heffi1 · 5 December 2007 at 11:27PM

floss2 wrote: »

As a parent with 2 DS's at Uni, I understand this bit....but are you "expected" to make a contribution because he isn't able to make an application for a full loan or because you feel "an obligation" as parents?

Both my DS's have a 25% reduction on their loans because of our household income and we top this up by an equal amount to each....but they also both work in the holidays to supplement this.

Hi Floss,

Son is not working, because his course is timed really badly through the week, also we said we would support him and Hubby makes sure he has everything he needs. He is not one to ask for cash thankfully so if he does then we usually give - mind you its only a tenner or so. Unfortunately he is STILL waiting for his Adult Learning Grant to come through from September so eventually he will get the back money and sort out what he needs for himself.

He does not get any other benefits and for a 22 year old to be getting £30 per week is horrible. I understand what you are saying though. He has dyslexia so any job he gets will only be minimum wage - he is studying IT at college and this will be his entry route to UNI next year fingers crossed. I know I am soft with him, but he never asks for anything and I think this may be the only way he will be able to progress for a future career.

My daughter on the other hand is working and taking a part time course in accountancy after getting her A levels. She turned down a place at Northumbria UNI so she did not incur student debt. I think she has seen us struggle and does not want the same to happen to her.

Heffi1 · 6 December 2007 at 8:38AM

Well today I am going to start my first day as a non smoker and see how it goes. I know that this will really save me a lot of money and also this will be a reminder to keep me on the right track, I will update as I go along.

Wish me well.

Off to work now so check in later and let you know how I have done.

I think it is time!

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