Debt prevention diary????

A question about : Debt prevention diary????

Hello.

I feel the need to start some kind of diary because my head is in a complete mess at the moment!

For the last couple of years I have been debt free for the first time in my life since I was 18 and stupidly took out my first credit card!

But then in June my dad died, we were living with him and all we paid was Ј500 rent as well as occasional help for the bills when we could afford it. I was a full time NHS student and my oH left work to become a stay at home dad in 2011.

Everything was going well until June. The funeral cost around Ј8k - (half of that was just to pay for the burial - his only wish). We had the most basic funeral possible and still ended up paying that much

I was left his house in the will.... but he still has just under Ј200k left to pay on the mortgage, and he's been paying nearly Ј800 interest ONLY for years.

I am now taking an 'interrupt' from uni i.e. I'm off the course until May 2015 when I go back to finish the last three months... this is mainly due to anxiety I've had since my dads death (especially as I'm in the hospital all the time, after watching him die in the hospital) but also other reasons.

My OH has started at a temp agency for a job he's wanted to do for as long as I can remember... however the work is few and far between and very last minute

We are about to go through probate...which we are doing ourselves as solicitors quoted thousands of pounds. Once this has completed santander have told us we have the option of selling the house or taking over the mortgage on it.

So my problem now is my NHS bursary was paying for our monthly food, rent, travel, car insurance etc.

But now I don't have the bursary, and on top of the food, travel, car insurance etc I am now having to find money for gas, electricity, water, tv licence, home insurance, pet insurance, internet/telephone package, council tax etc.

We get child tax credits and child benefit but are entitled to nothing else.

To be honest I'm not sure how we're going to hold on until probate is sorted and we can sell the house... we are both applying for part time jobs to top up our income and are selling a lot of our clothes, furniture etc on ebay.

So yeah, as I said, I wanted to start a diary to kind of get things straight in my head. It may not be a debt-free diary but I reckon it soon will be

Best answers:

• I've just done an SOA. It doesn't look too bad, but over winter I guess our gas usage will go up, I may have to deal with solicitors when sorting probate (not sure?!), I owe my nan money as she helped with the funeral, however she doesn't want the money back until we are financially stable, we have a water leak that we have no spare money to get fixed at the moment (so water bill will be even more too ).
• Sorry for your loss. You have come to the right place for support. Will be with you all the way.
• That's a lot to be dealing with. But you will have support here to be helping you.
  The one thing that jumps out at me: have you checked whether you are eligible for any benefits in addition to child benefit, or indeed for any hardship relief through your student status? Probate can take a long time and you are on a low income.
  When you say 'frozen' your electricity bills, do you mean they are keeping them at Ј200/ month? That is an ENORMOUS amount. And when you say on a meter, how are you billed at the moment? Is this usage based on meter readings or estimated billing? You could bring this down with some basic energy saving measures I'd think?
  If you have gas, does that cover central heating?
  if you are within oyster travelcard zone, do you need a car? You could save a lot in insurance by getting rid of it?
• My experience with claiming benefits and a variable income is not a happy one, it's true. But if you are entitled to it, you have contributed to this through taxes so why not claim it.
  You could check your entitledment through this online calculator first? https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
  Re the bills, I am a bit confused. What they are saying, as I understand it, is that there will be an electricity bill that is in your Dad's name up until he passed away. Does the electricity account continue in his name until probate is completed? Or have you taken over the account? If it is still in his name then I can see why they are not accepting payment. Would it not be better to start a new account with them? Whichever way, I would put Ј150 aside every month in a savings account where I can't touch it, to cover the bill for your current usage. I would make sure I have put in place all simple electricity savings eg don't leave appliances on standby, avoid electric fan heaters, use energy saving bulbs etc. I would also submit meter readings every month so that you can get a sense of how much you will be using. A prepaid meter is not the cheapest way of paying the electricity bill. For some purchasers, a prepay meter is also not desirable as they would want to change it over.
  I understand re the car. Tricky. Any chance you can look at reducing the insurance? When's renewal due?
• Ok dredging this thread out of the depths. It's funny I started it as 'debt prevention' and saying how I wasn't sure we'd be able to not get into debt until the house is sold... and today I came on MSE to post about our debts (see thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...146&highlight=)
  So here are our debts...
  gas and electricity around Ј2k
  NHS bursary overpayment Ј2k
  Council tax Ј1k
  student loan Ј9k
  mortgage Ј180000
  We have so far
• declared our car SORN to save on insurance, tax and petrol
• switched gas and electricity suppliers to get a cheaper rate
• negotiated our phone/internet to a lower deal per month
• cancelled any non-essential direct debits
• cut down our weekly food bill to Ј50 for two adults, two kids, a cat and a dog

The plan is... get our grant of probate, not sure how long that will take? Luckily we have a family member who is a solicitor so we're saving costs. Once we have that we can sell the house and pay off the mortgage and hopefully the other debts... then either put a deposit down or buy outright a smaller, cheaper place that's further out of london.
I also start back at university in May after having time off. I'm not sure how we're going to cope with my OH working and childcare?! I desperately don't want to go back but I only have 2-3 months left of a 3 year course so everyone I know thinks I would be beyond stupid not to return. No matter how unhappy it makes me. Conflicted feelings but hopefully it'll go by quickly!
Um... oh yes and my other plan is to actually write in here. I've been reading through some of the other diaries and it's very inspiring
And I should probably go to bed right now... seeing as it's 2am and the littles will be up in about 4 hours lol. Insomnia is frustrating!
Plan for tomorrow.... list some stuff on ebay! We have my sons old car seat, which he didn't use for long, plus I have loads of clothes to list from back in the day when I had money to spend waste

• Pancake day, yay. I hate cooking... anything. Even toast. OH loves cooking, but since the boys were born he also likes taking short cuts . So pancake day for us is usually one of those betty crocker squeezy ready made batter mix things that you just pour into the pan. But today we used what we already had in our house... (or should I say he did lol). The pancakes tasted amazing, much nicer than betty crocker and we saved a couple of quid!
  It's the little things aye?
  I really want to try and get into cooking this year, and meal planning, in an effort to save even more on our weekly shop. I find meal planning really tricky, because in the evenings we go down to the shop and pick up any good reduced bits for the next day. But actually a lot of that stuff can be frozen, like the meat... so maybe soon I will try and make a proper effort meal planning
• Today we had a spontaneous roast dinner! Yum! Last night Tesco had reduced chickens so we cooked one up today - already had the veg and potatoes so that was a nice bonus.
  Having trouble on ebay with my last couple of auctions and the winners not paying... Ј300 total as well so feeling gutted. Need to work out how to open an unpaid item case but at the same time don't want negative feedback
  Really need to get around to listing more things on ebay... but sometimes the whole process seems more trouble than it's worth... but I guess when you need the money you just have to suck it up and do it!
  We sold our Wii and all the associated bits at CEX, along with some DVDs - some other CDs & DVDs went to music magpie.
  We now have no CDs or DVDs except for one box set that I cannot get rid of I'm really enjoying simplifying in 2015 as well as trying to make some extra bits of money.
  I've been decluttering around the house, and there's a few things that I don't think are worth the time or effort to list individually on ebay. So we're putting them all into boxes and going to sell as a job lot when we've done a lot more decluttering We did this a while back, there was only about 5 boxes that we were going to take to charity but stuck them on ebay just in case and they went for Ј20.
  I also have just been paid Ј80 for writing a post on my blog... I guess I'm going to have to register as self employed if I'm getting paid for things on there? So now I need to work all that out
  And at some point I want to try and get into comping again. I did it for a few months a couple of years back but began to get bored and I decided I wasn't going to do it just for potential wins, I wanted it to be something I actually had fun doing. I've been getting the urge to do it again recently so I might give it a go
• GOOD NEWWWWWS
  I'm soooo happy.
  OH has been on a zero hour contract since he started work last autumn. He's been trying to get a full time permanent position but nothing so far. Today another company has phoned him offering not a permanent position but a long term full time position. So he'll be working 5 days a week and earning around Ј1,200 per month after tax. Starting this week!
  I'm so, so thrilled, I don't think I realised how worried I was about our work situation until we got this news
  I think they'll stop our tax credits which is annoying as it's around Ј400 per month however I'm thrilled that we will be earning our own money and not relying on the government every month
  So tomorrow I'm going to phone tax credits and let them know, I hope we still get this months as he won't be paid for a month...
  Also in other good news my nan told me that she set up a savings account for me when I was little. She wants to take some money out of it to help us pay some of our debts off, and get my car back on the road because at the moment neither her or my mum can get out anywhere very easily without me driving.
  The other thing we need to work out is childcare once I start back at uni in May, so it'll be a bit awkward with me working shifts but I'm sure we'll work it out
• Ok so I've done a temporary SOA which will be for the next couple of months before I go back to uni so not include childcare. This is just rough, I haven't put in our debts as I'm just doing it to see how much we have after expenses and I've taken it that we'll have no tax credits any more.
  So we should have around Ј450 to pay off debts for the next couple of months which will be awesome! Unless I get my car back on the road, then It'll probably only be around Ј300.
  Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
  Monthly Income Details
  Monthly income after tax................ 0
  Partners monthly income after tax....... 1200
  Benefits................................ 136
  Other income............................ 0
  Total monthly income.................... 1336
  Monthly Expense Details
  Mortgage................................ 0
  Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
  Rent.................................... 0
  Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
  Council tax............................. 190
  Electricity............................. 70
  Gas..................................... 80
  Oil..................................... 0
  Water rates............................. 70
  Telephone (land line)................... 35
  Mobile phone............................ 20
  TV Licence.............................. 0
  Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
  Internet Services....................... 0
  Groceries etc. ......................... 200
  Clothing................................ 20
  Petrol/diesel........................... 0
  Road tax................................ 0
  Car Insurance........................... 0
  Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
  Car parking............................. 0
  Other travel............................ 150
  Childcare/nursery....................... 0
  Other child related expenses............ 0
  Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
  Pet insurance/vet bills................. 50
  Buildings insurance..................... 0
  Contents insurance...................... 0
  Life assurance ......................... 0
  Other insurance......................... 0
  Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
  Haircuts................................ 0
  Entertainment........................... 0
  Holiday................................. 0
  Emergency fund.......................... 0
  Total monthly expenses.................. 885
  
  Assets
  Cash.................................... 0
  House value (Gross)..................... 0
  Shares and bonds........................ 0
  Car(s).................................. 0
  Other assets............................ 0
  Total Assets............................ 0
  
  No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
  Unsecured Debts
  Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
  Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-
  
  Monthly Budget Summary
  Total monthly income.................... 1,336
  Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 885
  Available for debt repayments........... 451
  Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
  Amount left after debt repayments....... 451
  Personal Balance Sheet Summary
  Total assets (things you own)........... 0
  Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
  Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
  Net Assets.............................. 0
  Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
  Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.
  This looks so much better than it's been for a long time.
  Another big difference is that our 'other travel' costs are way down now as OHs new job he can get to by bus rather than train and tube!
  Yay!
  ETA haven't included home insurance or TV licence as we paid annually and have a while before we need to renew
• With regards the child care at least you will know what hours/days OH isn't available, which will help with the planning. Can anyone in your family help out?
• Hi Baileys Babe, Unfortunately not - my dad used to help out before he passed away but my only other close family members are disabled so it wouldn't be fair to ask them.
  It's a bit tricky because I'm on placement which is hospital shifts so they can be very random and I don't always find out till a couple of days before the start of the week which days / nights I'll be doing. Plus a horrible commute means I leave at 5.30 and get home at around 10. But I'm sure we'll figure something out...
• Excellent news on the job. It must be a real relief to know you will have that money coming in to tide you over for a while.
  Remember to keep up the good work on the decluttering front. You will also feel a lot better for it.
  Can a buyer give negative feedback to you on eBay if they haven't paid? I'm sure that can't be allowed...
  Keep smiling.
• Soooo.... bad news.
  This was my yesterday:
  Empty our spare room... notice wall with mould on. Clean it with mould killer. Lining paper under paint starts peeling off. Mould under paper too. So we spent the morning taking off wallpaper and cleaning the walls.
  OH goes to homebase to get some lining paper and paste - we already have paint from ages ago when we were going to redecorate. Get a phone call 'card was declined'.
  Check online banking -90 over arranged overdraft. Ј79 for amazon prime and Ј45 bank change for not having funds to take out DD. Last time I bought anything from amazon was months ago - but I use it to check reviews and prices a lot. Wondering if one of my little ones accidentally clicked prime, as everything on my amazon is set to 1 click buy with my card details stored?! Phone up and it turns out I clicked free trial of prime in Jan so was charged Ј79 when the free trial finished a couple of days ago. I can't imagine why I'd try prime knowing I can't afford to buy anything for a long time, so this is a bit annoying as I was kind of saving the free trial in case we needed something quickly (and then cancelling afterwards of course). So the guy on amazon refunded it to me anyway and it should be back in my bank in 2-3 days. But I'm still going to be over my overdraft limit because of this bank charge and I don't have any money coming in till mid march.
  Then once my OH was home he got a phone call. There was a mistake. They didn't realise he only started towards the end of last year and they wanted someone whose been in the industry longer. So no work. Back to the shitty zero hour contract. Where he's had like one shift so far this month.
  I honestly cannot say how disappointed I am about this, I felt so, so relieved that we would have some kind of stable income coming in at least for a while. I'm trying to be upbeat and see the positive side but I'm really struggling right now.
  and then, I went to have some toast and realised we've run out of bread. Which sounds trivial. But it's annoying, because it's now going to be a couple of weeks before we can go shopping. At least we have toilet paper!
• I have just started reading your diary - I got to the part where your OH was being offered a full time post and was feeling really pleased for you - then I came to the later post.
  I am really sorry that your plans have been knocked back.
  How long has your father's estate been in probate? May be worth a quick call to find out how long it will take.
  I know they are under pressure now as the number of Probate Offices has been reduced to very few, but little reminder may help.