£200 left on my overdraft. Not desperate but going to be frugal for a few months

[IncessantNameChanger]

No idea how but I am £3795 into my 4k overdraft. I’m normally never in overdraft. I had to unexpectedly pay £1400 for a new clutch and some thing on my car and it’s just built up. This isn’t a begging thread don’t worry, no chance of anyone starving, but plenty of chance I might be eating beans on toast a lot if I don’t try to reign things in.

Im thinking as my car costs 26p a mile I might walk on the school run when I can ( doable but it’s a big hill so I do avoid it) run down my freezer and try to live what’s in there (random, out of date herbs mostly!) I could empty it shelf by shelf and throw out date things until it’s empty. Put aside £15 for coffee / lunch meet ups and stick to it solidly. Maybe sell some things on eBay / Vinted? Leave my bank card at home? Move money around so I’m only spending money from an account that I ‘preload’ the weeks budget on.

Any other ideas? My biggest outgoing is food I think but I can feed us all for very little really.

Bloody hell, we’ll done. Don’t let him drag you, or your kids, down.

Bloody hell, we’ll done. Don’t let him drag you, or your kids, down.

He has inspired me to get a will leaving my half of our estate directly to the kids so that I die before they leave home he doesn't make them all destitute

Look in to this properly - you may need to do it via a trust and appoint a trustee, otherwise it might end up with DH in control for them and he could spend it all anyway. Explain in the will why you definitely do not want DH in that role (history of debt) as that'll make it harder for him to challenge. And appoint someone who won't cave if DH suggests the money is needed to defray expenses before DC are able to run their own affairs

(not that I'm wishing an early death on you, but all options need to be provided for)

Sounds awful financial insecurity caused by your supposed partner and parent to your DC

So far today I have had my catch up with my mate. Didnt save anything there but I wont be spending again on socialising this week.

Filled up completely and spent more than I wanted to but with more miles on the clock I spend between 22-26p per mile so see much I save walking the school run today.

Spent £12 on weeks shop. Milk, bread, salad things, instant noodles for ds who has ASD and has them as part of his home from school routine. Realised when I got home I had two lettuces already and lots of milk so I must meal plan and shop more carefully. Ds18 then cooked the entire bag of cherry tomatoes I got for the week!

I think I can easily spend much less than comes in this week.

Next week no petrol should be needed but I might still fill up weekly to stay on track or it's over £100 to fill from empty.

I'm writing down what I need to spend this week in my diary but I will do a spread sheet tonight

Are you getting DLA ? Make sure you are getting everything you are entitled to OP, these benefits exist for a reason!

Also try and ignore the people dishing out the advice with no understanding of what it is like to have a SN child I know it is a cliche OP but people who don’t have SN kids do not have any understanding of how much extra work it is, and how hard it is to find work which will accommodate you being a carer for your son.

It does sound like your DH needs to share more of the load with you- can you approach him calmly and have a proper discussion about it, tell him how unsupported you feel.

Thank you. I get his DLA, tax credit enhanced and carers allowance. I should look into what I could get off council tav water etc. How could find that out? My son gets highest mobility and care. Blue badge holder.

Saved between 37p - 43p doing school run on foot. Not much but it might buy another bag of cherry tomatoes if it I do at least three times a week.

Goi g to get to sit down tonight if I kills him. Hes keeping 300for maybe 150 worth of his Bill's

Maybe it wold be better for you to also go on the DMP together as a family, your interest would be 0% as it gets frozen...just an idea if as a PP says your credit score is not good enough to get a loan.

Well done!

make a list of everything you spend and what you save even if it’s a few pence.
Many of us are in the habit of ‘it’s only x amount’ but it all adds up so don’t be tempted by the little impulse buys.

Plan for things that will come up e.g. birthdays and Christmas. So when out of overdraft even if it’s a few pounds here and there you are putting away it will build up.

Also, I’m not being rude but the fact you are going on holiday and you were talking about your DH going to a travel lodge for a few nights, despite his debt and you being so close to needing your overdraft/or in it, makes me wonder whether you need to look at how you are spending. I know people who aren’t in debt who are just doing local night or two away or day trips due to anticipating energy prices going up. Do you think you’ve got a ‘live for today’ attitude when it comes to money? Why were you thinking of going away again even though your children have a holiday planned? I’m not trying to sound unkind just hoping to help you see how you treat money could help you make changes.

Good luck!

My credit score is excellent as never been effected by DHS dmp. It was all unsecured so hopefully when I go back to work I can get finance again and maybe mortgage as our mortgage is tied into our current lender. We cant move it due to dh credit rating. In hindsight the dmp maybe wasnt a great idea but I wanted him to pay it off not remortgage as it's his debt and I was worried he would do it again. Hopefully no one will ever give him a 25k credit card again.

One way you could save on the school run is to drive the car there, leave it and walk back. Then walk back up to pick up tired child.

I do this sometimes, or if I've been out, and school is on the way home then I'll get the best parking spot and walk home, then walk back up again.

OK well in that case I would either take the loan option or a 0% credit card (a site like credit karma would show you some options) over something like 36 months and set up a standing order to pay off a set amount each month...that way you would be clear of owing this money and not have to pay overdraft charges. Best of luck

@1AngelicFruitCake we didnt want the kids suffering for his mistakes so cheap holiday every year as it's a 4 year dmp. But I do get your point about the travel lodge. I think I just lost sight that the over draft had gone from an emergency one off massive car repair bill to dipping into it further. I should have put it on my credit card because although that 30% apr it would have clearer separated out as debt to pay off iyswim. I have just stupidity sleep walked into going from that initial 1400 to where I'm today.

Set up the spreadsheets and made note of all the once a term hits I had last month I dont even think about. Haircut, Cubs, rainbow, beavers termly fees, dentist, dental hygienist, garden membership ( loathe to cancel that as its then free days out after that for the entire year) all of that is something I should add to my saving pot.

I'm doing a petrol, food and eating / drinks out column to add those up. I noticed that I have lots of trips to Tesco, Aldi and sainsbury's for bits like milk but when your there you always pick up something extra you didnt plan on.

Freezer dive has yielded salmon and chicken pie for the 6 of us tonight. I think theres going to be 14 days in a row of cheesy pasta as I only seem to have cooking bacon and veg. What a waste of freezer space.

This is painful and eye opening. The kids wont notice which is all that counts. Next week I will but stuff to eat with the veg I guess

Im glad you didn’t take it in a negative way and yes I understand about having a holiday so they don’t miss out.

I shop at Aldi, try to bulk buy and plan using all the ingredients up e.g. had roast chicken on Sunday then cold chicken leftovers with salad last night. I buy treats for days out or days when we’re going for a walk or a quick park visit. So I’ll look for chocolate bars on offer and that might cost £1 but feels a treat and stops me spending £10 in the cafe.

Im not in debt but we don’t earn loads and I’m part time so I’m always looking for ways to save money. I’d rather not have a coffee and cake one weekend at a cafe and put that towards money for summer holiday day out. It’s hard but stopping yourself before spending. If I was in my overdraft I would’ve been panicking about being in debt, owing money but I wonder if you see it as ‘free’ or ‘x amount left’ when really instead of saying I’ve got £200 left you need to think I owe £3800 before I can get to £0.

I don't understand how someone with an excellent credit rating would have a card and overdraft with such high interest rates. Surely it makes sense to get the best interest rates you can.

It was the best 0% apr for two years on all purchases. I got it to pay for building work. So it was great for its intended purpose.

again, maybe stupidly I didn’t also get a low % one at the same time while working. When I tried to get a new credit card last year my max loan amount was £500 as not working. When I go back to work I will fix that

@1AngelicFruitCake yes, in hindsight I thought of it as my available balance left. Not normally bad with money or ever in debt bar the odd years of car finance ( buy a car on finance for 2-3 years at 0% apr the unit into the ground). I used to write everything in a book. Got into bad habits I guess.

It’s easy to get into bad habits, especially as you sound like you have a lot on. I’m great with money but terrible with food and exercise 🙄

I’m bad with food and exercise too. Too many balls to juggle right now. My eldest has his last week of A levels so once that’s done some stress might go down.

I feel a lot more confident I can tackle this today. With the book and spreadsheet I have to record every spend twice. That should it front and enter in my mind