I cant afford my rent anymore!!

[Purplecrocsrock]

Me and DH, and DD whos 14 months signed contract 4 months ago £875 a month, DH earns around £1600 a month, but we have been constantly living in the credit card since we moved in, paying energy/council tax/water and car insurance has just increased by 40 per month.
What will happen if we find somewhere cheaper, with the contract we have signed for 12 months here?

The caring job sounds like a good idea. Even if you can scrape by on his salary it would be good to be able to save some money

It takes him 45 minutes in the car to get to work, cycling would take 1 and a half hours, so that's out of question.

So that additional time spent cycling over driving would be the equivalent of x2 45 minute gym sessions a day!

Seriously - you could cut your spending immediately by disposing of car and insurance and temporarily cycling. And no gym membership. Desperate times, desperate measures

If you are studying full time at uni you will be eligible for a single person discount on your council tax

So still less than the daily time he spends at the gym!

I know it must be stressful but you do have an end point, the point that the tenancy ends.

You could ask if you could shorten your tendency to 6 months? failing that i would be calling the people i have debt with and explaining the situation as asking if you could pay less or Perspone payments till you have some where cheaper to live.

Regarding work you could go on bank at old peoples homes, children's homes etc etc, they any thing residential they are always crying out for people when they are short staffed. Or you could register with an agency, but of course all this will effect your universal credit (65p from a £1 will be taken) but if you are able to do say 12 hours a week, you could earn 400 a month, so take home after universal credit would be about £300 so well worth it!

Look into becoming an Avon lady?

Car insurance: pp may have already mentioned it but you can't cancel your car insurance once you've signed up to it. You have to pay all the instalments for the year.

Payplan are very good for helping with debts and arranging a payment plan that is affordable to you once this is agreed the interest will stop increasing

As others have said go through what you spend money on you are selling the car that’s a step.

The government need to realise people can not afford to live on the amounts they set with universal credit the increase has been minimal and the cost of living in the last 10 years has increased quite considerably

Wow op you have achieved a lot in a morning. Good job.

Can you write a budget now and see where you are and if further savings need to be made.

Gym is a massive luxury- bit shit for you to be stressing about keeping a roof over your head when £35 a month is being wasted like this. But that's been said.

Complain about the fraud and take it to the ombudsman if you need to.

You may get short shrift from the debt advice agencies if they do a budget and find money still going on luxuries. I don't know.

You can cancel car insurance, you have to pay a 'time on risk' charge and, usually, a fee but it can be cancelled

Some really helpful advice on here OP. Kudos to you for taking it on board and being proactive. Good luck with your job interview!

Get through the next few months of your house contract, then move house!

Move to where Dh can with cycle/walk or get public transport. You’ll then save car insurance/mot/petrol/servicing etc.

You can’t seriously be prioritising a gym membership over rent?!

This doesn't surprise me. It is this sort of thinking that causes so many of these problems in the first place.

op did you read OldGreyBadger's helpful post,copied below? Get straight on to that!

My mum has passed away so can't claw back any money from her or as the catalogue said i need to prove to them it was her

Lawyer here - it's the other way round. They have to prove that you incurred the debt. Which, obviously, they can't. Tell them that your mother fraudulently set up the account in your name, that you're not paying a penny more and that you'll see them in court.

They might huff and puff but it will go nowhere.

You can’t seriously be prioritising a gym membership over rent?!

The op has asked for advice which she is taking. As others have said, the ops Dh used the gun every day, he works full time on shifts. He’s jeeping himself fit and healthy. The cost of the gym is not a lot compared to other expenses.

So, 1 and a half hour cycle is out of the question, but he gyms two hours a day?
That doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever.

Also, quite a few people have suggested evening jobs (whilst your husband and dd sleep); weekend jobs, working from home etc

Well done OP. It feels much better when you know your position and are able to take steps to get it under control, even if the situation seems pretty tricky. Stepchange and CAP (Christians Against Poverty) are great places to start for advice on your debts. You don't need to be a Christian to go to CAP, it's just where they started from.

Look at where you shop. We use mysupermarket.co.uk to compare prices and have recently switched to going to Aldi and Lidl. I can get a load of stuff for £50 and lots of it is excellent quality. Definitely worth a look. There's also an app, so I have my shopping list on my phone as I go around so any swaps I need to make, I know what I was going to pay for the item and can choose an appropriately priced alternative and not go over budget.

Good luck on the car swap too, definitely worth doing. Sometimes adding a parent on (depending on age & medical issues etc) can help bring down insurance too. Also look at what DH's job is listed as, obviously don't lie, but some jobs attract a higher premium and some jobs fall under a couple of categories, that can give you a bit of wiggle room on the quote.

Giff Gaff are good for sim only deals and also phone contracts too. They're month by month and you can go up/down tariffs every month if you want. Ideal if you need extra/less at different times (I've got a £20 20GB data one this month as we're on holiday relying on 4G, next month I'll go back to my £7.50 tariff).

Also check out cash back sites when swapping utilities, you can get some money back if the quote is also a competitive one you were going to get anyway. Takes some time for the money to come through, but can be worth doing.

It’s not that you can’t afford the rent.
What you cant afford is the car, the extras like the gym membership. You also possibly can’t afford to not be working at all.

I don’t mean to sound harsh because you’re clearly already looking at ways to reduce your outgoings, but you’re highlighting the rent as the main issue when it simply isn’t. The car is the main problem. Either trade it in for one that’s much cheaper to run- or as PP have said, sell it and your dh can cycle to work. Offset the time it takes against the time he spends in the gym (plus the fact he’s cycling will be good exercise hence cancels out need for gym)

Can you earn more per hour than childcare would cost? I imagine so with just one child because even NMW could earn you more than if you’re paying a childminder. (A childminder will often care for 2 or 3 children so can be earning a reasonably hourly rate without each individual parent breaking the bank)

If you can’t, then find a job which fits round your dh- even if just working sat or Sunday or both, even if just stacking shelves - it will make up the shortfall you need

It’s perfectly usual for couples to both have to work, even if one is just part time; also totally normal for uni students to need part time work to finance themselves so your situation isn’t anything out of the ordinary- you’ve just got yourself into a mindset where you feel the rent is the problem
Whereas actually it’s other issues which are sortable

Good luck- I’m sure if you look at this pragmatically you can make the cutbacks and /or increase your income

great news on reducing bills and the possible car exchange.
also worth trying what in space said because that would be amazing

Is there a 6 month break clause in your 12 month tenancy? Sometimes there is. Might be worth reading the fine detail of your contract.

I would get independent legal advice on the catalogue debt. The company are bound to tell you you have to pay it, a solicitor or Citizens Advice might say different.

Your monthly energy bill is twice what mine was when I was in a 2 bed terrace (less than two years ago). Has the landlord insulated the loft and draughtproofed it? What's its EPC rating? As of 2018 landlords aren't meant to rent a property with an F or G rating (although there are loopholes).

He doesn't go to the gym to cycle or run, he lifts weights so cycling and running aren't really going to sort that out, as i said i told him to look for a cheaper gym & he has done
Thank you those who offered practical advice

Oh! Just seen that you've managed to get a cheaper energy supplier. Sounds like you've done loads - well done.

@arethereanyleftatall

It’s quite differentvadding 3 hours a day to your commute when doing 12 hour shirts than going to the gym during a lunch hour.

Plus, you have no idea what the journey is like and in inclement weather how hazardous it might be.

Loads of people love to say ‘just cycle’ but it’s just not practical a lot of the time. Would you be fit for work after 90 mins cycling and would you feel up to it after a 12 hour night shift?

YOU might but it doesn’t mean it’s suitable everyone.

Sounds like you've done well on making the initial changes; swapping the car will be huge and the catalogue debt ending next month must be a relief. Moving to another house might not be the answer unless you're sure that you can find one that's much cheaper; you'd have removal costs for a start.

Do you have a new budget drawn up now to see how it looks, as you were losing money but now have all these savings to take into account maybe you break even? Are there any debts or expenses you forgot the first time? How about income like child benefit that others mentioned? If you've been spending a lot on the credit card (£150/month payment sounds a lot) then can you swap it to a 0% first year interest card? Then continue paying it off at the same rate, but you'll be paying down the capital so that you can get free of it.