I really need help. Managing money to clearing debts.

[JustBecauseItWorkedForYou]

OK so my credit card 0 interest rate ends this month. I can't get a transfer as I don't work. Dh does.

A brief outline.
DH takes home 1700 plus 880 universal credit.. Our total expenditure for rent, bills, car tax etc is 1950 give or take.. The only non necessary one is Netflix but our house doesn't have digital ariel so we kinda need that. Ll hasn't allowed us to install one.

That also includes paying more than minimum on the cards

So leaves 650 ish a month. That's for food, nappies, formula, school trips etx
Which I know Is enough

I just want to pay even more off the cards.. Even if it's an odd 20here and there. But don't want to leave us struggling.

Any tips. How can I make money stretch? Ideas of earning money from home?

What's the balance on the cards?

Is there any way you could take a specific amount from the 650 you have left over and designate a certain amount each week/month to the credit cards? I found that focusing on one at a time whilst making minimum payments to others helped wipe a lot out. So could you perhaps make a minimum payment to one and focus on the other to pay off a larger amount? (What would be affordable and realistic for you) without being in the shit?

Also if you have any spare time perhaps you could find like a cleaning job a few hours a week here and there just to top you up? Or something along those lines

Unfortunately no spare time as have a new born and a 2 Yr old at home. Also a teen.
DH works 8 till 6 but often does last min overtime and works weekends.
A night job may work but if never get sleep lol

Cards 5k pay 100 pm . 850 pay 50 pm and 700 pay 25 pm on a plan. This is dhs card.

The 650 is for 2 adults, 1 teen, 2 Yr old and baby both in nappies (2 Yr old slow training due to allergies and upset tummy) and formula for baby.

Already shop in aldi.

There is a really good earn £10 a day thread going which has great ideas of small things you can do from home to earn a little bit here and there.

Are your utilities, insurances etc on the best possible rate, there are often savings to be made by switching.

Do you/DH have contract phones? If so when the contract is up don't upgrade (so long as the handset still works) and get a cheap SIM only deal, I have one which is only £5 a month which is great compared to the £35 I was paying previously for contract phone.

Food wise, do you meal plan to minimise waste? There are good savings to be made by going veggie a few days per week. Once a month we try and have a 'non shop' week where we eat out of the freezer and store cupboard and buy as little as possible (we usually need a top up of fresh milk and bread but nothing else once you count the frozen veg, tinned fruit, frozen meals etc we have knocking around the house)...

Yes best rates for utilities
Yes we meal plan (if I didn't I'd order take away lol)
And often do a very minimal shop using up odds and ends.
I'm sim only.
DH works pay for his phone so no savings to be made ther.

I'll look at that thread tonight when I can concentrate lol.

If you pay your council tax over ten months, see if you can change it to twelve months from April and pay the difference into the cards.

if your cards on a plan that is fine but if not look at the interest rate is one card is 27% another 23% and the third 20% pay the bare minimum on 23/20% ones and as much as possible on 27% one until it is cleared then bare the minimum on 20% one and throw everything at 23% card
the card with the highest balance may not have the highest interest rate
you gov surveys pay out real cash and you never get timed out or rejected but there is only one or two a week but that is perhaps enough to get £50 by Christmas many of the other surveys you answer 5-6 questions and waste 5-10 minutes then get told you don't fit profile and even then it is only 50p for 15 minutes but it might be OK to use this for next christmas even £3-5 a week will be a few hundred by christmas
I think there is a system where purchases sweep extra pennies into a savings account ie if your bill in aldi is 37.64 they take £38 and sweep the extra 36p into savings then at end of month you use these pennies for extra on cards
right now I don't think you can work but that might change in even 6 months time

Take a look at the £10 a day thread, I make £300-500 from various projects - Appen mostly. Also have a read up on the Dave Ramsey method. There are Dave Ramsey UK facebook groups where you will get support and ideas on tackling your debt.

I'm doing surveys etc to pay off CCs. YouGov has already been mentioned. Qmee is also worth doing- yes you get kicked out of surveys a lot but it's still worth persevering as the cash is instant and you can easily rack up and extra £20-30 a month. Lots of us on here with referral links but here's mine if it's of interest qm.ee/2D378054

Also second the advice to join the £10 a day thread- lots of us are making extra cash.

The moneysavingexpert forum has a 'Debt free wannabe' section with lots of experts giving advice. You can post a Statement of Affairs and they'll suggest switches and changes, the snowballing method etc,

Have a look at the Moneysavingexpert money makeover

Systematically goes through all your finances so might find a few ways of increasing income, cutting expenditure, signposting to ways to get out of debt, etc etc.

It sounds like you've already done a lot of these, but you might be able to squeeze a bit more out.

Good to see that you're already shopping in Aldi. I don't know how much nappies cost, but that £650 pm does sound like a lot. Maybe work out what your two most expensive regular meals are and swap for cheaper alternatives?

Also sign up to the regular email for ongoing tips including changing your bank account for an introductory bonus. You can do this multiple times and it's not that much hassle.

Cards 5k pay 100 pm . 850 pay 50 pm and 700 pay 25 pm on a plan. This is dhs card.

Look up snowballing as it really helps you to understand which debt to concentrate on first and how to get rid of debts in this manner

I’d set yourself a weekly budget if £75 then at the end of each week if you haven’t gone over budget pay £75 of the targeted credit card

Then the following week if you spend an extra £10 for a school trip...then pay of £65 on the targeted credit card debt

Paying weekly actually has some great advantages as it will reduce your interest

Working week by week allows for extra expenditure on occasion

Thank you.
Have done the save the change thing so of use debit card it gets rounded to nearest pound that gets transferred onto Savings. And then I'll pay it off credit card.

Will look at the interest rates. And work out which ones need to be paid at a higher rate

Council. Tax is 10m but this works as the 2 monts at the end cover birthday's. As we have 3 of our kids within 7 weeks. So that sorts that.

And I like the sound of paying the cc weekly even if odd 10 or so