Black hole money pit

[Mamatolittlemonsters]

So before my DH made some very silly money decisions with an ex partner leaving me with a fair amount of debt

Met my DH and to be honest we have just cruised through and added to the debt (pregnant early on in the relationship with zero savings, wedding, moving to the house that Jack build and a second DC)

Currently toddling by with me working 3 zero hour contract jobs because I don’t have the childcare I need to get a decent job in what I do and those lovely interest rates have slowly been creeping up meaning we are literally having to live off the credit cards as we pay them off.

Im actually dreading September when our mortgage goes up and it won’t get better until I get the free childcare hours from the government. Actually loosing so much sleep over this.

So my question is this:
Realistically I’m not going to pay off enough of the debt to cover the increases in my bills. But what little ways have you found to make or save a bit of extra money? I have nothing I can use to “invest” but obviously need to start making a dent in the debt and reducing my outgoings

Realistically, unless your or DH can get higher paid jobs or more part time jobs, it's time to cut the spending. Cancel all the unnecessary direct debits, shop around for everything including food, insurance, fuel, etc. Consider selling a car if you have one each, flog off all old DVDs, old phones/laptops etc, children's clothes/toys on ebay, stop buying lunches/coffees and take your own, etc.

Im guessing you have run your details through the benefits calculators to see if you can get help with UC / child care at 85% ?

Why do you say he made decisions with an ex that left you with debt?

DH is in a good paid job for his field. We’ve already gone down the obvious route of no unnecessary spending and I have a huge amount of things listed for sale

We did the calculations for dropping down to one car but it wouldn’t actually save us anything. DH works half a hour away by car and works night shifts and I work in the community so although I’d still be able to work, my hours would drop as I’d have to walk between visits and it would take me a hour to walk. DH doesn’t have set start or finish times so car sharing doesn’t work for us unfortunately

Yeah. We’ve looked at all the benefits and because of DHs wage we don’t qualify for anything.

More looking for ideas for cutting down our costs in a whole as we don’t have the capacity for extra income so was seeing if anyone had any ideas that I may not have thought of

It was me that made the decisions with an ex of mine. When with my ex I had a high paid job and no responsibilities.

so for example, one of the things I bought was a car. It belonged to him and was in his name but the credit card used was solely in my name as he couldn’t get credit

Go through your bank statement and look at anything that can be cut. Can you reduce your mobile phone plan? Get rid of any Sky, Netflix etc. gym membership. I'd been playing with reducing how long my hot water was on for, it was a bit of trial and error as to when it ran out. In the winter, reduce your thermostat. Sometimes though there's only so much you can cut, and if your mortgage is going up later in the year then the biggest impact will be an increase in wage

I know someone who does care in the community by ebike. She reckons it saves her time over a car as she never needs to find a parking spot. Perhaps as one of your employers has a bike to work incentive scheme, you can get a trailer for the kids.

I actually considered this as an option. But my visits can be anything from on the same road to 20 minutes away by car (and obviously only 5 minutes to get there) 😂

Can you reduce any of the interest you pay, eg by transferring credit card balances to 0% offers?

If not, you might need a more formal solution like an IVA, or perhaps downsizing or moving to a cheaper area if you can free up equity by doing this. But no-one can say, without a full picture of your circumstances and you should seek advice from an independent advisor like Stepchange.

What's the amount of debt and projected repayment time, accounting for interest?

The problem is that unless you're paying well above the minimum on your debt a lot of the payments can go on interest and you can spend years not really getting anywhere.

Moneysavingexpert.com is also a great resource and if you post details of your budget on their debt free wannabe forum, you'll get great, if brutal, advice on your options as they have rather more realistic lifestyle expectations than the average Mumsnetter who prioritises living in the right area over affordability for example.

Another recommendation for Money saving expert here, they have some excellent forums including debt free Wannabees and old style thrift boards. Plus not everyone on there is (pretends to be) earning £100k for a day a week doing a startlingly genteel little non job for rich mates in the Home Kynties. There's much more of a geographic/social spread than here.

Don't expect coddling though, they'll tell you it like it is. Best of luck.

Can you get a consolidation loan instead of keeping the debt on your cards? Interest rate is generally much better and so your payments go further.

The other thing is to work out whether there is any type of work you can do while you have your DC with you.

I used to do audio typing from home. You can start with low paid jobs on places like UPWorks and build up your rating to start getting better paid jobs. Only downside to this is you need to be registered as self employed and do tax returns etc.

There is a MN £10 a day thread with lots of ideas to earn small amounts of money with surveys, mystery shopping etc.

Do you have a garage that you could rent out either for a car or for storage?

Pet sitting for small animals like hamsters, they can be brought into your own home.