just wondering - my budget plan with Payplan has an allowance of £100 per month for me, wife and two teenage kids. That's £1,200 a year - or £300 a year per person.
I have queried this a couple of with Payplan and was told that was the maximum I would be allowed. Now, obviously some months we barely spend anything on clothes but I have no doubt that over a year we spend more than that.
e.g. school uniform for son
Trousers - 2 pairs £30 each from Topman (only place we can find that sells black trousers in 32in waist/34inch inside leg)
Shirts - 6 at £12 per pair (can only buy from school shop)
Jumpers – 2 at £14 each (can only buy from school shop)
Outdoor PE top - £17 (can only buy from school shop)
Indoor PE top - £12 (can only buy from school shop)
Sports socks – £10 for two pairs (can only buy from school shop)
Shorts – £12 for two pairs (can only buy from school shop)
Shoes - £25 (probably from Tesco or Asda)
Football boots - £25 (could be more - try to look for them in sales)
Indoor trainers - £25 (could be more - try to look for them in sales)
that comes up to £250 a year - and doesn't even include cost of a coat/jacket, a holdall/rucksack or any underwear. Plus, of course any other clothes that he might need for all the time when he is not as school!
plus - pretty much same again for my daughter
and it doesn't even factor-in growing! Both kids have, for the past few years, needed top-ups during the school year.
I have no problems looking for bargains but with the best will in the world sometimes it impossible!
The living expenses guide on www.beatmydebt.com quotes £40 for a couple and £10 for each child so I don't think you would get anymore than £100 pcm.
all I can suggest is asking for a payment break to buy uniforms. It should be considered seriously. Although of course this would mean either tacking these months onto the end or repaying a little extra over X number of months to make up the shortfall.
My sister has refused last year and this year to buy trousers and shirts from a certain shop. She does buy the blazer but just told the school she couldn't afford it. I would therefore do the same if I were in your position.
I would also watch ebay - there are brilliant bargains to be had - don't bid til the end and never put in a high bid - it's easy to get carried away.
Kazza - please don't apologise! Thanks for your reply. I don't want to make that we should be treated as a special case but sometimes I feel that the IVA powers-that-be have not kept up with the reality of certain costs.
I have two suits on the go at the moment. Ideally I'd like three but I can't afford another one at the moment. One of my suits is looking particularly shabby but I keep putting off replacing it despite that fact that someone made a comment about it at work the other day. Being a manager with a certain 'image' that comes with that role it is of course very frustrating...
it was fine when the children were at primary school, but there really should be some variation on expenditure for older children. Secondary school uniforms are notoriously expensive. I have only bought new shirts, jumpers and shoes this year. I think i will replace other things throughout the year
CCCS maximum guidelines would allow only £83, so £100 is on the generous side, even though it probably doesn't seem that way from where you are sitting. If you can demonstrate that you actually spend more, and have good reasons for this, then your IP may be able to consider a higher allowance.
I agree that the allowances on certain things are strict, but we have to remember at the end of the day we are in an IVA and quite probably are going to be having a certain percentage of our debts that we racked up written off so there has to be some compromise while we are in this.
Personally I don't think teenagers grow at the same rate as younger children, my daughter still fits in the uniform I bought her last year so I have not had to replace anything.
I do think 6 shirts is excessive, my daughter has 3 and I just wash more regularly!. I also think you can get shoes and trainers much cheaper than £25 a pair, my daughters school shoes were £12 last term and they are still fine for her to wear this term. Trainers you can pick up for £12 a pair, granted they won't be a branded name but as we are massively in debt something has to give.
It's just a case of remembering that we can't live like we used to and we really have to try and cut back and live within our means while we are in an IVA and even beyond.
We get £75 a month for our clothing allowance for 2 adults and 2 kids (one a teenager) and we just have to manage and save from other allowances
Whilst I agree that you can buy cheaper sometimes I guess especilly if a child is heavy on shoes/clothes it's not cost effective.
I have no school age children to buy unifrom for and luckily only had to do it a couple of years whilst in an IVA before she went to 6th form with no uniform just smart business clothing so more flexible.
I know I'll get shot down for this but I did all I could so my daughter didn't suffer from my IVA, I did go without myself so she could have things. When she was 16 I explained the IVA to her in full and she has read the forum, therefore she understood more. None of my older married children know about the IVA but felt as it had more of an impact on her she needed an explanation.
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
Sorry i just had to say that although i agree we are in an IVA so we cant live like we use to, i cut back on my own things and so does my husband as we are the ones that made the mistakes, my children however, get what the other children have, clarkes shoes, nice clothes e.t.c even if i have to go without everything my aim is to not let them go without due to my mistakes. Luckily we dont smoke, drink, go on nights out e.t.c so we are able to get our children what they need to 'fit' in. Granted i cant remember the last time i had something new, but as you say, we cant live like we sue to.
Well its all just starting really for me, my oldest starts school next week so i have just bought her first ever school uniform but she got the best of everything i made sure of it. (Whilst i have a hole in my shoe lol)
Thank you, she does. I too use ebay, I also do car boot sales alot to free up a little cash.I also have to admit my mum is very good when it comes to the little ones clothing, despite not even knowing about our IVA she still wants them to have nice things. We dont spoil them with toys dont get me wrong. I just find i dont need alot my clothes last me for years. I have also just lost 2 stone so i fished out a box of clothes that i had put away if i ever lost the weight. Its like having a whole new wardrobe.
I absolutely agree that kids shouldn't pay for their parents mistakes, i live by this rule myself and both me and my husband go without to ensure it has as little impact on our childrens lives as possible, neither of us smoke, drink or go out as we just don't have any babysitters anyway, everything we earn goes on our kids, however, when you are on a budget you have to try and be as savvy as you can with it and I know for a fact my daughter would rather me be able to continue to afford her piano lessons than buy her six shirts for school and a pair of nike trainers over a cheaper pair
I also think sometimes that paying more for things doesn't necessarily mean you get a good deal, my son is very heavy on school shoes, I paid £30 for a pair of leather sketchers school shoes a few months ago that lasted him 8 weeks, I then bought a pair of cheap £10 ones from shoezone that lasted him the same length of time so now i just buy him the cheaper ones instead
Last edited by lem on Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
thanks all - I appreciate the comments. And certainly, like others in similar situations we try our best to make sacrifices so that our kids don't suffer too much, but I still found myself saying sorry to them the other day for having a pretty rubbish summer holiday and not really being able to do anything or go anywhere together.
back to clothing - I think we've become pretty good at bargain hunting but you can't always predict when they will come up and sometimes you just have to get stuff at a certain price. We paid £30 for my daughter's new school shoes at the weekend which was more than I wanted to spend but as she walks to and from school which almost two miles away they need to be hard-wearing (same as my son although his school is the same distance but in the opposite direction!). Last year we got them cheaper shoes but they had both worn them through by xmas. And of course, they are both in adult size shoes!
re: six shirts for my son. We started off with just four but found that sometimes we were running out - not just by having to wash them regularly but by having enough time to dry them (we don't have a tumble dryer). So we bought him another pair - and it crazy that we can only buy them in pairs from one particular shop just becuase they have a silly motif on the breast pocket that no one can see anyway! At least my daughter is allowed to wear plain white blouses as part of her uniform.
