Money

I earn £33,000 a year but my divorce left me in debt so how can I save for a wedding?


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MARK Barber earns £33,000 a year but a divorce has left him nearly £20,000 in debt, which he’s desperate to clear so he can afford to marry new partner Kerry Hyde.

The couple, aged 46 and 31 respectively, live in Cambridgeshire where Mark earns £2,150 a month after tax and pension contributions as a fire alarm engineer.

 Mark Barber, 46, is keen to marry partner Kerry, 31, (both pictured) but he's struggling to repay debts first

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Mark Barber, 46, is keen to marry partner Kerry, 31, (both pictured) but he’s struggling to repay debts firstCredit: Mark Barber

Mark’s two sons, aged 17 and 15, live with his ex-wife in Surrey and he sees them twice a month.

But while Mark is savvy when it comes to switching and monitoring bills, he’s struggling to repay loans taken out to cover the legal fees from his divorce – as well as £800 a month in child maintenance.

Despite this, our Cash Clinic expert Rebecca Goodman still finds ways to give Mark’s finances a make-over.

She says he should ditch the £16 a month he gambles on the National Lottery and should consider reducing the £60 a month he pays his kids in pocket money.

This way he’d be able to put more money towards his debts.

Cash Clinic also suggests a range of extra tips and tricks to help boost Mark’s income.

Mark told The Sun: “Me and Kerry would like to get married one day but there’s no way we can afford to even have a modest wedding the way things stand at the moment.

“We would like to go away somewhere warm to get married, with just close friends and family there. Kerry knows someone who paid £5,000 for a package deal so we’re expecting it to cost somewhere in that region.

‘I feel like my life is on hold’

Mark Barber

“I just can’t seem to find a way to make my money stretch far enough and can’t find areas we could make any more cuts.

“We do everything on a tight budget and never have spare money to treat ourselves to anything. I feel as though our life is on hold.”

Here’s what our Cash Clinic expert recommends.

Why we’ve launched Cash Clinic

THE Sun has launched its new Cash Clinic series because we want to help you, our readers, to save cash.

For some, it’s easy to get caught up with work and family life and to put our own finances on the back burner.

While for others, it needs an expert’s eye to work out where further cutbacks can be made to already tight budgets.

If you’d like our Cash Clinic expert to review your finances and to feature in our series, please email Holly Thomas at cashclinic@thesun.co.uk

Entertainment: £101 per month
New spend: £50 per month
Saving: £51 per month

Mark spends £16 a month, or £192 a year, on the National Lottery. Given that his main focus right now is saving money wherever possible, we’d recommend he completely stops this gambling habit.

Mark also pays for a takeaway once a month costing around £20. But this will also need to go in order to cut back. This could save £240 a year.

Twice a month Mark visits his kids in Surrey. All three of them stay with his parents to save on hotels and the cost of meals.

 Cash Clinic recommends Mark cuts back on the National Lottery and on haircuts if possible

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Cash Clinic recommends Mark cuts back on the National Lottery and on haircuts if possibleCredit: Mark Barber

On average he spends £50 a month on these two trips, which covers food, drinks and activities when they’re out.

Mark would be hard pushed to lower costs further but it’s worth him searching for free local activities to see if there is any way to make his budget stretch further while still being able to spend time with his kids.

He also spends £15 a month on a hair cut. This isn’t much but if he could stretch this to every two months the saving would be £90 a year.

Pocket money: £60 per month
New spend: £20 per month
Saving: £40 per month

Mark pays his kids £30 each a month in pocket money. This works out at £60 a month or £720 a year.

Given that Mark is trying to pay off his debts this is an area he could cut down on.

Of course, it’s a tricky one as Mark doesn’t live with his kids and they’re probably used to having this money each month.

But in the short term cutting back here – even to £10 each per month – can make a big difference to his budget.

 Mark spends almost as much as he earns each month

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Mark spends almost as much as he earns each month

He could explain to his children why he is doing this, or he could instead give them ad hoc treats every few months from the money he’s saved – such as a short holiday or concert tickets – or he could put this money directly into a savings account for them to start earning interest on.

Groceries: £162.50 per month
New spend: £142.50 per month
Savings: £20 per month

Mark and Kerry spend £325 a month on groceries between the two of them. They shop at Tesco as it’s the only large supermarket near to them.

But if they were able to cut this by £20 a month each – which is £5 each per week – this would amount to quite a big saving.

Mark pays half of the shopping, so £162.50 a month, but by knocking £20 off the total this would save him £240 a year.

There are lots of ways to cut your grocery bills. From shopping in the reduced aisle to batch cooking and cutting out meat and fish.

Mark also buys a lot of own-brand labels, so we’d recommend downshifting to supermarket own-brand.

For example, a park of four 420g tins of Heinz baked beans costs £2.50 at Tesco, while the same amount of Tesco-branded beans in tomato sauce costs £1.

Similarly, a 400g tin of Napolina chopped tomatoes costs 80p while the same size tin of Grower’s Harvest tomatoes from Tesco costs 28p.

We estimate these tips combined could save Mark up to £20 a month.

Bills: £134.82 per month
New spend: £124.82 per month
Saving: £10 per month

Mark and Kerry split their household bills between them. They switch most of their providers on an annual basis and spend a lot of time making sure they’re on the most competitive deals.

Despite this, we did find some areas where they could shave off some cash.

Mark pays £38.50 towards the energy bill of £77 for a dual fuel energy tariff with the energy provider Bulb.

Switching to a different provider, which is free and quick to do online, could save him £10 a month.

A quick search on comparison website MoneySuperMarket reveals cheaper tariffs with Eon and Green Network Energy for £57 a month.

As Mark pays half this would save him £10 a month, or £120 per year.

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Broadband, line rental and TV with BT costs Mark £15. The contract is £30 in total each month and is due to end in March.

This is already a very competitive deal but when the contract is up for renewal, it’s worth him checking for cheaper deals with BroadbandChoices.co.uk, which compares broadband, TV, and mobile deals.

Home insurance costs £117.50 with Policy Expert and this is the cheapest current deal for the couple. It’s paid annually – which works out cheaper than paying monthly – and Mark’s contribution works out at £4.89 per month.

Council tax is £117 a month over 12 months, of which Mark pays £58.50.

There is already a water meter installed, which means water bills are £23 a month and Mark pays £11.50.

A water meter can save a lot of money, depending on the number of people living in a home. It’s free to check if one could save you cash using the Consumer Council for Water’s free online calculator.

The couple pay their TV licence annually and this costs Mark the equivalent of £6.43 per month.

Mark’s mobile is paid for by his job as he uses it for work.

Debts: £684 per month
New spend: £724 per month
Saving: £360 over the lifetime of the debt

The legal fees from Mark’s divorce were around £5,000, so he took out a personal loan of £12,000 in February 2018 to cover this and other associated costs.

It is a three-year loan with the Post Office with an interest rate of 7.9 per cent.

The monthly payment is £374 and this will be cleared in February 2021.

Mark also owes £7,500 in credit card debt. This is split over two cards, a Halifax card which has £6,000 on it and a Virgin Money card with £1,500 on it.

The Halifax card is in Mark’s name and he pays off the minimum amount on the card each month of £60 a month.

The Virgin card is a joint card with Kerry and they both pay £100 a month towards this.

Both cards are on 0 per cent interest deals, therefore they aren’t being charged interest for the debt, but as soon as this ends the interest charges will start to kick in.

On Mark’s Halifax card he has a year remaining until he will start to pay interest.

 Mark is struggling to repay debts of almost £20,000

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Mark is struggling to repay debts of almost £20,000Credit: Mark Barber

On the joint card the couple will have paid off the debt by the time the 0 per cent period ends.

Paying just the minimum amount of £60 on Mark’s card will take 100 months to pay off the debt – and it will be cleared by June 2028.

Every time he switches to a new 0 per cent deal to escape paying interest he will be required to pay a fee – usually around 3 per cent of the outstanding debt.

This is around £180 which if he had to pay it every two years – most 0 per cent deals last between one and two years – over the next eight years could cost him an extra £720.

Instead, increasing his payments could make a big difference. If he could use the savings from cutting back in other areas, and increase his repayments by £40 a month to £100, the debt could be cleared in 60 months, or five years.

Assuming Mark balance transfers the debt twice in this time, this is a saving of around £360.

Mark also pays £150 a month towards the car he and Kerry use. It’s in her name and was bought on a finance deal which runs until December 2022.

At this point, they can make a payment of £12,500 to keep the car, or return it.

Housing: £0 per month
New spend: £0 per month
Saving: £0 per month

Kerry pays the mortgage for the couple’s home as Mark struggles to find any spare cash for this as he pays £800 to his ex-wife in maintenance support for their two children.

His name is still on the mortgage of his ex-wife’s house, although he no longer directly contributes towards the mortgage on it.

Once his youngest child leaves full-time education in June 2022 the house will be sold.

 Cash Clinic has managed to save Mark almost £1,000

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Cash Clinic has managed to save Mark almost £1,000Credit: Mark Barber

Mark will receive 30 per cent of the profit from the sale – something’s he’s agreed with his ex-wife.

Motoring: £80.03 per month
New spend: £80.03 per month
Saving: £0 per month

Mark and Kerry switch their car insurance every year and currently pay £360.64 a year with Direct Line.

A check on comparison website MoneySuperMarket.com shows this is the cheapest available policy for them.

Petrol costs add up to £65 a month for Mark, for his trips from Cambridgeshire to Surrey each month.

Other financial commitments: £800 per month
New spend: £800 per month
Saving: £0 per month

As Mark’s ex-wife is the primary carer for their children, a financial order was put in place after the divorce for him to pay £800 per month to her.

This will stop when his youngest finishes full-time education in June 2022.

What has Cash Clinic managed to save Mark?

Cash Clinic has managed to save Mark £81 a month – or £972 a year – and that’s after the extra £40 in savings we’ve found to put towards clearing his credit card debt.

That means another five years saving to get to the all important £5,000 wedding goal.

But this goal could be achieved sooner still when you factor in that upping Mark’s credit card repayments will save him £360 over the lifetime of the debt.

Mark will also likely get a payment from the sale of his former home, plus he could get a pay rise during this time to boost his income too.

Other ways to boost his income include taking advantage of loyalty schemes, such as Tesco Clubcard.

With Tesco Clubcard points, for example, you can earn one point per pound spent. You can also earn points on other shopping, including petrol.

As Mark spends £65 a month on petrol, when topping up the tank he should use his Tesco Clubcard to collect as many points as possible.

When he has 500 points this is the equivalent of £5 to spend in Tesco, but if he trades in these points he could get up to three times the value.

How we saved Mark £1,332

HERE’S how Cash Clinic has saved Mark cash:

  • Entertainment: £51 a month or £612 a year
  • Pocket money: £40 a month or £480 a year
  • Groceries: £20 a month or £240 a year
  • Bills: £10 a month or £120 a year

Total saving: £81 a month or £972 a year after deducting £40 a month to go on debt repayments, which will save £360 over the lifetime of the debt. This means a total saving of £1,332.

This means he would have £15 in vouchers to redeem on days out – which Mark could use when visiting his children.
There are loads of options when it comes to vouchers from meals out at restaurants, including Cafe Rouge and Prezzo, to days out including Thorpe Park in Surrey.There’s also a host of other ways to make some extra money. One of these is by filling in online surveys in his spare time.

For each survey completed, points are given out and these can be redeemed for vouchers at retailers including Amazon.

Some including Crowdology, i-Say, LifePoints, Survey Compare, and YouGov pay out cash of up to £15 per 30-minute survey.

Mark should also sign up to a cashback website, such as Quidco or Topcashback so he can earn extra cash on anything he buys.

HSBC pays £175 if you switch to it so it could be worth Mark and Kerry doing so

Cash Clinic

There are often supermarket offers available on these websites so he can earn cashback on his grocery shopping if he does it online.

Mark and Kerry are already very organised with their spending and household bills and they keep track of their spending on a monthly basis.

But one way Mark could keep track of all his accounts in one place is with a banking app. Banking apps, such as Snoop which is due to launch soon, can be linked to all bank accounts and credit cards.

This could be a good way to keep an eye of his own current account, the couple’s joint bank account, and their credit cards.

It also monitors household bills and will alert Mark and Kerry when a better price comes along.

Another way to boost Mark’s income is by switching bank accounts. Mark’s own account is with RBS and he received £125 for switching to it in June (and will receive a further £50 in June this year).

The couple’s joint account is with Santander.

If accepted, they could switch the joint account to HSBC, which is currently paying out £175 to new customers.

They will also then get access to a regular savings account which pays 2.75 per cent, which you can put up to £250 in each month.

Martin Lewis explains what to do if you’re in debt – and how to reclaim cash

While right now the main focus is paying off debts, in the future this could be a good way to build up a savings pot.

Plus, when it comes to weddings there are always ways to save.

Limiting the guest list to just close friends and family, or just getting married in a registry office instead of having a big celebration, would be significantly cheaper, for example.

Mark said: “These recommendations seem reasonable to me, although I don’t think cutting the kids pocket money is an option.

“I appreciate it’s not a necessity and have toyed with the idea of cutting it down before, but my relationship with them is really important to me and that would cause a lot of friction.

“Previously those cuts you’ve suggested – like not getting my hair cut as often, or not having a takeaway – would have just seemed a step too far but with the loan being paid off within a year perhaps they will be bearable now that I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

“We were saving our Clubcard vouchers up for a luxury but perhaps that needs to be put on hold for the next year too.

“I agree that switching our gas and electricity supplier is a good idea and something we should have done by now really.

“Thanks very much for all your help with my financial situation and hopefully going forward your suggestions will help me.”





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