We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
a whole new life for 2010!!
ailsajayne29
Posts: 110 Forumite
Hello everyone, Ive been posting on and off for a while now and using this site for help with lots of things but I've decided i want a whole new fresh outlook on things for the coming new year!!
I made some very bad money decisions after uni and after a bad break up with my ex ended up burying my head in the sand totally over the state of my finances, before I knew it I had just under 12k of debt on loans ccs and a car finance scheme so I set up a DMP and have managed to keep those repayments under control! In the next few weeks Im moving in to a flat of my own for the first time (no more awful house shares for me :rotfl:) so Im streamlining everything and looking for help and advice in my quest for a new life away from always feeling skint and still having 11 years left on my DMP.
Heres my SOA, the expenditure is estimated from the amounts I know other people in the flats im moving into pay every month so might change slightly!! Don't think there will be much that can be changed but other peoples eyes sometimes see what you are blinded to yourself!
Income £1150
Rent £350
Council tax £85 (with reduction for single person)
Elec c.£30 (no gas so elec bills higher!)
Sky, line rental and broadband £35 (I need the phone line and BB for work, if I work form home I save myself nearly £70 a week on fuel! and sadly im dependant on my telly esp as I cant afford to go out lol!)
Car Ins £28 (inc breakdown cover)
DMP £77
Contact lenses £22
Contents £4 (from moneysupermarket quotes, may be slightly higher as Im in a flood area :-( )
Mobile phone £35 (new monthly contract with orange, was spending nearly £60 but get lots of free mins and texts!)
TV lic £12
total = £678
Spare = £472
I have been working on having a set amount a week that covers everything else, food, fuel, presents, hair cuts etc, basically all the other bits that comes up on the DMP expenditure form! I do that on the basis that if i have spare cash and its someones birthday etc i will buy them a pressie, if i don't i wont! also i will decide if i want something or need new clothes etc that I then wont have money for going out that week! same goes for tax etc on car, whenever i try to save i always end up using it for something else so tend to accept that december and june are months where i cant go out or do fun things lol!
It seems like a lot to have spare as i generally spend about £50 a month on fuel and around £30 a week on food, I also spend about £80 a month on cigarettes but Im cutting those down to quit!! However every month it never feels like i have much or any spare! and i often get close to payday and find i have nothing left... I largely blame myself for this, except in the last few months where the bank have done kind things such as take away the money i had left in charges or when my car has broken :-( So I would also like to be able to save some cash for emergencies then hit the debt hard, I know its the wrong way round but right now if something happens I have no way to pay for it and just feel like having a small safety net would be nice!
I am persuing halifax for £2400 of bank charges (I owe them £2187 so might get some extra if they ever decide to pay up!) and lloyds for £270, I did try under the hardship rules as I am on a DMP but I dont have priority debts which is fair enough!
This next month is going to be very very tight as i also have to pay a deposit for the flat but i think i can just scrape through thanks to lots of overtime this month! Unfortunately overtime is project based and incedibly rare so i cant do that to boost my income! and as i can be sent to work away at very short notice I cant really commit to an extra job and i dont own anything I can sell!!
I finally feel a bit like everything might just be improving and that once im on my own and able to save a bit and shop/cook sensibly etc things may get better and allow me to be able to clear my DMP quicker... 11 years left at the min :-( so any advice etc for the new place and keeping household spending down would be very welcome along with any other wordsof general encouragement and ideas to make some cash from nowhere to keep me going over what will hopefully be my last cr*p month :-)
I made some very bad money decisions after uni and after a bad break up with my ex ended up burying my head in the sand totally over the state of my finances, before I knew it I had just under 12k of debt on loans ccs and a car finance scheme so I set up a DMP and have managed to keep those repayments under control! In the next few weeks Im moving in to a flat of my own for the first time (no more awful house shares for me :rotfl:) so Im streamlining everything and looking for help and advice in my quest for a new life away from always feeling skint and still having 11 years left on my DMP.
Heres my SOA, the expenditure is estimated from the amounts I know other people in the flats im moving into pay every month so might change slightly!! Don't think there will be much that can be changed but other peoples eyes sometimes see what you are blinded to yourself!
Income £1150
Rent £350
Council tax £85 (with reduction for single person)
Elec c.£30 (no gas so elec bills higher!)
Sky, line rental and broadband £35 (I need the phone line and BB for work, if I work form home I save myself nearly £70 a week on fuel! and sadly im dependant on my telly esp as I cant afford to go out lol!)
Car Ins £28 (inc breakdown cover)
DMP £77
Contact lenses £22
Contents £4 (from moneysupermarket quotes, may be slightly higher as Im in a flood area :-( )
Mobile phone £35 (new monthly contract with orange, was spending nearly £60 but get lots of free mins and texts!)
TV lic £12
total = £678
Spare = £472
I have been working on having a set amount a week that covers everything else, food, fuel, presents, hair cuts etc, basically all the other bits that comes up on the DMP expenditure form! I do that on the basis that if i have spare cash and its someones birthday etc i will buy them a pressie, if i don't i wont! also i will decide if i want something or need new clothes etc that I then wont have money for going out that week! same goes for tax etc on car, whenever i try to save i always end up using it for something else so tend to accept that december and june are months where i cant go out or do fun things lol!
It seems like a lot to have spare as i generally spend about £50 a month on fuel and around £30 a week on food, I also spend about £80 a month on cigarettes but Im cutting those down to quit!! However every month it never feels like i have much or any spare! and i often get close to payday and find i have nothing left... I largely blame myself for this, except in the last few months where the bank have done kind things such as take away the money i had left in charges or when my car has broken :-( So I would also like to be able to save some cash for emergencies then hit the debt hard, I know its the wrong way round but right now if something happens I have no way to pay for it and just feel like having a small safety net would be nice!
I am persuing halifax for £2400 of bank charges (I owe them £2187 so might get some extra if they ever decide to pay up!) and lloyds for £270, I did try under the hardship rules as I am on a DMP but I dont have priority debts which is fair enough!
This next month is going to be very very tight as i also have to pay a deposit for the flat but i think i can just scrape through thanks to lots of overtime this month! Unfortunately overtime is project based and incedibly rare so i cant do that to boost my income! and as i can be sent to work away at very short notice I cant really commit to an extra job and i dont own anything I can sell!!
I finally feel a bit like everything might just be improving and that once im on my own and able to save a bit and shop/cook sensibly etc things may get better and allow me to be able to clear my DMP quicker... 11 years left at the min :-( so any advice etc for the new place and keeping household spending down would be very welcome along with any other wordsof general encouragement and ideas to make some cash from nowhere to keep me going over what will hopefully be my last cr*p month :-)
0
Comments
-
Hi there and Welcome to Diaryland!
You should defo start a daily spending diary to see where every penny is being spent. That will probably be an eye-opener and help you think before you spend.
Regards groceries, you should head over to the OS boards if you haven't already and maybe try the Up Your Income thread for extra money-making ideas.
For contact lenses, you might be able to shave a few £'s off here too. I get a 3 months supply of daily disposables for £45 from Asda, but I think you can get them cheaper than that....
You should also check out Payment A Day and Make £10 a Day threads for motivation and ideas.
Good Luck
0 -
Hi, and welcome. I use daysoftlenses for contact lenses, it comes out as £10 per month. the lenses are great, they suit my eyes better than the most famous brand.0
-
thanks!! Ive posted on the thrift board to see how much i can save by living on my own! def will look at cheaper lenses, got told by opticians i cant gt mine cheaper as i use the ones you leave in all the time and have astigmatism, but i think ill have a look myself now :-)
Im off to find a small notebook (i seem to have lots of them in my room.... and i wonder why im skint lol!) to start a spending diary....
Im convinced im going to end up spending so much time on here that I wont be owrried about having no money to go out :-D0 -
Oh yes and to be really MSE, I eek out my 3 months supply to about 4.5 months by wearing my glasses regularly too (plus it's better for your eyes;))0
-
ah i would do that but i hate wearing glasses now lol! vanity strikes again! which is naughty and wearing my glasses would save me cash but i am def going to look into cheaper ways to get them!
where will i find the link for the make £10 a day challenge? Im a bit hopeless and tracking things down lol!!0 -
well today im sorting out my room for the big move :-D hoping to find something thats not useless junk that i can sell to make some extra cash! not sure if any of it will be but it needs done! Am fed up of moving so much stuff and just moving rubbish from place to place!
Ive also been thinking and Im going to try to have at least 3 no spend days every week to start with! Bad as it is Ive arranged to bulk buy some cigs (trying to quit but its been very hard!) so i wont be tempted in the shop everyday... Im sure half of my probem is that I go to buy a pack and always come out with magazines, choc, crisps etc! Also trying to cut down my coke zero addiction which again will save me lots of cash, starting by buying asda's own coke zero :-D
I'm also starting my spend diary from tuesday (payday) as I only have about £2 til then lol!! this month is going to be very very difficult a i have to pay the equiv of two months rent (for rent and dep) and a bit for the last weeks in my current place, I think (only because i have overtime) that i will have £135 left to live on, however ive arranged lifts for the last few weeks of this project so am going to put £15 of petrol in and use it as little as possible! Ive asked friends and family for more house stuff so all i need to buy is one of the cheap sets of pans from wilkos! im going to write my meal plan for as much of the month as i cna today, however until i move in to the new flat i cant buy as much in bulk as i wanted to because i have one small cupboard in this house! so that will have to wait til I move... but I feel motivated and happy to be getting on with this.. and with any luck the ruling on weds with the bank charges business will mean ill get £270 back off lloyds and £2400 from halifax (dropping my overall debt by £2K and giving me an extra £400 towards my emergency fund so I can pay more per month into my DMP and get rid of that quicker too)
so thats my plan today! :-) wish me luck cos its gonna be a busy one lol!0 -
wow... just been checking for lenses online and i can get my exact same lenses for 13.50 a month at asda, so ive effectively been paying an extra 8 or 9 quid a month just so i can get a lens and eye check every three months, thats nearly £30!! and ive been wearing the continuous wear ones for years now and never had any problems or particular prescription change! I may well switch and use the cash saved every month to get my eyes tested once a year... its amzing how much money people can add on top isnt it!!0
-
Is your eye test not free on NHS? I thought everybody got that free...0
-
dont think so! Ive always had to pay since i left uni! I could get a free eye test every two years in my last job because i was computer based but now im not I cant!! But my local opticians do an early bird test for £14 if you go before half nine am! :-D
It really should be tho! but then i think lots of things should be.. esp certain medications! Never understand why I can get the pill for free but my mum has to pay for her asthma inhalers?0 -
Oooo wait, i googled, its a scottish thing. I was a bit nervous there thinking I had managed to wangle my way out of paying for eye tests and would some day get a big bill lol
Thats good about the contact lenses, shopping around is quite good. Im currently on a break from paying for mine as I was wearing my glasses more often and had 2 boxes of lens mail sitting.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.9K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.6K Spending & Discounts
- 247.7K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.7K Life & Family
- 262.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards