Lightbulb moment! HAPPENING RIGHT ABOUT NOW!

lynzpower · 21 February 2006 at 12:15PM

Hi all
Well ive been hanging round here for a few days to pick up a few extra tips and so on, and Ive now just done my budget planner and Im £300 a month in the red!! Crikey, i thought i was doing OK...

My expenses are such

Income 1510 ( 570 into the rent account)
Student loan £100 pcm ( 8 payments left)
loan to parents 150 pcm (expires dec 07 at current rate)
Egg 2300 (0% for 9 months balance transfers done) I suspect £120 pcm payment should clear this quite easily
Oystercard 85.00
standing order to charities £5 pcm ( dont really want to cancel these..)
Owe £800 for my sofas currently at 0% expires end October ( i need to pay these off before they start charging me 27%!)
Food £40 pcm ( partner pays same, includes lunch stuff while at work)
Cigarettes ( eeek 30 per week, £120 pcm)
Ecotricity 12.50 per month (partner pays same) ( no gas at the flat, so avoiding these crazy price rises)
Phone line rental

Rent account ( I manage this)
570 in from me
400 in from partner
council tax £140 ( paying some arrears will revert to £80 in April)
£43 buildings & contents
£12.99 lovefilm subsciption
7.50 time out subscription
£350 mortgage (interest only)
£350 rent & service charge includes water rates
12.00 tv license
17.99 internet with tescos ( think im tied in with this)

(On odd occasions my paypal payment goes in from my selling on ebay, although theres not going to be much more running out of stuff to sell!)

So whats your advice here ( apart from giving up the fags, I just cant manage this at the moment...)

Crikey...

Alleycat · 21 February 2006 at 12:34PM

lynzpower wrote:

Hi all
Well ive been hanging round here for a few days to pick up a few extra tips and so on, and Ive now just done my budget planner and Im £300 a month in the red!! Crikey, i thought i was doing OK...

My expenses are such

Income 1510 ( 570 into the rent account)
Student loan £100 pcm ( 8 payments left)
loan to parents 150 pcm (expires dec 07 at current rate)
Egg 2300 (0% for 9 months balance transfers done) I suspect £120 pcm payment should clear this quite easily
Oystercard 85.00
standing order to charities £5 pcm ( dont really want to cancel these..)
Owe £800 for my sofas currently at 0% expires end October ( i need to pay these off before they start charging me 27%!)
Food £40 pcm ( partner pays same, includes lunch stuff while at work)
Cigarettes ( eeek 30 per week, £120 pcm) - Can you either cut down or quit? I know its really hard, but it would be worth it. You are currently spending £120 per month on cigs. Could you change to rollies? You'll probably find you smoke less and it will save you a lot as well.
Ecotricity 12.50 per month (partner pays same) ( no gas at the flat, so avoiding these crazy price rises)
Phone line rental

Rent account ( I manage this)
570 in from me
400 in from partner
council tax £140 ( paying some arrears will revert to £80 in April)
£43 buildings & contents You should be able to get this cheaper. Have a look at Martins article and do a cost comparison.
£12.99 lovefilm subsciption - Cancel this. Its a luxury and will save you £155 per year!
7.50 time out subscription Cancel this, get the free Metro and other free mags if you fancy a read (or do as I do and nick any newspapers left on the bus to read!
£350 mortgage (interest only)
£350 rent & service charge includes water rates
12.00 tv license
17.99 internet with tescos ( think im tied in with this)

(On odd occasions my paypal payment goes in from my selling on ebay, although theres not going to be much more running out of stuff to sell!)

So whats your advice here ( apart from giving up the fags, I just cant manage this at the moment...)

Crikey...

You should currently have £297 per month left after your bills and debts have been paid, but you haven't taken into account things like birthdays, haircuts, extras etc. Try and work these out as well if you can.

That sofa really needs paying asap. Is your partner jointly going to pay that as well?

lynzpower · 21 February 2006 at 12:40PM

Well, weve got the lovefilm subscription as we never go out (im too tight!) and it really does make life worth living some days... Ive down graded it from 3 at a time to 2, and if we can, I might make it one at a time. Its our social life, our friends come over and watch the films with us, to stop us going out.

I could cancel the time out I guess, but I think its good value for money. I found when I didnt have it on subscription I ended up buying it weekly anyway, so it ended up costing me more! Its useful for all the free stuff thats listed there and when we do most stuff on the weekend, we cant get a metro. We do use the metro as well though of course, now Ive stopped buying newspapers...

Im a bit bothered about moving my buildings and contents to a non-ethical provider. I did have a scan round but all the quotes I got were more ( only by a couple of quid, but not ethical, this is important to me)

lynzpower · 21 February 2006 at 12:40PM

and no partner is not paying off the sofa with me, its my flat and we are keeping things seperate for the time being.

novice_money_saver_2 · 21 February 2006 at 12:43PM

re the ciggies - can you cut down a bit? or swop to a cheaper brand (which may also help you smoke less as they won't taste the same!)

This next bit is not a dig by the way, how do you rationalise your smoking as against your ethical leanings?

lynzpower · 21 February 2006 at 12:47PM

I cant do rollies, try as i might, and i just end up frustrated and needing a fag!!

i possibly think that i smoke less that i put originally, although some weeks its definatley more

Hehe the way I reconcile the smoking and the ethical leanings is that I was addicted to smoking before Id ever heard about "ethical" anything!! On the plus side it keeps lots of communities out of complete poverty, so I console myself with this, and the fact that the taxman is getting more out of me, therefore good for society!!

robnye · 21 February 2006 at 1:01PM

dont buy lunch...... take sarnies...... or make home made pasta..... etc
could you ask you parents if you could reduce your payments to them, say by £50 per month for six months this will enable you to pay £300 of something else.
or as the egg balance is at 0%, reduce your payments to them, pay of the sofa, the increase the payments....

tis a game of peter and paul....... taking from one to pay the other, then vice versa

debtfreeinayear? · 21 February 2006 at 1:07PM

First off Lynz I'd like to say a big WELL DONE for realising you have a problem and for taking steps to rectify your problem and getting back in the black

Everyone has made some brilliant points!! I'd also reccomend keeping a spending diary. It's amazing how much we can spend without realising!! I'd also keep the love film as if you cut out everything you enjoy then you won't stay motivated and be willing to keep it going!!

Wishing you the best of luck and motivation to get debt free

lynzpower · 21 February 2006 at 1:19PM

thanks a lot for these. As it is my parents cant afford to cover the payments as they got a secured loan off thier mortgage to do so ( already tried this one!)

I have found a notebook where Im doing my spending diary as of today. thanks for reminding me!

Oh yeah, I meant we take lunches to work out of the £80 a month is done. A pack of cupasoups and a loaf can do my lunch for just over a quid a week!! Taking loads of hints from Old style here...!!

black-saturn · 21 February 2006 at 1:50PM

lynzpower wrote:

I cant do rollies,QUOTE]
It really is worth persevering with the rollies. You can buy roll up makers in most tobacconists and in hippy type shops very cheap. I only smoke 3 a day but I still find I'm saving a lot of money by switching to roll ups from cigarettes.

Bestthingsinlifearefree · 21 February 2006 at 1:51PM

Hi Lynzpower,

The sofa at 27% interest will bite you in the bum if you are not careful !!!!

You need to pay it of in full before Oct or if thats not possible get a low / zero interest rate credit card JUST for the purpose of paying of the sofa.

Transfer / pay the sofa debt in good time to / with the credit card. Cut the credit card up and pay of the CC by the time the low / zero interest rate period finishes.

Obviously if you are going to do this do it well before October.

Read that sofa credit / debt agreement with a magnifying glass as some times if you are one day late they back date all the interest etc etc and you get really clobbered.

Good Luck.

Lightbulb moment! HAPPENING RIGHT ABOUT NOW!

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