Any ideas for more moneysaving?

brummiebabe

As you can see from my signature, we have £2316.92 of debt, all on a 0% Virgin credit card until June 2006.

I appreciate its not a huge amount compared to others, but would like to get it paid off asap!!

Any ideas for cutting budget?

Pension (Husband's) £50

Life Cover (3 policies) Total £36.85
Powergen (gas/electric) £70!!!:eek:
TV Licence £10.49
Mortgage £519.15
Critical illness/life cover £21.52
British gas service £14.00
Car expenses (ins. etc £150
(2 cars - both necessary!)
Phone bill £16.00
House Insurance £23.32
Water £34.81 (no water meter - we have 2 kids!)
Union payment £9.20 (need it for insurance etc - I'm a nurse!)
Finance (for sofa, ends May 2006) £62.16
Income protection £30.70 (do I really need this?)
Council tax £101.00
Computer cover £4.99
Broadband £17.97
Gym £33.95 (can't cancel until June 2006)
Shopping £250-280
B'day etc £20
Petrol £160.00
Nursery/after school fees £321.00
Swimming lessons (DS1) £11.00
Pay As You Go (2 phones) £20
Charity donations £4
Clothes (kids) £30
Spending money (ie for everything else!) £200 (£40 per week between 2 of us)
Credit card repayment £100
TOTAL £2352.11

Income £1272 Salary
£1100 Salary
£113.60 (Child benefit)
No CTC currently as we were overpaid. Restarts next March

TOTAL INCOME £2485.60

Left £133.49 (however, have been £200 O/Drawn at end of last few months, so this just gets helps us back into the black!!)

Will hopefully not be as overdrawn at end of October, as trying to pull some of that back!

Any advice anyone???

homersimpson_3

1. gas and electricity seems high- look for cheaper provider
2. why are one or both cars necessary.
3. only you can decide whether you really need income protection? questionable. if you do shop around for cheaper quote!
4. what is computer cover for? who's it with & what do you get out of it?
5. cut out gym and use birthday money towards debt
6. why do you need one or both mobile? why mobile and landline?
7. are swimming lessons for children- what does ds1 mean? how old are children? can they help pay for this from doing paper round etc
8. cut out charity donations
9. reduce money spent on childrens clothes and everything else
10. why are you constantly overdrawn if income exceeds outgoings?
11. why 3 life insurance policies.
12. look for cheaper mortgage deal
13. why not just transfer it to another 0% deal?

newmum1

hi brummiebabe, (im from brum too) but anyway, are all 4 life cover policys neccessary?, also could you cut down the shopping bill by going somewhere cheaper. Also you could try not buying any clothes for a few months not sure if this will help.

brummiebabe

homersimpson wrote:

1. gas and electricity seems high- look for cheaper provider
2. why are one or both cars necessary.
3. only you can decide whether you really need income protection? questionable. if you do shop around for cheaper quote!
4. what is computer cover for? who's it with & what do you get out of it?
5. cut out gym and use birthday money towards debt
6. why do you need one or both mobile? why mobile and landline?
7. are swimming lessons for children- what does ds1 mean? how old are children? can they help pay for this from doing paper round etc
8. cut out charity donations
9. reduce money spent on childrens clothes and everything else
10. why are you constantly overdrawn if income exceeds outgoings?
11. why 3 life insurance policies.
12. look for cheaper mortgage deal
13. why not just transfer it to another 0% deal?

I knew I'd get loads of questions, so here goes!

1. Yes, gas & electric are high. Recently increased (by Powergen) from £51.00 Not yet shopped around as Martin advised to hold off until all price increases have been set, otherwise may get an unrealistic quote.
2. 2 cars - I am a community nurse, so need my car to do my job!! OH works around 18-20 miles away (in TOTALLY the opposite direction to me!!) No realistic public transport options!!!
3. Will shop around for a cheaper quote - on my list of things to do!
4. Computer cover is with PC World - maintenance, service and repair policy
5. Can't cancel gym membership as yet (signed 1 year contract!)
6. I need my mobile for work (and Trust don't provide one!) OH rarely uses his, majority of £20 would be on mine - £20 is the maximum though, don't always use that much!
7. Yes swimming lessons are for my 5 year old son - don't think I'll be sending him on a paper round just yet:p
8. Charity donations - difficult one (County Air Ambulance - v. worthy cause!!)
9. Yes, agree with that, but recently its been back to school uniforms, shoes for both kids etc etc...
10. We're not ALWAYS overdrawn - are recently due to holiday in August. No excuses - we overspent!
11. Life insurance 1) To top up mortgage cover (when cashed in endowment)
2) For OH
3) For me
Felt life insurance v.important, as we have 2 kids!!
12. Recently changed to fixed rate for 2 years. Wanted to know what our expenditure was going to be!!
13. Could do that but HATE having it hanging over me! Never been in debt before & don't like it! Would rather clear it asap!

brummiebabe

newmum1 wrote:

hi brummiebabe, (im from brum too) but anyway, are all 4 life cover policys neccessary?, also could you cut down the shopping bill by going somewhere cheaper. Also you could try not buying any clothes for a few months not sure if this will help.

Yippee, a fellow brummie!!!:wave: :wave:

Have cut down on shopping bill DRAMATICALLY (was £400+per month :whistle: ) Have been doing monthly challenges on old style board for a while! Will continue to try!!

Hopefully, won't need to buy any more kids clothes for a while now (did a bit of a shop at the weekend.)

Thanks for the advice though!

YorkshireBoy

Do you receive financial payment from "Trust" for using your own car? Essential user allowance for example? 40p/mile perhaps?

Seems unfair that you "need" a mobile for work but they expect you to provide and pay for it!

brummiebabe

I don't qualify for the regular user allowance (monthly payment to cover cost of maintaining car etc!) but do get mileage (can't remember exact amount per mile!) My income I've listed is without mileage, as it can change from month to month.

As for the mobile thing - its a real issue currently. Other nurses/community workers within the trust do have mobiles - but apparently we're not allowed to have one each! We have a TEAM mobile (but trying to share this between 10 people is a bit unrealistic!) Also, I can't even claim the cost of my calls, because I'm PAYG & so don't get itemised bill! My colleague recently spent £6 of her own credit on an important work call ( a client was unwell!) she can't get it back!

Incidentally, we are EXPECTED to call in to the office at the end of the day, if we're not returning there, but we have to use our own phone/callbox!

YorkshireBoy

brummiebabe wrote:

I don't qualify for the regular user allowance (monthly payment to cover cost of maintaining car etc!) but do get mileage (can't remember exact amount per mile!) My income I've listed is without mileage, as it can change from month to month.

This raises two points...

1. You have extra money each month on top of your existing figures to throw at your debt.

2. I'm no tax expert, but I get 40p/mile (taxable) for my "call-outs" to work out of hours. If you get less than this, can you claim the difference back from HMRC? Maybe a question for the "Cutting Tax" board?

brummiebabe wrote:

As for the mobile thing - its a real issue currently. Other nurses/community workers within the trust do have mobiles - but apparently we're not allowed to have one each! We have a TEAM mobile (but trying to share this between 10 people is a bit unrealistic!) Also, I can't even claim the cost of my calls, because I'm PAYG & so don't get itemised bill! My colleague recently spent £6 of her own credit on an important work call ( a client was unwell!) she can't get it back!

Incidentally, we are EXPECTED to call in to the office at the end of the day, if we're not returning there, but we have to use our own phone/callbox!

I'm all for eliminating waste in public services, but this is ridiculous. I work in the private sector. Every manager on site, and everyone on the road, has a mobile. The phones are free and the tariff includes free mobile to mobile calls within the company. There are 250 employees in my organisation, and around 50 phones - imagine what the purchasing power of the NHS could negotiate in terms of a contract! We're "supposed";) to pay for our private calls at 10p/minute. Certainly makes you keep 'em brief!

Maybe 28 years in the private sector has something to do with it, but I'd only lay my own money out once for an employer. There wouldn't be a second time!

brummiebabe

What's actually worse is that it is part of our 'Health & Safety' Policy that all Community staff have a Trust mobile! They seem to adhere to policies as & when it suits them!

The NHS runs on the goodwill of the staff working for it, believe me!!!

brummiebabe

YorkshireBoy wrote:

1. You have extra money each month on top of your existing figures to throw at your debt.


You're right, thing is I had forgotten to put claim in for last 2 months, so haven't had any mileage recently. When I get this though (at the end of October) I shall put it all towards the debt!!

sportbeth

Have you tried e-baying? My OH and I are doing this at the mo and we've been regularly selling at about £150 a month on junk.

Also you could try buying from supermarkets with petrol deals. If you get through enough food and petrol (and it looks like you do) you could get money off the petrol and put the pennies towards something else.

Also maybe consider going somewhere to help you economise on food. OH and I currently drive to a farm shop where the meat is in bulk and frozen and the veg is much cheaper.