Any room for improvement??

James240

Hi guys im making inroads on my debt but i wondered if there was anyroom for improvement


Here is list of outgoings...........

Wages: £1050


Rent: £250
Broadband: £25
Mobile Phone: £71 (This will be £30 next month)
Travel Card £27.35
Savings £10.00
Gym £35.00
Loan £303.71
overdraft £159.00 (This was cleared this month duetopayraise)

Im locked into a contract for my mobile phone till March 2006 then im considering switching to pay as u go to save money.

Once it becomes lighter im going to quit the gym and do running over the fields at the back of our house and buy myself a bike as well............but this wont be until at least March 2006 (again! :rolleyes: )

I currently have £1300 in Savings, and the total balance on my loan is as below on my signature............

Can anyone see where i can do anything else to make some more inroads on my debt?? Any help would be much appreciated...............

James

mattp_3

depends what the interest rates are on your debts/savings??

if you get 5% on your savings but are paying 8% on your borrowings, then you would be best to use the savings to clear a chunk of debt (possibly leaving a few hundred pounds for emergencies??)

Just a thought?

Matt

fairylights_2

The broadband seems high - we're on Virgin, and pay 17.99 a month, but they now have a cheaper 14.99 package we're about to switch to.

What about living? food bills and things? they're always the easiest things to save on for us ...

James240

Never really budgeted for food as in all honesty i normally make £50 of food last me about two months as its only myself to feed and im not a big eater.........

FrankieM

Hi James..
Does your rent include everything bar food?
I think you outgoings are quite low, and the ones that could be seen as high your alraedy dealing with, apart from maybe broadband which has already been mentioned.

Can I ask what you are doing with your 'leftover' money each month?

illmonkey

use the savings to clear the loan more, maybe £1000. Keep £300 of it, but stop the DD. if you ever need the £300, then slowly pay it back. Theres no point in saving too much money as you are loosing out to the debt.

Quit the gym, you can still run on fields in winter, you just have to check before you go out if its bad weather.

You pay very limited outgoings, so its hard to cuty down anymore Keep working on it though)

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi James

What about food hun, or is that included in your rent?

We are with Plusnet for our Broadband 2 meg line-unlimited downloads £21.99, been with them for 2 years with no problems. We are very very high users-so if your the same they would be great for you too. (£3.01 pm savng there)

Are there any cheaper gyms locally? Do you attend enough to get your £35 worth each month? If not cancel!

Can you move the loan to a cheaper APR or maybe shift to a 0% credit card?

BTW, I would just like to say that I enjoy reading your posts and some bring a smile to me face..lol.

Well done on dealing with your debt and not burying your head in the sand like many others do :T

Good Luck

Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

James240

FrankieM wrote:

Hi James..
Does your rent include everything bar food?
I think you outgoings are quite low, and the ones that could be seen as high your alraedy dealing with, apart from maybe broadband which has already been mentioned.

Can I ask what you are doing with your 'leftover' money each month?

hiya Frankie M

With my 'leftover' money i have been saving as much as poss and living on about £110-120 a month (obivously not this month as i went into my overdraft by quite a bit :doh: )

samgoffe wrote:

use the savings to clear the loan more, maybe £1000. Keep £300 of it, but stop the DD. if you ever need the £300, then slowly pay it back. Theres no point in saving too much money as you are loosing out to the debt.

Quit the gym, you can still run on fields in winter, you just have to check before you go out if its bad weather.

You pay very limited outgoings, so its hard to cuty down anymore Keep working on it though)

Hiya Samgoffee

By the time im getting back from work its pitch black and dont really want to end up running in the dark, although the weather doesnt really bother me at all, running in the dark does lol So will quit the gym in March once its lightened up, (thanks for the advice though :T )

Will stop the DD, and pay off a big chunk of the loan i think, as it will be at least another 3 months of payments that i can get rid of or possibly more hopefully.

Plus my Left over money is approx going to be about £340 if i dont go into my overdraft (something im trying to stop!!, :doh:) and i really must stop doing it so i can overpay on the loan which if i have about £340 i can over pay by another £210 at least......ooooooo this is sounding good :T

MORPH3US

Rent: £250 - Is this in a shared house?!?

Broadband: £25 - As other said, expensive but if you are on a long contract, not much you can do. Otherwise try someone else like Tiscali for £14.99 a month 1 meg unlimited!

Mobile Phone: £71 (This will be £30 next month) - Even £30 seems too much but thats just me, I used to pay £10 on PAYG, now i'm on a 3 cashback deal so pay about £30 - £33 a month but realistically i'm getting £27 a month back in 3 months time! Could you downgrade to a cheaper line rental?

Travel Card £27.35 - if you intend getting a bike, would you be able to cycle to work instead of this?

Savings £10.00 - as others said, no point in saving money @ 4% if you could pay off some of your debts @ 7% (or worse if you have credit cards!)

Gym £35.00 - The curse of the 1 year contract @ a gym. Find out from them if you can cancel without penalty, otherwise stick it out until the year is up then cancel and do jogging like you said!

Loan £303.71 - Is this a £303 per month payment off the big loan you have, or is it another small loan? If its another small loan, get it paid off ASAP if you can, they might even give you a rebate on the interest depending on who its with. Even if they don't, its one less debt to worry about!

overdraft £159.00 (This was cleared this month duetopayraise)

Hope it helps mate!

Don't forget to give yourself a little treat now and then, paying off your debts is important but you'll just get depressed if its constant scrimping and no fun in your life!

M

James240

Thanks for the comments about my posts PennyPincher glad they make u smile lol :rotfl:

MORPH3US im locked into 12 month contract which ends in may i think 2006

Rent, i live with friend and his girlfriend so i just rent the room everything else comes with the rent

Mobile phone, will have to enquire to see what the cheapest tarriff is but i think i can down grade to £20 tarriff

Travel card needed as i live to far outside of work (15miles)

Savings £10 DD will cancel this as u are correct and so is everyone else about this more use putting it towards debt

Gym i fully use go 4 times a week not locked into a contract but asi said before will cancel this when the night times get lighter.

Loan is the big loan at the bottom of my signature and is the only one i have

Overdraft, well if i go into this i only have myself to blame but im trying hard not to i promise :cool:

oooooooo this is sounding good!!!! i might be able to make big inroads here yiiiipppeeee!!!!! :T :T :T :T :T :T

Willsnarf1983

tbf mate the savings u make will only be minimal as i believe u have done as much as u can and u are a hardcore debt repayer lol. My point is on the gym membership, if u use it keep it, its only what £30 a month and u become fit, meet new people(maybe ur new woman) etc etc.


i am impressed that £50 lasts u 2 months.........no wonder i am fat at £30 a week lmao!

Cheers


Will