Where to start?

Chaos_Theory_3

I've had a look at the boards, but can't find a thread that helps me right at the start. I have bookmarked the SOA calculator and will fill that in tonight after work, but once that's done, I'm not sure what to do!

We are at the stage now where there is very little disposable income at all each month and we have taken on overtime - the little that there is - to try to get a bit more money coming in.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a few good threads to give me some ideas of the first few steps?

milliemonster

Hi Chaos and welcome to the board, your SOA is the right first step, post that up tonight and we will all have a look to see where we can help you, in the meantime have a look at the Money saving old style board for ideas on how you can cut back on groceries (this really helped me reduce my spends from £400 a month to under £200) and also the Up your income board for ways you can bring in a bit more each month (see my sig)

there are also plenty of amazing diaries on this board to read to show you are not alone, the DFW hall of fame thread is great aswell, I was reading that yesterday this is about people who have become debt free, how they did it and it is really inspiring

there is so much help on here hun, you have come to the right place xx

katymags

Hi millimonster - please can you tell me where I can find the hall of fame thread you mention - I would love to read this to get inspiration?:T

Chaos_Theory_3

Thanks for that. I completed the SOA and as i thought we are spending £149 a month more than we earn. The biggest chunks go to paying off debts, utilities etc and food. We have the cheapest utilities we could find and a water meter which helps, but I think food is our only area we can cut back. However, I was just putting in a 'small' shop at Tesco online and it came to £80. If I had added all the things I'd wanted it would have been £115!

I cook from scratch most of the time and buy special offers, so I can't see what I can cut down on.

cady

post your SOA on here and we will look and se if we can help you cust it down !!

Chaos_Theory_3

Wages per week £680 (totals from both of us no other income)


Rent per month £675
Contents Insurance £6
Council Tax £110
Water Meter £20
Electricity £80
Home Phone £20
Broadband £15
TV Licence £12
Mobile Phones £90
Food and Household Shopping £480 per month
Cigarettes £100 per month (he smokes, I don't)
Breakdown Cover £50 per year
Bus Fares £15 per week
Motor maintenance £20 per month
motor insurance £300 per year
Tax £100 per year (motorbike)
Petrol £20 per week
motor loan repayment £60 per month
Personal Loan repayments £550 per month (we have one each through our banks, LloydsTSB and HSBC)
Credit card replayments £330 (His, between 3 cards - Egg, Virgin and Post Office. I pay mine off each month as only broadband goes on it)
Savings £30 per month (in my mini cash ISA which is virtually empty!)
DVD rental £15 per month - Lovefilm
Hobbies and Shopping for fun £50 per month
Sky TV £50 per month
Clothes £20 per month

All that leaves a shortfall of £142 per month

ETA I have made himself apply for a new credit card to transfer as much of his 9k balance (between all the current cards) as possible. Paying off debts and food shopping are our biggest expenditures.

OliveOyl_2

Chaos_Theory wrote: »

Wages per week £680 (totals from both of us no other income)


Rent per month £675
Contents Insurance £6
Council Tax £110
Water Meter £20
Electricity £80
Home Phone £20
Broadband £15
TV Licence £12
Mobile Phones £90 seems a lot, are you tied into a contract? (I'm an old person & don't habitually use a mobile )
Food and Household Shopping £480 per month as previously suggested, zip over to Money saving OS board
Cigarettes £100 per month (he smokes, I don't) what can I say?
Breakdown Cover £50 per year
Bus Fares £15 per week
Motor maintenance £20 per month
motor insurance £300 per year
Tax £100 per year (motorbike)
Petrol £20 per week
motor loan repayment £60 per month
Personal Loan repayments £550 per month (we have one each through our banks, LloydsTSB and HSBC)
Credit card replayments £330 (His, between 3 cards - Egg, Virgin and Post Office. I pay mine off each month as only broadband goes on it)
Savings £30 per month (in my mini cash ISA which is virtually empty!)
DVD rental £15 per month - Lovefilm AND Sky? :eek: surely not both needed?
Hobbies and Shopping for fun £50 per month oops, need to find another hobby
Sky TV £50 per month
Clothes £20 per month

All that leaves a shortfall of £142 per month

ETA I have made himself apply for a new credit card to transfer as much of his 9k balance (between all the current cards) as possible. Paying off debts and food shopping are our biggest expenditures.

I've added a few comments, but I'm by no means one of the experts here

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Things that spring out to me are:

£480 a month for food and household shopping. How many in your family? Definately ways to save there, a lot of people manage on less than half that. Take a look at the Oldstyle board, they have challenges and loads of ideas for this.

£15 Lovefilm - a complete luxury, I would cancel especially as you have one of the top packages for Sky.

£50 Sky - reduce package down to something more basic or cancel and get a freeview box.

£30 savings - unless your interest earnt on your savings is more than the APR on your debts then stop this and put this money onto your debts. No point gaining 4% on your savings if your credit card is 10%.

Hope this helps and keep posting it really does help. Good luck

tealady

Hi as an ex smoker I can say it is not an easy habit to give up but frankly it is one you cannot afford. Ask yourself if you both had "hobbies" that cost £25 per week wouldn't they be the 1st things you cut back on to save money?
Or put it another way it is £1200 per year, how would you like that as a pay rise?

Chaos_Theory_3

Thanks for your comments, guys. I never thought of the lovefilm and sky thing! I think he uses lovefilm to rent games as well as films. He also wanted the top package from sky for the sports channels *yawn*! I'd be happy with a basic one.

Yep, I have mentioned the smoking thing to him as well..... The words brick, banging, head and wall spring to mind....

Hobbies were things like my evening class (£5 per week) and things like xbox games that we might not buy all the time, but average out at that much per month I reckon.

There's 3 of us here. I know the food bill is enormous, but I make most things from scratch. It doesn't help that I'm veggie and himself starts hyperventilating if he is given a meat free meal. That means 2 versions of meals or he goes to buy processed, frozen meal things.

Thanks for giving me some pointers

RAS

Chaos_Theory wrote: »

Wages per week £680

That's 2924 per month - net I assume?


Rent per month £675
Contents Insurance £6
Council Tax £110
Water Meter £20
Electricity £80 - this seems high, what have you not turned off?
Home Phone £20
Broadband £15
TV Licence £12
Mobile Phones £90 - thi is very high - can you downgrade or go PAYG?
Food and Household Shopping £480 per month - how many for - this look very high.
Cigarettes £100 per month (he smokes, I don't) - roll up from now?
Breakdown Cover £50 per year = £4.20 per month
Bus Fares £15 per week
Motor maintenance £20 per month
motor insurance £300 per year = £25 per month
Tax £100 per year (motorbike) = £8.35 per month
Petrol £20 per week = £87 per month
DVD rental £15 per month - Lovefilm - cancel this
Hobbies and Shopping for fun £50 per month and this
Sky TV £50 per month - and get freeview
Clothes £20 per month - go without for a while apart from knickers.

£1920.55 per month

Debts
motor loan repayment £60 per month
Personal Loan repayments £550 per month (we have one each through our banks, LloydsTSB and HSBC)
Credit card replayments £330 (His, between 3 cards - Egg, Virgin and Post Office. I pay mine off each month as only broadband goes on it)

£940 per month

Savings £30 per month (in my mini cash ISA which is virtually empty!)

All that leaves a shortfall of £142 per month

I make that £63.45 in credit each month and you could save £400 from the budget quite easly to start tackling that debt.

except I suspect that you have not added some things to that budget like holidays and christmas, and they just go on the cards?

We need to see the APRs, maximum values of those CCs and loans, and you would be advised to read martin's article on danger minimum payments and to play with the snowball on www.whatsthecost.com.