confussed, concerned and not sure what to do

giggs11

black-saturn wrote:

Sorry but I have to. I get £120 per week to live on for me and 2 children.

Sorry, don't mean to be rude or anything but I'm struggling to understand why you can only afford £7 a week on food for the three of you if you have £120 a week coming as as I ntice from your sig you don't have any debts anymore - well done for paying them off :T

giggs11

bingbong wrote:

So my other option is then that I continue my First Direct loan and leave my loan for £24,000 with HSBC Bank??

That would make me debt free in March 2009.

You need to look at what interest rates are being charged as some of these consolidation loans end up costing much more even if they do reduce your monthly outgoings as they charge a lot more in interest. If you can get a loan which doesn't charge as much interest as you currently pay it would be worth considering. Sorry not much help I know but I don't have a lot of knowledge about loans etc but good luck in sorting out your finances.

black-saturn

I will do a meal planner for you all one day.

My children are 11 and 8. Granted they get a free school dinner every day but they also have a square meal and pudding at home every day too. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my children. They are both fit and healthy and are hardly ever ill and neither of them are underweight (and neither am I).

Thefunkygibbons

The other side of the deal is the income side

You are committed to working hard to get addtional income. Just make sure that you don't expand your expenses as your income rises.

One thought might be to look at extending the mortgage period, go interest only for a couple of years, and throw the extra money at the loans and once these are clear, keep up the saving habit so as to play catch up on the mortgage

xela_17

For specific loans questions, it might be better to post on the loans board.

Well done for saying that you'll cut out dvd rental and mags but have you used the free trials for all of the dvd rental places? If not, Martin has just done an article about how best to use them all. If you do it right you can get quite a few months for free.

Also, have you read the 3 mags for £1 thread? (I think it's on the shop but don't drop board). I never buy full price mags now but actually read more than I used to. eg. cosmo and company (for your wife) do 3 months for £1. You just have to remember to cancel the direct debit in time before the third month. There are some mens mags too that have offers but don't remember which ones.

skintchick

bingbong wrote:

We are also going to reduce the food cost from £70 per week to £45 per week initially. I am sorry but regarding the comments on food I find what I read to be totally astonishing. How on earth can someone enjoy life living on £8 per week for food unless they totally have to in which case I would understand?

The budget is really £15 a week, but I enjoy seeing what bargains I can get, and as I said I go on the night they reduce stuff so I always get bread rolls for half price, once got a piece of salmon for 40p down from £1.60, stuff like that.

I can enjoy life on £8 a week food because my life is about more than food!

I eat well: today I had cornflakes for breakfast, lunch is hula hoops, three pieces of fruit and two pate rolls. Tonight I can have tuna and sweetcorn pasta, roasted veg and pesto pasta, salmon with potatoes and veggies, all sorts of things. I don't feel deprived.

But, I do totally have to spend as little as possible - I have a second job AND a lodger just to make ends meet and save for big bills like car insurance. I cannot do it on my wage.

black-saturn

As an example - Yesterday we had 2 slices of home made wholemeal bread toasted with butter for breakfast, for lunch the children had a school dinner and I had tuna and lettuce sandwich on homemade bread followed by a yoghurt, then for tea we had a cheap joint of pork cooked in the slow cooker with frozen brocolli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, onions, potatos and dumplings. I made enough so I can freeze half of it for another day and all I have to do is reheat it. Then for pudding we had home made steamed chocolate pudding and again I made a big one so we can have the other half tonight.

skintchick

Can I come round for my dinner? Sounds lovely!

hermit-crab

black-saturn wrote:

I will do a meal planner for you all one day.

My children are 11 and 8. Granted they get a free school dinner every day but they also have a square meal and pudding at home every day too. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my children. They are both fit and healthy and are hardly ever ill and neither of them are underweight (and neither am I).

I'd be delighted if you could share your meal planner with us. I have only myself to feed and I cant imagine surviving on £1 per day let alone providing for two growing children out of such a budget. I would be really grateful to know how you manage to do it. Thanks in anticipation.

Trout69

bingbong wrote:

BT Bill £48.33 pm on average including broadband and phone.

Hi There,

Have you looked at Martins Money saving tips for broadband and home phone? I personally use 1899.com for cheaper landline calls, not managed to hook my broadband back up yet but i think you can get a decent speed for about £15.99 a month these days. I was on BT before paying about £24.99 a month, they tried to persuade me to stay by offering me a discount which i never got - just a warning incase they do the same for you.

Try these links:

Chepeast Broadband

Cutting home phone bills

Good Luck!!

Donna :j