how much do you save/pay off debt/live on per month

Penny-Pincher!!

Outgoings are:

Food/Petrol £215
Car Ins £22
Car Tax/MOT £20
TV Liscence £11
House Ins £8
BT (line rental) £11
Talk Talk (free 24/7) £9
HSA £19
Water £15
Gas/Electric £111
Mobile PAYG £10
Sky+£35
Broadband £22 (need to change this?)

Total £508


ATM hammering my CC debt and should be clear by April/May this year. Dont know what I'll do once this is paid...LOL...all them savings. Have some small savings too in my new ING account and put something in it each month. We need a newer more economical car later this year as ours is on its last legs...so will be saving towards that, or putting on 0% CC then pay off monthly IYKWIM.

Am looking for a new broadband supplier, but we download alot and currently are with plusnet, but they are getting very stingy with their fair useage system. Have been offered Tiscali 2 meg line with free calls 24/7 for £20 a month-apparently no caps (whatever!) and this would save us £11 per month (talk talk £9 and £2 off broadband). Anyone got any views on Tiscali?

Theres 3 of us in our household.

Thanks
PP
xx

Gazman_3

income approx 1900
rent/bills/food etc 900
loan 250 (12 months left)
saving 400
spend the rest

plan to be debt free and with savings for a depoist by end-2006. its a struggle saving when seeing others around spending it like water, having bought houses before prices went rocket-high! every penny counts though.

Edinburghlass_2

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Outgoings are:


BT (line rental) £11
Talk Talk (free 24/7) £9
Mobile PAYG £10
Sky+£35
Broadband £22 (need to change this?)

Total £508

Am looking for a new broadband supplier, but we download alot and currently are with plusnet, but they are getting very stingy with their fair useage system. Have been offered Tiscali 2 meg line with free calls 24/7 for £20 a month-apparently no caps (whatever!) and this would save us £11 per month (talk talk £9 and £2 off broadband). Anyone got any views on Tiscali?

Best to look on the Telephone Boards for the information you want but its a mistake to say you have free calls 24/7 as you are paying £9 a month so they aren't free and you are paying £9 for calls you may not make while away from the house. That coupled with £10 a month for a PAYG mobile is a lot of phone calls that could be made much cheaper by using 1899/18185.

Loads of thread about Tiscali in the Internet section so I won't take up any more space in this thread now.

Oh and a freeview box would cut out the Sky+ charges

HTH

brummiebabe

I luv this thread - thanks Jamiedodger!!!

Here's mine:

INCOME
My income £1115 (basic, is more with expenses!)
OH income £1233
C/Benefit £123.00 (adjusted to monthly, not 4 weekly)
TOTAL £2471

OUTGOINGS
Bills/life assurance/IP/OH pension/gym etc £1030
Car service/insurance/tax/AA cover (2 cars) £140
Petrol (2 cars) £200
Food shopping (2 adults, 2 kids) £270
ISA £50
Mobiles £15
Christmas Savings £80
Holiday Saving (not enough to cover really!) £50
B'days/haircuts/optical bills/clothes £110
Nursery/after school fees £325
Spending money £200
TOTAL £2470


LEFT £1!!!

However, this is based on basic wage -any extra I pick up will now go into savings!!! We are lucky to be DEBT FREE!!!!

This year our outgoings will drop significantly due to our sofa being paid off (hey - that means we're not quite debt free yet!!:doh: ) and DS2 turning 3 & getting nursery grant! Hope to begin to pay bit extra off mortgage & ensure OH's pension contributions are sufficient!!

Caixta

seanyboy wrote:

Hi All
Does anybody know of any bank accounts that allow us to split our account into 3/4 mini accounts within the main account. The reason why I want to do this is to live off one mini account but regularly save into another mini account and it will also allow us to budget easily as we will be able to see whether we are overspending or not. The only bank that I can find that does this is "Intelligent Finance"


Please Help

I use nothing more than a loose-leaf notebook. (Readers of Mary Hunt will be familiar with the "Freedom Account" idea.)

Our short-term savings are in an ordinary savings account that can be accessed easily. In the bank's eyes, it's all one account, but in mine, it's 30 little ones! I have a page for each category (car maintenance, Christmas, holidays, insurance, mortgage overpayments, petrol, takeaways, and many more). Each time money goes in or out of the account, I reckon it up on the right page. It might be a bit of a faff for some, and others might prefer to keep it on a spreadsheet. It might help if you have found an account that doesn't offer sub accounts but that you otherwise like because of interest rates, etc. It would also work with current accounts.

We pay a set amount into the account each month by standing order, and when the monthly interest comes in, I can choose which sub account to endow with it :rotfl:

There are even a couple of pages for special things that will take a bit longer to save up for, eg new tv, big trip abroad. Even if I start each one off with a few pennies, at least that's a start. The money can be ring-fenced and not accidentally spent on dull stuff!

(I think it must be rubbing off on the kids because now our eldest, age 10, has got a money box with five separate slots. On pocket money day he pays the coins into the various slots, according to what he is budgeting for. He has great categories like "sweets", "new bike fund", "stationery", "emergencies" etc.)

minime_2

Hi veron
Please let us know you are ok-I read your post today and am worried about you.
There are lots of agencies who will help-I am in the same position as you-I am £30000 on Credit Cards and contemplating a Trust Deed(same as IVA-in Scotland) to pay it all off. I have the big step ahead of letting my partner know of this, and am incredibly embarrassed of the whole thing-but wouldnt or couldnt end it all-please realise there are lots of people out there who will help you,and it isnt as bad as you believe

Sibs_2

Hi All,

I'd be interested to know how much some of you guys are spending on food shopping. I live on my own but cook for friends and family about three times at week (only one extra person)
I spend about £50 a week on food at a variety of shops, mainly Lidl, Morrisons or Sainsburys depending where I pass at the time. I also have an organic fruit and veg box delivered each week. I cook 90% of main meals from scratch.
I mainly take lunch to work or occasionally eat in the canteen, if I'm out then I can claim it back on expenses.
Does this seem reasonable as looking at the posts most people seem to be spending a lot less!!!

I haven't got any debts and earn about £1400 per month, I have increased my mortgage payments to clear it off earlier but would like to start paying more off and or saving.

Sibs

calleyw

Sibs wrote:

Hi All,

I'd be interested to know how much some of you guys are spending on food shopping. I live on my own but cook for friends and family about three times at week (only one extra person)
I spend about £50 a week on food at a variety of shops, mainly Lidl, Morrisons or Sainsburys depending where I pass at the time. I also have an organic fruit and veg box delivered each week. I cook 90% of main meals from scratch.
I mainly take lunch to work or occasionally eat in the canteen, if I'm out then I can claim it back on expenses.
Does this seem reasonable as looking at the posts most people seem to be spending a lot less!!!

I spend about £100 a month for two adults think you really need to pop over to the saving money o/s board as there are lot of hints and tips on how to cut back on food.

And we don't eat pasta or rice all the time. Eat a lot of veg and a bit of meat. And that is just food if I can't eat or drink it, I don't class it as part of my food bill. So I have another £10 a month to play with for washing powder etc.

Link here

Yours

Calley

Sibs_2

Hiya, thanks for that, the £50 does include everything I buy for the home like cleaning products and toothpaste etc, but not personal cosmetics. I do think I can cut back though!

Sibs

rozeepozee

I spend about £100 a month on food for two adults as well give or take £20 or so and including fairly liberal amounts of wine or beer :beer: I too cook a lot from scratch but exploit the supermarkets where ever I see a good deal, i.e. a discounted item I would buy anyway rather than something I buy because it's discounted. I avoid the big supermarkets mainly shopping at Lidl, Netto and the local markets.