SOA and Diary of a Former Debt Denier

Silverbird

Some great advice has been given here already and it looks like you're steadily sorting things out, but just thought I'd add a few comments.

Have you had a look at Tesco DVD rentals? I pay £13.95 a month and for that you can have 2 DVDs at home at any one time and can request as many as you want per month (when you send them back - freepost - they will then send out another to you that's on your list). You keep a list when you log in and prioritise DVDs on there and they'll try to send out the ones that you have marked as high or medium. You can also rent games and Blu-Ray discs. They also do TV series (we've been watching ER).

It's just a thought. They have loads of different options and cheaper options too. It's my husband and I's only form of entertainment - we don't drink, smoke, go clubbing or pubbing or get many takeaways, so we feel we're entitled to our little luxury and by paying £7 each per month we feel it's well worth it!

Another thing is your grocery bill. My husband and I pay £20 per week for the 2 of us. I cut it down so much by going on the Old-Style threads on this great site. Some great ideas for tasty, cheap meals that are easy and quick to prepare. We're eating better this way too. It's worth checking out and is an easy place to start cutting down spending on.

I hope this helps and all the best to you and yours x

Smamfer

well done on setting some goals but i do think another way of saving money is your groceries.. 300 a month still seems very high

The old style boards has some amazing tips and recipes which you would never think possible.

Get to the market on a wknd and buy a bulk load of meat.. veggies and treats. often cheaper and you can barter with the price!

goodeys

Cheers guys for your responses.

Silverbird - Thanks for the DVD rental idea, we are already signed up to Sun for a two month free trial whish I must remember to cancel when the time is up and we were also given a two disk per month for 4 month gift for Xmas. After that I am going to take advantage of all the other free trials and then go from there. I know that we shouldn't have sky but it really is our only luxury, we already have freeview on our telly (inbuilt) and i have to say that it is rubbish! We really do nothing at all and the TV is the only thing that we watch and we love american dramas which all seem to be on Sky1, Living, E4 etc it works out at 0.33p per day for each of us. There is not a lot of pleasure in our lives at the moment and we will giveup everything else but not Sky. Sorry folks, we will have to agree to disagree on this one! I also think that we are tied into a new yearly contract as we had Sky+ installed about 6 months ago.

I now realise that my shopping bill is high, before i thought that were only spending about £60 per week on our weekly shop and then yesterday I added up the sainsburys transactions from my account and it was over £200, and this £200 never once included the weekly shop it was all 'bits' like popping in for bread and milk and coming out with £20 worth of stuff. I didn't realise how much it all added up to. Scary. My goal for this month is to reduce the bill by £100 and then next month cut it down even further. I'm going to start meal planning so that we just buy what we actually need for 2 meals a day. £100 of the bill a month goes on the baby, for wipes, nappies, formula, ingredients for homemade babyfood, etc etc However, I have had a leaflet through from the government saying that I qualify for £6 worth of vouchers per week which can be spent on formula, veg so I have completed this and will get my health visitor to sign it next week and get that off in the post.

I will get there with a lot of self disipline, the trouble with being at stay at home mum is that popping to sainsburys is your daily entertainment, instead i'll just have to do with walks in the park, trips the library, baby group, this wonderful forum and my beloved sky!!! (think that I am more likely to ditch the husband rather than Sky!)

Sea78

Hey - you sound more positive now which is good - hope you get all that list done today

With regards to the grocery budget. I have found that a meal plan for each week, including exactly what to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner -really really really helps. Also, for things like nappies etc, have you signed up to all the baby clubs to get vouchers off them? I assume you only buy wipes etc when on offer? I homemade my children's baby food too, and found that batch cooking and freezing didn't cost a huge amount - and the vouchers will help there too. If you spend the time planning all this you could cut your bill down to £200 easily, including all the nappies etc. This in turn would mean huge savings AND *whispers* means the sky might not be so bad to keep.

Good luck!!
Sea xxxxxxx

Supreme_2

It really is ridiculous that people think Sky is a necessity. Wake up, you are in massive debt, and will be for years and years, so you can't afford it. How do people not understand these basic things?

Freeview and Freesat both have E4 anyway. Sky1 is not something you require to survive. If it is, then you have some serious issues.

Sea78

I think rather than get hung up in the sky issue, the OP would be wise to grind that grocery bill right down - and sign up to all the survey etc sites going. Scratchcards too.

Have a look on the up your income board for more details, or for that matter, Hypno's thread on here lol.

xx

Supreme_2

Sea78 wrote: »

I think rather than get hung up in the sky issue, the OP would be wise to grind that grocery bill right down - and sign up to all the survey etc sites going. Scratchcards too.

Have a look on the up your income board for more details, or for that matter, Hypno's thread on here lol.

xx

There is a basic principle that needs to be grasped though isn't there? You can only have something if you have the money to pay for it. If this basic bit of knowledge is not accepted then you might as well give up trying to become debt free and give up on everything.

Sea78

Supreme wrote: »

There is a basic principle that needs to be grasped though isn't there? You can only have something if you have the money to pay for it. If this basic bit of knowledge is not accepted then you might as well give up trying to become debt free and give up on everything.

Yes definitely agree with you there...but sometimes I think that when faced with having to give up everything and anything, and deal with the emotional rollercoster that is DFW lifestyles at first, sometimes, by thinking you have to make big sacrifices in some areas, having one thing that you can keep helps soften the blow a little. If the OP is giving up smoking, drinking and doesn't go out, until the DFW lifestyle becomes a little more 'normal', then I think giving up the £20 sky a month may be just too much - does that make sense? I think a few months down the line, if the OP succeeds in the other areas of cutbacks, they may well come to the conclusion that sky can go and the £20 will mean 3 months off DFD etc.

I know there are many things that I said I'd give up at first but didn't, and it wasn't until I slowly became more of a DFW convert that I gave up a whole lot of stuff that I wouldn't have dreamed of before. Hope I'm making sense?

I just didn't want the OP to think that if she didn't get rid of sky, that there was no way of tackling the debts, I was suggesting that if determined to *keep* sky, she'd have to make that money back, and then some, to make it justifible.

Sea xx

penniesgrowintopounds

Supreme wrote: »

It really is ridiculous that people think Sky is a necessity. Wake up, you are in massive debt, and will be for years and years, so you can't afford it. How do people not understand these basic things?

Freeview and Freesat both have E4 anyway. Sky1 is not something you require to survive. If it is, then you have some serious issues.

That's quite a harsh reply, Supreme. On this occasion, I think the op is right. She and her oh can't afford any other entertainment, so £20 pm seems a small price to pay to stop them feeling deprived, and help them stay motivated.

Good luck, goodeys ~ stay positive x

debtdesperado

Stop being mean Supreme! You've made your point repeatedly. The main thing is that anyone paying off debt has to be able to live... cutting things right back to the bone and huddling round a candle are fine, but if you have years until your debt is paid, it's just not realistic and generally results in a crazy explosion of spending to cheer ourselves up (back to square one)!

Better to factor in a couple of (vastly scaled down!) treats so life is at least bearable...(I have no sky, just terrestrial... if only my library did loyalty points!)

Goodeys... another suggestion, have a clear out and see what you can sell...most people have crazy debt from buying stuff, so I bet there are piles of things that you have that can go! What about getting rid of the car that is off the road? I assume it needs work on it, which you won't be able to afford for a while so sell it before it just rusts into nothing. That might at least go some way to clearing your mortgage arrears (surely the top priority?) so you at least don't lose your home?