I am a Debt Free Wannabe...so where do i start

TurnaroundSue

Hi and welcome to the boards.

Is your council tax over 10 or 12 months? Not sure if it is the same in Scotland, but if over 10 months that we are enjoying 2 free months at the moment in Wales/England. If that is the case than for the next 2 months you could put your ct to your debts and then ask your council to put it over 12 for the forthcoming year which will help a bit with the repayments.

Can you reduce your mobile phone costs. £30 is alot and there are some good deals out there at the moment. My ds and dd have sim only cards and for £20 pm they get 600 minutes and unlimited texts and are only tied in for any 30 day period.

Your groceries are really high for just 2 people. Nip over to the Oldstyle forum and get loads of tips and how to make meals from next to nothing. Is it possible your child could have packed lunches instead of school dinners as that would save you a monthly amount (not sure if you have included these under 'other child related costs') but if so then that's £43.30 saved each month to throw at your debts.

Your buildings/contents insurance is high also. Shop around and go through a site called www.quidco.co.uk and you will receive cashback also. There are other cashback sites available, but not sure of their names. This year we had £65 cashback on our house insurance and £100 cashback on our car insurance.

You need to cut out the emergency fund and throw this at your debts. It is nice to have something to fall back on, but whilst you have got your debts I think that this needs to go - or at least be dramatically reduced. Your cannot afford to put £100 into an emergency fund just yet.

And lastly you need to start a spending diary. Write down everything, even if it is just a bar of chocolate, and then you can see where your money goes each month. It really is an eye opener and helps you focus and makes you think about whether you really need that item or whether you want it and there is a massive difference between the two. Join the No spend day challenge on this board and see how many days in a month you can go without spending any money at all. I find that really helps me in focusing and keeping me aware of my needs rather than my wants.

Good luck and once again welcome to the boards. There will be other people along shortly to give you more tips and advice - this really is a fab place to be, full of support.

TurnaroundSue

Just had another thought - have you tried the snowballer? Not sure of where it is, but someone will be along shortly to point you in the right direction, but basically you input all your debts into it along with the aprs, and it shows you which debt to pay off first, whilst paying just the minimum to the other debts and then once that has been repaid you add that amount to the minimum of the next card and so on, and so on.

This also gives you a debt free date so you have something to aim for and obviously the more you are able to throw at your debts, the quicker the debt free date comes around.

TurnaroundSue

kirstenc wrote: »

The surplus is confusing me, I dont know where it goes, but I am going to keep an eye on that. most of my payments come in weekly, so anything I have left on the day before payday, I am now going to put towards first provident and new look, and then the bigger chunks of debt!!

I notice though on your SOA that you haven't included anything for haircuts, birthdays, car and expenses (maybe you don't have one!) so you need to add all these things into your SOA to get a truer picture - as at the moment I feel that there are things you pay for but haven't added these to your SOA and that's another reason why you do not have as much left every month as it says.

kirstenc

I dont have a car, which is why i havent included them in the calculations!! and I am lucky enough to have a partner (who hasnt moved in yet!!) who has a hairdresser sister, hehe freebies lol

Christmas and birthdays are something I havent factored in, as i use my emergency fund for those too, so I suppose if i cut that one back, ill be adding to those, although this year for my son's B'day, we are using Tesco Deals and taking him on holiday, so nothing to pay for!!

I have been taking sarnies etc to work rather than using the canteen, but I am notorious for buying munchies anyway, so I'll have to cut back on that and stop taking cash to work.

Ive just spoken to home insurers, to see if they can do anything to cut my payments, I have asked for my paperwork too, so that if I switch, Im getting the same product and not just something cheaper that may not cover me the same!!

Im tied into my mobile contract until september, and have to pay a cancellation fee if I leave early, but Ill definately look into something else once that time is up!!

The spending diary is a great idea!!! im definately going to do that, and will aim to spend as little as possible...not taking the card to work will help hugely i think!!!

On a more positive note, I have just checked my ebay, and have another tenner in bids, taking me to a massive 151 in two weeks!! im very impressed!!

Ok, so reduce £100 a month down to £25 just now, and use the other £75 for debts, the £25 remaining, rather than emergency fund shall be my xmas/birthday pot...how does that sound?? i hope im getting the right idea?

tealady

Hi Your satellite TV and phone together are high. Try ringing your supplier to get a better deal. Same with your mobile.
Also I agree with everyone re the spending diary, its amazing how the odd mag here and a choc bar there add up.
The snowballer is (I think) at https://www.whatsthecost.com and it is a great way to sort finences (going by what peeps have said on other threads.
If you have to pay for hotels check for deals online before you go.
Good luck.

moo2moo

An Argos card appears in your signature but not in your SOA.

kirstenc

ooh, moo, u are a genious...argos card is £270, min payment £5, interest 29.9 %

theres a fiver of my surplus lol

sorry about that guys, wasnt intentional!

Ill try that snowballer too, thanks for the link!

ecoelle

Hi there, and welcome. I have taken a quick look at your soa
i agree with people above that your satellite, and insurance seem high. What type of house are you in, i live in a 3 bed terrace and we spend

electric 16
gas 40
Groceries about 180 for 2 adults and 2 cats
Buildings and contents ins combined 18

Maybe you could shop around using uswitch, but make sure you ring the companies as well to check the prices
But
NEVER ring the 0870/0845 numbers, check out https://www.saynoto0870.com as you can usually find local rate or 0800 numbers for the companies. Good luck and make sure you check out the olstyle board, there are good ideas on money saving shopping and cooking, this could really help you reduce the gocery bill, also try https://www.mysupermarket.com as you can compare the 4 big supermarkets.
Keep us posted

kirstenc

Im in a 3 bed semi, so i could probably get the utilities cheaper...im one o those ppl that have never switched, so im probably getting a pretty bad deal!

groceries is a big spender!! i know that i can cut back on some, but, again the health issue comes into play with allergies and intolerances, the costs are way higher for bread, milk, pasta and 'milk' and ends up being a bit of a rip off in my opinion!

Snowball says oct 2011....debt free date, im hoping for earlier but at leat now I have something definate to aim for!

ecoelle

Tell me about it, intolerances are a pain, i can no longer eat any dairy, white bread and have to avoid certain fats in pre packed foods, this is why i end up cooking my own stuff from scratch but it ends up way way cheaper. Like today we are having home made sunflower and pumpkin seed bread cobs, and home made leeek and potato soup as i find the shop bought make me ill and cos a huge amount of money, the leeks and potatoes are from the garden and the seeds for the bread are from a weigh and pay on the local market. I work fullt time and so does my OH but i love food shopping so make the effort to use the local in door market when i can. If you have a good freezer it's worth investing in reusable plastic containers like the ones from the chinese as you can freeze portion sized leftovers for use later in the week. I tend to cook in batches so my soup will be made today but i'll make 6 portions instead of 2 and freeze the rest for use next week.

Do you meal plan?
I write a menu every week and then buy only what i need to make the food for the week. I do find though that i tend to cook more than i need so for example vegetable chilli which is on the menu for tomorrow will cost about a fiver but will make 5 portions, so enough for tomorrow and then 3 portions for the freezer. I tend to cook every night for a week and freeze stuff then only need to do a top up shop the week after and we just eat out of the freezer.