Earthdancer's Debt Free Journey - the First Step SOA

Tixy

If O2 won't let you change tariff you try again in a couple of months as 6months into a contract they sometimes take a different view.

Difficult regarding the OH. Who actually deals with the finances in your house? Is it you who is actually checking bank statements and paying the bills and juggling the cash. If so maybe showing him all the figures would help? Has he seen your SOA?

Have you tried doing snowball calcs for your debts? If you play around with the figures on http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx you could then show him the difference in interest you'll pay depending on how quickly you clear the debts - maybe this will help him have his LBM?

Sunny_Donny

have you joined Freecycle in your area? They often have lots of good things for free.
Ebay/car boot anything that the kids have grown out of and you can't reuse.
Join the Grocery Challenge on here to reduce the monthly total. Meal plan on a weekly basis so you don't buy extras.
Well done for posting your SOA. Everyone here is very helpful and nice.

earthdancer

I'm quite shocked at that! My phone isn't anywhere near as fancy as an iphone (SE C902) so am rather gutted that I could've had that for less. At the time I felt the extra expense was justified cos I'd spent the previous 18 months with a phone I'd hated from day-one, but at the end of the day all I use it for is calls and texts so a £7 cheapie from the supermarket would've done just as well I guess the LBM is the point you grow up and realise these things lol

earthdancer

Hi Tixy
I deal with all the finances and always have. It means I also deal with all the stress when things aren't going as well as they should be, and get the blame for our situation. I know it's unfair and it's caused a fair amout of resentment in the past on my part. I've tried on many occasions to get him involved and show him the figures - even to take responsibility for some of the bill payments - but he's simply not interested. We rarely argue about anything but this does get me very annoyed.

earthdancer

Hi Sunny Donny
I must agree that everyone on here is both helpful and nice. I wouldn't have dared post if I thought the forum was critical or judgmental.
We are already big FreeCycle fans but have only used it to dispose of unwanted stuff so far. Perhaps if we find we actually need something in future that would be a good place to shout out. I'm also a big ebay fan and try to sell before it goes to charity or FreeCycle.
I like the idea of the Grocery Challenge as I think this is an area we could make huge savings by planning ahead. We haven't been good at that in the past but I've decided to make it a goal for 2009.
Thanks for your tips.

stymied

Very well done for reducing the overdraft by so much! That equates to about what you expect your surplus to be so it doesn't look like you're wasting as much money as you thought :-) and a good remortgage deal should help to cut costs further. I was told to start looking about 3 months in advance so I guess that's now?

It's a good idea to check out the cheaper breakdown cover etc. but if you have a realistic budget for the next year it seems much more likely that it'll be stickable to and the temptation to blow the budget won't be there. Nothing at all for a holiday seems like it would be difficult to stick to.

Good luck with your challenge!

rupe34

earthdancer wrote: »

I'm quite shocked at that! My phone isn't anywhere near as fancy as an iphone (SE C902) so am rather gutted that I could've had that for less. At the time I felt the extra expense was justified cos I'd spent the previous 18 months with a phone I'd hated from day-one, but at the end of the day all I use it for is calls and texts so a £7 cheapie from the supermarket would've done just as well I guess the LBM is the point you grow up and realise these things lol

hey earthdancer - I am feeling your pain here! I've just committed to an 18month contract with a plan that doesn't provide what I need text-wise - and my DD who has a PAYG cheapy-cheapy thing - keeps getting 300 free texts a month. ARGH!

But you are doing fantastically well to have cleared so much - and remember, most of us are on this board because we didn't have a clue about this kind of stuff, got in debt and are learning the hard way!

Fire_Fox

earthdancer wrote: »

I'll try threatening the satellite company with leaving - would be just my luck that they'd say ok lol DH insists on the full package, but given we don't have nights out this is our luxury spend. We also pay £8.75pm for insurance for the box.

The entertainment budget covers DH's need to buy one Doctor Who DVD and a couple of CDs per month, plus about 4 gigs per year which average about £40 per ticket. He is not as committed as I am to clearing our debt, but to be fair I probably ran up a lot more than he did. We are trying to put money aside now so we have this money in advance in future.

I deal with all the finances and always have. It means I also deal with all the stress when things aren't going as well as they should be, and get the blame for our situation. I know it's unfair and it's caused a fair amout of resentment in the past on my part.

Either you deal with all the finances or you don't. If you do, then you get to decide how much of your budget is left over for luxuries, and then he gets to help decide what that is spent on. At the moment your OH seems to be dictating a spend of £1900 a year! :eek: If you consider that this is preventing you paying off your most expensive debts (say 20% APR) it's actually costing you more like £2300 a year. That's an awful lot of money with nothing of value to show for it.

Perhaps you could each have 'pocket money'? This could cover mobile phones, TV package, snack attacks at work (ensure you buy plenty of lunches when supermarket shopping), CDs and DVDs, non-essential clothes or toiletries, etc. etc. So he can have a CD and you can have a new mascara IF you haven't gone crazy at the vending machine. You can buy petrol on your debit cards, shampoo and shower gel at the supermarket, but anything else you have to choose between quantity and quality. :T