can u slice my outgoings any further?

MrsM_4

Hi Emma

First of all well done for addressing the figures - easy to bury your head in the sand!

To me, and obviously all things are relevent to each person, you can money save and you can live - and somewhere there is a balance. This is determined by the amount you earn. Your earnings are low and to me you have bills there that shouldn't even be there - again - all a matter of choice.

Please don't be offended, these are peoples views that you have asked for. Lose, sky and smoking for definite.

I'm sure you must be able to save on your life assurance and insurance.

try confused.com they now insure my house for less than my last and the house is larger. I have a 4 bed house and pay 10.23 buildings and 4.23 contents. 10.23 was with lloyds tsb who charged double this if I went to them direct - explain that!! was a little confused by the questions asked online, so phoned lloyds direct to clear this up, got them to confirm queries by e-mail, then signed up online for discount! all this and they don't charge for monthly payments - bargain. confused.com also for car ins - they check all major online providers - saves buckets of time.

also insuresupermarket.com is good i believe - not tried it myself.

spose ins depends on area. payment protection on mortgage - do you need it. these schemes are usually meant to make provider rich! Look at what your getting for the money and realise that they will only pay for a short time, and if you lost your job - abbey would'nt make you homeless immediately anyway - they do give you time and options so long as you tell them what's going on. ntl charge, is this to do with sky - more cost for sport - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

also mob phone, £60 a month - OUCH!

For £30 you could pick up a couple of old reliables like nokia 3410's on ebay with loads of life in them - pick wisely. 0p per month excepting call charges.

also the car loan, like people have said, get a run about - second cars are so cheap these days. Keep an eye out for one thats 8-10yrs old with a full service history - you'd be surprised - theres loads out there, beautifully maintained - look for low mileage. You have another loan on top of this on - what a killer!

Your extra could go to flogging that virgin bill down to size - can u get this balance transferred over to a 0% card?

We're all different and your needs are obviously different to mine - my telly is constantly coverted by my children and cbeebies! But it seems to me that you are living outwith your means and this can easily spiral. Now, you have costs that you can cut to get back on top while you have the chance.

I'd die for your baby sitting rates tho, think you must live in a dearer part of the country!

Very best wishes - perhaps your partner is burying his head in the sand - have you paid for your holiday yet? do you have spending money - or will it go on the card.

If you can cut some of your expenditure before then you can begin to shift the balance x

Good Luck

Quietgirl

HI,
Have you tried switching from Talk Talk? I followed Martins article when it was Justdial and 1899, but I believer another comany instead of Justdial now for subscription free evening and weekend calls. I was using Talk Talk and am saving around £10 per month. I make a few calls during the day with 1899, only 3p connection charge and it would take even me who is a phone addict some going to get upto the £9.99 subscription for free calls day night and weekends upto 70 minutes with talk talk.

Good Luck!

emma_b_4

arr just typed a big reply and lost it!!

right, hol we havent paid it off yet no but we have the ££ in bank to, its a group booking so we have given every1 deadline of 18th march to pay up! soend will eb money we have saved we will not do cards again as that is why we have so much outstadning still..2004 holiday..ouch..and 2 sofas..we get chraged intrest on the purchases so i will get 0% card and sort that out

home ins we get a home emergency thing in with it covers boiler etc do other companies offer this?

mobiles are contract till july (then payg) and mine is a new student deal for 18mths so stuck with it, but did need a new phone, and was spending £30 a month on payg.

bsitting..i sleep over and do school runs for £75 a night and they have asked me to do full wkends for £300...nealry bit their hand off!
other bsitting job is local and pays me £30 for 7pm - 11pm which is fab too and earns me some nice £. generally goes on food shopping or going out.i find it hard to give an accurate figure for food shopping as we do big shops and top up shops...should i keep my receipts or something to keep an eye on it?
i will look at the phone deals as i think we could save some there, the loan isnt tooo nad as only 5.8% we paid for dglazing with it, we have a 50k mortgage and was cheaer to put it on a loan then add it on, in the long run we pay less back

car we want to pay it off with a view to keep it..will have to be strict with oh about that. its a focus and doesnt seem to be losing too much value over time.we did have too cars but sold my mini as we felt we could cope on one..its a pain but we do cope and i tell every1 no 2 cars is a waste..i walk most places and oh drives car to work.

lost a few pounds walking too !!

sky we only have a basic package no kids tv or musis so its a bit cheaper.oh wont get rid as he watches lots of tv, fishing mainly on home and leisure! if they put it on normal tv we would be better off!

erm cant think wot else you have all suggested let me have another read thru!!

thakyou though, some ideas to consider you are all STARS xxxx

emma_b_4

ppi
whats the general opinion on this? i thought now we have got a flexi mort we would be ok to cancel it?
OH thinks no as he is the one covered, bn the wage earner. i think we would be better payin the tenner towards the motgage.....

he does smoke rollies during day to save some £ but i want him to stop. will save on air fresheners and plug ins and heating from all te times we have door or window open..can u tell its a sore subject...

emma_b_4

ntl is my broadband so cant get rid of that !need it for my course, all the online journals etc and the uni email system to kepe in touch with tutors whils on pment. theres onyl 2 ppl on my course without it and they live almost in the uni!
i dont think a tenner is bad for bband really ? was a student deal again.

emma_b_4

i sound a right moaner! i do really wanna save some more £ i have bn a regualar on here for a while now though and was thinking wander if ive missed something with my outgoings..there seems t be only a few things a can change (or maybe want to i dont know!)
there are things im stuck with for now though,mobiles, sky and car. i find it hard to ask OH to cut down as he will say "i work and i deserve this ..blah blah "

KatrinaC_2

emma_b wrote:

i sound a right moaner! i do really wanna save some more £ i have bn a regualar on here for a while now though and was thinking wander if ive missed something with my outgoings..there seems t be only a few things a can change (or maybe want to i dont know!)
there are things im stuck with for now though,mobiles, sky and car. i find it hard to ask OH to cut down as he will say "i work and i deserve this ..blah blah "

Have you suggested to your OH that as he is the one who smokes, who wants to keep the mobiles, and watches Sky etc that all of this should come out of his spending money?

I bet he would be a bit more interested in cutting back if it meant that he had to find the cash to pay for it!

It is hard to save money if only you are willing to work towards it - really I think the next step has to be to sit him down, explain how much all this costs and what the benefits are likely to be in the future.

Kat

Need_More_Money_2

emma_b wrote:

arr just typed a big reply and lost it!!



mobiles are contract till july (then payg) and mine is a new student deal for 18mths so stuck with it, but did need a new phone, and was spending £30 a month on payg.

Do you NEED to spend £30 per month when you go back to PAYG? Can't you wait till at home and use cheaper home phone (you said you had free evening and weekend calls at home). Choosing to use your mobile is a luxury (it's not that long since we all survived without them, but everyone is entitled to their luxuries if they can afford them. So you have to decide which is more important, the luxury or saving money. Same goes for Sky TV

I do have to say though, I thought your weekly spending on food/beer/cleaning stuff seemed very cheap. Though I see most people on here seem to thing you can do better. I'd be interested to know how people manage to spend so little on this

*Sparkle*_3

How about online shopping? reduces the risk of over spending and being tempted to over spend, also you can use the discount codes section of this site to collect points and save cash.

good luck

tyllwyd

emma_b wrote:

i find it hard to give an accurate figure for food shopping as we do big shops and top up shops...should i keep my receipts or something to keep an eye on it?

I would definitely keep your food receipts (and his too) and see how much you've spent in total at the end of the month. It might be that you are spending out more than you realise in bits and bobs as you go along.