can u slice my outgoings any further?

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Hello Emma, sure you need yr broadband - wishing you every success, you'll soon be qualified.
It's really difficult for blokes to understand their hobbies - sky stuff, are not necessities but if it pacifies him then it might be worth it! You can probably find sneaky ways to cut down: keep every single receipt for everything for a week and then sit down and see where your money's really going. It's very easy for quids to vanish on ladies comics, (and blokes), mars bars, newspaper, odd treat. Use a pink highliter for yours and a blue one for his. You/he might have a lightbulb moment. Have you tried discussing with him a set amount of pocket money each week for each of you? Each of you to spend/waste it on what ever takes your fancy and no recriminations? Maybe a % of what you each earn? Then hopefully he'll feel he's getting his just reward for working - and so will you.
The smoking habit is making a bit of a dent in your finances but you could cut down on stuff to deal with the smoke and help him cut down by making him go outside to have a fag. Tough love
Actually I think you are both doing very well indeed - congratulations on wanting to be as sensible and responsible as you can be :T

emma_b_4

thankyou!
i do try hard to keep a grip on our finances as i dont want to leave uni with lots of debt (got the odraft i know but i send £20 a week by standing order and i dont use the ccount anymore so temptation isnt there!

do you pay more to shop online? ive been considering it for a while as i dont have the car v often and only really use it for smarket

mobiles, i dont really need to spend that much i spose, i use mob for arrnaging my lifts to uni and my baysitting and nannying jobs and keeping in touch with uni friends when we are in the real world of placement!! to be honest i dont know how i was going through £30 pm, but then my phone gave up (was 2 and half yr old) so thought id get a new one (k750i so doubles as a digi cam ) and then when contract runs out i will keep it and do payg again.

i make OH sound really bad, hes not that bad really its just i like to know where my ££ has gone and hes like "its the weekend chill out" but i did have a right moan at him on fri and he has vowed to change and enrolled on the stop smoking thing with the NHS (good idea if any1 interested go on the stop smoking webiste, freephone them and they send you details of local group and then help you to stop and get the patches etc on prescription, they do eve and daytime meetings)

im glad i have got my jobs alongside uni i dont know how anyone can cope without an extra income.

what should i do about the PPI or is that a personal choice? if OH lost his job then on the flexi mortgage surely we could have payment break anyway? the new mortgage starts this month so we will get all the info then.

thanks again everyone...heres hoping "this time next year we will be millionaires" (maybe ive seen too much only fools and horses this weekend!)

pozalina

Hi,

I'd get rid of the PPi - that's my view, anyway. I got rid of all the insurances except life - saved me £100 a month! Martin talks about self-insuring, where you put the money away yourself. That way you're guaranteed of getting it! I love this idea.

emma_b_4

must admit that does sound like a good idea, i was thinking more to pay the extra £10 a month into my mortgage, then if he was out of work we could request a payment holiday anyway and we would have overpaied (even if by a small amount!)
when he was off last yr after kidney op we had insurance for everything and NO one paid out at all they all found a clause (didnt have the ppi then though)

lottie26_2

I have started getting my shopping online from asda they charge £4.95 delivery but there is aways a £10 off £50 an this site so with the bogof's as well its a good saving, just done my first shop for March and spent £46.74 in total but actually got £11.48 from bogof and £10 off as well so actually spent about £67.00 but only paid £46 including delivery.
I then go to tescos for anything that I run out of and green grocery shop for fruit veg and eggs I only spent about £120 to £130 last month on shopping and we are a family of 5 I also think I will be able to cut this a bit more this month without trying as I have all the cuboard staples now Good Luck.

WLITC

emma_b wrote:

sky..he watches fishing and would kill me if i got rid.

Hi Emma, its not much of a saving, but Sky now do channel bundles or 'mixes', the min you can have is two, so that would be £15 a month. That might be just be £4 a month, but thats £48 over the year and all the little savings add up. If you get the mix that has the channel the fishing is on (sounds like the Knowledge Mix) and say the Variety mix, you'll save £4 a month and he'll still have his channel, plus you'll get all the basics, plus popular ones like Sky One, E4, Living, etc.

As for you mobile. You metion going PAYG from the summer. Well I can highly recommend 'Fresh' (Carphone warehouse's own brand mobile network) for PAYG. Its 15p a min, anytime any network and 5p for text messages. Also, unlike normal PAYG, you also have the option of setting up a direct debit, so that you don't have to top up (I use to hate running out of credit) and they just bill you each month for whatever you've used. I've been with them for nearly 2 years and have had no problems.

emma_b_4

thankyou, the channels i use r e4, fishing (home and leisure i think) and thats about it, we have the mix hing at mo but have 4sets of channels i think.
you have reminded me though to go on site and have a look! (will my essay ever be finished LOL)

were are the discount codes on here for shopping online? i have never done it before but i am guilty of going for milk and bread and spending £40!!!!

loubie_lou

I know its a bit too late saying this now but if your in debt and at uni especially but couldn't the holiday of waited till you had finished? After all it is a very big luxury!

I wish I had your mentality whislt at uni! Here I am three years later and only just starting to make a dent into my debts!

Snowpixie_2

We have just swapped to talk talk and our line rental is £10 pm with free weekend landline calls. Might be worth seeing if they would do you this deal. I use prefix calls the rest of the time.

Also, are you paying ntl for broadband? Can you not move sky to ntl too? I hear they do great deals on packages. Or you could get freeview..?

sashacat

Have another look at your house insurance...I used Martin's method and shaved £360...yes £360 off my annual buildings insurance. This is a big 5 bedroomed house which is a listed building and you are now paying more insurance than I am. Also definitely have a look at your shopping. Why not go on the old style board and think about a slow cooker..they are cheap (ther's an offer on with lxdirect on one of the boards..mine was £9 last week) and they are convenient and good