Having trouble paying Littlewoods - Advice needed please!

Jesthar

Hey amandaf,

Welcome to MSE! Just a few extra thoughts:

Your gas and electricity both look VERY high. I appreciate you are probably at home all the time (assuming this due to the nature of your work; correct me if I am wrong!), but £90 for electricity AND £60 for gas is rather astronomical even so, especially combined. I'm single and live alone in a small semidetached house, and those prices represent nearly 3 months gas and 6 months electricity. I suggest you hit the comparison sites to see about switching to a cheaper supplier (with cashback if possible), and also check your useage levels and thermostat settings - remember things like tumble driers and fan heaters simply EAT electricity, as does anything else which produces heat (I had one former housemate who used to do things like leave the oven or iron on for hours (doing nothing), then wonder why the bills were so high! :rolleyes:). Turning things off at the wall when not in use also helps.

If you're on a water meter, you can save yourself some easy pennies by doing simple things like turning the tap off when brushing teeth/washing veg, and sticking a save-a-flush or a similar device (or just a smallish plastic bottle filled with water) in all your toilet cisterns.

Also, you might look at combining your landline and internet package, could save ytou a few pounds.

Your grocery bill is quite good, but head over to the Moneysaving Old Style boards for help and advice on meal planning and stroe cupboard challenges, and you could make even more savings here - they are absolutely amazing at feeding entire families on tiny budgets. I believe the current record is still held one lady who had a budget emergency which left her with £30 plus the contents of her cupboards to feed her family (husband and 2 children) for the whole month, and managed it so well that she didn't tell them and no-one noticed!

You mentioned cashback; do you do 'daily clicks' - earning a few free pennies here and there for simply doing internet searches via cashback sites? OK, it takes a few months to come through, so it's a long term thing, but combined with cashback for any internet shopping you do it can mount up. I can generate anywhere between 50p - £1 a day, and I'm only a 'casual clicker' doing a couple of sites. There a good thread in this forum by EagerLearner on the topic.

~Jes

amandaf_3

Thanks Jes

The £90 for electric is because I'm paying off a debt (should be clear in about 6 months), while the gas is actually the cheapest I could find - it's with Scottish Power and by DD. I actually use about £40 but for some silly reason they upped the DD about 3 months ago to £60.63 Assuming this is to cover extra costs over the winter I hope to be vastly in credit by the time they send the next statement.

So in a few months I *should* be paying less for both and can use the freed-up cash towards my debts instead.

Unfortunately I can't do anything about the water rates: I live in a council house and the rates are set for me (included in the rent). Plus the reason I am paying £90 rent is due to arrears. This will be cleared in June, and my rent will then go down to £63 + £7 water rates each week. I really do need to clear it off as quickly as possible, as I simply can't lose my home. I have children to care for and couldn't possibly find housing elsewhere (it took ten years for me to get this house and move out of a cramped multi-storey flat - and that was only because I managed to find a mutual exchange!)

The cashback sites seem very interesting so I'll take a look. Would be quite handy actually as I work online and can do this during breaks.

Since I initially posted, Ciao have started sending me surveys again (I'd actually forgotten I had the account!) and I've been doing surveys almost daily, many of which offer more than £1 each survey, so when this is aplied to my account I hope to have an extra £20 or so each month (provided this continues at the rate I'm receiving surveys!)

I'm a blogger/web designer/jack-of-all-things-computer related, and have actively been seeking out extra jobs these past few weeks. I've repaired a few laptops (which I had to put towards my Vanquis card as otherwise the interest would have resulted in over-limit fine), had interest from some local companies regarding website designs (two meetings planned next week - wish me luck!).

I've also resurrected an old blog and am determined to get people reading this so I can begin earning some money from it again! Stroke of luck with this yesterday when a new advertiser purchased an ad-slot for three months (at £10 a month). I know it's not a lot compared to many blogs/sites but for me this is marvellous

Since I work mostly online, the extra money I earn doesn't get to my pockets for a month or so (transfers from Paypal, waiting for the ad sites payout dates, etc). I am adding any extras I get now to the most important things, and once the internet earnings come through I will pay in bulk to my most major debts.

Next month I'll do another statement of means to account for the extra earnings, another in june to reflect the lessened rent payments (and any lessened payments from gas, if I manage to get that DD brought down).

Jesthar

Hey Amandaf,

You're welcome!

If I were you, I wouldn't wait until your next gas bill to see if you are in credit, you may as well call them and give them an up to date meter reading. If you ARE significantly in credit, ask if they will reduce the monthly payments, as you'll be using LESS gas during summer, not more (you may have to be polite-but-determined, as they DO like having and profiting from the extra cash!). If they won't do that, I think you can still ask for a refund of your in-credit amount. In the meantime, carry on looking for ways to use even less energy, so you can hit them back even harder...

~Jes