Dodgy debts - is my debt a MAJOR problem?

mrcow

I shop at ASDA and Costco.

I buy fruit and veg, bread, eggs, sugar, flour, dairy, stuff for lunches, frozen stuff, pasta, rice, coffee & drinks, Pampers, SMA, wipes, holdhold cleaners etc. - everything a normal family would (apart from not much meat as 4 out of 5 of us are veggie - but we still eat well!).

I don't buy much ready prepared stuff as it's not good for the kids and is overpriced.....perhaps that's the difference? (I don't know, just a thought?)

If I spent £600 on groceries then I would be throwing a lot of it away as waste - we couldn't possibly eat all that.

sarahs999

Also, no mention of holidays on your SOA _ which is where, you say, a large amount of your debt has come ffrom. Have you decided not to have any more holidays? Because if you're still planning on having them you need to put them in to get a true picture of where it's all going.

mrcow

Here's my shopping list from last week. It' snot always the same obviously at we don't use 100 nappies a week and I still have loads of tinned veg and other veg in my freezer from last week etc. etc But it's fairly typical: (well you did ask!!!)

ASDA shopping list 29 items.
£61.23

Bakery & Patisserie Guide price in £

2 xHovis Soft White Medium Bread (800g)2.00
3 xKingsmill Great Everyday Soft White Medium Sliced Loaf (800g)3.00any 3 FOR £3.00 - valid until: 31/12/09

Fruit & Vegetables

600gASDA Bananas by Weight (100g)0.48
1 xASDA Great Stuff Kids Garden Gang Apples - Bag1.17
1 xASDA Great Stuff Kids Garden Gang Satsumas (600g)1.47
1 xASDA Baking Potatoes (2.5Kg)2.00
500gASDA Broccoli by Weight (100g)1.00
1 xASDA Smartprice Mushrooms (750g)1.36
1 xASDA Whole Cucumber0.70

Dairy
3 xThe Happy Egg Company Free Range Eggs Large (6)3.00
1 xClover Lighter (500g)1.56
1 xASDA Smartprice Mild White Small Cheddar2.14
2 xASDA Smartprice Fruit Fromage Frais (6x60g)0.98

Frozen
1 xASDA 20 Thick Pork Sausages (1Kg)1.34
1 xASDA 12 Potato Waffles (680g)0.98
1 xASDA Straight Cut Oven Chips (1.81Kg)1.16any 2 FOR £2.00 - valid until: 31/12/09
1 xASDA 8 Vegetarian Burgers (454g)1.582 FOR £3.00 - valid until: 31/12/09
1 xBirds Eye 10 Vegetable Fingers (284g)0.98

Tins, Jars & Cooking
1 xGia Garlic Puree in Vegetable Oil (90g)0.42
2 xNapolina Tomato & Herb Pizza Topping (300g)1.50any 2 FOR £1.50 - valid until: 12/05/09

Packets & Cereals
1 xASDA Strong White Bread Flour (1.5Kg)0.68
1 xSilver Spoon Caster Sugar (2Kg)1.91

Drinks

2 xASDA 45% Fruit High Juice Blackcurrant Squash (1L)2.00any 2 FOR £2.00 - valid until: 31/12/09
2 xASDA 50% Fruit High Juice Florida Orange Squash (1L)2.00any 2 FOR £2.00 - valid until: 31/12/09

Household & Pets
1 xASDA Shades Softest Ever White Bathroom Tissue (12)4.00

Baby, Health & Beauty

1 xPampers Baby Dry Mega Pack Maxi Plus (120)12.00
1 xAsda Little Angels Nappy Sacks (75)0.89
2 xASDA Little Angels Regular Cotton Soft Baby Wipes (80)1.96any 6 FOR £5.00 - valid until: 31/12/09
1 xCow & Gate Growing Up Milk 12mth+ (900g)6.97

Jesthar

Heya Paul

Hmm, plenty of room for savings here - let's have a look!

[quote=[Deleted User];21112507]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2125
Partners monthly income after tax....... 855
Benefits................................ 111
Other income............................ 165
Total monthly income.................... 3256
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 585
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 130
Electricity............................. 60 - pretty steep - three times my monthly useage! See about changing supplier and useage patterns?
Gas..................................... 57 - a bit steep - twice my monthly useage See about changing supplier here too?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38 - if you're on a meter, this is on the steep side, and there are plenty of easy ways to save water. if you are not on a meter, consider getting one.
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 34 - if you can reduce tarriff, that would be good
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 47 - can you reduce the package?
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 700 - :eek::eek::eek: Please, please, PLEASE tell me this is a typo! I don't spend that much in the supermarket in SIX months, including non-food items and on the cat! For two adults and a five year old, £200 - £250 should be more than enough...
Clothing................................ 100 - you could go essentials only for a while
Petrol/diesel........................... 350 - wow, that's a lot! Do you travel for you job, or are there non-essential trips you can easily avoid?
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 50 - pretty steep, big car? Try shopping around the comparison sites for a better deal.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0- should be something here!
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 12
Contents insurance...................... 12
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 150 - another very easy area to make cutbacks
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2398

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 230000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 237000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 135000...(585)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 135000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
sainsburys.....................8600......195.......6.9
amazon.........................6000......61........7.9
m+s............................3650......92........3.9
loan...........................3000......97........0
tescos.........................2845......87........0
Total unsecured debts..........24095.....532.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,256
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,398
Available for debt repayments........... 858
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 532
Amount left after debt repayments....... 326 - yay, surplus! Well, on paper anyway - this should be used to overpay on your debts.
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 237,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -135,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -24,095
Net Assets.............................. 77,905
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Any suggestions on money saving?

So far I've thought of:-

1. Reduce Sky package.
2. Try and lower grocery bill.
[/QUOTE]
Well, the good news is you have a very healthy monthly surplus (on paper, at least).

The even better news is that you have several areas where you can make significant and easy savings, and if you manage to do that you will be able to pay large amounts off your debts every month. Try playing with the snowball calculator and see what just halving (or more than halving!) your grocery bill will do you your debt free date

For inspiration on your grocery bills, well, for starters, what do you buy? Start keeping a spending diary so you can see where all that money goes! And you can do no better than head over to the Moneysaving Old Stryle forums here for plenty of inspiration on feeding a family fully and healthily on a small budget - why not try some of the famous challenges?

Me, I have a slow cooker, which I use to cook joints of beef brisket and lamb shoulders, etc. They are such cheap cuts of meat, and slow cooking makes the so tasty and melt in the mouth I actually prefer them over steak! And the meat from a 1kg joint will last me for about 7 meals, plus you get wonderful stock for gravey, too. So add some potatoes and veg to the mix, and you have meat and however many veg for about three nights for your family, all for about £5 - £6. I also do big batches of stews and bolognese too, and freeze portions - I can go from getting in to eating in 20 minutes that way, with my own home-made ready meals.

~Jes

[Deleted User]

mrcow wrote: »

I shop at ASDA and Costco.

I buy fruit and veg, bread, eggs, sugar, flour, dairy, stuff for lunches, frozen stuff, pasta, rice, coffee & drinks, Pampers, SMA, wipes, holdhold cleaners etc. - everything a normal family would (apart from not much meat as 4 out of 5 of us are veggie - but we still eat well!).

I don't buy much ready prepared stuff as it's not good for the kids and is overpriced.....perhaps that's the difference? (I don't know, just a thought?)

If I spent £600 on groceries then I would be throwing a lot of it away as waste - we couldn't possibly eat all that.

Hmm. Maybe we eat too much...

We dop buy a lot of convenience food so that might be a difference...

Burlesque_Babe

I buy at Asda or Tesco.

I buy all fresh ingredients and no ready meals.

I cook every night from scratch and don't buy lunch at work. I don't buy jars of pre-made sauces (ie curry sauces or dolmio)

Any puddings, I also cook from scratch. I use lots of the smartprice/Value lines for fruit and vegetables (they are only branded that because of them being an odd shape/weight) as well as butter and a few other bits and pieces. I do a big shop at the beginning of the month and spend about £80 and then top up perhaps twice a month with other items.

A typical big shop would more than likely always include (so I know I have the basics for about 10 days or so at least)

potatoes
rice
pasta
tinned tomatoes (probably 12)
baked beans (5 or 6 tins)
kidney beans (2 or 3)
tinned peas (I hate fresh ones!)
2 or 3 other types of pulse (ie butter beans)
dried herbs
garlic
stock cubes
loo roll
5 or 6 packs of minced beef
minced pork
piece of pork (probably shoulder)
Piece of beef (probably brisket)
Sausages - 2 or 3 packs of the premium quality ones
Whole chicken
Plain flour
Butter
Eggs (tray of 15)
Cheddar (2 or 3 blocks)
Mozzarella (2 packets)
kg Leeks
Swede
kg Carrots
kg of tomatoes
bananas
melon
tube of toothpaste
Cereal
Skimmed milk (4 litres)


and then whatever is running low - ie shampoo, sugar, razors, disinfectant, shower gel etc etc etc up to around £80. I have it delivered so I can't impulse buy, use a code from the codes board so I don't pay for delivery.

I have a slow cooker which means I can buy cheaper cuts of meat and they taste amazing and stretch a long way.

I can only think you have huge amounts of wastage or are buying lots of ready meals or very expensive cuts of meat to spend that amount each month. We eat tonnes so don't think we skimp through amount we eat, my parnter is a human dustbin :rotfl:
With the gas and electric, start taking a weekly meter reading of both and make a conscious effort to turn everything off and take if off standby. You'll be amazed at the difference.

Jesthar

[quote=[Deleted User];21114859]We dop buy a lot of convenience food so that might be a difference...[/QUOTE]
Oh, that will definitely make a big difference, that stuff is often extortionately priced! Don;t think it could account for all of it, though...

~Jes

[Deleted User]

sarahs999 wrote: »

Also, no mention of holidays on your SOA _ which is where, you say, a large amount of your debt has come ffrom. Have you decided not to have any more holidays? Because if you're still planning on having them you need to put them in to get a true picture of where it's all going.

I guess that was part of the problem - lumped it on CCs....

No plans for hols for a little bit....

Burlesque_Babe

when I first joined MSE, I was spending £300 a month on groceries for 2 adults. I joined the Supemarket challenge on the Old Style board and got it down to £120 a month when I was in super debt busting mode That was a bit too tight but I find that £160 is a comfortable amount for the 2 of us for 3 meals a day plus puds and cleaning stuff/toiletries etc. I'm quite embarrassed now to think back to spending that amount and to be honest I can't even think what it was spent on I used to buy sirloin steak, pork loin, whole duck.......very extravagant

Which supermarket do you use? Find out when they reduce their stuff. 2 weeks ago I went to Asda and all the loaves were 10p each as it was 6pm and the time they do their second deductions. It was all Hovis and I bought 7 loaves for 70p, filled the freezer and saved about £10 on bread!

GeorgeUK

Also worth having a look at the oldstyle board for meal plan ideas and recipes. You might be required to buy a pinnie and apron.

I second the spending diary. This will let you see exactly where you are spending and possibly wasting money, even if you only do it every day for a month. The amount you might spend on coffee's or lunches soon adds up. There are usually cheaper alternatives available without much more hassle.