So so !!!!ed off (with SOA)

WorkingHardDFW

Hi I just wanted to welcome you and give congrats on facing the first step - facing up to your debt.

You've got a good income and on paper a monthly surplus. However what i would say (and I think some others may have said) is that you've got to budget for everything. Yes it is difficult but it can and has to be done if you want to have a realistic figure for your spending.

I use a spending diary (aka excel spreadsheet) into which I put every item we spend. This is then matched against what we thought we were spending on things - holidays, clothes, petrol, food, haircuts, medical items, birthdays (our own kids and the parties they go too), christmas, kids activities, childcare, window cleaning, household stuff, enter etc etc the list goes on. For us the difference between what we thought we were spending and what we actually were spending was our debt. Yes that was £36K at its height.

It may seem obvious but we'd spent years not knowing or facing up to it and it was only as we had our LBM and learnt from the friendly folks on here that we realised and changed our ways.

Now we're in control of our spending. I know what the budgets are for various things and we generally stick to them.

Good luck and keep posting :cool:

slimey

Wow - lots of replies today - thanks!

I am trying to ebay stuff - I listed 2 things a couple of weeks ago - one sold, one didn't. I've relisted the item that didn't sell, but with a lower starting price. However, I found it frustrating that something didn't sell, and it didn't give me the boost I needed to want to start selling more stuff. I really need to kick my !!!!! into gear and start listing more stuff. I've got a pile of stuff in the garage that's waiting to be listed.

This morning, I re-did my buildings+contents insurance - brought it down from 32 to 22 per month, although I've stayed with Direct Line (and I think I've increased the cover in the process!).

I don't do a huge amount of travel with work - although this is the third overseas trip this year. Usually I'm fine just putting stuff on the credit card, and claiming on expenses when I get back. However, this time I've not got the headroom on the card to cover all the stuff I'd normally need to pay for. Part of my problem in the past (probably why I've built up as much credit card debt) is that I've not been disciplined enough to pay my expenses back onto the credit card - so they just got spent because they were in my current account.

This leads me onto something I've been wondering about budgetting - what do people do about things like car tax, car maintenance, etc, budgets - I know that if they just sat in my current account they'd get spent. Do people move them off to a savings account or something?

Glen0000 was right that I don't tend to work 9 - 5. I'm generally in the office (or travelling to/from) between 8.30 and 6.30. However, I tend to be in London a couple of times a month (sometimes including an overnight stay), so it's almost impossible to commit to be in for a regular evening in order to allow my wife to work part time. She has considered just working in the local Tesco in the evenings.

We do cook almost everything from scratch (well, my wife does) because our son has a lot of allergies to E-numbers - which means that a lot of "convenience" food is out of the question.

My primary concern at the moment is to balance the budget so that I'm not spending more than I earn each month. If I can do that, according to the snowball calculator, I can be debt free somewhen just after summer 2011 based on what I'm currently paying in debt repayments, and rolling in the school fees - and I'm comfortable with this, although obviously it'd be nice to pay stuff off quicker.

While I know I need to cut back in places, I'd rather do it gently and still keep some of the home comforts (e.g. Sky) - I'm more likely to stick to it if I do it that way.

Many thanks all,

Simon

whitewing

*smug alert* I save £50 a month for car insurance + mot. And so far have not used it as we've always had enough funds at the time to include it in that month's budget. That's £870 (inc interest) that's building up for an emergency!

whitewing

Apart from the fact that you would get a staff discount eventually, I wouldn't send the wife out. I think she'd save you more money by keeping tabs on the spending than she could earn. (Obviously I think you have the income to support you all, even in your present situation).

slimey

Well, we were running a bit short of fruit + veg, and were going to pop to Tesco to top up. However, as a last minute bit of inspiration, we thought we'd pop up to the Sunday Market at Chepstow Racecourse. There were 2 fruit/veg stalls there, and we've come back to 3lb of Onions, 2lb of carrots, 1lb of sweet potatoes, 1 cauli, 2 lettuces, and a washing-up-bowl full of apples. All for £4.50 - much cheaper than if we'd got it at Tesco!

There wasn't too much choice on the stalls because it was towards the end of the day - although we probably got some better bargains as a result. Next time we'll try on the way home from Church and see if there's a better selection.

Feeling inspired.

tiff

From your last post yesterday I had wondered if you were copping out, personally I think you need to take a hard line with your budget and cut back as much as you can.

grumblybum

Stop sky, kids can either watch the free kids channels or play with their toys, far healthier and cheaper!
Grocery bill is very large and could easily be halved.

Galaxy863

Just a small suggestion but have you thought about doing your food shopping online? There are nearly always discount codes available for free delivery or money off so you save on petrol plus it makes you think more about what your buying and your less tempted by offers ( well I find I am in any case! ) Since I've started shopping online I've really noticed I'm spending alot less and have more food to show for it!

gailey_2

Hi

im curious why is your daughter in private system and son home educated is their reason for this.
Are schools very bad in your area?

In today climate im not sure about downsizing however you could rent out house and then rent cheaper 3 bed house?

Sounds like separate savings account with same bank as current and availiable to manage on intrent may be good for paying car mot and other incidentals.
I also find my prepaid credit card invaluable i use paypal as I ebay a lot!

You nay time off work soon like weeks holiday where you can do all things you been putting off like switching suppliesrs/insurance ect.
Old style board-join up to grocery challange as this needs to be reduced!
Please check boilier as we had high bill one year due to crap estimates and faulty boiler!

PinkTwirl

EssexHebridean wrote: »

One thing - you mentioned your OH asking about spending £16 on a Boden jeans/top set for your daughter - how much would an equivalent set be in Asda or Tesco, without a posh label?

Good luck.

Hi,

I use Boden a lot and that's a very good deal for a teenager. Thinking about the equivalent in Asda it's got to be the same or greater. Of course it's your call on whether she has enough clothes or not, and of course whether you can afford it this month or not, that's the most important thing.