SOA - Can I do better?

sanfrancisco

Some thoughts...

- ditch Sky
- What is this? - Mortgage decreasing term assurance £14.25
- Get rid of this temporarily - Income protection insurance £45.61
- Get mobile down to 5 pm
- have you followed martins advice re life ins, car ins, home ins? I am sure they could be reduced just a bit.
- you can definietely get cheaper broadband than that now. I havnt done it recently, but head over to the relevent board or look up martins article.

You seem to be heading the right direction. You need to look at everything you spend over and over again. When you have been a spendaholic for years, it takes a while to realise HOW MUCH you can cut back. You need to constantly monitor and check. Good Luck. Pat on the back,

tyllwyd

Ali-OK wrote:

The £200 monthly - difficult to break down to actuals, as its all different each month! Here's a selection of stuff!

£5 lottery syndicate at work monthly
£80 on parents anniversary, sis-in-law's birthdays x 2!, father-in-law, mothers day (always alot of birthdays every month and close family)
£12 on son's school friends birthday presents/cards for parties

You are going to think that I am a real scrooge but I'd say drop the £5 lottery - how much have you actually won in the last year??
£80 in a typical month is a LOT of money on presents. Great if you can afford it, but with the debts you have already run up can you honestly say that you can afford it? Would it make any real difference to your family if you only bought them token presents of, say, less than £5 each?
£12 on school friends also seems a lot. Does he go to more than two parties a month? If not, I'd cut that down by half.

Ali-OK

Hi Sanfransisco

Thanks for the advice.

I'm toying with ditching sky - just know it'll upset my 5 year old who watches some of the kids channels - slowly moving him away from it and when the light nights get here next week (and it warms up!) we can get out riding bikes, football on the field and to the park. All freebie fun! I'll do a re-check then.

Mobile will come in about £5 a month - I hardly use it and work will have to cough up for one if they want me to continue making work calls on it :mad: Its not many for work, but partly why I changed my package as it was getting expensive going over inclusive mins. PAYG will be make me focus on whether I need to send a text/make a call.

Income protection - I'd be in worse pooh if I hadn't had it a few years back (see above) - reluctant to get rid, but know what you're saying and take it onboard.

Mortgage decreasing term assurance - life insurance to pay the mortgage off if I die.

I'm heading for the insurances next and hadn't thought about changing broadband either - thanks for that.

Yep, I think low self-esteem pushed the frequency and size of my 'retail therapy' on top of the operation, a house move and a too high level job that destroyed my family life, gave me poor work/life balance and too much money at the time.

It's true - the more I earnt, the more I spent, the more debt I got. But no longer! I'm coming out the otherside all guns blazing!

Thanks again,
Ali

Ali-OK

Hi Tyllwyd

Thanks for your post - scrooge indeed - wise words I'd say.

Good point on the lottery front! I've no idea how much we've won - eek - will check that when I'm back in the office. If we haven't I will stop it - it's another £20 a month or £240 a year off the debt :eek:

You've hit a crunch point for me with family birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I have to build up the courage to tell them why I'm cutting it down. It's the one I fear most.

Yes, son had 3 parties this month alone! He's been to loads - I'm hoping we're through the class now and it'll quieten down. If not, I'm going to root out better bargains for presents.

Ali

looneyleo

Well Done Ali. You really seemed to have worked hard on the finances. One way of cutting down costs of cards is to make your own cards. Just but a multi pack of 10 plain cards (about £2.00) and let your little boy go wild! My little girl loves making cards for friends and family and they like to receive them. Only 20p per card. You can cut up pictures from magazines, cards you have received etc and let your son glue and stick away. Hand made presents are also nice...as long as they aren't too tacky! Best one I did was a "Paint a Pot" session before Christmas (at a local attraction). Only £2.00 for a coaster that my little girl painted herself. We did 10 for Aunties/Uncles/Grandparents etc, added a few sweets and job done for £2.20 each. Everyone loved them and used them. I'm a sucker foor buying presents so I know how hard it is to reduce this expenditure but you need to look around all year for the little bargains etc.

Good luck

Looneyleo

Ali-OK

Hi Looneyleo

What a great idea for cards and pressies - thank you. It's actually given me a great idea for my son's birthday party too - there's a local pottery shop that does parties to paint coasters, plates, etc. I'll start enquiring for planning purposes!

Littlen would love getting messy with glue and glitter, so I'm sure this would go down well as an activity and a solution to cheaper cards.

Thanks!

Ali

black-saturn

So your saying that your poor son never has a meal at home yet your still paying out all that money on food every month?

tigerlily

Ali-OK wrote:

Mortgage decreasing term assurance - life insurance to pay the mortgage off if I die.

Ali

So the mortgage decreasing thingy will pay off your mortgage should the worst happen........does the life insurance you have listed separately not do the same thing, if not it may be worth seeing if you can get one policy to cover everything.

tigerlily

black-saturn wrote:

So your saying that your poor son never has a meal at home yet your still paying out all that money on food every month?

I took it that the OP's son has brekkie and weekend meals at home.

Ali-OK

black-saturn wrote:

So your saying that your poor son never has a meal at home yet your still paying out all that money on food every month?

Nooo! We both have breakfast here (usually toast or cereal), he has school dinners, I take a packed lunch.

Between school finishing and me collecting him after I finish work, he has a packed tea of sandwich, yoghurt, plain biscuit and drink.

Once home, I then cook for both of us.

He also has a snack during the evening - usually a crumpet or cream cracker.

Do you think £80-100 on food is too high? I put this figure, though during March my actual spend has been £49.26 with 1 week to go - this was the first month of trying to cut to £15 per week.