Take a deep breath ... and jump

sazzab

Hi Kezlou, thankyou so much for your reply. I have a list next to me of things I need to get onto tomorrow The pets are a labrador and two cats.
I'm going to be busy tomorrow - I'm hoping I'll come up with some good deals and save myself a decent amount of money.
Thanks
Sal

peterg1965

sazzab wrote: »

10. I don't have building insurance. I did. A long time ago. It didn't get paid, it expired and I haven't got back onto it. I will, even though I know it will cost me more.
11. Presents - I have tried to be realistic - I know a lot of people / family

Not sure what you mean here. Do you have NO buildings insurance on your property? I am sure this will be a mandated requirement as a condition of your mortgage and your lender will insist on this. You could be in breach of your mortgage terms, worth checking.

kezlou

hiya sal its like this every month for me, an absolute nightmare esp vet bills etc.

I went to my local pet store yesterday and bought 15kg of cat biscuits for £12.99 apparently its a breeder pack, defintiely worth it for the price and the long run.
Dog bicsuits large 15kg packs were £9.99
I get the wet food from asda. You can get a 24 (400g) tins of supermeat / jelly /gravy mixed pack for £8.94 for your cats. I looked at the dog food and its the same deal but it think its a pound cheaper.
Oh and cat litter (beauticat, posh expensive i know) £7.50 for 150 litres from a local pet store.

Hope the above helps, i tend to find pet shops are more willing to find deals for you as they love to get regular customers.

smcshane

Hi,

Just thought I would add my two pennies worth. Hope you dont mind.

I too have an old pug but a 306 Turbo Diesel, my trying to be a little environmentally friendly but not suceeding car!!!!!!

My insurance is through the AA and is only £38/month and that is with 1 yrs no claims and being a teacher (which increases the premium, dont ask me why!). When it was up for renewal I also check diamond who always seem to come out good. So I would definitly have a search. Only thing that could be different is I am an old thirty something!

Sx

LeeSouthEast

Sazzab, welcome to MSE. You're in with a great crowd here.

I've nothing much more to add except to say that I used to do what you did with the post. Here's my suggestion: throw it all out. You're not going to go through it all now, and it's likely mostly so old as to be irrelevant. Reclaim the space and shred the lot. Seeing it only depresses you, so solve the issue by not seeing it any longer. BUT set yourself a task to open every single piece of mail from today onwards that you get.

Are you happy that you know all your debtors? If not it may be worth signing up for your free trial at CreditExpert.co.uk and see. Once you've got your head out of the sand and a new outlook, the world really is so much brighter.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Deleted User]

Congratulations on sorting yourself out a plan. I don't really have any advice to you on it as I've only just recently had my LBM myself, but what I will advise you to do is not get stuck into the repayments so much that you don't leave yourself a buffer in your bank account in case of emergencies or a direct debit you've forgotten. Otherwise you'll end up collecting those lovely £35 charges instead or worse still, being hungry for a week at the end of the month.

[Deleted User]

I disagree with the above advice to shred your mail.
I work in information management so am aware of the regulations that financial institutions face on minimum length of data retention.
You should always keep 7 years worth of statements, etc., because that's what they have to do too, so if anything does come up you can prove what's happened.
The minute you shred it, you'll find that you need it and banks are notoriously difficult to get past information out of and will usually charge you.
I advise you to open them, but do not read them as that won't help matters and shouldn't affect anything now that you have a plan, but you should simply file everything together by date so at least you've got it. It's for your own good in case of a dispute.

LeeSouthEast

Probably a more sensible idea...

QueensferryRoss

Sally, looking at your statement of affairs there you certainly have plenty there to work with - look at switching gas and electricity for starters and then look at your internet/tv/phone packages.

Beyond that look at groceries and entertainment - are you out every weekend, try having a few friends round one weekend instead, cheaper to buy a few bottles of vino and no taxi fare home
Groceries wise do you have a freezer , make use of it and save yourself a fortune. Go shopping at 7pm when supermarkets have reduced stuff out for sale.

I'm sure you can achieve your target !

You also have net assets which is great. There's lots of equity in that property and turning unsecured debt into secured debt is never ideal.. , you could consider selling up, moving somewhere a little smaller/cheaper - leaving yourself with a similar or smaller mortgage and being consumer debt free and at least that £211 a month better off.

EssexHebridean

I suspect as a Londoner I'm possibly looking at things from a slightly different perspective than some others. Depening where in London you are, you might not bring that car insurance down much TBH. I assume that's fully comp? Might be worth looking at changing to third party fire/theft or even third party only - realistically looking at the value of your car if anything happens to it that insurance is going to pay you pretty much zilch. Worth looking anyway - join Quidco and get quotes via go compare - they pay £2 per quote.

Someone else suggests downsizing your house - again, if you're in London I sympathise - not a lot about for less than the value of yours that you'd actually want to live in, I guess? A huge amount of your monthly income goes on that mortgage, but this is the problem when you buy alone - and at the end of the day you can afford it easily enough on your income so not a problem.

You say you're on good money - you're right. You're taking home more a month than myself and my husband combined, and you really don't need to be having a problem. The spending diary idea is a "must do" for you - as is setting yourself a weekly spending budget in cash - withdrawing it, and then not spending more. It sounds like that will be the turning point for you - putting an end to the frittering of spare cash that is currently leaving you short.

Go online and get a quote from Sky, then an online quote from Virgin - it ought to come up cheaper than what you're currently paying. You can then use both those figures for bargaining power when you ring Virgin to tell them you are planning to leave them and go elsewhere. You could even look at splitting your package - Tel & BB from someone like TalkTalk and the TV from Sky - you'd still be saving money.

One last thing....GET YOURSELF CONTENTS INSURANCE. Get quotes, and buy a policy. Do it now. Please! Remember that if the worst happens, if you are in a terraced/semi detached house and "whatever" affects your neighbours, you HAVE to have buildings insurance to be able to cover their costs for rebuilding/repair as well as your own if the "whatever" had originated from your property - and if you are terraced/semi you will amost certainly have a legal obligation to repair & make good also.....