think I've had a light bulb moment

library_lady_2

Soa

Incoming
Husband 618
Me 589
Tax credits 420.33
Child benefit 221.00

Total 1848.33


Debts
Personal loan HSBC 223.00 p/m 7470 outstanding (34 repayments left)
HSBC Mastercard 180.00 p/m 6660 outstanding (limit £6,500)
Husband Mastercard 16.00 p/m 550 outstanding (llimit £1,000)
European Collection (old Associates debt) 50.00 p/m £280 outstanding

Total 469.00 p/m £14,950 outstanding


Outgoing
Council tax 130.00
Gas 26.00
Electricity 107.00 (balance approx 200 their mistake always paid d/d no arrears)
Car ins 37.00
Bike ins 10.50
Bt 55.00 (includes all calls and broadband)
Tv 11.00
Sky 19.00 (can’t receive freeview without new aerial!)

Sub total 395.50

The following details have been worked out over the last 4 weeks as I’ve kept a spending diary and I’m suitably shocked!!

Food (3 adults, 2 teenagers, 1 child, 2 dogs, a 3 legged cat and a rabbit) 525.52 (131.37 p/w!!)
Cigarettes (stopping tomorrow) 140.94 (35.23 p/w)
Papers, sandwiches (at work), chocolate (evening munchies!!) 43.43 (10.85 p/w)
Petrol 108.00 (27 p/w)
Lottery 10.00 (2.50 p/w)
Extras (over last 4 weeks include school trip + photos, birthday Pressies (son no3 + daughter and mothers day) 150.56 (37.64 p/w)

Total 978.45

overdraft 353.68 but direct debits due out so will exceed limit of £500

:eek: :eek:

The spending diary was a revelation, I always thought we spent about 150 - 200 p/w how wrong can a person be. My problem now is how to curb my supermarket habit!! I'm not extravagant (??) :rolleyes: in that I don't buy ready meals, I look for the bogof offers, I buy economy meat (mince, chicken pieces etc) the children and I (most of the time) have packed lunches. We do go through almost 6 pints of milk a day and loads of fruit in a week but again I buy the economy or bogof offers. The obvious cut backs are smoking (fingers crossed for tomorrow), petrol (I can walk to work). I want to get into the habit of saving for the obvious birthdays, xmas, car tax etc but never seem to get ahead and always end up worse off. Any advice warmly received.

kar

a spending diary can be a complete revelation can't it. I started one last week and am already shocked at the moeny we waste!!

My adding up makes it that you are spending your income. This is gonna make paying off the debt harder as you have no extra cash to throw at them.

Well done for already looking at ways to makes savings as you detailed above - hopefully they will be able to give you a bit extra for you repayments. You haven't listed the APR's but try a snowball calculator to see which ones you should be overpaying first with all that money you are saving by not smoking.

I think it will make you even more determined to give up if you work out that you can clear your debts x amount of time earlier if you don't smoke.

I would spend a bit of time going through gas/electricity/broadband/telephone etc making sure you are on the best possible deal for you as you may be able to make small savings here.


Good luck with it all

Sleekit

Hi LL, and well done on biting the bullet and working it all out! As you say the obvious cutbacks are food, smoking and discretionary spending. Also have a look at the not-so-obvious ones like your energy bills - look at uswitch.com to see if you can save any money there.

You're paying BT £55 a month - check out https://www.1899.com for 3p calls. That's 3p per call, not 3p per minute!! You still have to pay line rental to BT, but it should take a whack off that monthly bill.

You say that you never get ahead with the insurance but would like to. Insurance is generally cheaper if you pay it in a lump sum instead of monthly, but it can be hard to save for it that first time since you're still paying a monthly sum for this year's. What I would suggest is you use one week's cigarrette money (£35) a month, shove it in a savings account and forget about it. Within a year that should pay off the insurance. If you want to save for christmas/car tax/ MOT, take that from the ciggie money as well. That way you're motivated to not smoke and you can see just what the smoking money is doing for you now.

Penny-Pincher!!

Do you have a morgage or rent to pay?

The food bill could be halved-pop over to the Old style board. I have cut down from £90 a week for 3 of us to £25 a week and we eat better now than ever. Cut backs I would do, would be: quit fags or cut down, sky cancelled , BT (look for cheaper option) and shop around for cheaper insurance.

Is there anyway you or OH could take on a second job, do more hours or look for better paid jobs?

PP
xx

Lewby

Hi and Welcome. :wave:

I pretty much agree with the others, if you are able to give up smoking that will be great 'saving' money. I also think that if you visit the 'Saving Old Style' Board you will find lots of really useful advice on cutting down on your food bill. It is amazing when you add up what you do spend, especially when you also add the sandwiches you buy, nibbles and choc in the evenings to it!

I have started drawing out £300 cash on the 1st of the month and making it last for the whole month for all our food and general spending (there are 5 of us + 2 more at weekends). You can shop around for BOGOF's at different shops. Check out https://www.fixtureferrets.co.uk for a site that will tell you which ones have what offers. When you have the cash it makes such a difference to what you spend. Using a card (as we all know) doesn't feel like money - but £5 notes does!!

This week I also managed to get our Sky subscription reduced to £7.50 per month for 6 months. I said that we were struggling financially at the moment and were needing to cut back. I asked if we could 'suspend it' rather than cancel as I didn't want the hassle of re-joining at a later date. They put me through to someone else who offered me the above deal - to help us through! That's saved us £81 and we also need to keep it as we have no TV signal where we live.

Hope this helps.

Lewby xx

lynzpower

Hello & welcome to MSE !!

Let me have a little lookie-see here...

**************************
Debts
Personal loan HSBC 223.00 p/m 7470 outstanding (34 repayments left)
HSBC Mastercard 180.00 p/m 6660 outstanding (limit £6,500)
Husband Mastercard 16.00 p/m 550 outstanding (llimit £1,000)
European Collection (old Associates debt) 50.00 p/m £280 outstanding

( You dont say what the APRs are on these debts, any chance of getting some moved to a 0% credit card rate cut the cards up and make standing orders to them?

Outgoing
Council tax 130.00
Gas 26.00
Electricity 107.00 (balance approx 200 their mistake always paid d/d no arrears)
Car ins 37.00
Bike ins 10.50 ( whats this for? Is it for a motorbike? If its for a pushbike ditch it, probably covered with your contents insurance is it? )
Bt 55.00 (includes all calls and broadband) ( go via Quidco and get primus tarfiif 2? This gives free evening & weekend calls, costs NOTHING, and if you go via quidco you'll get £8 cash back) Tv 11.00
Sky 19.00 (can’t receive freeview without new aerial!) ( Dump it then, seriously...)
Sub total 395.50


Food (3 adults, 2 teenagers, 1 child, 2 dogs, a 3 legged cat and a rabbit) 525.52 (131.37 p/w!!) ( of course this can be cut down on!)
Cigarettes (stopping tomorrow) 140.94 (35.23 p/w) ( good luck on quitting!!!) Papers, sandwiches (at work), chocolate (evening munchies!!) 43.43 (10.85 p/w) ( Dump this, make a nice lunch at home, and amalgamate your treats into your weekly shop. Papers can be read online - or scavved off a colleague! ) Petrol 108.00 (27 p/w) (ooh yeah if you can cut this down, good planLottery 10.00 (2.50 p/w) ( your best off paying the debts off with this, I have one a month as a treat now, and its a waste, Id rather have some chocolate lol) Extras (over last 4 weeks include school trip + photos, birthday Pressies (son no3 + daughter and mothers day) 150.56 (37.64 p/w) ( WOW, this is A LOT...)

Total 978.45

overdraft 353.68 but direct debits due out so will exceed limit of £500 ( thought of claiming back your bank charges? BAnkactiongroup.com

All this should help ( are you not paying contents or building insurance or rent here? Cant see anything like that)

All the best and look forward to seeing more of you around here!! xxx

library_lady_2

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Do you have a morgage or rent to pay?

husband school caretaker and we live on site, just a small rent taken from wages - thank goodness. Was it easy changing your shopping habits and does your weekly spend include milk, fruit and pet food. I really envy your thrift and welcome your advice.

lynzpower -thanks for having a look - unfortunately bad credit history (in the not to distant past!!) means I'm unlikely to be able to take advantage of the 0% aprs :mad: however hsbc have always been approachable and I'm considering taking out another personal loan to pay off cc and od but I'm reluctant 'cause thats what I did last July and here we are again ... doh!! Have my fingers been thoroughly burnt - I just don't know??!! just a brief reply have to feed the family ... doh! many thanks to all

GreenFingers_2

Hello Library lady,

Really great and interesting post…well done to you…hooray… :T

The item that stands out is the recurring problem with the dreaded Credit Card…. They are insidiously evil devices designed by the Vested Interests to keep you poor, continually in debt and feeling miserable and wretched… they are the work of the Devil… lol… There is only one cure and that is to destroy them with a very large pair of sharp scissors and to say… “No more….Never Again…”

Destroying the Credit Card will be difficult… much, much harder than giving up smoking… the Demons will talk to you in soft, dulcet tones…suggesting to put it away for “Emergencies” and other excuses… you will be tempted to get another one….. but resist these Temptations with all your Might…. rely solely on your Cheque Book and Cash… this will make you Brave and Fearless… lol and your debts will soon be a thing of the past… hooray…

lynzpower

I certainly wouldnt get another consolidation loan in fairness ,Ive done it, and there are plenty of us wearing the ragged t-shirts from that one. Its more than likely unlikely to change your spending habits.

Seems to be the general consensus around here that
a) cut back as much as you can, and you do have a fair bit to cut back on, then once you are in the swing of it throw every extra penny at your debt. Ive got a pot of copper Im taking to chuck at my barclaycard at the end of the month.
b) if you cut all back and still cant afford to pay stuff off, then contact payplan or CCS ( linkies at the top of page)
c) if your credit rating is poor, whats saying you WILL get a consolidation loan ? Or they wil give you one and it be higher interest? If you are forever going over your overdraft ( believe me Ive been there...many many times) then try to claim the charges back ( most people are successful, havent heard of anyone NOT getting the money back as yet, and throw the proceeds at your debt) Im looking somewhere in the region of 4k for my charges over 5 years, and thats only on one account. Havent even started to look at other accounts and credit cards yet...

I think whats interesting about your comment ( along with lots of newbie, me included) was "is it easy to change...". The short answer is NO. But, by working as a team with your family, and all of us on here, it can be much more enjoyable than you ever thought and money saving is very addictive.

Have you got anything to sell. Dont say no, you will have Ebay, greenmetropolis ( for books) amazon, car boot sales - do anything you can to get extra money together? How old are your teenagers? Time to get them earning, paper rounds shop jobs, and stop their pocket money. What about more earnings for you or OH? Babysitting? OH doing some extra little jobs for other people?

Congralulations again on joining us here- theres plenty to learn and when you think you cant make or save money any more , someone will post something and remind you you can!

All the very best of luck with it
Lynz
xx

library_lady_2

Thanks for the posts it does help, I really didn't want the consolidation loan cause I know the tempation of the dreaded cc and I've heard its dulcit tones usually in a letter that says "as a valued customer please accept this higher credit limit .. blah, blah, blah.."!! I may have to get in touch with the bank re the overdraft limit as for the last 3 months I've been charged £126.00 :eek: because I've gone over the limit and I thought if they could increase it marginally it will stop that dreaded charges + they haven't returned any dd's yet and I really don't want them too! I' haven't defaulted on ANY payment for at least 4 years. I just know I'm over spending on absolutely nothing (??) how can that be?? We have a 12 year old car, and most of our furniture is off ebay, thankfully my children (18, 13, 11 and 3yrs) are all happy to wear non branded clothing and hand me downs my only real expense for them is their one pair of good school shoes that generally last the year therefore worth the expense! So I know I have to address the spending, saving habit and I'm actually really looking forward to becoming an mse bore, I just want to see results now - patience is not my virtue perhaps thats my problem?? Thanks once again all and sorry for rambling.
PS: Husband can't do any extra work as he has a heart condition.

lynzpower

Well if you havent defaulted on anything you are in a REALLY strong position to get your debts transferred to lower interest rates. No consolidation loan will ever give you 0% as another nerd pointed out in the week SO TRUE.
Join in with us on the "what have you spent today" and the "good news thread" theres always someone to pat you on the back for small and not so small victories such as selling something on ebay etc.
Is your 18 year old at college or anything? Do you get an EMA for them? Just a thought? If they are working I hope they are paying board....??!!

Personally, as an aside, I wouldnt get them to increase your OD, just live out of your cupbaords and spend as little as you possibly can ( i know you are gonna anyway) and then try your upmost to claim your bank charges back. You coudl be in for a pretty penny if your successful with it, at least the 126....