yet another light bulb has switched on!

dannynixon

You need a full SOA posting up with the guaranteed monthly income. Anything else will be a bonus

loshypops

gargrave50 wrote: »

Sorry i should have put this all in one post. Just looked more closely and realised that many of your figures are "roughly". Its OK to estimate, but you really need to base your income on the minimum guaranteed amount, and your outgoings need to be accurate. For example, if a couple of your costs and/or your income is inaccurate then it could actually swallow up the majority of your £150 you think you will have left this month.

Thanks - i do need to sit down and go through everything.

debtaghh wrote: »

Hi,

I know it might feel lilke people are being critical and not helping you but they are trying to help ( I felt a bit like this at first). I have a lot of debt and understand that sometimes you do need a haircut/treat etc.

What I do to try and help my debts is cut back on fd,bills etc. I try and buy anything I need eg car insurance through cashback sites as then you get money back. I do surveys which doesn't give me a lot but all helps.

Do you have any old mobiles that you could get rid of?I have £65 on the way for 3 old phones that just sat there.

Your aprs seem quite high, do you have an empty card that you could ask for a promotional rate?Could your family accept you missing a couple of months of you not paying?I would focus on clearing the aprs that are the highest.

Hope this helps and hope you feel I haven't been critical.

Good Luck.

I'm trying to cut back on food and have been scouring shops for bargains to try and free up some money - i've told OH we arent buying anything else this month food wise we have quite a lot of tins and rice/pasta etc to last us the month.

I've already tried the old mobile cash ins a few month ago and got £45.00, but thanks you anyway it was a great help at the time.

dannynixon wrote: »

You need a full SOA posting up with the guaranteed monthly income. Anything else will be a bonus

Will sit down and do this asap, i need help.

gargrave50

Well done

loshypops

gargrave50 wrote: »

Try using this link to post a full SOA - it will ensure you have accounted for everything and you can see where things lie.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html




You need to take an afternoon and dig out all your paperwork and agreements. By listing the APR's accurately you can better judge in what order the debts need to be tackled.

You may also have to find cheaper alternatives for your haircut than £35 until you are more in control financially, many colleges / hairdressing academies do "stand by" appointments. Do you have any friends who have a hairdresser who comes to their home - often this is quite cheap. Unfortunately the trainers and clothing you mention would need to be a "no go" this month if you are left with £150.

Thanks for the link i'll check this out now.

As for the haircut its already been and gone and cost £30.00 and that was with colour blow dry etc, i've just found a hairdressers thats for newly qualified stylists and that would cost me £15.00 so i'm going to go there in future but its only open mid week so i would have to use a days holiday from work for this but i probably wont be getting a cut for another 5 month again i guess.

Trainers / clothing were not bought in the end though i do need to get some trainers from somewhere at some point, i wasnt planning on spending a fortune and hoped to get some from a sale or charity shop but we will see.

gargrave50

Thats great news that you've found somewhere to cut your costs. Don't cut it out all together budget for it. £15 every 6 weeks is £2.50 per week. That can easily be found, once you post your SOA with accurate figures we can work on budgeting for this .

I'll be on and off the site today but I've subscribed to your thread so that I can watch for your SOA. No-one should be judgemental - many of us have been in your situation or worse!

loshypops

gargrave50 wrote: »

Thats great news that you've found somewhere to cut your costs. Don't cut it out all together budget for it. £15 every 6 weeks is £2.50 per week. That can easily be found, once you post your SOA with accurate figures we can work on budgeting for this .

I'll be on and off the site today but I've subscribed to your thread so that I can watch for your SOA. No-one should be judgemental - many of us have been in your situation or worse!

Thank you

gargrave50

Hi loshypops,

don't forget to post your SOA. It can be quite a bit of work getting it together but you need to do this as soon as you can. Will be on and off most of today and tonight so will keep watching for it. xx Julie

MyopicMoo

Hi Loshypops,
It can be slow going at the start getting everything together - so don't feel you have to do everything at once. You also need to think about what is important to you and make sure that you don't make your budget so tight that you end up saying stuff it. Gargrave is right, work out your SOA using the lowest income you could get, that way you can make sure you can cover the bills even in your lower months.

For the mobiles, even if you are in a contract you can ask to reduce your tariff to a lower one, also check out if you are paying extra for things like roming charges or itemised billing (I found our I was being charged about £1 a month for itemised billing that I never looked at!).

Good luck getting things sorted.

chevalier

HOpe that you can do the SOA soon! Can I point out that you haven't a budget for birthdays, christmas or contents insurance. I am assuming you don't have a car as there are no costs for these?

Also I know that food has gone up recently. But I cook from scratched and was feeding 2 adults, 2children and 2 cats on what you are spending on just the two of you.... If you look on the Old Style forum on this site, you will find LOADS of cheap recipes for healthy eating. Yes it does take more time, but once you get in the swing of batch cooking etc then it will work out cheaper.

Ref clothes shoes etc. You could always have a look on freecycle. People put things up on there that they don't want any more and it is free to you. You just have to go and pick them up.

good luck with your journey
chev

gargrave50

Loshipops,

Any progress with the SOA - you have done so well to face up to everything, don't miss out this important step