N00bie debt boy asking for HELP to sort his life out.

tbourner

With the Gas/Electric switch, reducing our mobile contracts, cancelling the income protection insurance and reducing our TV package we save around £84 a month by my calculations! It's a start!!

Thinking about it the last 2 years of going to Salisbury we've not had a dog!! Bit unfair leaving him in the car while we eat Pizza so maybe coming home and getting BOGOF from Dominoes could be a better idea - should be half the price!!

Raquela

sounds like your electricity usage is quite high then as well, you may want to look at this. Do you live in a very big house or a poorly insulated house? Do you have low energy bulbs, turn off things etc.? Think of it this way - that £12 a month is money that you can throw at your debt. Thinking it's only £12 in terms of buying stuff is how you get into debt!You need to reverse the thinking - it's true, every penny helps. The same thinking applies to everything you buy - including your groceries.

Spending diary - everyone does it according to their own needs. The only way I can do it accurately is to note down everything I buy in my diary, otherwise i forget to do it. I have a 'cash' account on my money software which I reconcile as if it were a real bank account, so I can be sure my budget is right.

Re the life insurance, I don't have it, so can't advise, but other people's SOAs seem to have a much lower figure - have you tried all the comparison sites out there? Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this point than me can advise. How long does the income protection cover you for? Once you've a handle on your debts it would be better to aim to save three months worth of income in an 'emergency fund' rather than have income cover.

Raquela

tbourner wrote: »

With the Gas/Electric switch, reducing our mobile contracts, cancelling the income protection insurance and reducing our TV package we save around £84 a month by my calculations! It's a start!!

Thinking about it the last 2 years of going to Salisbury we've not had a dog!! Bit unfair leaving him in the car while we eat Pizza so maybe coming home and getting BOGOF from Dominoes could be a better idea - should be half the price!!

there you go, that's the thinking! And on the pizza front - I got two Pizza Express pizzas from waitrose yesterday Buy one get one free if you are passing one on the way home! Not sure how long the offer is on for though..

GSXRCarlos

Hi Trev, good luck

and please don't take offense from any of the comments made here

Sometimes the meaning of someones commenst are lost over the internet, and while people may seem frustrated with your situation, they really are only trying to help.

But at the end of the day you (and zoe) are the only ones who can help yourselves. The first step was coming on here with the right attitude, now you've gott work on reducing that debt by maximising your overpayments

don't forget that £10 a month = £120 a year closer to your targets

Shoe_Gal

Raquela wrote: »

To be honest, it doesn't sound like you have had your true lightbulb moment yet. If you want to get your debts down quicker, you need to think about revising your phone/internet/tv package, £55 is a lot of money each week, you also need to think about your £50 a week each rule for everything. Keep a spending diary and actually see where that money is going. I would bet that you can save a lot of money on your groceries etc.

Also your utilities and life insurance are crazy, shop around. I don't get the working dog thing so will make no comment!

You can sort this out, but you do need to change your thinking to do so.

Hi

I totally agree with this - l have been through the same process. You really do have to change your thinking if you want to make real savings and inroads into your debts

zippychick

I really think you need to redo your SOA. I am confused after reading this thread.! Be honest and true. :A


If I can be honest for a second, you don't seem willing to make many sacrifices. Yes you have come on here for advice which is fantastic, but I think you need to truly take a step back from things, examine your attitude to spending, and have a word with yourself. ( meant in a nice non agressive way)

Can you explain the point of the working dog to me?I genuinely don't understand what it all means?

Ill better your Pizzas.Get on over to the Old Style forum, and make yourself some Home made pizza

Pizza base recipes

Pizza sauce

The complete pizza collection

Why not try making home made pizzas and inviting friends over? cheap entertainment within your means . Games/movies night?

Some things you said which made me question your LBM.... and i think you really need to read and consider

K so me and the wife don't earn too badly, but I've made some huge mistakes due to my obsession with cars!!


I filled in the budget planner from here to be told we're spending nearly £300 a month more than we earn!!!! So that's why my overdraft keeps growing!!!!!


So we need help.


Anyhoo, here's a quick SOA I did, it's not precise but it's rough enough to show you how much trouble we're in:

Our main spend at the moment other than debts is the dog - he's a sled pulling breed and when he hits a year old in October we were intending to get him working, which means buying a rig/scooter and harnesses and lines (about £400 total), then going to rallies and events throughout the winter (£40 fuel + food etc. each weekend) - at the moment this is looking unlikely which is a huge shame because it's the most important year for him to start working.
We made (possibly a huge) mistake last month in buying another car,

We've considered it, we don't like the idea!

The only problem will be keeping my number,

It's PetPlan, I don't know any other companies that offer continuous cover?

Also you're right it's a bit wishy washy

The main cost of the dog is going to events .......... so we spend around £70!!

I would recommend you do this. Make your grocery budget exactly that including toiletries and cleaning products. Fuel is fuel. Clothes - to be honest are a luxury, so I would give these a miss for a while. Maybe Zoe can have a go at customising clothes? Also, freecycle - people give away clothes for free. But do you really need more clothes? Put entertainment, under entertainment. Then we know exactly how much you spend on food and how we can help reduce it and save more.

Have you contacted Virgin to see about maybe going on a contract? You should be able to get that down - but bear in mind you would need to go on a contract. Mine is £37, and i have landline, internet and basic tv - no sports or movies. It is worth shopping about . Also investigate freeview. Here is a list of channels. First place i checked, £18.99 on argos.

You could end up paying £10 for internet, no land line, and reduced mobiles and food bills. And potential car savings. No one said this was going to be easy but you need to both learn to make sacrifices and soon.
I had to reign my own neck in something shocking last year so I have been there myself.

Regards the 4 by 4, must it really be on the road all year? Aren't there things you could sacrifice to ensure it doesn't have to be?

get signed up to freecycle . Get rid of clutter you can't sell and see if you get a freeview box on there- people give them away all the time. Find out from virgin how much it would be for landline and internet. Or consider cutting off landline and shopping around for broadband. You can keep your number on PAYG with other networks. You asked what if you need a new phone - you know what? Worry about that if it happens. To be blunt, you are in this trouble because of your

obsession with cars

I know loads of people with spare phones, so i am sure a friend can help you out, or freecycle. Look for ads for free in your local gumtree. From freecycle alone, you could also redecorate a room - subscribe to the offered threads- painting party? Free entertainment again.

Start clearing a room at a time and set up a freecycle box and an ebay bpx and a dump box. You will be surprised what you can find. Maybe use adsforfree?

well done on applying for extra work, i hope it works out. Can Zoe also do an extra job? maybe cleaning, fast food,bar work i dunno?!

This all comes to you with the best of intentions.

Raquela

Just wanted to add - yes, sorry if I came across as harsh, I genuinely don't mean it that way, but having been where you've been, as have many others, I can spot the signs! I got my first debt aged 21, it took til I was 28 to seriously do something about it. And even now I slip and buy something because 'it's only a fiver' etc., or cant be bothered to do little money earners because it's 'not worth it'. And of course it is also true that a written post on an internet forum can come across differently than the person intended - me saying your utility bills amounts are 'crazy', that's something I would say in natural speech to mean you can get a better deal than that etc!

and as per the above poster, yes, please explain the working dog thing! I get that if it lived in its natural habitat it would be a working dog, but what would it do here etc, am intrigued?!

musogirl295

Hi there, I don't post much on this board but a couple of things in your posts are very similar to my situation.

My DH and I are similar ages to you and your wife with almost identical incomes. As far as the insurances go, our house is a little more expensive than yours but our insurances are far less. We did make some educated sacrifices though. Our buildings and contents insurance (no sacrifices there!) is £8 a month, and that includes cover for me working from home. With the life insurance we decided just to insure my husband for now as in the event of something happening to him I wouldn't be able to cope on my lower self employed income, however my husband works for a very good company which are very good with their staff and benefits so he would be ok financially if I went. Life insurance for him on our higher value house is £12 a month and hes the same age as you. This doesn't include critical illness. We decided and were advised when taking out the mortgage that there are often so many exclusions with these policies that its often not worth it (and again Hubbys company are excellent on this front). The same situation again with the income protection.

At some point in the future we may change this as our situation changes but we felt at this stage the life insurance on hubby was only one that was really needed. I would check with your companies and see what their policies are regarding staff in difficult family and illness situations and weigh up the pros and cons.

On the dog toy front, we've had two dogs in last 2 years (lost the 1st one 3 months ago). Both have been very chewy dogs and we've found that cheap toys really are a false economy. We've got a very good pet store and they sell a range of indestructible toys. They aren't cheap at about £10-20 each but the one we've got is the only toy that has lasted through both dogs without so much as a ripped ear!

Sorry it's a bit of an essay but HTH,

Muso x

tbourner

Thanks to everyone, and can I just say you can say what you like!! You'll have to forgive my replies if they sound like I'm getting upset with you, I've been on forums for years, been moderating and all sorts, I'm on the most sarcastic car forum you could imagine and also on the most nicey nicey wafty dog forum where you can't say anything out of turn or you get deleted!!!! What I'm saying is I understand the way only 20% of communication is verbal and that's all you get on a forum (except the odd smiley ) so please say what you feel and don't worry if my replies sound like you've upset me, you haven't (well you might have done but don't worry about it).

RIGHT! I'm getting that you want us to sacrifice a lot more of our current lifestyle than we'd wanted to, you're gonna need to convince the missus!! I could live on nothing but Zoe has luxuries. I don't mind getting rid of my Discovery channels but Zoe won't be happy without music channels (yes I know, there's always the radio and CDs - then she'll want new CDs every week!!!). We have a freeview built in LCD TV so we don't need a box. Maybe the compromise is lowering our TV package from XL to S or M.

I use my phone for emails and the internet, some of it work related but they won't get a phone for me (they don't do it for managers who HAVE to use their phone for work!!), so I can't really not have a decent phone. I just phoned Vodafone and if I keep my current phone I can get half price line rental for 9 months - so not that great a deal. I'm gonna keep looking, Zoe too.

Zoe is trying to start up as a home based secretary, but because she works for the NHS as a secretary 8-5 every day it's tricky to get people interested as they'll want her available any time of the day. My brother has suggested a few places to advertise (Institute of Chartered Accountants for example) but the same problem applies. Any advice on starting working from home or advertising cheap would be helpful? Even better if anyone wants a Remote Personal Assistant for a couple of hours a week just ask!!


Working Dogs: All dogs are bred for something, they all have jobs. Most people don't get their dogs doing what they're supposed to do but when we looked into breeds a few years back we decided we wanted to do it properly. We've learnt A LOT about looking after a dog and Malamutes are not like most other dogs.
They are very similar to the Siberian Husky, except Huskies are racers and Malamutes are weight pullers. The problem with them as a breed is you can't really let them off lead unless you have a secure area to do it (which we don't generally) so they don't get the exercise they should - and lack of correct exercise is why dogs destroy houses, hence we decided if we were going to get a Mal we would want to work him.
What this means is either rallying or weight pull. Rallying is one or more dogs on harness with lines in front of a scooter or 'rig' (like a scooter but with 3 wheels so you stand with your legs apart), the dogs run around a course usually about 3 miles long, and it's timed so you can compete and compare with other owners. There are classes like 1 Mal, 2 Mal, 2+ Husky team, Single scooter, Kids etc. etc. Weight pull is with a different type of harness, and dogs in similar classes pull a trolley behind them with increasing weight added (a single adult Malamute can pull over a ton!!!).
These breeds are VERY clever, and without stimulation like this they get bored and therefore destructive. Without the right kind of exercise like this (as well as an hour walk every day) they get bored and therefore destructive. These rallies go on all through winter all over the country. Then in summer there are the fun weekends and evening meets in enclosed dog fields (went to Manor Farm last month - £5 each for the field rent and we can let all the dogs off and run around for 2 hours - believe me it's a great sight if you never let your dog off lead normally).
So that's a working dog - lots of effort and work - lots of rewards!!

We haven't bought him any toys for some time now anyway, we get rabbits from a local hunter and my dad gets me chicken carcasses and pork ribs, other than that he eats our leftovers and we make him vegetable mixes with smart price frozen veg - so he's a lot cheaper to feed than with normal dog food (bearing in mind he weighs 7 stone at 10 months old). The cost really is going places. Having the big 4X4 to take him places EVERY weekend, and also we'll be needing to buy a trailer if we get a rig. The way we looked at it 2 years ago is we don't go out pubbing and clubbing and spending £70-80 in a night so we can do events instead.

tbourner

Well I've just switched gas and electric supplier online, £20 cashback with greasypalm (I hope, never trust that it registers it!!), and a saving of an estimated £38 a month!!!!! Also cancelled our income protection insurance as it only pays out less than half our salary after 6 months for me and 3 months for Zoe, so pretty pointless!! Total saving so far estimated £71 a month!!!!

Phones, TV, mobiles are next, then we might look at B&C and life insurance although I'm pretty sure we can't get it cheaper with the cover we want.