i've finally had it....

skint_as_trousers

lightbulb time.. i did have this a while ago but keep putting it off.
Old user, new name, new start.. firstly:

PLEASE DON'T THANK ME OR CONGRATULATE ME ON HAVING MY LIGHTBULB MOMENT it'll just annoy me, i had it a while back but now i'm sick of having no life. I just want to get on with my SOA and get unskint.

Monthly income - basic = 1692.56


Rough Outgoings

Mortgage = £415.70
Rent = £51.22 (shared ownership)
Mortgage Insurance = £32.48
TV Licence = £10.99
Home Insurance = £16.45
Sky = £52.50
Citymain Administr = £4.99 (no idea what that is off the top of my head)
Countrywide AIS CR = £19.08 (no idea at the min, something to do with the house)
Dog Insurance = £16.60
Domain hosting = £5.88 (for friends and they paid me upfront)
Internet = £17.99
Phone line = £11.00
Gym = £25

Household DD's = £679.88


Other

Mobiles: This bit is stupid and i'm an idiot for it but i have 4 contract phones. I don't even use them all.
T-Mobile. £20 a month 2 year contract with about 10 months left. I was seeing somebody who was on T-Mobile and it was costing a fortune. So i got a phone on the same network, contract lasted longer than the relationship.
O2. £9.99 a month. Cancelled contract but they offered me half price line rental and a new phone, bargain i thought but silly mistake. About 6 months left to run on the contract.
3G. £30 a month. Another stupid mistake, free line rental, claim back after 6 months and then 12 months.. got to look through the bills and 'hope' i've not missed the first cashback cut off.
Orange. roughly £50 a month. Main phone, used all the time and would cost more on PAYG. I get a small allowance for work calls included in my wage.

Total £110 :eek:

I also pay £100 a month into a sharesave scheme at work and £50 a month into my savings account which currently has £2,500 in it.

Utility Bills
Water bill is 6 monthly and the last one was £102.00.
Gas and Leccy... errr, never had one and lived here just over a year. Which is one of the reasons i'm not touching my savings..


Debts
Credit card
Just sent off signed credit card docs for Mint 0% till January '07 with BT of £4600. 2% (i think) = £92.00
Loan
£15700 taken out in December '05 @ 6.9%. 6 payments at £240.67 made.

Payments = approx £332.67


Total outgoings =
Bills = £679.88
Mobiles = £110
Debt = £332.67

£1122.55


Savings = £150

Total outgoings = £1272.55 leaving me £420.01

that's worse than i thought. I thought everything i had outgoing was around a grand. That £420 has to cover

Food and toiletries - can't put an exact figure on it
Cigs - 20 a day @ £5. £150.. terrible, i do want to give up but now just isn't the right moment.
Petrol - probably about £60 a month.

I've got a lodger who's moving out on the 12th of this month and i was getting £200 a month off him. I know now i should have just paid that off my debts each month but it's too late now.

So all in all i'm just about managing. I got paid on Friday but had a stupid month last month and too scared to look at my bank account. Just paid £500 in from my savings account so i can start to behave and finally sort my sorry life out (was 3k i had before this).

Things to cut down..
Sky - i'm going to look at cutting down packages. I don't go out much as it is so i don't want to go to Freeview unless i HAVE to. I've got Sky+ multiroom with the full packages. I'm going to list the stations i use and see how much i can trim off it.
Gym - This might have to go. I've not got the motivation to go as often as i want. It'd be worth the £25 a month if i wasn't so lazy.
Smoking - looking at this lot it's time to give up. £150 a month in my pocket sounds a lot better.
Food - i need to lose weight so i'll cut down there.

---

When this Capital One card comes through it's also 0% on purchases till January so i might just bite the bullet and cancel all the phone contracts apart from my Orange one to cut down on monthly outgoings.

The sensible thing would be to cancel the Sharesaves and pay the extra £100 off my debts, in theory. In reality I'm paying £50 a month into 2:
2005 to 2008, approx £5 a share.
2006 to 2009, approx £9 a share.

Current price is £14.76 and expected to hit £20+ sometime this year.

The snowball calculator shows my debt free date of Feb 2013. 7 years away and i'm not accepting it anymore. No matter what it takes i want rid of it.

Selling on eBay - i've nothing to sell, literally nothing at all as i'm quite streamlined in the house.

We get our pay review this month but i can't see that being much more than £500 p/a. Bonus in June pay cheque, hopefully a grand.

Question 1 -
Should i use my savings to pay off some of the CC?

Question 2 -
When i get my bonus should i pay it off the CC or put into my savings account and gain interest while CC's are still on 0%?

I've also got a 10 day holiday booked at the beginning of July, this is paid for though. Spending moneywise i've got £185 in a bucket, 1p - 50p pieces. Also a sealed tin i stick £1 and £2 coins in so i've over £200 saved so far. I've also got £50 worth of cheques to bank (saving for nearer to holiday). Friend owes me £500 as i paid the holidays on my credit card (yep silly but at 0%) and another friend owes me £500 and should be giving me that fairly soon. (should i pay that £1000 off my credit card or again into savings fund?)

Mortgage is due for renewal in December. I know it shouldn't be done but i really want to take equity out of the house (if there is any), extend my term and drop to interest only. Just so i can clear all these debts and then just concentrate on the mortgage.. Go back to a repayment mortgage on a lower term and get it out of the way.

All advice welcome, i already look in the OS forum so that's no problem.

tesuhoha

Could you get another lodger?

lynzpower

HI there

One suggestion I would make is phone your mobile companies and ask if you can move onto PAYG. You might have to pay upfront to change your sims, but if you dont use them, fine, bin them , this could take off all your line rental & packages.

You could then raise some hard earned cah flogging back your phones to these chaps.

http://www.envirofone.com/index1.asp?sessionid=

Broken_hearted

Prepare to be annoyed well done

tomstickland

Sky and Gym could both go?
Use the savings to pay off debts - no point in saving at 5% before tax when you have debts at 6%.
Find out what those unknown items on the monthly outgoings are.

roversbabe

Quick one off the top of my head here - ciggies. I know its not the right time to quit for you but have you considered rolling your own - DH went down from £5 a day to £5 per week on cigs when he switched to rollies.

Tmobile / 3 mobiles - can you lower the tariffs at all if they're not being used. If your cc's are at 0%, just make the min payment and leave your savings for the mo. Can you make overpayments on your loan? If so, might be worth chucking your savings at that (though I'd leave an emergency amount in savings, a bit of 'Just in case' money)

Good luck

rb

lynzpower

Also, how much is in your savings account?

roversbabe

skint_as_trousers wrote:

Question 1 -
Should i use my savings to pay off some of the CC?

Question 2 -
When i get my bonus should i pay it off the CC or put into my savings account and gain interest while CC's are still on 0%?

Oops, missed answering your questions

Question 1 - not while your cc's are at 0%

Question 2 - put it in your savings and earn interest while the cc's are at 0%.

rb

skint_as_trousers

PAYG = the phones i want rid of are still in contract so doubt i could. I'm going to look at lowering the tarrifs though but i think just cancelling and selling the handsets to offset the payout might be the best way.

Sky = not losing it. I'll just end up down the pub. I'd slit my wrists without having a choice. Cancelling Sky is a final option, cutting down packages is my first.

Cigs = After doing the SOA i might as well just quit and save the money. I'm not old enough for roll ups.

Savings - the loan is at 6.9% and i doubt i could pay it off that. I could try and get the Northern Rock 5.6% loan for 2.5k less than what i need and use my savings and an NR loan (although 5.6% probably wouldn't come my way).

Lodger = i think i'm going to have to. Just be a case of finding somebody i can trust and could handle spending time with.

skint_as_trousers

lynzpower wrote:

Also, how much is in your savings account?

2.5 grand.

tomstickland

Sky = not losing it. I'll just end up down the pub. I'd slit my wrists without having a choice. Cancelling Sky is a final option, cutting down packages is my first.

Try the phoning up and saying you want to cancel trick, if it still works. They used to offer you the package for half price.

Personally, I'd bin Sky and go to freeview.