Help! I'm new and trying to reorganise my debts

onlypaddy

One more point to add....£183.33 per month for car maintenance? That is £2220 per year just about. Bit steep no?

magicgirl68

Why not look at the stop smoking posts on this forum. There's lots of support there and you can go on and have a rant when it gets too much. There are lots of cessation aids out there and most are available on prescription. I stopped 13 weeks ago and have saved over £500 so far. It's not easy but if you're determined you will do it.

dangerousdodo

onlypaddy wrote: »

One more point to add....£183.33 per month for car maintenance? That is £2220 per year just about. Bit steep no?

Yes it is a bit steep I know, but we have two cars and I work away and do over 30K a year so requires alot of servicing, also had a few problems with one of them lately,
It works out around:

£780 insurance
£390 Tax
£270 AA joint
£800 Tyres and servicing

Thanks for your thoughts though

Little_Miss_Winner

dangerousdodo wrote: »

It works out around:

£780 insurance
£390 Tax
£270 AA joint
£800 Tyres and servicing

Thanks for your thoughts though

Hiya

Have you signed upto quidco?? It's a cashback site, that pays YOU to click through them. I never buy anything on-line until I have been through quidco 1st.

Last year the AA were doing an offer through quidco, only basic cover, but they paid something like £25 if you took out the policy that was £21.40....:rotfl: Martin spotted it, and put it on this site, so we all took it up!

Quidco is a great site, check it out for all your insurances etc...
http://www.quidco.com/

Penny_pauper

Hi dangerousdodo,
I'm not sure if this is the kind of advice you are looking for but this is what has been helping me get my finances in order (and trust me this is still an ongoing feat)
I'm not in your situation but OH is getting made redundant and we have had to start living on my wage alone (a cut back of 1300 a month). i have struggled with this but it is necessary and I am getting better. Looking at your figures there are lots of areas you can make cuts as everyone has said.
1 I'd only give you £300 a month on food (There are two of us and our weekly shop is £25-35 this includes meat and alcohol.)
The only way to achieve this is get cook books from library and plan your week, bulk cook and freeze or ensure any normally single use ingredients are used in a meal later in the week. Feed your bin only peelings. Cook from scratch.
2 Cut your eating out to £30. Folk may say scrap it completely but I understand a wee treat stops you going stir crazy. There are great deals on 5pm, vouchers on here, byob restaurants or if worst comes to worst go for lunch and treat it as your big night out.
3 Work a cash only system. With cards it's mythical money you are spending. This has been the only thing that has worked for OH and me as he was looking at bank balance and spending loads at start of month. When I took out our available cash and split it according to weeks of the month it was easier to think ah, that purchase needs to wait to next week (or not ever as the case may be) and so you can get to the end of the month without running out.
4 Talk to friends and let them know it's a tight time, folk are understanding and will make exceptions (they might be a bit skint themselves) and will understand that you want to have drinks at home rather than in the pub etc.

Now everyone might disagree with me on the next bit but I would take the £800 odd extra as outlined by pot'o'gold and I'd blitz the M & S card, I know it's not the highest amount but it has a fairly hefty rate and it could be gone in a month and a bit and psychologically I think that'd be an immense boost for you to actually see a real return for all your changes. This is the point were the really clever people on this site can step in and tell you which one to then tackle next (personally I'd go for the First Direct 1966 cause again it can be obliterated in a short space of time and by getting rid of these two you free up another £84). This might not be the best advice, it may be wiser to tackle the biggy Virgin and pay the rest down a little at a time, I am no mathematician but I am sure one of the other folk on this site will keep us both right!

Best of luck dangerousdodo. You do have some great opportunites to make savings and I hope you can turn your situation around.

PP

dangerousdodo

I have been on the quidco website and it looks good I will definately be trying this out again before I make purchases through the web.

dangerousdodo

Thanks for this.

We need to change our eating habits on the food front I think. We do both tend to eat a bit on the hoof and make purchases every other day or so we need to go back to a weekly shop for all the main things we need and just top up with the perishables like milk and bread in between

I like your idea about clearing the smaller ones first , it will release some of the cash and as you say be a confidence builder for the others.

shootmenow

Lookign at your outgoings and incomings at first made me think what a prat but it proves that we spend what we earn (and a bit more)

Good luck

Oh and I have banked with First Direct for years and they have always been spot on - now they are as hard as nails

mum2one

dangerousdodo wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for your earlier responses a bit slow getting back to you but I have completed my SOA, I used the budget planner on this site. It was a bit of an eye opener.

I dont think I can place attachments so I have had to copy it all. All transactions are monthly.


Deep breath here goes:

Total income £3497

OUTGOINGS
Home
Offset Mortgage £690
House incurance £37.36 -is that buildings and contents, seems high, (1)
Bank acc fee £9.95 -get rid of it, unless you actually use the facilities
Council Tax £112-not reduced, but maybe ask for it to be paid over 12 months
Water £76.07 - seems very high, are you in arrears
Gas £40
Electric £65
Home Phone £20.56- is that a tied in call package
TV Licence £12.12
Mobile £33- need to reduce that - look around sim only deal at renewal
Home subtotal £1096.06

Insurance
Pet £24.15-I actually say keep that (from personal experience)
Gas Boiler £17.04(ditto)
Subtotal £41.19

Eats/ Drinks & Smokes
Food/ groceries/toileteries £ 680 - :eek:that needs a major overall
Eating out £87 -packed lunches - eating out a luxury
Coffee/ sandwiches £30 -again an added luxury
Drinking out £20
Smokes £330 -sorry -way to high
Meals at work £10
Subtotal £ 1167

Motoring
AA £18.92
Car Maintenance £183.33 -are you sure thats right, very expensive
Car Insurance £65 - oh my heck - way to expensive (1)
Car Tax £31.25
Petrol/ Diesel £200 - can you cut some journeys down
Subtotal £498.50

Cards & Loan
HP £47.50 (1 month left on repayment)
Credit Cards £856.40 -do the snowball and that will give you a realistic payment schedule
Subtotal £903.90

Savings
Company share option £60
Company Pension £329
Subtotal £389

Fun
DVD rental £15 - luxury - even if you can reduce by £5 pm, - £60 per year
IT £5
Pet costs £10
Books/music £20 - luxury -can you reduce
Lottery £24 - an unnecessary expense, £288per year...
Newspapers £15.16
Subtotal £89.16

Health & Beauty
Gym £34
Dentist £6.67
Subtotal £40.67

Clothes £40

Big one offs
Christmas £83.33 - reduce budgets
Holiday £66.67- reduce/postpone
Birthdays £33.33-reduce
Kitchen/ homewares £16.67-do you need something every month
Subtotal £200


TOTAL: £4455.47


A couple of points to add:

• Mortgage is £690 and interest is currently £152/ month. As it is an offset I have been dipping into it on months where there is a deficit. There is currently only £500 available in the offset.
• Pension is currently £329/ month I have been paying the premium for which my company matches for some while as it is a company scheme. However the company is moving to a new scheme next month and I am considering delaying joining the scheme.

I know you will pick up on the smoking, we have tried, whilst we want to give up we have both have had alot of stress lately and its very hard at the moment

Any further comments and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
DD

Just going roughly by your figures you need to reduce by over £1,000 per month.

The biggest culprits, smoking, groceries, car, and presents.

For insurance look ar cashback sites, compoarison sites
Grocery - meal plan, budget,
Coffee/Sandwiches/lunch out - their luxuries, need to be reduced.

Theirs going to be some painful cuts, but some of the other cuts smaller, not really noticeable.

Presents - I budget throughout the year, theres 2 good xmas threads, thrifty threads, one shows you how to make extra pennies, sets challenges, the other Santas challenge, basically being organised for christmas and birthdays, but we all support each other and can almost say reduce our xmas bills in half without comprisming on quality.
x
Apologies just realised your upto pg 3, and I've answered off pg 1 so apologies if I have doubled up the pointers x

dangerousdodo

mum2one wrote: »

Just going roughly by your figures you need to reduce by over £1,000 per month.

The biggest culprits, smoking, groceries, car, and presents.

For insurance look ar cashback sites, compoarison sites
Grocery - meal plan, budget,
Coffee/Sandwiches/lunch out - their luxuries, need to be reduced.

Theirs going to be some painful cuts, but some of the other cuts smaller, not really noticeable.

Presents - I budget throughout the year, theres 2 good xmas threads, thrifty threads, one shows you how to make extra pennies, sets challenges, the other Santas challenge, basically being organised for christmas and birthdays, but we all support each other and can almost say reduce our xmas bills in half without comprisming on quality.
x
Apologies just realised your upto pg 3, and I've answered off pg 1 so apologies if I have doubled up the pointers x

Thankyou for your comments. You have picked up on more useful points , I hadnt considered the phone and council tax previously.

I saw that on the credit cards you mentioned about doing the snowball, what is this? where can I find out about it?