im a newbie & in need of help & advice

fairy_girl_2

zippychick wrote: »

Hi
Do you have any room on your 14% cards, to transfer the 19 apr credit card to get that on a lower ABR?

Is your husband able to use public transport for work?

Regards phone packages etc - mine is £37 a month with virgin for landline, broadband and basic tv package. Im sure there are better deals, but it's just to give you an idea.

Well done on your lightbulb moment. This board is great and everyone is really helpful.

Have you considered washable nappies? (not for all i admit, just a thought Im throwing out there). I have heard Lidl nappies are good - but i can understand you may not want to downgrade these - but I wondered if you had tried before ?

Regards the groceries - do you bulk cook? The OS forum is amazing , can completely transform your spending habits. Im sure most have room for a little improvement on grocery costs. There is a grocery challenge you can try - sure won't do any harm . Again, OSers are fantastic and really helpful.

We are totally maxed out on all our cards so not really an option unfortunately.
My partner can't use public transport because there isnt any that run to correspond with his work times and to his work place.
I do bulk cook where possible but not always. will start to do more so in future though.
I have tried cheaper versions of nappies but didnt like them.

QueenBeruthiel

Rent and petrol are consuming nearly all your partner's earnings - it's no wonder people become disheartened and say they would be better off on the dole.

fairy_girl_2

yeah exactly but my partner is too proud to do that. the jobcentre wouldnt even look at me when i went to them for help. They said my partner was working over 16 hours and earning enough to keep us??? I just dont understand what planet they are on at times.

fairy_girl_2

QueenBeruthiel wrote: »

Your contents insurance is very high. I pay less than that for buildings and contents. Check out the comparison sites and see if any are offering cashback via Quidco.

As already said, a landline/broadband package would be far, far less than £100 pm. Add 2 cheapo mobiles on PAYG at £10 pm and you would have change from £50 p.m.

Your petrol is incredibly high. Is public transport a possibility, at least in part? Or car share?

I have just checked out Quidco and managed to cut my contents insurance by half, so wicked. Thanks for that

zippychick

Don't forget to keep updating your SOA to include your reduced insurance, and mobiles etc.

good work so far! Fair enough on the nappies etc - totally understand.

fairy_girl_2

Everytime i update my SOA, do I have to repost it on here or is there a way that i can just amend the one that is already posted?

dancingfairy

Um not sure how to do that. You can go back to your posts and click edit and edit them (think you can amend the SOA calculator output) but that won't change the totals - maybe just put the new amount in pink next to it?
Hope you can get the appropriate benefits sorted out - have you applied? or appealed or whatever you need to do? What are they saying? This would really help you out if you could get a bit more benefit.
Have you checked out water rates and see if a meter would be cheaper or not?
df

fairy_girl_2

I have appealed aginst they're decisin not to give us housing & council tax benefit. They said we are not entitled to it because of my partners income. So just waiting to hear back from appeal. I'm not entitled to jobseekers because partner works over 24 hours and I havent paid enough national insurance. Im gonna look into see if we are even entitled to income support or something along those lines, at least til I find a job, which is proving harder than I thought.
Im not sure if we would be better off on a water metre or not but will check it out.

fairy_girl_2

bluebag wrote: »

Hi there, may I ask why you are on economy 7 electric if you have oil heating? My understanding was economy 7 was only worth it if you had storage heaters as the daytime rate is much higher. Please forgive me if you are finding it cheaper on E7, just looking for ways to squeeze a few more bob out.

I just spoke to our energy supplier & they told me that we are not getting the benefits from econ 7 so going to change over to a standard rate if our landlord allows us to get a new metre fitted. I cant see it being a problem. This means our DD will be less each month, so thanks for raising this very valuable point.

Denis_UK

Just a small point but £3000 a year on car fuel,check tyre pressure regularly,go easy on the throttle pedal,by driving carefully you could easily reduce that by 5 or 10%