Finally got a reality check!!

elzie

Thanks Sea! I had my first baby at 18 and it was such a shock to the system i never enjoyed it all, this time however i am totally loving it spending time with our new addition, but then lie in bed stressing about finances at night.

car Insurance is for car each. i live in a village miles from anywhere and hubby needs his scrapheap to get to work. I need one to get aywhere, there are like 2 buses a day and I am stuck otherwise.

I forgot to mention that the £3000 is a loan from my nan to get a 5 door car when baby arrived. Not made any repayments yet. i sold my other car for £1300 to my sister and still awaiting payment for this. I cant see how i forgot to add this on!!

Im not sure what the overdraft rates are with my bank for 699.99 and 300 odd. Think its about 14.5%?? The other one for 500 is with the A&l at 0%. I have also written off to the bank last week about bank charges and had a response this morning saying that they will forward the 6 yeards worth of statements for free and a load of stuff about manual intervention which i didnt really get?!

**purpleprincess**

elzie wrote:

Thanks all for the sugestions already!
I have been looking at the oldies boards but how do you get by on just £20 a week purple princess?

Well first of all I did the storecupboard/freezer challenge, use up everything you have got first, you'll be surprised what you can make out of odds and sods! And anything you've got that you don't know what to do with then post on the OS board and someone is bound to have an idea!

Secondly meal plan meal plan meal plan!!! I do two weeks of meal plan at a time, only buy what I need and stick to it. Make my own lunches for work. I also cook things in bulk and freeze the extra portions, that's kind of like a "ready meal" for when I can't be @rsed to cook in the evening!:p

With toiletries, I again used up everything I already had- odds and sods, and just buy what I need now. Cleaning stuff I now use stardrops and micro fibre cloths, stardrops has lasted me ages!! Also use vinegar and bicarb, soooo cheap!!!

And to be honest I often spend less that £20 a week, sometimes about £15 so extra goes off the debts!

Feel free to PM me for ideas xx

elzie

N Union Accident insurance 2.98 ( whats this for ) its for £40k worth of insurance which will pay out in an accident. £20k for me and hubby each. Probably rubbish.
Water 42.00
gas 40.00
Tv licence 10.99
Electric 30.00
Mortgage Repayment protection 35.66 ( is this PPI?, do you need it?) Its something to do with if we could not work it would pay the minimum mortgage payments for us. I think this is rubbish too as it wont kick in until we have been off work for 6 months.
Bt (quarterly) 13.50
Life insurance 10.02(!!) i know!!!!
Life insurance 18.77(!!) ditto
Life Insurance 14.45 (!) feeling sick
Life Insurance 20.27 (!) feeling even sicker
Life insurance 24.60(!!) its terrible
Life Insurance 8.27 (!!) what awaste of money
Life Insurance 115.57 (!!) the worst of all
CIS Child savings 10.00 ( can you afford to be saving at the mo?) had this since i had my first child seven years ago and it runs till she is 18- i cant get out of it as you wont get back what you have put in.
Fortis car Insurance 17.61
Sky 21.00 ( yep, dump) reallydont want to dump sky as oury indulgence. but if needs must.
Remortgage 244.24 ( whats this? a second mortgage? Whats the APR, how much, how long to run? ) we bought our house and my dad lent me the deposit until we had done the house up and could have some equity to add this to the mortgage. It was for £39k and is a repayment mortgage over the remaining 23 years and 6 months of our mortgage.
Mortage 668.61
02 Mobile 35.00 (now cut down to £8 from June)
Fortis Car Insurance 30.71
House Insurance Building and Contents 23.47
American Life Insurance 5.95 (!!) some insurance against breast cancer which has affected most of the women in my family. Only good thing is that all the money will be refunded at the end of the policy if no claim made.
carphone warehouse phone and broadband14.99
Council tax 115.00
Food approx £240.00 ( too high) please help me get this down!
Petrol £80.00

Do you really NEED two cars? You havent budgeted for repairs or anything, MOTs etc?
Mots are done by a mate with his own garage and cards normally fly through- i do extra nights at the pub to pay this off as a one off.

elzie

N Union Accident insurance 2.98 ( whats this for ) its for £40k worth of insurance which will pay out in an accident. £20k for me and hubby each. Probably rubbish.
Water 42.00
gas 40.00
Tv licence 10.99
Electric 30.00
Mortgage Repayment protection 35.66 ( is this PPI?, do you need it?) Its something to do with if we could not work it would pay the minimum mortgage payments for us. I think this is rubbish too as it wont kick in until we have been off work for 6 months.
Bt (quarterly) 13.50
Life insurance 10.02(!!) i know!!!!
Life insurance 18.77(!!) ditto
Life Insurance 14.45 (!) feeling sick
Life Insurance 20.27 (!) feeling even sicker
Life insurance 24.60(!!) its terrible
Life Insurance 8.27 (!!) what awaste of money
Life Insurance 115.57 (!!) the worst of all
CIS Child savings 10.00 ( can you afford to be saving at the mo?) had this since i had my first child seven years ago and it runs till she is 18- i cant get out of it as you wont get back what you have put in.
Fortis car Insurance 17.61
Sky 21.00 ( yep, dump) reallydont want to dump sky as oury indulgence. but if needs must.
Remortgage 244.24 ( whats this? a second mortgage? Whats the APR, how much, how long to run? ) we bought our house and my dad lent me the deposit until we had done the house up and could have some equity to add this to the mortgage. It was for £39k and is a repayment mortgage over the remaining 23 years and 6 months of our mortgage.
Mortage 668.61
02 Mobile 35.00 (now cut down to £8 from June)
Fortis Car Insurance 30.71
House Insurance Building and Contents 23.47
American Life Insurance 5.95 (!!) some insurance against breast cancer which has affected most of the women in my family. Only good thing is that all the money will be refunded at the end of the policy if no claim made.
carphone warehouse phone and broadband14.99
Council tax 115.00
Food approx £240.00 ( too high) please help me get this down!
Petrol £80.00

Do you really NEED two cars? You havent budgeted for repairs or anything, MOTs etc?
Mots are done by a mate with his own garage and cards normally fly through- i do extra nights at the pub to pay this off as a one off.

elzie

Hi Avo- Martin just got refused for the capital one 0% tranfer but his only(!) debt is his credit card and no other credit history- could this be why?

**purpleprincess**

Don't worry, we'll be able to help you!! xx

nicola1982_2

I'd suggest cancelling all the life insurance policies and getting one that covers everything. Why are your water rates so high?

Food wise - meal plan, get in plenty of staples. My essentials are tinned tomatoes, spices, pasta and stock cubes. You can use them in so much. I have an array of low cost recipes I use, most are on the recipe old style thread. Utilise the freezer - you butcher may do bulk buy meat offers and you can just whack it all in the freezer and it will last for ages.

Shop in Aldi or Lidl. You may have seen Aldi's latest ad campaign, it isn't just a gimmick, the food is of excellent quality, low prices and varied. I get my joints from there even. Have a look at their website.

elzie

Thanks nicola1982. I should wait until the IFA comes back to me before cancelling the policies tho yeah?

Not sure why water so high. The sewerage charage and water charge comes to £345 a year and direct debit is £34.58 a month- sorry had it wrong on my first post. Just logged onto internet banking to check that i had rest correct.

Thanks for the ideas about cheaper shopping. So Aldis and Lidls are good for a bargain then? I dont want to sound like a snob as I am not one by any means but isnt there meat on the dodgy side? Massive apolgies if this is not the case- I was just told this by someone i know.

**purpleprincess**

No! Aldi and Lidl are great!!!

tyllwyd

Just a thought - are they all life insurance policies, or are some of them endowment policies (which would include an element of life insurance)? Certainly the one that costs £115 a month would have to give you incredible insurance if that was all it was!

If they are endowments, then you need to look more carefully before rushing to cancel them, so it is worth waiting a week or two until your financial adviser can give you some professional advice.