SOA help needed

LilacPixie

euronorris wrote: »

OK, also saw that you've had a holiday but there is nothing budgeted for this either. Are you not planning to have another in the next 12-18 months? If not, great. But if you are, then you need to include this in your budget also.

We are on a quest to move house so no holidays until we have moved and been settled for 12 ish months so Easter 2012 is probably our next holiday. We already shove £30 into an old bank account for household problems like heating dieing or washing machine going on the blink.

:eek: I would guestimate that we have been spending easily another £120-£150 per month on take aways but thats in the past and won't be happening again. I actually rarely use an atm instead i use my debit card and get cashback. as a result statement is huge each month. Today is payday and we actually had £130 left from last months pay so I have flung that at the capital one card for now.

I have been thinking I have been doing mystery shops, scratchcards etc and putting the money into the same account as the home emergancy fund and quidco cashback. It has £712.68 do you think i should just transfer some to clear a chunk of debt, say £500 and leave just over £200 in there. We have a small issue coming up in december. Car is due an MOT :eek: she is only 4 so I hope she passes

MadWomble_2

LilacPixie wrote: »

....
Takeaways are our vice. we seem to of been at pizza hut weekly for months followed by the odd chinese during the week or posibly a McDonalds if we are out for the day and I'm being lazy with packing a packed lunch or its too cold and I want the kids to have something hot and its our only option :rolleyes: Excuses i know

Something I found useful when always buying take away lunches, and coffes from the coffee counter at work, was to keep a tin on my desk. Then for a single month, I promised myself I would take packed lunches in every day, take tea bags in and make my own tea from the office kettle etc. Everytime I ate my packed lunch, I would put the money I'd normally have spent on my take away lunch into the tin, the same with drinks.

At the end of the month, the shock of how much money I had in my tin really made me think twice in the future - now it's packed lunches every day!

Good luck!

jamesd

It looks as though you should try for a 0% balance transfer credit card. Say Virgin. Then balance transfer to the Virgin card from the more expensive cards. Any limit beyond that can be transferred to your current account and used to reduce the GE balance.

Baileys_Babe

As others have said you both need to keep a spending diary.

I think you need to have a family entertainment budget for days out, cinema etc.

I think you both need to look at meal planning and batch cooking. Set yourself a little goal no takeaways, meals out for a set time then treat yourselves to a take away or meal out as a treat.

Clothing, can be expensive,I know my 2 are similar ages, can you reduce this by seeing if any friends or family have any second hand clothes they would like to pass on.

Foundational

Doing a spending diary will help a lot as other folks have said - it will be revealing.

You need to tackle the Capital One card and Next account at those interest rates. If you can get a Virgin or Halifax 0% deal and make the most of it, that would be helpful, as long as you don't spend on the new card and you are very watchful about paying on time.

You've hatched a lot of ideas and answers yourself and the SOA looks good.

Just wondered how much life insurance you had - do you also have cover with your works pension/s? £15 looks very reasonable, could be too low...

Final thought is driving the debt down can be linked motivationally to your quest for moving. Getting a new mortgage and a good deal on it could be hampered considerably the unsecured debt you are carrying.

Best wishes

Foundational

slummymummyof3

We pay £103 per month on gas and electric for a LARGE 4 bed det house and 5 of us (and we are £200 in credit)

If you need your mobiles for work do you get any financial assistance towards them?

Get rid of the Next account and look for a more economical way to clothe your kids - swaps with friends once they have outgrown???

Aldi/Lidl nearby?

LilacPixie

back to answer more questions/.

Foundational - life insurance is for 150k. joint policy took out few years ago when we were both the right side of 25. we do both have additional cover via work so I think we are ok in that respect.

I actually think the whole new mortgage thing is possibly the issue. property here is quite reasonable so we can get what we want for around 130k in a good area. On our income even with level of debt we can get the required mortgage from halifax but at a 85% ltv. Need to get into the mind set of we need to go for a lower LTV to get better deal therefore we need to shift debt and start saving what we would of been paying.

Bailys babe/slummy mummy our kids are the oldest in our group of friends. We were the first to have kids so nothing availible in way of a clothes swap there.

mobile line rentals are paid into our salaries each month either I ignore them alltogether and our monthly earings figure drops by £25 and £19 respectfully or the stay in SOA. End result is the same.

Today I dug out the utility bills for the last year to check our usage. Accorning to USwitch NPower would be £64 cheaper a year if we switched to them plus £40 going via quidco. Not a huge amount to save but it would mean our DD was around £5 less than it is at the moment. We are sitting with a little over £170 e-on credit according to mid octobers bill.

Slummymummy is your house old??? this place is victorian and around 130 years old. Trying to keep it warm through a Scottish winter is a small nightmare. Usage over the last year might also be un-usually high because I was on maternity leave for a year and was home alot of the time. Do you tumble dry?? I don't have outdoor drying space so use tumble dryer quite alot.