My SOA

Rad

I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. First of all I'm 23 and a she.

Pack Lunches - I'm working on this one, I manage at least 2 days a week at the moment.

Phones - I make all my calls from my mobile so use up the majority of my call allowance (250 mins and 200 texts) each month. Last quarter my landline calls came to £1.10 so I've not included this.

Contacts - I've counted the current cost of these, I'm planning on changing once I've used up the 2 pairs that I have. I use PureVision continous wear monthly lenses, the type that you put in and forget about for 30 days and nights.

DVD rental - I use this instead of going to the cinema and buying DVD's. They often have a pay ahead for 3 months get 4 offer on that I use.

Council Tax - I put it under Rates

TV Licence - My mum paid it for a year, so it doens't run out till August.

ISA - I'm saving for a deposit for a flat, so don't really want to dip into this.
Pension- I've already lower this from £100pm and really want to decrease this any more.

Job - I work for a small Not-for Profit company and I know I could get better pay elsewere but really love my job.

frak

My monthly lenses from specsavers are 13 pm. They are the highest quality monthly ones you can get. I need these becuase i work in very heavily air conditioned environments but i doubt you would need that. They do cheaper ones at £9 and £11 a month. I personally wouldnt recommned over using your lenses as you have only got one pair of eyes. But that is at least another £12 a month saved.

Rad

Also the holiday in the US is to visit friends so I don't have accomodation costs for most of my trip.

toontastic

I think what people meant with the DVD rentals is why don't you change to a different company and make use of their so many free dvds, when that runs out move on to the next one.

More information here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1134152286,68176,

Rad

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'm going to set myself weekly aims.
This week I'm going to take my lunch to work everyday, look into new contact lens supplier and find out APR on my credit card and if I can switch to a better card.

skintchick

Can I join in? just a few thoughts from Skintchick Towers

Contents Insurance - £8.90pm
This seems high. I have just insured my whole house plus a lodger for £144 for the year, with CIS (who were cheapest last year too). Can you shop around for a better deal? you don;t have to wait till it ends to swap.
Also, with insurances, pay upfront because they charge you interest to spread the cost, so then it's yet another debt!

Mobile Phone - £35pm – Going down to £20pm next month
Sort your mobi out! This is somewhere you can easily save. I write down every text and call I make so I can see it adding up over the month. It really helps me question whether it's a needed text or I';m doing it cos I'm bored.


Food Shopping - £20 pw
Eating out /drinks with friends- £10 pw
Lunch at work - £10pw
You already know this one!! I spend up to £60 a month for food and lunches. My eating out budget was £20 a month (ie once a month). I say was cos I am earning good mney at the moment and have relaxed the budget a bit.
You just need to be organised. I vary between making sandwiches, and just taking a can of soup and two slices of bread, to heat up at work (the soup, not the bread!). Do it for four days then have a treat day on your busiest day of the week (mine's Weds) and that makes it easier to motivate yourself. Look out for BOGOFs on crisps and stuff, and get creative with fillings. you can do wraps instead of normal sarnies, or take a salad, or even some of your leftover dinner from last night - just make more than you need and box up a portion.

DVD rental - £9.99 pm
Ditch this - you can get so many free trials it's not worht paying for it.

Clothes – about £30pm
Stop!! This is a lot of money. Try Primark and charity shops - you can get handfuls of stuff for that amount so if you just buy one thing then you've saved!

Impulse buying – at least £30 pm – usually shoes, makeup or getting my nails done.
Stop impulse buying! Seriously, just stop. Don;t carry cash, or do like I used to and have a post it in your purse stuck over your money that says DO I REALLY NEED THIS? It will make you think twice.

Ref America. I just went to Dubai to visit a mate for a week and struggled to spend £300. How much have you got already and why do you need ANOTHER £400? Might be worth reining that amount in a bit, cos if you're staying with friends you can cook sometimes instead of eating out, to save money.

But - mostly this is all OK, not too bad, and I like your idea of weekly goals - post em on here with how you're doing so we can encourage you.

Good luck!

kuohu

Rad wrote:

Job - I work for a small Not-for Profit company and I know I could get better pay elsewere but really love my job.

Just out of interest (and I'm being nosey so ignore this post if you like) but do you know how much more you could earn elsewhere? If you are on roughly £15k now, would you be able to get £20 or even £25k elsewhere? In another job that you enjoy, but for a proper company that pays a decent wage? Is it fair to comment that you seem to be scrimping pennies for travel etc whereas if you moved to a better paid job then you wouldn't have these concerns at all?

Is the job worth staying in debt for?

Just a thought.

Rad

As it's been more than a week since I decided my goals I thought I'd provide an update.

My credit card was 16.8% APR, I've been accepted for a &more credit card with 6 months interest free balance transfers. So I should be able to get this transferred across in July.

My DVD subscription ends on July 3rd and then I'm going to try different suppliers.

I'm managing to take lunch with me most days and am getting a bit better at making it the night before rather than rushing in the morning. I’m learning quite a bit from the old school forum and have my first lot of home made yoghurt growing at the moment.

I've been give a 1000 pound raise for reaching all my personal achievement levels for the last year, effective from 1 July. Also I'm now getting an extra 25 pounds a month (back dated to February) for being the office nominated first aid person. So at the end of this month I’ll have an extra 125 to pay off some more of my credit card.

I’m also going back to work for a company that runs bars at music festival for 2 events in the next month or so. I should earn about 50 pound a day, get to go away for the weekend and get to see some good bands at the same time.

Rad

Oh and my aims for this week, are to continue taking my lunch to work the rest of this week and to get round to looking at contact lenses.

PeachPickle

frak wrote:

My monthly lenses from specsavers are 13 pm. They are the highest quality monthly ones you can get. I need these becuase i work in very heavily air conditioned environments but i doubt you would need that. They do cheaper ones at £9 and £11 a month. I personally wouldnt recommned over using your lenses as you have only got one pair of eyes. But that is at least another £12 a month saved.

I second this - please don't consider overusing contacts to save money! I work in an opticians and I've seen some horrible, horrible things :eek: £25 is a lot to be paying tho, ask to see a contact lens adviser and let them explain all the options