Lightbulb Moment

pink_numbers

ramblingtree wrote: »

Hi,
I'm not wise enough to give advice, but I did want to reply and say I totally understand how someone with a high income can have financial difficulty. Everything is relative, and it is far too easy and too common to live just beyond your means. And the bigger the income the bigger the fall!
If you can learn to live frugally, because of your income, you should be able to clear the debt a lot quicker than 2015 if you wished to.
Good luck with your journey!
x

I forgot to add... In contrast to myself (living a year on your annual income), my father earn as much as both of yourselves by himself AND is totally broke. So I too can understand how easy it is to find yourselves in your situation.

I used to spend about 3k a month myself, so you can see that it IS possible to cut down your out goings, gently but steadily

ramblingtree

Not sure if this would be a useful thing to do, but if you added up all the 'extra' spends on entertainment, reduced it and gave yourself one entertainment budget amount, then maybe it would help you to proritise what you prefer to spend your money on. For example, if you'd prefer to have a couple of pints with a friend rather than buy clothes, or if you'd prefer to eat out rather than go to the cinema. That way you can cut down the spending and still feel like you have control over the 'fun' spends.

Speedys

A lot of those fun costs come from the budget spreadsheet which is worst possible case based, with 3 children it can be a challenge. Plus I can't stop the darn things from growing out of stuff.

We will be rationalising as we work through it.

QueenBeruthiel

You're not really paying £320 pm on gas/elec, are you?

ramblingtree

haha, yeah, I can't imagine budgeting for kids, its bad enough just budgeting for OH and me!
It can take a while to trawl through, but make sure you check out threads in other areas of the forum for free kids entertainment, christmas gifts, all the things that usually cost money but some genius on here can do it either for a tiny cost or for nothing.
I'm currently working my way through the old style threads on cooking/ eating cheaply but very well, there are so many good suggestions.

Speedys

QueenBeruthiel wrote: »

You're not really paying £320 pm on gas/elec, are you?

Yep, we have an aga that works off gas.

pammyj74

I have three kids and I dont buy them clothes every month! Also if they want a new cd or book then they pay for it themselves when they have enough. I think kids should learn to appreciate things better that way.
They may kick up a big fuss the first time you say no if you never have before

QueenBeruthiel

Speedys wrote: »

Yep, we have an aga that works off gas.

How's about getting rid of it?

Speedys

pammyj74 wrote: »

I have three kids and I dont buy them clothes every month! Also if they want a new cd or book then they pay for it themselves when they have enough. I think kids should learn to appreciate things better that way.
They may kick up a big fuss the first time you say no if you never have before

Ours get 50p pocket money a week and thats just the older two, we don't tend to buy them stuff in between christmas and birthdays.

The cost on there is to budget for clothes, not actual spend and the majority of their clothes are off ebay.

Speedys

QueenBeruthiel wrote: »

How's about getting rid of it?

And how would I heat the house and cook etc?

The cost implications of getting rid of it are a non-starter.