Don't know how we'll eat this month

LandyAndy

Do you really pay £672 a year for car insurance? You live in Shropshire so rates should be low. What sort of car is it? Do you have a bad accident record?

Mobile phones. As others have said cut this right down. I do one £50 top up on my PAYG every 15 months or so because I view it as an emergency communication device not an opportunity to talk to my friends at any time.;) Anyone over about 35 will tell you that the world turned perfectly happily without mobiles:D.

You say Emergency fund = £40 per month but you have no savings listed in your assets?

ETA: The OP's post above crossed with mine.

LandyAndy

OP, your car is lpg converted. Is it a gas guzzler? Is it time to look for something cheaper to run?

redsquirrel80

Great start Worriedsick :T

For your daughter's clothes have you had a look on your local Freecycle and eBay etc? And could you sell some of her old things on eBay if they're still in good condition?

I would try 3 again, tell them you can't afford to pay it, and want to drop to a lower monthly tarrif than default on your payments (not that I'm suggesting you do default if you can possibly avoid it!)

Queen.Bess

Hi again, really pleased to see what you've done already.

With regards to your daughter's clothes: are you on freecycle? In my local freecycle there are regular offers of bags of children's clothes, so that might be worth a look. The premise is for you to be able to offer things as well as take things, so whilst having a clear out if there's anything you could give away on freecycle that will help when you see something you would like!

Cross posted with Red there! - Great minds and all that!

curlygirl1971

Have you got a new Car Insurance quote? Is the saving less any cancellation fee on your existing still a saving?

If you haven't already then talk your husband about his meat consumption - he needs to totally get on board / understand / take responsibility / support the situation

Please please take on board the advice below - your situation at present is reversible with hard work. Life won't always be this hard - If you act now. Like other posters have said - you really need to get into the whole money saving thing. You've had a LBM with regards to your situation - you now need to have a LBM with regards to what it will take to get you out of it.

Well done on cancelling the hairdressers and cutting down on children's clubs - this must have been hard but a great step in the right direction and you should be proud of yourself

Best of luck

redsquirrel80

Also meant to say people charge £20 for a child's haircut??!! Blimey! :eek:

mum2one

Worriedsick wrote: »

Mortgage - Part repayment, part IO

Council Tax - will amend to 12 months - didn't know this was possible.
It is down to the individual councils, but as long as your upto date, ask them, they can always say no, but its worth a try.

Utilities - I read the meters monthly and get accurate bills - the arrears payments should be completed by end Dec and then both gas & electric will go down to £60 and £70 respectively.
Thats good news it goes Dec, in theory thats only a month and a bit to go, def does seem expensive what your be paying.
Sometimes simple things-
Don't leave on standyby
Turn lights off when out of room
Got mobile phones / computers etc on charge - do it in a daytime and when theres someone there, so it can be checked on.
Turn your heating down a degree or so.
Kettle - only boil what you need
Washing machine - full loads

Mobile phone - I just called 3 who we are with. They say I would have to pay up to the end of my contract to change anything - so I can't go pay as you go for another 6 months. Any advice on what can be done here?
They are right as your tiewd into a contract, ring them again, say that you appriciate your in contract, (bluff a bit)what can they do, as if you had to go down the DMP route, etc, then the strong possibility phones would go and they contracts would be on partial repayment - they may say go ahead if that happens were go down the baliffs, its a threat, but see if they will reduce.
If not ask for the end of contract date and how much notice you have to give, somtimes its a 18mth contract then 30days notice, technically making it 19mths...
I don't know if the £56 in just the contract or the contract plus extra calls etc used, the best bet if you hit a brick wall, if just use the allocated minutes / texts etc, buy a cheap pay + go and use that for the extras, its a little extra cost, but help for when the transaction period ends.

On the phone side, you can also get really good deals on solo plans, contract but you don't get a phone, its usually a 30 day rolling contract,
I set a friend up with T-Mob (she went via Quidco) got £50 cash back.

Groceries - I already cook most meals from scratch every week - there is no processed food or ready meals in the house. I'll check out the recommended boards to see if I can find cheaper cuts of meat etc as my husband is a carnivore and it's always £30 a week just on his meat. All my products are Tesco's own. I keep all my receipts each month to total up how much food, etc is costing me - even if I just pop out to get a pint of milk I add it in and I'm never under £400.
Thats good that you keep the receipts, ur spending is accountable. I know you say Tesco own brand, but start changing one or two items to Value, even if you mix half and half, some downgrades may be awful, others, brilliant, each person has personal taste.
Re Meat - look at different way of cooking, slow cooker, casserole, you can use cheaper cuts of meat, slow cooked.

Insurance - I was not aware of Quidco - I have always used comparison sites to get the cheapest deal on insurances. Our car is LPG converted (to save money!!) so it's more difficult to get cheaper insurances - this was the absolutely cheapest I could get 2 months ago when it was up for renewal from the comparison sites.
In theory if you pulled out, you could end up with a bug bill, hold fire for now, but a month before look at Quidco., then go via Comparision sites
Buildings and contents insurance - again having just checked there is a fee to pay if we cancel before March 2010 - it'll have to wait until then unless there are any ways of getting around this?
In all honesty it depends on how much the fee is to how much you would save, just try a couple of companies (not ones from Quidco - you don't want to risk losing any potential cashback) and weigh up the expenses.
Personally under the circumstances, get the fee 1st.
Try AA their pretty reasonable, one tip they may ask do you want combined (building + insurance together - for our household that actually worked out more expensive, but again it all depends on the individuals circumstances and your location).

I'm embarrassed about the haircuts thing - we go every 8 weeks, my husband spends £20, my daughter £20 and me £80. I'll stop this now - we had an appointment tomorrow which I've already cancelled.
Don't be embarrased, it what most people would pay without even thinking about it.
Most hairdressers say 6-8 weeks, so by you holding out 8 weeks your ok, thats brilliant about the cancellation.
If for any reason you decide to colour your hair at home, amke sure you do the allergy test 1st.

My daughter is 23 months so will deffo try the potty training - was going to wait until she was 2.5 but will buy a potty at the weekend.
Def try the potty training, with dd, we just put in the front room and let her see it, as thou it was a permanent fixture, and went from there. It may feel like hit and miss, but if your daughter gets upset, just move it and try again.
The other tip (what we did) was have 1 potty downstairs and i upstairs, just a basic bog standard - we started the toilet soon after.
DD was so funny, she would not do a no 2 on the loo, it had to be the potty, then one day she went to the loo, and did a no2 without realising she wanted one, the potty went after that.
Its all trial and error, you could ask 20 people and each one would give you a different story.

the £66 for child expenses is for the various clubs my daughter goes to - I've already cancelled one this morning, so this is now down to £30 already.
Thats a brilliant saving,

Will have a dig in the garage and loft for things to sell on Ebay to make some extra cash to pay in to the cards.
Just a thought but what we did with dd bigger toys etc that she grew out of, we put in our local paper under free adds, esp this time of the year, when people can't afford the new ones.

£30 clothing was a rough guess - my daughter is growing fast and it's literally clothes and shoes for her - my husband and I have not had new clothes for a long time.
They grow to quick, whilst dd was in growth spurt stage, I hot Asda, Tesco, Peacocks, Primark. and got a few things at a time.

£40 emergency fund is always spent every month on the car or something in the house that needs repairing - there is nothing saved there.
Good thing is you have the money towards something

Getting there - but any advice on what we could say to the mobile phone and insurance providers would be really helpful - they say we're in a contract so there's nothing that can be done.

Hope you don't think I'm being nosey or bossy boots, just trying to throw a few suggestions, really from the help that I had. Thou I wish I had of found this site sooner,wouldn't of ended up in such a mess, but getting there.

Just a thought, I know its Nov, but theres two threads to help out with Christmas.
Thrifty - money making - help each other to make extra pennies for xmas
Thrift Santas challenge - help you spend it!! but in the money saving ways, hints and tips, homemade presents, etc.

Hiunt down the thread links after. xx

iolanthe07

both gas & electric will go down to £60 and £70 respectively.

This is still huge. I pay £82.50 a month dual fuel for a four bedroomed detached house, occupied all day, and I'm £300 in credit. You need to get on to this with a comparison site.

Gillianh2

Just a thought about the toddlers clothes.Christmas is coming up could Grandparents Aunts etc, either purchase clothes or give vouchers for you to get them as and when needed. Ditto for Easter etc; I know we all want our kids to have the latest toys, but at 2 they play with the packaging more than the presents! LOl You dont have to inform anyone of your financial difficulties if you prefer not to, just say its a prefrence thing.

jpwhittle

i just wanted to say regarding your most recent post well done on what you have acheived already, you have already manages to cut £156 of your outgoings wich mean we only need to find another £100 to have you breaking even every month, sounds alot but look at how easily you have acheived the other £156. i think you can pull it back from the clothes and the shopping to be honest. it might seem hard but it will work. it is annoying at first thinking you have to buy next to the cheapest brand but after a while you dont think about it, ive noticed so many people with trollies filled with smart price stuff recently.
we hit the same point you are at 2 years ago we had no overdraft 3 maxed out cards and no money i had to send my OH to the shop with 1ps to buy a loaf a bread. i was so embaressed, but it can be sorted honestly its just hard work.