Feeling scared

**purpleprincess**

How much do you spend on food?

Edit: Just seen the shopping!! Ooops!!!

You could cut this down by going on the Old Style thread for ideas on food.

Brassic

Hi there, the shopping @ 350 is food, nappies, household stuff etc. I'm trying to cut down on it, but with 5 in the house, I actually find it hard to keep it at 80 quid a week, let alone making it less.

Edited to add that we all take pack lunches too.

**purpleprincess**

Brassic wrote:

Ok, scary figures forthcoming :

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1050
Partners salary - £1668.63
Benefits - £179.80

Total - £2,898.43

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £835.67
Council Tax - £104
Council Tax arrears from 2003 - £80
Powergen - £100
Gas - £40
Electric - £40
Water - £62
Mobiles - £38 Could you cut this down?
Home Phone - £30 Could you cut this down? A lot between the 2
Insurances - £71.51
Shopping - £350 This could be cut down by savvier shopping
AA Membership - £9.2
Car Insurance - £58.64
Petrol - £50
Cahoot Loan - £93.12
Egg Loan - £326.67
Hubbys Cahoot Loan - £110
Mums loan - £100
CC repayments - £67.64(ish)
Barcalys - £200
Childcare - £121.24
Sky - £21 You could get a freeview box and then use this amount to chuck at the debts?
TV Licence - £10.99
Lottery - £12 This is way too much!!!
Charity - £2 Charity begins at home hun

Total: £2740.08

Creditors

Egg - 16247 @ 7.7%
Cahoot - 6000 - 19%
Cahoot - 5000 - 11.5%
RBOS - 900 @ 6.95%
Barclaycard - 300 @ 0%
Barclays - 13000 @ 0%
Mum - 15000 @ 0%
overdrafts - 1500 @ mostly 0%

You've come to the right place! xx

**purpleprincess**

Brassic wrote:

Hi there, the shopping @ 350 is food, nappies, household stuff etc. I'm trying to cut down on it, but with 5 in the house, I actually find it hard to keep it at 80 quid a week, let alone making it less.

Edited to add that we all take pack lunches too.

There are people spending less than this for the same amount of people over there. The key I think is meal planning, shopping lists and also changing the household bits and pieces. Might sound mad but such as using vinegar for cleaning!!:p :rotfl:

No harm in looking x

QueenB.

Welcome and congratualtions on taking the first steps.

You have done so many little things already and they will start to add up it just takes a few months before all those savings start to settle down.

Ok as to your shopping definitely check out the OS board, we are a famliy of five, plus 3 cats and one of my children has severe food sensitivites so he has to eat alot of organic and we manage a weekly shop for about £50 a week. Making your own stuff will help you cut down that bill and it is amazing how you can have a wonderful meal which barely costs anything. There is a huge amount of recipes on the OS and everyone is really friendly.

Good luck.

CosmoCat

are you actually on the cheapest tarriff for your utilities? it's always worth checking. also you should get rid of sky, that money could be put to better use.

what's the extra payment to powergen for? (sorry if i missed this somewhere).

lots of great suggestions on here. don't forget to visit the old style board for help on menu planning.

Brassic

Thanks so much for all the replies so far - what an amazing response! I will definitely check out the OS board.

Right, I've just come off the phone from cancelling my Sky account - will use the next month subscription to ebay for a freeview box. Thanks for that!

I meant to say, when we got to our new house the gas and electricity were on meters. This is good and bad. It's good cos it's made me realise how extravagent we are with it, but bad cos it's more expensive. Sooo, I'm getting them changed to the cheapest provider courtesy of uswitch, but one that only bills for what we use. Should make quite a bit of a difference.

The powergen stuff is because I didn't realise that the direct debit that I was paying (on recommendation of powergen) wasn't coming anywhere near to covering what we were using. I found out that we owed them a shed load so upped the amount to try and get back to even keel, but then we moved to a house with British Gas meters, so our account was closed and we owe powergen 700 pounds. I've sorted out a monthly plan to pay them 100 pounds a month.

Thanks again,
Brassic.

MrsTinks

Brassic wrote:

Ok, scary figures forthcoming :

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1050
Partners salary - £1668.63
Benefits - £179.80

Total - £2,898.43

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £835.67
Council Tax - £104
Council Tax arrears from 2003 - £80
Powergen - £100
Gas - £40
Electric - £40
Water - £62
Mobiles - £38
Home Phone - £30 Seems a little pricey or is this including broadband etc?
Insurances - £71.51 what insurances?
Shopping - £350 Gotta come down! Scoot over to the OS board for help with this
AA Membership - £9.2 hmmm some might say loose this but I would keep it for now
Car Insurance - £58.64 is this as cheap as you can get it?
Petrol - £50
Cahoot Loan - £93.12
Egg Loan - £326.67
Hubbys Cahoot Loan - £110
Mums loan - £100
CC repayments - £67.64(ish)
Barcalys - £200
Childcare - £121.24
Sky - £21 gotta go
TV Licence - £10.99
Lottery - £12 Yup gotta go
Charity - £2 gotta go hun... you can afford to support any charity but your own right now

Total: £2740.08

Creditors

Egg - 16247 @ 7.7%
Cahoot - 6000 - 19% OUCH ok this one has got to be your first debt to deal with!
Cahoot - 5000 - 11.5%
RBOS - 900 @ 6.95%
Barclaycard - 300 @ 0%
Barclays - 13000 @ 0%
Mum - 15000 @ 0%
overdrafts - 1500 @ mostly 0% Are they really all 0%?

Ok there is no getting round the harsh truth... this is not going to be easy. As you have already realised then you have a lot of debt and you are struggling!

Points to think about: Can you down grade on cars? Sell yours and buy something cheaper?
Do you have room for a lodger? This could bring in £2-300 a month if not more which look to be needed right now.
Overtime?
Extra jobs?
I would say go speak to CCCS and see what they suggest...

Floss

You may not need to buy a Freeview box - ring Sky back & ask them to convert you onto freeview only........they can do it, honest! then you've saved that dosh too!

all_hours

I work that out to be

Total income 2,898.43

Total outgoings 2,036
Total debt repayments 897.43
Total 2,934

Balance = -£35.25

Cancelling sky brings the deficit down to £14. If you cut just £50 off the food budget and cut out little things like the charity you'll be running with a surplus.

The water bill looks high is that paying arrears too?