OH job loss - need to prepare

g_attrill

- Put the kids onto PAYG as soon as possible (giffgaff.com is cheap), if they want to make calls they will have to pay for it themselves.

- I agree about reducing Sky to the mininimum.

- For food, you will have to ditch the brands and go to own-label stuff (there is an article on this). If the kids complain then explain that with less money coming in the savings need to come from somewhere.

For electrity/gas, try writing down the meter readings at a set time every night for a week, then check that what you are paying is roughly what you are using. £169 is quite a lot more than most people report - I think £100/month is about average for the DD bills.

basmic

I know with ScottishPower, you can do online meter readings. Do daily meter readings for a week, then weekly meter readings for a month, then always make a point to do monthly meter readings.

If you can, always do the meter readings at the same time every day.

After the first week of daily readings, phone SP up and ask them to recalculate your DD using your actual readings.

simpywimpy

thanks for the advice everyone. Im going to get on to scottish power today and see what my tarriff works out as and read the meters.

Southcoast - no we didnt bother in the end after all the corruption going on. If you read the Egyptian fiasco, you would be surprised at how many people have lost all their money on that one!

simpywimpy

SP have adjusted my dd based on my readings by £40 so Im down to £126 a month The tarrif is the capped premier plus?
Elec first 225kwh 14.054p then 9.030p
Gas first 1143kmh 4.483p then 3.533p

Is this competitive at all? Going to look at some comparisons now

josephine82

Hiya! :hello:

You didn't mention anything about your credit rating but I was wondering if you would be able to move any of the debts to 0% credit cards? might help with the interest payments in the short term...

Jo x

simpywimpy

My credit score is very low yet I am not missing any payments or using all available credit either. I think one of my cards offers 0% till May but I wasn't sure whether 5/6 months was worth the effort

Horace

Rather than putting the central heating on..why not wear an extra jumper..it works out cheaper than constantly putting the heating on.

Two9A

I had the same problem with the heating: left it on for four hours a day over last winter, and received a bill for £700 (for 6 months) in March. I learned my lesson: apart from the occasional half-hour, I haven't run the heating at all this winter.

It's a bit nippy indoors (I've seen the thermometer go down to 11C before), but a good jumper will fix that.

basmic

simpywimpy wrote: »

SP have adjusted my dd based on my readings by £40 so Im down to £126 a month The tarrif is the capped premier plus?
Elec first 225kwh 14.054p then 9.030p
Gas first 1143kmh 4.483p then 3.533p

Is this competitive at all? Going to look at some comparisons now

See if you can get a couple of meter readings taken by Scottish Power - ideally, taken at this time last year or just before.

debtdesperado

Also, could you contact all your creditors and arrange for payment holidays etc? Some might not, but at least it might give you a few months breathing space to get another job.

In addition declutter (and get your kids to do so) and sell everything you can - it definitely focusses the mind to think do I want this or do I want to pay the mortgage more?!

Also get your OH to sign on the dole asap - you'll get a reduction in council tax, plus your jobseekers allowance, plus after three months you might be eligible for one of the government schemes for mortgage support (helped me massively when I was out of work for 7 months earlier this year).

Best of luck!