Mrs A's Debt Diary

Mrs_A.

hi
the weather has taken a turn for the better today but i ended up doing a mini fly lady thingy and ventured into the kids bedrooms................ yep i did make it back out only came accross 39p in loose change and 1 rechargeable battery. oh and 2 huge baskets of dirty laundry and 3 bin bags of rubbish also discovered the carpet lol.
read a post about the magic of farmfoods so im off to sort the freezer as i feel a big spend coming on in farmfoods tomorrow.
received 2 £2.00 off vouchers for pet food from a nice company on the freebies board so that will save me £4 in tesco next time i go.
apart from that not much frugal living going on here
laters
regards
mrs A

OberonSH

Hey Mrs A - well done on the loose change. Do that every week and that's £20.28 for a manicure on those overworked hands! I once had a sheet of vouchers from farmfoods, spend £15 get £5 off etc, came free in the local paper.

Mrs_A.

hi
just been accepted for a 0% credit card from tesco gonna take it incase i need to bung the suite on it. just got to promise myself that im not going to use it for anything else.
thinking of applying for a tesco loan too in an attempt to pay my car finance off early as its quite expensive and has 2 and a bit years to run.
im working on the theory that it will make my payment higher but over a much shorter time and i should be able to afford it with my new job and pay rise that goes with it.
will get Mr A to call the finance company tomorrow sometime and get a settlement figure from them to see how much i still have to pay to the blood suckers (message to self.... never ever buy a car on finance again).
by the way we had a very frugal dinner this evening at a cost of about 50p for the 5 of us and it was great.
Moggins meat loaf but i used tesco value sausages approx 35p
tatties that were ahem acquired
spring cabbage from the garden that Mr A grew all by himself the clever clogs
and an apple and onion for the meatloaf approx 15p
a bargain meal if ever there was one.
regards
mrs a

OberonSH

Evening Mrs A, well done on the tasty sounding meal! and well done on the credit card, like you say, will be useful at 0%. Why not cut it up when you get it, to avoid those weak moments? You can still see the number for the transfer, but can't use it in shops.

Mrs_A.

brilliant idea obi i will do just that
thanks
Mrs A

Mrs_A.

hi all
just back from the shops, renewed my acquaintance with the wonderfully cheap farm foods spend a whopping £84.85 but my freezer has never been so bursting at the seams. nipped to mr tescos for some flour and bananas too and spend another couple of £ in there but at least i didnt walk round the whole store mindlessly throwning things in my trolley so im quite chuffed with myself for that, resistance to unnecessary spending seems to be building forgot to get mr a to phone about car finance must do that tomorrow. we took my dear aunt to hospital today for her radiotherapy treatment so she treated us to our lunch instead of giving the usual petrol money so that was a lovely treat for us means we had one niceish day on our holidays.
regards
mrs a

Mrs_A.

hiya
damn and blast the lovely bank sent me a nice letter today regarding my graduate overdraft it seems as of today that my overdraft is now to be lowered to £1500 or im to be charged 9.9% so £500 swiftly transferred to said overdraft so now we have no cash left for the rest of our hols and we planned to go out later and get a new chest of drawers as ours is fallling to bits, just have to put the clothes on the bedroom chairs until money allows new ones or one comes up on local freecycle.
Mr A phoned car finance company for the settlement figure £3k boy are they making some serious money from us think i might just get the tesco loan for £3k and pay the car off would save us a little on interest from the finance company but have to check out what the interest on the tesco loan would be first. I just want the car paid off pronto. the tesco loan was going to be for 12 months whereas the car has about 28 months to go. Anyone got any ideas.
regards
Mrs A

Mrs_A.

hiya my new and updated soa all comments and suggestions welcome

Mortgage/Rent 0.00
council tax 0.00
electricity £74.00 fixed for another 3 months
oil for heating 50.00
home phone 20.00
internet 20.00
mobiles all PAYG 20.00
life insurance me 6.45
life insurance pension hubby 33.00
pet food 15.00
drinks for home (hubby) 60.00
smokes for both of us 80.00
car insurances 50.00
car taxes 30.00
petrol 175.00
union 10.43
clothes 10.00
dentist 10.00
optician 10.00
prescription 6.60
tv license 11.00
sky 22.00
car loan 148.13
bank loan 385.76
ing savings for to pay off debt in a big chunk 50.00
shopping 300.00 (this is estimated and negotiable)
christmas/birthdays etc 50.00
total i make is 1647.37 going out monthly
incomming monthly 2200.00
leaving 552.63
i have been at this budget all day have i made a mistake anywhere that someonce can spot or left anything out.
anyway i decided not to go with a loan to clear the car finance because looking at these figures i could pay my suite of 988.00 in 2 months and save the extra from october onwards to clear the car in march 07
anyone out there with better ideas
regards
Mrs A

CAFCGirl

I see mortgage/rent and council tax is on there as 0, is that right or am I being stupid?

Have you been over to the OS board to see where you can cut your food bill? I know you've got plenty of mouths to feed but Im sure that could be a bit lower.

Is there any way you can control what you're spending out on petrol too, seems like a lot for a month?

I'd also say giving up the smoking, as well as the health benefits you're gonna be saving £80 a month!

How much do you have so far in your ing savings? Someone once said to me on here, savings are almost redundant when you're in debt. I was just thinking if you've got a fair old amount in there, would it be wiser maybe to use to that pay off the suite before it goes up in APR then you can save again after thats paid, like you say only two months, and then you can put all your extra into paying off your car loan?

With your car loan is it possible to make over-payments regulalry or do you just have an option to repay the whole amount as early settlement and would you be charged a fee for doing this?

gallygirl

Give up hubbie's drinking

Give up both smokes!

But admire greatly the disparity in life assurance premiums ... assume is reflected in insured amount! If worst comes to worst start loosening stair carpet etc......

Seriously though - have you thought about what would happen if you popped your clogs - dk what age kids are but if hubby needed to get in help could cost a fortune. Need to revisit both????? Try www.lifesearch.co.uk but see if you can take out with quidco, pigsback etc.

You're doing great!