Debt advice needed badly. Help please!

RAS

lisawood78 wrote: »

We have 2 Great Danes and they cost us about £40 a month to feed between them, and (as most Danes) they both have sensitive tums.
They alternate between Burgess Supadog Sensitive and Skinners Rough and Ready, both have suitable protein levels for Danes and they have lovely glossy coats and firm stools.

Hi Lisa already explained above.

debtdope

ElkyElky wrote: »

Rather than spending more money at auctions, can't you just keep the large car and ditch the small one?

We could do but I'm wondering if it's a false economy? (genuine question, I'm not a mechanic so unsure on this one). It's a 14yr old people carrier with over 200,000 miles on the clock. Something goes wrong with it literally every month now. My thoughts were along the lines of selling both cars and finding an old estate with less mileage with the proceeds (perhaps at a car auction). An estate would also probably be in a lower insurance/road tax bracket. I'm certainly not thinking about taking out loans for new cars or anything! If I can't get an estate with what I can get for the current cars, then we'll have to continue with the people carrier until it dies.

You're not really helping yourself, there is loads of ways you can save an absolute fortune.. you obviously came on here to get help but what I'm seeing is you making excuses for cutting back and making plans on purchasing more cars!

I've made no excuses at all for not cutting back. I've said I'm going to get down to one car (but it'd just help if the one car wasn't one which broke down on a monthly basis) and I'm going to cut back on our food bill. I'm obviously not going to do anything daft like give my dog away and if that's seen as an excuse then so be it. I'd rather give my hubby away than the dog!

What I've done is take £200 out of the bank for January's food (including dog food). I'll buy everything the dog needs first and whatever is left is what the hubby and I will live on.

brand food and wearing 10 jumpers instead of turning the heating on. If they can do it, then so can you!

Well I'm sitting here wearing thermals and 3 layers on top plus a slanket and that's with the stove alight (just) . We live in Snowdonia, in a really old cottage with no insulation (solid walls) and there's someone at home all day. The solid fuel stove provides our heating and hot water - it's a dual system. I'd also add that the £180 a month for coal is a temporary expense, we move in 4-5 weeks. The new house is well insulated and has gas central heating with a brand new, very efficient boiler, so fuel bills will be much lower.

Your lifestyle needs a complete overhaul if you want to try and break away from the nasty clutches of debt.

Well to be fair my debt is not down to an extravagent lifestyle, it's down to having to spend a bloody fortune on basic renovations to a house the survey suggested only needed a few things doing on it. I absolutely agree that my food bill is extortionate and I've now taken steps to remedy that. It should be borne in mind that some of the costs in my SOA are temporary because I'm in a transitionary period where I'm paying the utilities on two houses. That situation is only lasting another 4-5 weeks - so for instance the £180 a month coal bill will be gone.

So to recap, in January I will be:

1. Cutting my foodbill from £427 per month to £200
2. Selling both cars and buying an estate with whatever money can be fetched from the sale of both cars.

I'm wondering if it's also worth looking into an interest only mortgage for a bit as that would cut down the monthly repayments by approx half which would be extra money to put against debts.

lisawood78

Me again.
Why do you need to have an estate car?
I know you have a GD, but one will happily fit in the back of a smaller family car, do you need a large vehicle for other purposes?
Do you do many long journeys with your dog?
Just trying to see where folks can help with advice

ElkyElky

debtdope wrote: »

We could do but I'm wondering if it's a false economy? (genuine question, I'm not a mechanic so unsure on this one). It's a 14yr old people carrier with over 200,000 miles on the clock. Something goes wrong with it literally every month now. My thoughts were along the lines of selling both cars and finding an old estate with less mileage with the proceeds (perhaps at a car auction). An estate would also probably be in a lower insurance/road tax bracket. I'm certainly not thinking about taking out loans for new cars or anything! If I can't get an estate with what I can get for the current cars, then we'll have to continue with the people carrier until it dies.



I've made no excuses at all for not cutting back. I've said I'm going to get down to one car (but it'd just help if the one car wasn't one which broke down on a monthly basis) and I'm going to cut back on our food bill. I'm obviously not going to do anything daft like give my dog away and if that's seen as an excuse then so be it. I'd rather give my hubby away than the dog!

What I've done is take £200 out of the bank for January's food (including dog food). I'll buy everything the dog needs first and whatever is left is what the hubby and I will live on.



Well I'm sitting here wearing thermals and 3 layers on top plus a slanket and that's with the stove alight (just) . We live in Snowdonia, in a really old cottage with no insulation (solid walls) and there's someone at home all day. The solid fuel stove provides our heating and hot water - it's a dual system. I'd also add that the £180 a month for coal is a temporary expense, we move in 4-5 weeks. The new house is well insulated and has gas central heating with a brand new, very efficient boiler, so fuel bills will be much lower.



Well to be fair my debt is not down to an extravagent lifestyle, it's down to having to spend a bloody fortune on basic renovations to a house the survey suggested only needed a few things doing on it. I absolutely agree that my food bill is extortionate and I've now taken steps to remedy that. It should be borne in mind that some of the costs in my SOA are temporary because I'm in a transitionary period where I'm paying the utilities on two houses. That situation is only lasting another 4-5 weeks - so for instance the £180 a month coal bill will be gone.

So to recap, in January I will be:

1. Cutting my foodbill from £427 per month to £200
2. Selling both cars and buying an estate with whatever money can be fetched from the sale of both cars.

I'm wondering if it's also worth looking into an interest only mortgage for a bit as that would cut down the monthly repayments by approx half which would be extra money to put against debts.

Well I don't know if it'll be worth selling the car but I do know you'll pay less for the insurance, tax and MOT.. so even if you scrap the small car rather than sell, you'll still save.

I wouldn't suggest getting rid of the dog, I'm a pet lover myself and wouldn't do that if I was in your situation.

You'll have to do another SOA when you move into your new house so you can have it all in black and white and see if there can be any more money saved.

As for your husband claiming DLA. Get him to stick an application form in, regardless of that letter he received about not qualifying for benefits. That letter could have been an error, they often make errors like that. If they refuse his application, he can appeal which will go to an independent committee I believe.

debtdope

lisawood78 wrote: »

Me again.
Why do you need to have an estate car?
I know you have a GD, but one will happily fit in the back of a smaller family car, do you need a large vehicle for other purposes?
Do you do many long journeys with your dog?
Just trying to see where folks can help with advice

Back again - lost electricity there for a bit!

We do a fair amount of long journeys at the moment...mostly because you have to drive miles to get anywhere. It's nearly miles to the nearest village shop.

It's a good point though, once we've moved we won't need to drive as much and I could get a small car as long as it's 4-door. Hadn't really considered that.. doh!

Thanks!