Help: Decent income being lost to debt

MrsTinks

S_AND_I wrote: »

I think we will. But baby steps - jumping from Sainsbury's top notch brand to Lidl basics might derail things.

You'd be surprised... I found a lot of Lidl things as good or better than Tesco's Finest ranges (sorry I can't personally stand Sainsbury but that might just be our "local" shop lol)

beverleyhills

Some time ago there was a thread on 'what not to buy at Lidl, Aldi and Netto'. Another poster may be able to give you a link.
If having a cleaner keeps you sane, go for it and make savings elsewhere.
Contact your water company, they will be able to give you an estimate on how much using a water meter would cost.

Horace

Instead of buying Sainsbury's Finest - drop to their value range, shop around, use Lidl and Aldi for some things, if you buy meat and veg don't get them from the supermarket go to a butcher and greengrocer. You can tell which is the best butcher by wandering past on a Saturday morning - if there is a queue outside then it is usually pretty good. Going to the greengrocer or even a market for veg is good as you can buy what you need rather than buying huge bags of veg that will mainly get chucked.

Meal plan and look at what you have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a shopping list containing items that you have run out of..stick to the list, if its not on the list then don't buy it. This way you will have less waste and some wholesome homemade meals instead of buying ready meals.

Oneday77

If we look at this in perspective you have £1300+ surplus each month to do with what you like. So your not borderline.
The cleaners if you can justify it stick with them. Some times we get hung up on spending the bare minimum.
It is more about identifying what is happening to the cash for things not on the SoA. You could be debt free in under 15 months if you can plug the gaps and stick in there. After that ditch all credit and you could easily live a very comfortable debt free life

Tixy

Hi

I'm going to post something that might sound controversial compared to what others have posted.
But you could afford to spend all the items you have listed on your SOA (yes I think £440 is a lot on groceries, £100 is high for clothes etc) but providing you spend all you have listed and nothing additional at all you could be debt free in just 12months.

What that means is using all of the £1703.55 for debt repayments, so first you'll need to identify where the missing £1,364 is going and then stop spending it. If anything is really essential then look to make equivalent cutbacks from the expenses you have already listed to accomodate the new item.

If you haven't already have a look at the snowball calculators, I 'snowballed' your debts and the £1703 and it showed you paying as little as £459 in interest, if the ods are moved to better rates then that would be even less.

Good luck.

Oneday77

Great minds and all that Tixy

S_AND_I

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

I'm going to post something that might sound controversial compared to what others have posted.
But you could afford to spend all the items you have listed on your SOA (yes I think £440 is a lot on groceries, £100 is high for clothes etc) but providing you spend all you have listed and nothing additional at all you could be debt free in just 12months.

What that means is using all of the £1703.55 for debt repayments, so first you'll need to identify where the missing £1,364 is going and then stop spending it. If anything is really essential then look to make equivalent cutbacks from the expenses you have already listed to accomodate the new item.

If you haven't already have a look at the snowball calculators, I 'snowballed' your debts and the £1703 and it showed you paying as little as £459 in interest, if the ods are moved to better rates then that would be even less.

Good luck.

I see what you're saying but I am also aware that I got to 11 o'clock last night and was guestimating and so left a fair amount of the odd expenditure unfilled. Feb 1 the missus and I have started our expenditure diary. I'm also aware we've got three foreign weddings (including Chicago) that we cannot miss.
Today, the ODs went 0%, we paid another £550 that I'd squirelled away from my bonus and a birthday gift from Grandma, and I went to Barclays and changed two quid from coppers! The big and the small.
I've not looked at this snowball yet. But now the ODs are 0% I pay £11625 @ 0%; £1265 @ 5.9% and £5555.63 @ 18.9% (buried) and £558.83 also at 18.9% (the next target). My interest each month is now £98.26 a month. I'm going to find out about this snowballing.

S_AND_I

Horace wrote: »

Instead of buying Sainsbury's Finest - drop to their value range, shop around, use Lidl and Aldi for some things, if you buy meat and veg don't get them from the supermarket go to a butcher and greengrocer. You can tell which is the best butcher by wandering past on a Saturday morning - if there is a queue outside then it is usually pretty good. Going to the greengrocer or even a market for veg is good as you can buy what you need rather than buying huge bags of veg that will mainly get chucked.

Meal plan and look at what you have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a shopping list containing items that you have run out of..stick to the list, if its not on the list then don't buy it. This way you will have less waste and some wholesome homemade meals instead of buying ready meals.

Thanks - I think we're getting there. Our last two shops have been £60 for a week, so if we can keep that up then we're well below the amount I estimated (and that was one Sainsbury's shop and an Ocado delivery that we stocked up on nappies to reach the mandatory £75 to get £15 off).

S_AND_I

beverleyhills wrote: »

Contact your water company, they will be able to give you an estimate on how much using a water meter would cost.

I think they'd ask me for a few grand for all the baths we take! I think my family are frogs.

S_AND_I

I'm going to look around, but is there a list of what an average TV on standby, washing machine use, tumble dryer use etc costs.