where to start?

saxysarah

thinking about the £500 monthly deficit - if I clear CCs that reduces it by £167pm if I pay off the loan thats another £221and if i can up my income by around £150pm through eby/amazon etc then that would make up the diff? I guess the trick is to get the debts paid off in the first place to make this a reality.......therefore cigs are out and rollies are in as from today! am I on the right lines ???

squeezymeplease

I don't have much advice as I'm still fairly new to DFW myself, but I just wanted to say fair play to you for studying working and bringing up 5 children by yourself, while still keeping your heads above water and paying your debts. You are setting a great example for your children and the fact you are teaching them about money management is fantastic, I moved out of my parent's home with no idea how to manage finances and just blundered along til I ended up in lots of debt with nothing to show for it.

As for giving up smoking, I smoked for 10 years and tried everything from cold turkey, patches, inhalator, etc ad nothing worked. Df smoked for 15 years and tried the same. Last year we both managed to give up after a long hard slog (we almost split up a few times!!) and have now been off the cigs for almost 7 months. It was the hardest thing either of us has ever done but I can honestly say now that it was worth it. The difference it has made to our debts is unbelieveable. We used Champix tablets (you can get them from your gp or your local NHS stop smoking group) and my mum used them too, she smoked for over 30 years and has now been off them over a year.

saxysarah

Thanks for that encouragement! sometimes its easy for people to say stop this stop that cancel christmas and that just makes me feel lousy! but Yes i have tried too many times to give up smoking on my own and used 'pressure' excuses etc maybe i should go down the GP route can't hurt to try can it!!!

MyopicMoo

Hi,
Well done on your LBM and all you have done so far.

The lovely people here make all kinds of suggestions, the trick is to pick the things you feel you can do. You can always do it bit by bit as you get used to it. On here there are a wide range of approaches, some people cut everything to the bone, others take a slightly more relaxed approach knowing that it will take a little longer to clear the debts. The key thing is that you are doing it.

We do keep some of our luxuries, basically because if we didn't we would eventually get to the 'stuff it' point and blow the budget. I deal with the money and the luxuries generally are paid by OH's commissions at work. We both work hard and although we want to reduce the debts as quickly as possible we think, for us, it is important to have a bit of fun. Our 'reward' for clearing our council tax arrears will be to have a summer holiday (not too expensive) - our first in 5 years.

Could your older kids not get a paper round to bring in a little money? They can use that for their treats and snacks.

Please think hard about giving up smoking - my OH smokes and I would dearly love him to stop. My mum and dad smoked for years but gave up very quickly when my dad was ill - admittedly the house was like a war zone for several months!

Good luck - and congratulations on having money saving kids.

saxysarah

Thanks for the reassurance that i'm not just sticking my head in the sand by wanting to hang on to my reduced sky package etc ;-) The kids do want to earn some extra cash themselves alhtough this is dificult - there is nothing in the way of paper rounds etc in our area and although I found it easy at 15 to get part time work these days its pretty hard even for the kids.

DS1 will reach the magic age of 16 this summer so hopefully will be able to find something then plus he will have finished slogging for GCSEs plus when he returns to 6th form he'll be entitled to EMA i think so he should be able to fund a lot of his own extras himself. On the downside the 2 youngest will be in full time school so that will increase the lunch allowance and probably clubs etc which in turn will be cancelled out by the saving on creche fees

So confusing - it would be easier to flog my house let the council house us and have the entire days free to keep an immaculate house cook from scratch every day and all that free time WOW tempting but i won't do it! i've worked my butt off since i was divorced to buy and keep my own house and i'd like to keep it that way!

shellsuit

Hi, Are you wages down right ~ £101 a month?

saxysarah

OMG hell no thats a weekly figure DOH!!!!

that looks so much better already!

Thankyou so much!

shellsuit

saxysarah wrote: »

OMG hell no thats a weekly figure DOH!!!!

that looks so much better already!

Thankyou so much!

No problem lol, I did wonder why you would bother for £25 a week

saxysarah

ok that looks totally different now! :j so now i'm left with an approximate £100pm overspend which is much more managable esp if I can pack in the cigs! this means then that all the other savings I make can be thrown at the debts and if i can clear the CCs and the loan i'll have £380pm to chuck in an account and save towards that dream disney holiday WOW - still a long way off but what an incentive!:T

MyopicMoo

Excellent - I'm pleased it was a mistake!