Lightbulb Moment Within.........

Gemmzie

Okay, no luck with consolidation, short-term goal is to reduce mother's monthly outgoings because they are crippling, long term is to be debt free (obviously)

So basic SOA...

Am using "Loan" money to pay off credit cards

£478 owed to "Loan" money =
* £37 - my brother cd's player
* £17 - glasses
* £70 - borrowed by myself for bank charges
* £300 - brother's moped (to be paid back 1st July from regular saving account)
* £54 - my driving lessons

Loan Money = £906.52

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CREDIT CARDS:

MBNA = £2,302.05 - 0% until October 05
£150 to come off in August / October / December - moving to my own card, life of balance card, as it is my debt not mothers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERAL:

In -
Wages= 675.04

Out -
HSBC Loan = 166.58
Halifax Loan = 137.62
Prudential (pension) = £45.94
Specsavers (contact lenses) = 15.50 ( half comes back via health insurance )

Savings ...
Car Insurance = £15 (currently - 106.55)
Car Repairs = £30 (currently - 30.10)
Car Tax = £10 (currently - 30.63)
ISA = £25 (currently - 325)
Christmas Food = £30 (currently - 133.95)
Christmas & Birthday = £40 (currently - 42.08)

Two other D/D's go out but are paid for by myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anything else needed?

wannabedebtfree_2

By "loan money" do you mean funds left over from a loan you have taken out, or money you are saving to pay one off?

If it is, in either case are you not better to pay a lump sum off one of the loans (if your loan allows over-payments)

I'm very confused!! Will read back for your other posts so I can get the full picture of whats happening!!

lynsayjane

erm how much does christmas food cost your mum??? i'd maybe suggest getting everyone to bring something with them, i'm presuming there are quite a few to dinner for the amount being saved...if they all brought a dish with it would save your mum a fortune! i'd also wonder at the amount being saved for pressies. maybe set a limit with family on how much to spend on each other at a limit your mum could better afford. only time that doesnt work is when there are heaps of kids involved, even so there are many great bargains toy wise to be foudn if you look.

i love xmas as much as anyone just seems to cost your mum a bomb!

Gemmzie

wannabedebtfree wrote:

By "loan money" do you mean funds left over from a loan you have taken out, or money you are saving to pay one off?

Sorry, funds left over from the loan

Gemmzie

lynsayjane wrote:

erm how much does christmas food cost your mum??? i'd maybe suggest getting everyone to bring something with them, i'm presuming there are quite a few to dinner for the amount being saved...if they all brought a dish with it would save your mum a fortune! i'd also wonder at the amount being saved for pressies. maybe set a limit with family on how much to spend on each other at a limit your mum could better afford. only time that doesnt work is when there are heaps of kids involved, even so there are many great bargains toy wise to be foudn if you look.

i love xmas as much as anyone just seems to cost your mum a bomb!

The gift money is for Christmases and Birthdays for the four of us, so that we get £60 each for each occasion.

I have no idea why the food money is so much, alot is just spent on booze.

Gemmzie

Do you think the Prudential could be changed? £30 is life insurance, but mother's wage doesn't pay the mortgage and her loans would die with her should the worst happen. So is she over-insured?

The only other items which come out of the account regularly are -
Mobile phone - £10 every other month, approx
Petrol - down to £30 this month but can be up to £50
Hair - £18 every six weeks

Gemmzie

Anyone?


Also, I've looked through the old boards but couldn't find any rough figures for weekly shop? 4 adults - parents, 16 year old bottomless pit and myself

calleyw

If you mother is serious then she has to slash and burn on her budget.

That means cutting back on savings for christmas food and as well as pressies.

Why an earth she £60 each on adults who are pretty capable of buy what they want with there own money. I would personally would prefer that my mother got herself out of debt rather than spend that sort of money on me.

As I grew older the amount spent on me got less not more. Until now it is more token presents than anything else.

Same goes for food. If you want booze buy your own. What she has already saved £133 should be more than enough to buy a turkey, a couple of christmas puddings and a couple of real nice bottles of wine. Half of the food at christmas is never eaten and just thrown away.


Also she needs to cut out or back saving to an ISA.

Prehaps I am being thick but the top half of the SOA made no sense to me at all.

I would say about £250 spend per month on food for 4. I spend £60-£100 amonth in two hungry adults.

Yours


Calley