Update on my SOA

gardis

Thank you to everyone who gave me the necessary kick up the backside a few days ago.

Since then I've looked in to a few bits:
Sky subs have been completely cancelled, saving £20 a month
Childrens savings have been frozen, saving £40 a month
Food shopping - going to lidl /aldi tonight to stock up, budget £160 for 2 adults and 2 children for a month
buildings/contents - reduced by £10 a month
We've both reduced our mobile contracts and I've turned mine off, so I don't use it. We should see a saving of around £10 a month on those.

So, a saving of £120 a month so far.

I'm trying to reduce our life assurances but I'm struggling with those. We pay £15 for both lives to be insured and £35 for my husband to be covered for accident/redundancy etc. this will cover the mortgage repayments each month. Our other debts have their own insurances. I've spoken to an IFA about these today and he can't shave any more off the price with out reducing the cover. What should I do? I'm clueless when it comes to insurances and he doesn't really seem approachable enough to get him to explain it to me (what I really want to know is, worth risking less cover? or not...?)

I've also taken photos of things to list on ebay, should total about £50.

So, a good start so far. But not sure what to do with the life cover..

dave318

I'd keep the life cover. You just never know what might happen and for a little layout. £15 is not bad, but shop around for that. I am sure Martin had an article 8-10 months back about shopping around for life cover. :money: (I suppose that also depends on how much your mortgage is.)

As for the other "debt insurances", I wouldn't be bothering with these, as they often stop your debt from reducing.

Just don't get sick!!!

You are doing well so far. £120 extra a month is a good start.
Have you looked at Your phone bills and utilities. I know Martin says don't switch just now, but perhaps you could save some money there as well.

we saved about £20 a month on phone bills by doing Martins 2 provider thing. Free evening and weekend calls with one provider (Just Dial Saver) and 3p per call during the day with Call1899, (Now part of TalkTalk)
We also saved money on Gas And Electric by switching to EDF. Yeah, I know they went up recently too, but they are still cheaper than British Gas.

Just keep up the hard work. It will be worth it.

Dave

chivers1977

Try this: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1076369501,83567, We have got double the cover for the same price.

Also this one: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1062326514,64086, for life cover. I don't know if you have level or decreasing term but this one can link into the decreasing term info for you. You should be able to get a good deal through these people but it is not generally a good idea to risk not having enough life cover if you have a mortgage as it could leave the other party liable to repaying the whole debt on just one salary. Always worth trying sole policies as sometimes work out cheaper depending on your circumstances.

lynzpower

brilliant start gardis!!

dont know about the life cover, but I certainly wish id been allowed it, as I wouldnt be in the carp I am now Id keep it if I were in your shoes