Help! Don't want to consolidate again.

Annie_Fanny

Hey there

To give you a bit of wind to your sail....try ringing ntl's retention's department on 08000529403 and ask for a discount. Today I rang and said that I wanted to know how much it would save me to drop the tv package as I was thinking of buying a freeview box. The woman straight away offered me a reduced package for my broadband from £17.99 to £9.99, free talk unlimited (saving me £2.00 a month) and a reduction on my basepack from £22.50 to £16.75.

Have a look at this thread for further info (although look at the later posts as the thread began in 2005!):
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=62656&page=9&highlight=ntl+retention

If you make the call you are GUARANTEED to save money!

Good luck!

Annie

d11wtq

judi24 wrote:

I managed to get my full weeks shop for 78 pound which to some may seem alot.

Sounds like you've done well actually! I'm no expert on what you *should* spend but with 4 kids to feed that seems like a good price.

I live with two 25 year old girls and we all do a combined shop (it's cheaper that way). We don't *ever* buy ready meals or pre-packed items so it's mostly fresh meats (which we freeze), cereals, dairy products, rice/pasta, toiletries and and bread etc. We'll get the odd expensive item such as ciabatta bread or salmon steaks but on the whole we're pretty careful. Our shop lasts the 3 of use (and we eat well) about 10 days and we spend about 50 quid. So 78 for 7 people sounds good to me.

We do silly things like keep bread in the fridge too.... it lasts a ridiculous amount of time longer in the fridge than it does in the cupboard - practically never goes out if you keep it in the freezer :P

d11wtq

Annie_Fanny wrote:

try ringing ntl's retention's department on 08000529403 and ask for a discount. Today I rang and said that I wanted to know how much it would save me to drop the tv package as I was thinking of buying a freeview box. The woman straight away offered me a reduced package for my broadband from £17.99 to £9.99, free talk unlimited (saving me £2.00 a month) and a reduction on my basepack from £22.50 to £16.75.

Awesome! I'm going to do that too. Thanks

tyllwyd

I was just going to echo someone else's advice to be vary wary about taking out a One account. We've got one, and my husband has a maths degree so he is good with figures, but even so we've found it difficult to get a real feeling for how it works, and whether we are doing enough to pay off our mortgage - and there is a real temptation to keep spending. Unless you are very very disciplined with money, I wouldn't go down that route.


Oh, and if your youngest children are 2 and 4, does that mean that one will be starting school and the other one eligible for some free nursery care within the next year? That would free up some money, and if you could get a better paid job as well when you finish studying, you might find that things get easier as time goes on.

Is your mum still in the granny flat? Could she maybe pay some rent? If she is on a low income, I wonder if it would be OK for her to pay rent and then claim it back on housing benefit. If the granny flat is not needed, perhaps you could move and downsize?

judi24

It will be another tear before my little one is eligable for free nursery place, but she will go to a state preschool on november when she is 2 and a half. I'll still have to pay but it will be about 70 pounds a month instead of 260 so that should help. As for my mum, she does live in the granny flat rent free, but she pput some money into the building work to create the extension so in effect it's partly her house. Also she does alot of child care and runs the older 2 kids around which not only saves me time but money also.
She can't get housing benefit cos she would be renting from a relative which out council does not allow and apparently her income is 64 pence per week over what she needs to qualify for pension credit.
She alos does some of my housework and ironing which is worth afortune to me!!
I have a job interview at the end of the month. If I get it my income will go up by about a third. My travel costs will also go up though but only by about 120 per month I think.
I am definately going to contact NTL and try to reduce that cost. Thanks for that advice.
I also notice that laod of people sell on ebay. I have every item of baby item known to mothercare!! I was going to wait til nov and sell at the NCT nearly new sale, but do you think it would worth trying ebay?

lynzpower

Ebay is a great idea. Ive made hundreds on there since Ive started, and I cant recommend it highy enough. Be careful though, some stuff wont sell, get to know ebay, have a look at the stuff closing, is it selling or not, and how to package things ( bundles of baby clothes might work better than singly etc) and then divide into a pile for a car boot sale, and get rid of the rest of the stuff that doesnt sell on ebay there. Ask on the ebay/car boot board, theres loads of tips on making money from your old stuff.

Wanted also to say a bit welcome :wave: glad you found us

judi24

Progress today - contected NTL as suggested by Annie Fanny. I got 10 pounds off for staying with the same tv package and broadband just for threatening to stop the TV package. they did say i could reduce this further by loosing the family package, but my kids would lynch me. I might do this when they go back to school in Sept.
I also contacted HSC about the 29.5% loan to get a settlement figure. It is 1995.25 at present. I asked if I could pay the balance with a lower interest cc. They then put me through to a local branch who said they were able to reduce the interest to 15% and give us a flexible account that allows us to overpay to clear the balance quicker.
I have also been recruited by Lever as product tester. At the moment i am testing a shampoo and conditioner. I have to turn up once a week for about 30 mins fill in a few questionaires about the product I am testing. I am getting 25 pound for it and the free shampoo! I am hoping they recruit me for washing powder next cos I go through a ton of it.

On the spending front I had tp get the kids school shoes. went to the clarks outlet and got 30 ponds off the 2 pairs.
I am about to plan a serious budget for us that will let me know exactly how much spare we have to pay off the debt before I use the snowballing websites.

I will post again once I have done this.

Thanks for all your help so far.

bargainbetty

I did the NTL thing, and got them to agree to give me the equivalent of the new sign up deal - £30 per month for TV, phone and broadband. I pay for the talk unlimited which means I can jaw to my friends for up to an hour (landlines) for nothing, and then I use up the free minutes on my mobile for mobile calls.

Saved me a fortune!!

Good luck going forwards - baby steps will get you there, and you are taking great strides already!

x

judi24

I've been trying to produce a realistic budget so than I can work out how much we have to pay our debt.

At the moment it looks like this:-

Household bills (see above) 1833
Food 400
Fuel 120
Kids pocket money 40
My spends 80
OH spends 80
Xmas, bdays, hols 250
emergency/night outs etc 100

judi24

Sorry posted the above without finishing it!!

Total above = 2903

Total income = 3859

Total for debt repayment = 956

I'm going to put this into a snowball calculator to work out our debt free date.

Also been looking for ideas to reduce the cost of Christmas. I find sticking to a budget at christmas very difficult. With 4 kids I need all the tips I can get to keep the cost down.
I ahve started buying stocking fillers in the sales but I have a long way to go and i am determined not to use my CC this year.