what can i cut back on?

chloejane_2

Ok im gonna try to address each issue you have all pointed out to me, looking into changing from BT not sure which one is a good one, ive looked at the artical on the front page and think ive found one that will work for us and should save £20 a month so thats a great start.

Fag today i have given up smoking, will see how this one goes i do not think it is a good idea for DH to stop now he is having quite a few problems and i dont think he will cope at all if he stops but he is now wanting to stop so that is a major break through with him!

internet is tied in and they will not budge on changing anything!

kids savings are on hold we are not paying anything into them at the moment but have also not taken out the small amount in them as fell better knowing the money is there as an emergency, its only £200.

£71.72 this is an endowment part of our mortgage and that is ok and will still pay us a little in 15 years time when its matured.

life ins £9.95 this is changing and going up as we now have a bigger mortgage but the deal was the best at time of applying, sure it could be better now though.

house ins was on a good deal then we moved from a town to the edge of a city in the middle of the policy and have been stung big time, as nottingham if you read the papers has the highest crime rate lol, but this will be up for renewal in november and hope to save some money to put a burgular alarm on house etc which will bring the insurance right down to a sensible price, i hope. this is for buildings and contents.

we do need to have two cars at the moment as i work for an agency so have no fixed work place, am starting up own business so will still need second car but petrol will be next to nothing, also due to moving i had two college courses that i was attending where we used to live so was travelling 600 miles a week just to finsh college, we also had a few things like wedding receptions etc to go to back where we lived so this cost will go down as of this month. DH works a few miles away and works very odd hours so needs a car to get there and back, somtimes he does not finish work till 2am so the hours are really and i dont feel happy with him being tired and cycling 10 miles at that time of night, i know i sound more like his mum by saying that lol.
Also we have started to walk to school and not take the car out if its not necessary.

All my spare time is spent doing the house decorating etc and setting up new business and then theres the kids.

the kids clubs and outings we have decided to stop the outings unless they are free etc but will still continue with the rainbows and beavers as this is only £20 total every half term, and seen as we have moved to the area its good for the kids to mix with other kids.

gas and electric we dont have the heating on at all in the summer as no need we are desperatly teaching kids to turn off things when they no longer watch them and have this summer managed to get them to do this, not to sure of true cost of gas electric as all the systems are different in this house to our last one and the appliances like cooker is now electric and not gas, so that price was more of an estimate. but i have been cooking food in batches and stuff since we moved in here.

spending money was for things like golf, pub dinner around pay day so all this has gone now as of today!

hopefully the last bit the credit cards have just finished their o% and cant change them at the moment as not long been in new house which is black listed with cebt collectors coming round for old owners, DH has only been in his job for 8 months and im not working an awfull lot so we are not really in a position to get other o% credit cards, i dont think anyway? but egg is on a aniversary reduced rate and will be cleared in 6 months, RBS has about £3000 left on it not sure of the rate but sure its not good but hope to use £300 egg money is 6 months to clear this quicker. cahoot is on a silly rate of interest and there is about £5800 left to pay off, OD is sitting at about £3500 on 29% i think its a natwest account, but we did think of moving this to the loan which would make interest a lot less but then didnt want to get into the spending the OD again if you see what i mean.
sorry for going on so long hopefull its not full of to many excuses :)thanks for all the good advice.

Floss

As long as you are on the electoral roll (contact local council), you should be ok for finding another 0% or loan - it is NOT the address that is blacklisted, it is the previous occupiers.

chloejane_2

ok will be ringing them tomorrow thanks everyone for you advice

lil'H

chloejane wrote:

OD is sitting at about £3500 on 29% i think its a natwest account, but we did think of moving this to the loan which would make interest a lot less but then didnt want to get into the spending the OD again if you see what i mean.
sorry for going on so long hopefull its not full of to many excuses :)thanks for all the good advice.

If you limit yourself to a really strict budget and are detirmined to sort situation out then do you reakon you could manage not to spend into OD again? It's just if you could get that 29% interest rate out of the equation you'd be saving a lot. You are paying over a thousand pound a year interest on this by my calculation? :eek: Could be wrong here. Seems that would be priority as it's daylight robbery!

lil'H

fatbelly

chloejane wrote:

£71.72 this is an endowment part of our mortgage and that is ok and will still pay us a little in 15 years time when its matured.
.

Have you thought about challenging the endowment on mis-selling grounds?

See Martin's article here

I got around £2500 as a lump sum but if you look on the discussion thread that accompanies the article, that is probably on the low side - guess it depends on the projected shortfall. Anyway, it's all in the article.

If you've been charge overdraft fees over the past six years they can be reclaimed too

moriarty888

Wow, I just wanted to say how impressed I am at the effort you are putting into this. You have accepted every bit of advice with grace and humility. With your attitude I am positive that you will clear your debt in time.
Well done on the ciggies, I quit 6 months ago and it does get easier.
Good luck on getting all the debts onto lower interest rates as well, and with starting your new business, and very good to hear that you are teaching your kids the value of things too.
And again, congratulations, you are an inspiration.

masueuk

First of all, let me say, I am a complete newbie at this, just posted for first time today, but one cigarettes I can claim some success. I stopped by using lozenges, provided on prescription at an NHS stop smoking clinic. We met weekly for 6 or 8 weeks. I also found a website called QUITNET which was a bit like here only they also had a chatroom, but lots of people who had been there etc etc... so it was great when you got an urge to break the quit. It also has counters for time quit, lifetime saved, ciggies not smoked (mine is a mountain of about 20,000..EUCH) and money saved (or in my case money not borrowed to fund it) The other thing I did was right a Dear John letter to ciggies, just like a relationship, it had started out all very glam and exciting but in the end you felt like an ashtray... (not my current rel. I hasten to add). Basically, we are addicts so its always there in the background, but if you prefer the after the quit you to the before the quit... then thats the best thing to focus on. I still get urges at rare moments.... for ciggies that is ! but stick with it, be nice to yourselves, so long as that doesnt add to money worries.

Good luck and let your DH manage his own quit... we each have a personal affair with our vices.

abbecer

If offer is still available Tesco's have 50% off home insurance. I myself can't change at the minute as i have a claim pending but they honour the quote for 3 months.

Rebecca x