board of just surviving !! help !!

babie_gurl

thanks blue bells i feaL EXCITED IS THAT SAD !! gonna get me cook books out!!! haha

babie_gurl

gonzo127 wrote: »

lol, just take your time, you have done so well that you have faced up to things and it usualy takes people many number of 'lightbulb moments' before it fully sinks in

its generally advised that you stick around on these boards and occasional update your first thread, as this will become your 'debt free diary' and you can read through it again in a months time and realise just how far (or not depending on the person) you have come and we are always about and willing to give what ever advice we can

thanks gonzo its nice to know theres always someone around to help xx:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

determined_new_ms

babie_gurl wrote: »

Hi everyone
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,550.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
ebay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 are you tied into a contract? If not plenty of payg deals - I think 02 has one for £15pm unlimted text and an amount of minutes - quite generous! Install skype, encourge friends/family to do the same and call for free. check "say no to 0871" website for free/local rate calls to call companies. Call mobiles from this with "free" minutes
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.78 I pay £16.99 PM for internet and evening and weekend landline numbers with tak talk - other good/better deals out there.
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 check out Old School board for tips on reducing this - I shop once a month at Netto and get massive box of washing powder for £1.89, last us 2/3 months, haven't noticed any difference in cleaning power;)
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00 can you change to Alliance & Leicester/Abbey currently offer 0% interest on od for 12 months as long as you go into the "black" for 1 or 2 days a month
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.28
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.49
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00 very high there is a couple of threads on OS board about shopping for single ppl. I have after labourish research on os board reduced shopping bill to £158 for April for 3 (myself, oh & teenage ds)
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.00 turn off now sun is shinning
heating token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 leave a little earlier and park on outskirts for free?
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.04
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.63
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.65
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00 set yourself challenges for £xxx, retrain yourself not to be a rampent consummer, do things that are free for fun
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 invite friends for meal (and wine ) and it will be much cheaper, go out less a month, only take out the money you can afford to take i.e. £10
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
mobile insurence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
laptop in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.33 find a hairdressor that will come to your home, save loads a year (and mine is quite cute and very flirty so additional ego boast for free )
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 -either DIY or/& find a beauty college and get heavily reduced prices
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 plan birthdays through the year, give it a bit of thought and then hit ebay!
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 as with birthdays
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187.50 reduce to £0 and use leftovers out of heavily reduced shopping bill
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67 free coffee at work...

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,558.33

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,624

Ok quite militant reductions, so am not suggesting you do it all at once, its a learning curve but potentially you could reduce the above by around £450 per month

So sorry I couldn't see what the figure of your debts are but could you pay them off this year with this extra money? Save for a holiday for your implending 30th? Oh the options are endless... good luck!

babie_gurl

thankyou!! determind ms !! i have looked into getting a water meter i have to write to my landlord so here gos im never in so that should save me a good few pounds!!
starting to collate some ideas for food !! and going to do my shop on line ! should stop me spending on the organics !!
also i planted some seeds the other week and they are growing so free organic food soon ! ( well just need to buy some big plant pots !!) so my food bill might be concidably less ! this summer
your alll giving me loads to look at i love it keep it up!!

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi and welcome to the boards just wanted to wish you all the best with your debt free journey and chin up x

determined_new_ms

ok me again substitute for chineese takeaway??

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1616107

single ppl oldschool money saving (phew took me a while to find it!!)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2398861

should keep you busy doing the research - there you go fun for free for a month - thats £90 saved!!

kathrynrobson1011

Hello didn't want to read and run.

I'm a newbie too so can't really offer much advice, except food bill is too high (as every1 else has said). There is currently a thread on the oldstyle board on feeding a family of 4 (I think) on £100 a month. Owner of thread is weezl74 (not sure how to post links to threads)

They're a real friendly bunch on here and will def keep you on the right track.

Kat x

savingwannabe

Hi babe, am a newbie too. You have done the right thing, it can only get better now.

I found a spending diary really helped.

Well done,

:j

babie_gurl

ohh just read something about product testing and surveys anyone done this would this affect my tax ?? i know some of them pay vouches thats what i need !! then christmas might not be so expensive !!

carra007

Hi im new to this too. Starting to get it right now food at work is a killer, but you will sort it I had too, just make lunch the night before or get up early, I I like night before, an it tast better when you make it your self. you will pull through it will take time as it will for us, plus 4 kids! Good luck all the best x x