Help with sorting out this mess please

anniestar

Been to Altrincham today and noticed that the Martin Dawes shop had loads pf ex rental sets ranging from £45 to well over £100. Looked really good. Dont know if they are a national chain or where you live for that matter but its worth a look in the phone book. Take care. Annie.X

Hootie19

thank you annie - that's really kind of you to post that for me. I've never heard of Martin Dawes, so I can only assume it's not nationwide.

I did go into Cash Converters during my lunch hour and they have got one 28" flat screen type tv - almost identical to the one that we're renting, except the rental one is a 32" - for £200.

Now, I can see the logic in saying that I'll buy a tv for £200 and save the £28 a month rental, but having worked to get into "not spending" mode, I'm having problems in actually saying yes, we can do this rather than finding I've got £200 and now putting it towards one of the debts. (Of course, I've yet to work out how to "find" the £200!!)

southernscouser

Hootie19 wrote:

I did go into Cash Converters during my lunch hour and they have got one 28" flat screen type tv - almost identical to the one that we're renting, except the rental one is a 322 - for £200.

Now, I can see the logic in saying that I'll buy a tv for £200 and save the £28 a month rental, but having worked to get into "not spending" mode, I'm having problems in actually saying yes, we can do this rather than finding I've got £200 and now putting it towards one of the debts. (Of course, I've yet to work out how to "find" the £200!!)

Why don't you post on the 'I wanna' board or 'quck grabbit while you can' board? They will help you look at sites for cheap tv's. They often find things like discontinued models that are cheap, ex display TV's, even TV's with free delivery or something!

Well worth shopping around! And before you purchase check if you can get anymore cashback through Quidco or Rpoints.

Hootie19

CFC - and others, of course

I am sitting here with quite a lump in my throat. I'm really touched that while there have (quite rightly) been some quite stern finger wagging posts to me, no one has metaphorically been posting rolling eyes and loud tuts at me.

I really feel quite positive that we are going to get this lot sorted out, come hell or high water, especially given the level of support and advice I've had already, in just the short time since I made my OP.

I must admit that I've looked at some people's signature strips and felt quite faint at how much debt some people have got. I think I'd give up if ours was much higher than it is, but everyone does seem to be getting on with things and taking the same approach - little by little by little.

Hootie19

Thanks for that tip southernscouser - I'm discovering there's so much more to the MSE site than I thought previously! I don't think I've got much past the DFW and the Pigsback freebies threads before!

I will go and have a nose aound.

southernscouser

Hootie19 wrote:

CFC - and others, of course

I am sitting here with quite a lump in my throat. I'm really touched that while there have (quite rightly) been some quite stern finger wagging posts to me, no one has metaphorically been posting rolling eyes and loud tuts at me.

:rolleyes:

Only kidding!

We are all in the same boat! To criticise you would be hypocritical. Everyone just wants to help everyone which makes this place so amazing!

CFC

Hootie, may I suggest that you get another SOA put together, with figures now as accurate as you can humanly make them, take a look at them and also post them on here for people to give more assistance?

Perhaps do as another poster has suggested, keep a spending diary for a week or a month, as well?

Is your other half also 'with the program' as they say in American motivational videos? It will make it so much easier - which one of you has the financial direction or do both of you share it?

Hootie19

Helloooooooooooo - I'm back. OK, I've redone the SOA, and it's looking scarily healthy in comparison to the first one. I keep rechecking it, but I *think* it's correct. Hope it translates ok from notepad to here. When I've posted this, I'm going to root out the credit card latest statements, and I will add those shortly. Then you can give me your best advice as to how to clear things up.

Income

Our income
Husband salary £1,800.00
Wife salary £800.00
Wife DLA £64.00
Child benefit £163.40
Total £2,827.40

Expenditure
Mortgage £920.37
Loan from First National
for Central Heating System £35.00
Home contents/buildings
insurance £37.01
Endowment (top up mortgage) £31.51
Council Tax £149.00
Water Rates £46.81
Gas/electricity £98.00
Paul's mobile £25.00
Fran's mobile £25.00
BT home phone bill (average) £8.75
ADSL etc via
husband's employer £19.00
Road fund licence x 2 £35.00
Direct Line (wife's
car insurance) £31.46
Premium Funding (husband's
car insurance) £26.86
Petrol £40.00
Diesel £40.00
Son's bus to college £36.00
Wife's parking £48.00
M&S Pet insurance £12.00
Dog food £15.00
BGS Insurance on gas etc £24.82
Daughter's contact lenses £15.00
Wife's prescriptions £25.00
Hairdressing £15.00
Clothes/shoes £25.00
1 magazine sub
(son's Xmas gift) £2.50
Wargames club £8.00
Child's pocket money £40.00
TV licence £10.99
TV rental £26.99
Sky tv package £29.00
Food £500.00
Total £2,402.07

Balance £425.33

Hootie19

Rather than add to the above post, here's some further information. As usual - it's long and waffly, and I apologise for that!

We have negotiated a cheaper deal with Sky for 6 months. Instead of it being £46 a month, we have managed to secure £18 something (husband spoke to them and can't remember what the "something" is) plus £10 for the second sky box. I know you're going to tell me to get rid completely, but I'm a stubborn beggar when I want to be, and I'm happy with that for the time being, unless it becomes essential to get rid.

I have spoken to the Child Benefit people and they have confirmed that I will get CB for all three of them, so that's bumped up the income a bit.

I am still waiting to hear back from the accountant with my last year's childminding accounts done, so I still can't get a P45 for my employers. So I'm still basing my salary on guesswork.

I have received a claim pack for DLA for my son, and will complete that this weekend and send it off.

I have spoken to Scottish Power, our energy providers, to get a breakdown between the gas/electricity elements on our monthly DD, so I can go to Uswitch etc. The lady I spoke to asked if I'd like her to try and reduce the payment (duh!) but she needed meter readings from me. I couldn't find the torch to see into the black hole under the stairs where the meters are located, so she is going to call me back on Tuesday evening and we can go from there. In the meantime, I went to one of the comparison sites linked from the front page of MSE and I can save £153 a year based on the figures I put in from SP. Not a huge amount, but I'd rather pay less if its do-able. I have also read the family the riot act again about switching off unnecessary electrical items.

I am seriously considering taking my car off the road. I'm pretty sure we can manage with just one car, at least for the time being. Once the bad weather comes along, and my arthritis starts playing up (as it surely will) then we may need to reconsider this. However, as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining, and to cut a long story short, there is a very good chance that my mother in law will be giving us her car (for free, gratis and for nuffink). This should make a difference in fuel consumption, insurance costs and maintenance costs, plus we will be able to try and offload the money pit that is also known as our Ford Galaxy. We definitely don't need a car the size of the Galaxy now that I am not childminding any more. I've allowed £40 for petrol (the Galaxy) but I don't really think I'll be using that much.

I've still left the food budget high, as I'm not quite "into the swing of it" yet, and it's a bit of a safety net - knowing I will be able to shave more off it once I'm in the right mindset. On this subject, however, I do have a freezer literally full of 175 ready-made sandwiches and rolls lol. I also have a locked cupboard in my garage (to keep the ever-grazing teens at bay) with goodies such as crisps, dried fruit, rice cakes, all portioned out and put in plastic food bags, as well as bagged portions of sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, mini pork pies etc in the freezer (all bought on bogof :-)) so that when the time comes to make packed lunches, it's just a case of grabbing a bag of something and putting in straight into the lunchboxes. I *know* from experience, that if I leave it too late the night before, I can't be bothered weighing and bagging stuff up, so I just end up giving everyone dinner money.

I have also put a padlock on the fridge, would you believe! That way, the yogurts etc, last a WHOLE lot longer and I should no longer be running to Asda on the way home every five minutes to stock up again.

Within the £500 budget I have allowed £10 a week for fruit/vegetable purchases on the market - that usually gets me LOADS.

I am due to see the rheumatology nurse at the hospital in the next couple of weeks, and I will ask her how much longer they're going to piggyback my medication. If it's going to be longer than three months, then I will definitely get a pre-payment certificate. I paid just under £30 this week for four items (who can afford to be ill, for goodness sake!).

I have allowed £40 for hairdressing and clothing, although I am not at all sure that I will actually spend that - apart from this month, when my son needs new school shoes, and I will NOT buy cheap shoes.

I took advice on board about pocket money (especially whoever it was who so correctly pointed out that for as long as I am subsidising them, there's no motiviation for them to actually get a job) and have told the older two that there is no more money in the kitty for them. If they want money, they earn it. In reality, I still don't think my oldest son (the 16 year old) will be able to find anything, so instead we will pay him for cutting the grass, walking the dog etc.

We have also told him that at least for the time being, his golf lessons must stop (that absolutely broke my heart), but he was in fact quite grown up about it. Well, I gave him the choice of keeping Sky tv or continuing the golf, and he decided that while the Premiership was on, he'd rather keep SkySports. I'm sure that his dad will take him out for the occasional round of golf so that he doesn't actually "forget" how to play. If we do get DLA for him, depending on how much it is, he can restart his lessons.

I think that's about all I can add. I'm off now to hunt for those CC statements.

La_Tristesse_Durera

That 2nd one is much better - and there's £400+ at the end of the month which is really good! The food still seems like a hell of a lot - say if you could cut it to £350pm then that would give you a further £150 to chuck at debts, savings or - dare I say it - treats?