Help with sorting out this mess please

Honeybee_2

Sorry, I don't know whether this has been posted, but...

Regarding the mobile phones, after 3 months, you're entitled to change the tarrif so what I'd do if I were you would be to drop both phones to their lowest tarrif and ask the airtime provider for a pro forma to pay off the contract in full, you could probably do this just selling one of the phones if it's a new, all singing, all dancing one!

I'm on PAYG with O2 and I top up £15 per month, with that I get 150 off peak, x net minutes, 400 texts and £3 credit left on there for any calls I need to make in the day.

Hope that helps.

carriel_2

Hi & good luck with everything.

I havent read through all the posts, so apologies if this has been said before, NTL are doing a £30 offer, phone, broadband & TV package for £30, sky+ is a luxury that you really dont need.

On the subject of pocket money, I'm sorry I cant keep my mouth shut, when I was 14 I was told if I wanted things, I had to pay for them, so I got a job, as soon as I had a regular part time wage my mum took 30%, then I had to pay my share of bills too & if I wanted a specific food that wasnt eaten by anyone else, I had to buy it myself. When you are a teenager you cant be too fussy about where you work, theres nothing wrong with McDonalds & they are always hiring.

Also on the telly, go to https://www.empirestores.co.uk & use the free £20 code listed in the discount/codes section of this forum, they have a Daewoo 26 inch for £99.99 take off the £20 discount & you get a brand new telly for 79.99

Also shoes dont have to cost a fortune for your kids, sorry, but go to Tesco or a discount shoe shop, they scuff em, play footie in them, puddle jump in em & grow out of them in 6 months anyway!

joannasmum

Hope you dont mind me commenting. I've just had abit of an idea, the majority of houses dont just have 1 tv these days. We got out of the renting hole by using the portable out of the bedroom in the lounge until we could afford to buy one. Now I'm guessing that each one of your children has a tv could you ask them to give it up for a week on a rotaional basis and included yourselves maybe every other week if you have one in your room. Dont know if this will be possible but thought I'd run it passed you

Hootie19

carriel wrote:

Hi & good luck with everything.

I havent read through all the posts, so apologies if this has been said before, NTL are doing a £30 offer, phone, broadband & TV package for £30, sky+ is a luxury that you really dont need.

On the subject of pocket money, I'm sorry I cant keep my mouth shut, when I was 14 I was told if I wanted things, I had to pay for them, so I got a job, as soon as I had a regular part time wage my mum took 30%, then I had to pay my share of bills too & if I wanted a specific food that wasnt eaten by anyone else, I had to buy it myself. When you are a teenager you cant be too fussy about where you work, theres nothing wrong with McDonalds & they are always hiring.

Also on the telly, go to https://www.empirestores.co.uk & use the free £20 code listed in the discount/codes section of this forum, they have a Daewoo 26 inch for £99.99 take off the £20 discount & you get a brand new telly for 79.99

Also shoes dont have to cost a fortune for your kids, sorry, but go to Tesco or a discount shoe shop, they scuff em, play footie in them, puddle jump in em & grow out of them in 6 months anyway!

Sorry, but I totally disagree re the shoes. I've been to ShoeZone and bought school shoes, thinking I was saving money.

1. My son came home with enormous blisters on his heels after one day's wear
and
2. The damn things literally fell apart after just a couple of months.

At least I know if I go to a decent shop and get them properly fitted, neither of the above happens. I do believe that buying cheap shoes is a false economy.

We moved away from ntl because we didn't need their broadband any more, nor the phone as my husband works for an ISP and our ADSL is free. Our home phone is with them too (have to have the very basic thing with BT just to keep the phone line) and they did work out cheaper than getting the phone elsewhere.

I worked on the cheese/deli counter of our local supermarket (Hillards - don't think they exist any more, do they?) for 2 hours a night after school and 4 hours on a Saturday when I was 14. Then I worked in the lighting department of British Home Stores on a Saturday. However, as I understand it, they have to be 16 to work in a shop now - presumably the same goes for McDs?? I don't know for sure. But as I said before, apart from a paper round, which I will not allow for safety reasons, I know of nothing else that he can do (the 14 year old I'm talking about here).

The 16 year old is special needs and while he is willing to get a job, and I won't try to prevent him from applying, there is a limit to what he can do. That's not to say he's not looking though.

My daughter, who is 19, is looking also for part time work. She has applied for a weekend job advertised in our local Roseby's shop. However, it turned out that it's only for 3 hours on a Saturday which will bring in very little for her, plus, as I've said before in the thread, I suspect her young age will go against her, as I've only ever seen middle aged women working in there. But she's given in her application form, and we wait and see.

There really isn't much available in our town for young people to do workwise. She has also applied for part time weekend work in one of the pubs in town which was advertising. So she is trying. She is hoping also, that there may be a possibility for an early morning job in the breakfast club in the school at the end of our road, which will gel nicely with the college course in childcare that she's about to start.

And unfortunately, a rubbish credit record prevents me from going anywhere for any kind of credit. I found that out when I tried to buy something from one of the catalogues that was mentioned in a "grabbit quick" thread on here. I wasn't even trying to buy the darn thing on credit, but I couldn't see a "pay now" option on the website and ended up applying for a credit account that I didn't even want.

thank you for your comments - I hope it doesn't come across that I'm just ignoring advice, or looking or excuses. I really do believe it's worth paying decent money for decent shoes though :-)



Honeybee - I didn't know that about phones. I thought once you'd signed up for a contract, that was it. You were stuck with it until death did you part!! We will definitely look into that. Thank you.

Hootie19

joannasmum wrote:

Hope you dont mind me commenting. I've just had abit of an idea, the majority of houses dont just have 1 tv these days. We got out of the renting hole by using the portable out of the bedroom in the lounge until we could afford to buy one. Now I'm guessing that each one of your children has a tv could you ask them to give it up for a week on a rotaional basis and included yourselves maybe every other week if you have one in your room. Dont know if this will be possible but thought I'd run it passed you

Actually, that's excellent. The kids have got a reasonable size tv in their "playroom" - I think it's about 21", something like that. So we could have that in the lounge, and use the portable that's in our bedroom (and rarely watched) in the playroom instead.

thank you - that could well get us out of a bit of a fix. :-). I suspect there will be some resistence to it, however, as they like having a reasonable sized screen for their games consoles.

steve_cov

Sorry if any of this has been covered, but this is a long thread now, and this is the first time I've seen it...

Hootie19 wrote:

Gas/electricity (Scottish Power) £98.00
Housekeeping/food £550.00
Wife's prescriptions £19.00
Husband's wargaming club £8.00
Son's golf lessons £25.00
Children's pocket money £120.00
Sky tv package £42.00

Gas and elec seem very high: are you sure you can't cut this down at all? Ditto food: could you shop later in the day and get the bargains?

You could certainly get a prescription season ticket, which cost about £100 a year. Check the Prescription Pricing Authority or even ask your local pharmacy.

Are golf and war games essential? Could pocket money be cut? You already pay for transport to and from college, clothes/shoes and hairdressing. And what about Sky? Do you actually watch all the channels you're paying for?

Hootie19

steve_cov wrote:

Gas and elec seem very high: are you sure you can't cut this down at all? Ditto food: could you shop later in the day and get the bargains?

You could certainly get a prescription season ticket, which cost about £100 a year. Check the Prescription Pricing Authority or even ask your local pharmacy.

Are golf and war games essential? Could pocket money be cut? You already pay for transport to and from college, clothes/shoes and hairdressing. And what about Sky? Do you actually watch all the channels you're paying for?

See posts 49 and 50 on page 3 of this thread :-) :-)

Hootie19

I've added another credit card that I'd forgotten about in the post a few above, but the thread didn't bump to the top. so I'm adding this just to bump it.

laurajayne

I'm sorry to rain on the parade Honeybee, but I'm afraid you are wrong on the contract front.

I don't know which network you got the phones with, but they all have minimum periods that you are signed up to the contract for (that's how they work out you get the phone for 'free')

You're completely knackered if they are vodafone, as you will have signed up for 11 months (on a 12 month) or 17 months (on an 18 month) contract.

o2 I believe is 6 months, and I would have to check the rest.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but didn't want false hope

sparkles.

I am still fairly new to the DFW way of life but I do have these twopoints to add.

I never cooked, because I thought I couldn't. Now it is just about the most enjoyable thing I have in my life. If you can save £25 on this months shopping then buy a slow cooker. Some veg, some water, a couple of stock cubes and whatever meat you have to hand - chuck it into the slowcooker in the morning and everyone has a decent meal to come home to at the end of the day. Even better if you have been to the supermarket between about six and seven the night before and got all the ingrediants on reduce to clear. I have tried out so many recipes from the Old Style board and now also have the complete confidence to substitute ingredients to match my families taste where I see fit. I went shopping yesterday and normally would have spent £80 this time I spent £41 this saving has come from a mixture of buying cheaper ingredients and also have meals already prepared in the freezer.

Secondly on the pocket money front. It broke my heart when we could no longer afford to give my son pocket money. I kept up with the subs for all the clubs he attended and his fortnightly magazine but could not afford to give him money for 'spends' on rubbish (whenever he was going on a day trip or something similar I would save a few pounds for him and would find him the odd sweet treat - people bring in cakes a lot a work and I would always pop my share in my handbag to bring home for him for example). At first I just avoided it but eventually he asked if he had done something wrong not to get pocket money any more , I had to explain the situation to him and say that while I would never see him go without I could only give him money for a reason rather than just for him to spend willy nilly. At the age of seven he did understand in the end and, I think, realised that money is not something that we all have in abundance all the time. I have recently got a new a better paid job, the absolute best thing about this is that I could tell him that pocket money is coming back and I have learnt enough over the past few months, from this site mainly, to ensure it stays for good.

Good luck, but think is it worth risking the most basic of needs for your children's luxuries?