living on overdraft

zarazara

Do you need to buy all those presents. Can you tell people you cannot afford presents anymore? We did this years ago, a few peoplethrew hissy fits but they all got used to it. Exchanging a home made card or phoning people on birthdays and xmas has proved good for us.
Als, is it possible to sell one of the cars?

katsu

Presents - I gave 23 people gifts for £180 last Christmas. I did it by:
* shopping in the sales - I got some stuff in the pre Christmas 09 sales ready for Christmas 10.
* getting special offers (look on the grabbit board - I've got things from there like a £2 T shirt for christmas 10)
* charity shops - you can get new, good condition and unusual things
* making stuff - you can get the kids to help make pressies for some rellies - the aunties/grannies etc should love that.

I find that if you shop all year round and keep a list of what is for whom, then you can really save as opposed to buying at Christmas with everyone else.

drewdrop

The first debt I cleared was my o/d as it was costing me 25 quid a month, after this I realised I could clear the others, treating the o/d as a debt and moving accounts is the best option and to be honest moving to another bank could save probs in the future, yr current bank will send you a list of current dd's etc so the transfer can be done quickly, good luck:A

misshopson

hi guys

the cars i guess i do need it as partner works quite far away from where we live about 10 miles away and he works early hours from 6am to 6pm. my duty is to get our daughters to school/nursery which is about 2 miles then off to work between 8 to 5pm. i work about 8 miles away from home. so i couldnt see the cars going we considered the fact that he could bike to work but unfortunately that didnt work well during winter season! the entertaintment and gifts i could cut down on definately.. ill keep you guys posted xx

PasturesNew

Non essentials are things that don't make you die if you don't have them.

Here are the most obvious non-essentials you can cut out or cut back on:

misshopson wrote: »

Telephone (land line)................... 35 - that must be about £20 on calls/month. Stop phoning people, keep calls short, call in cheap times. Save £20
Mobile phone............................ 60 - get cheaper ones/don't use them. Get a PAYG and just think about every call you make. Save £40/month
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 - get rid of it. Save £20/month
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 - you can halve this, in time. For now... Save £50
Clothing................................ 50 - you must have enough by now... a few months won't hurt. Stop buying new clothes. Save £50

Other child related expenses............ 30 (saving account 15 pounds each goes to their savings account)- stop it for now, you can always double up once you're straight again.

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100 (our families are huge)- £1200/year is excessive. Cut it down to half. Save £50
Haircuts................................ 40 (myself and have 2 daughters)- wait longer between cuts, find a local hairdressing college that does it cheap. Save £15.
Entertainment........................... 200 - find ways to entertain yourselves for free/cheap. Save £150

£20+£40+£20+£50+£50+£30+£50+£15+£150 = £425 saved.

Set a target to reduce your overdraft by £250/month and keep to it.

Lemon_Tree

i cleared my overdraft by reducing the balance i was using of it each month, even if it was only by a tenner, and when it got so i could live without £50 of it then i reduced the limit of it. I knew if i didn't change the limit i would never get rid of it also as i keep a track of my bank balance on the computer i would tell myself i didn't have that balance available so i couldn't spend it. It took me a good while but i eventually cleared it and it was £1650.

the other thing i did which helped me save money on it in the short term was move as many DD's and SO's to the end of the month so that i was only at my peak borrowing balance for as short a time as possible. it saved me £5 a month at least in interest which i made sure i didn't spend, i knocked it off the balance i told myself i had available.

theoretica

I suggest you look hard at your car insurance and try entering all sorts of combinations into the quote websites - £3000 a year seems huge. Sometimes having both cars with one insurer will help cut down, or doing odd things like adding parents to the insurance, even if they never drive your cars. If one of you is seen as a poorer risk or doesn't have a no claims it might be worth only being insured on one of the cars.

misshopson

PasturesNew wrote: »

Non essentials are things that don't make you die if you don't have them.

Here are the most obvious non-essentials you can cut out or cut back on:


£20+£40+£20+£50+£50+£30+£50+£15+£150 = £425 saved.

Set a target to reduce your overdraft by £250/month and keep to it.

thats a really good idea thankx PastureNew x:j

misshopson

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

i cleared my overdraft by reducing the balance i was using of it each month, even if it was only by a tenner, and when it got so i could live without £50 of it then i reduced the limit of it. I knew if i didn't change the limit i would never get rid of it also as i keep a track of my bank balance on the computer i would tell myself i didn't have that balance available so i couldn't spend it. It took me a good while but i eventually cleared it and it was £1650.

the other thing i did which helped me save money on it in the short term was move as many DD's and SO's to the end of the month so that i was only at my peak borrowing balance for as short a time as possible. it saved me £5 a month at least in interest which i made sure i didn't spend, i knocked it off the balance i told myself i had available.

I have thought about it but also was in denial because i got so used to having it and none stop using it in fact i havent come off it since christmas i keep thinking to myself what in case of emergency money... with that i know now i was just making excuses to myself and at the end am only hurting myself. so i am now thinking id rather be misrable temp than to be misrable for the rest of my life.. plus there wouldnt be an "emergency money" as am never out of it so am walys down to a few quid by the end of the week any way .. thank you so much for the courage xx

misshopson

i really need to get my act together how can i be a role model to my kids if i cant even sort myself out!! thanks guys for your help and ideas xx