Needing Advice

mum2one

a flying hi, didn't want to run without saying well done on being so organised, be back later and have a look at the soa, will be gentle as I can xx

nowpanicking

Hi Workie Ticket... I know that sky is really a luxury but I would really struggle with less channels... I really love my sci fi and some of my fav programmes are on sky one. It's been suggested phoning them before and threatening to leave but I'm such a bad liar I don't know if I could do it... daft I know !

fozmcfc

nowpanicking wrote: »

Meant to say in my last post - I had intended on stopping the DD to Red Cross but they phoned at the weekend with a big story about how much my money was helping and I ended up increasing the contribution to £9 per month... I'm too soft!!!

I know where you are coming from. I donate to Breakthrough Breastcancer each month and I was surprised at the fact you must agree to pay them for at least a certain amount of time (I believe it was 2 years). I pay £20 a month and about 6 months in, they are sending me letters to say, would I consider increasing my donation to £50 a month.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind making a monthly donation, as I think it's a worthy cause. However, I don't like the way, they push for more, really made me think twice about continuing after the minimum period.

I just hope that increasing your donation, doesn't mean in effect, you have agreed to pay them that amount for a minimum term, like with my donation.

Workie_Ticket

I did the Sky thing a few weeks ago - they reduced it from £19.50 to £9.50 a month for six months - no loss of channels or anything.

Verbatim

Are you actually putting the money away for the annual/quarterly stuff like coal and insurance? If not is this why the overdraft got run up again?

Intergalactic_Floozie

Would you be able to open another current account anywhere that might match your overdraft? Just means you might be able to get one at a more reasonable rate than RBS? (although admittedly it is rather massive, so maybe not)... but I reckon not one of us can say we haven't done the same, Bloody banks - I can resist anything but temptation!!!

pennypusher

Hi Can you change your mortgage to interest only for a while or have a couple of months break with it. Stop the top up to the Child Trust Fund, combine all your tv and broadband packages, ditch Sky and the Sky repair plan and Sky films. Make sure you don't leave anything on standby, dry your washing outside not in the tumble drier. Shop around for House and Contents Insurance and also Life Insurance. Cut out the double trips with OH having the car every day and cut it down to days he needs the car not every day. Cut out unnecessary trips with the car. Cut the personal spending right down between you, you are spending £80 every week on not a lot.
I can't see anywhere where you are saving for this new car. Just buy an old reliable car that way you won't lose money on depreciation. Your SOA shows you still have money left over but this is disappearing. Sadly a lot of your spending is nice to have but not essential. You really need to decide your priorities and cut right back on other things. I've given you some ideas, I hope they are helpful. Good luck with it all.

nowpanicking

Hi everyone

Loads of good advice there... I was thinking about going interest free for a while with the mortgage as hoping OH will start working next year so could def look into that. I'll have a go with most of the other things, although still don't know if I can live without sky ... will pluck up the courage and phone them to see if I can get a reduction by threatening to leave...

Verbatim - everythings in my annual budget whether it's monthly or annual... the overdraft crept up by just spending on nothing it feels!! I just never seem to manage within budget each month. Hoping for a first this month - I've joined the weekly spending challenge so hoping that will help.

Thanks to everyone else for all the hints... I'm finding this really helpful

Pennypusher - thanks for the honest advice, really appreciate it - I realise that I'm in a better position than some on this board - enough income to pay the bills etc. so it just seems crazy I've let the debt mount up like this!! :mad:

mum2one

nowpanicking wrote: »

Hi there

This is the first time I've posted here. I have used this site for a while now and picked up some really good tips - I have spreadsheets for everything!! Annual budget; monthly spending budget; menu planner with costed shopping list; NSD etc... even with all this I can't seem to get my debt under control.

I have a large overdraft (£3,700) with BOS which I cleared at the start of the year by transferring to a new virgin credit card after reading advice so I could avoid massive charges. Thing is, this month I'm just about at the limit of the o/draft again... kept it open "just in case of emergencies" BIG mistake!! I just keep dipping into it every month.

Anyway, if anyone can give me advice on how to get rid of this overdraft and generally manage my money better I'm all ears! I've got an annual budget I work with as I get paid 4 weekly and it's all meant to balance out at the end of the year (which it does in the budget) so it might look a bit odd on my SOA.

SOA
Like the way you have done the SOA as you have balanced it to how your wages come in etc.
Income (is 4 weekly)
my pay................................................ £2,083.99
family allowance ................................... £ 81.20
tax credit ............................................ £ 40.75 - have you checked your getting the right amount of tax credits etc. Think the website is www.entitledto.com
Total 4 weekly income £2,205.94

Expenditure (bills monthly / general spend 4 weekly)
BT.....................................................£ 12.00
TV Licence..........................................£ 12.12
Mortgage.............................................£ 516.99 - could you go interest only, but set yourself a time period eg 2 years,
Top up for child trust fund......................£ 10.00 -sorry to say this is a luxury that at the moment has to be put on hold
AOL (broadband and land line) .................£ 14.99 - may be worth bluffing AOL say you want to leave there do you a better deal
AOL (calls to mobiles etc)........................£ 10.00 - can you cut these back, maybe use pay and go fone with free texts deals
sky repair plan........................................£ 6.18 - luxury you can't really afford, if your out of contract, you'd almost be best cancelling and taking a new contract
BOS Loan (APR 16.0%; 6 years remaining)..... £218.43 - that holds us up a bit
Scottish Power (electric) ..........................£ 80.00 - that is high, I'm assuming you don't have gas,
simple things like turn off lights,
don't leave tv on standy
if charging phones, laptops etc, charge them in the room that your in, that way your notice when there charged

Sky........................................................£ 19.50 - that is a luxury, if you are intent on keeping it, then something else has to go
Sky films...............................................£ 10.00 - luxury, do you really get the value worth from it
Car repayment (3 year deal - get a new car in 3 years or
can trade in.... is up September 2011) ..........£175.60 - that loses a lot of value on the car, the only person to come out of these smiling is the car dealership, - consider buying a cheaper car when this contract expires
Virgin Credit Card (APR 0% bal £3,834.63) ......£40.00 - really do need to increase the payment on this - guessing the 0% has an expiry date??
Council Tax .............................................£101.00 - so with the 4 weekly set up, technically your allowing 13 sets of ouncil tax, but you actually only use 10 of these, thats £303 that could be used towards a debt repayment
House Insurance .......................................£ 27.68 -Is that buildings and contents combined, sometimes cheaper to pay seperately. shop around cash back sites etc
Life Insurance ...........................................£30.93
Interest on Overdraft .................................£40.00 - is that a fixed charge per period?
Vodafone ..................................................£15.00 - ok thats not bad, but are you getting the best value for money, either consider sim only if you want contract, you can change supplier, keep your number, good cashback details on Quidco
or pay and go, a lot do special offers, I'm with 02, (old plan) I top up £15 pm, I get 300 free texts, 150 off peak minutes, any network, and also with loyalty bonuses, get £3.00 cashback per month added to my balance

My mother has vodafone, we put £5 per month on, and she gets free texts everyday after 7.30pm. There are alot of offers out there.
Charity (aiming to cancel this) .......................£ 8.00 - As the old saying goes, charity starts at home, yes its great to help out, but for now you need that
DFS (interest free over 4 years - 3 yrs remaining... £50.27 -ok thats fixed, its 0%, so can't moan at that one
Car Insurance ...............................................£14.45 - very impressed with the price, but again shop around.
TOTAL BILLS (MONTHLY) £1,413.14

General Spend
Petrol..........................................................£180 - guessing pretty fixed, can you reduce any journeys,
Food...........................................................£140
Me spending.................................................£160- not sounding personal but allowing yourself and OH that level of personal spending is to high, you both need to knock that down to at least £80 per month, and maybe as a treat have to take sky out of the luxury money.
OH spending.................................................£160 ditto
Coal............................................................£30
TOTAL GENERAL SPEND (4 WEEKLY) £670

Annual Spends
Christmas/Birthdays......................................£1,010 - this needs to be cut, look at the christmas threads, homemade presents, bargain hunting, homemade, etc
Car Tax.......................................................£132
Professional Subs...........................................£189 - guessing your a taxi driver, so that is a fixed sum
Car Service...................................................£120 - again fixed and out of your hands
£1,451

Summary for Year
Income £28,677
Bills (£16,958)
General (£8,710)
Annual (£1,451)
left £1,558

As I said any advice would be appreciated... please don't be too harsh

The positive is from your figures even with those spends your still in profit at the end of the year,

It may feel like I've commented on nearly everything - just some general thoughts.

A lot of your items are fixed, dfs, loan, etc but with the loan check when the 0% ends.

I did notice that you have got £40 per month allocated for the overdaft interest but there does not seem to be any money coming off it.

Don't know if you watched the BBC programee spendholics (sp?), basically someone who would think nothing of going through £300 a week spending, after allowing for the bills etc to be paid, they went cold turkey for example they may suggest they could cut back to £100 per week, but the presenters would cut it back even further to £50.

I really think that if you could cut down both yours and hubbys personal spending money, and take the sky out of there, that way your both contributing to a luxury.

And also start a spending diary, both you and hubby seeing where the spends go, whether its 50p for a packet of chewing gum or£3 for a magazine.

Another thought, u sound very savvy with spreadsheets and budgets etc, consider breaking down the spreadsheets to a further level, almost like a weekly basis, that way you can control the money better,(almost like a personal bank statement), so if any money is slipping through the net, your be able to pick it up quicker.

For short term, could you ebay, car boot,
Look at survey sites, write reviews for Dooyoo, though that has changed slightly, depending on the catagory, before it was 50p per review and 1.5p when someone read it, the payment structure has changed,

Another thought could you open another current account to put the bill money into every week/4 week, etc so by the time the bill comes the money will be available, and by transferring the money out of your main account,

Maybe go though your bank statements with a fine toothcomb incase any debits are coming out that should of been finished, same with credit cards, on that line could you of been misold PPI, have you any bank charges that you could put in a claim for.

Apologies I feel like I've just wrote an essay, pretty good as I had a 3 hr Open Uni exam this afternoon, and the brain still functioning!! (just).

If theres anything I've thought of you want to chat about just pm me xx

mum2one

Just one more thought, please don't beat yourself up over this, we've all been there, done that brought the t-shirt, me included, (as the sig says I'm on the scenic route), and I know personally without the support that I have recieved on the boards,I'd of still had my head in the sand xx