Out of Hiding

GeorgeUK

Electricity............................. 190 ?
Take a note of the meter readings and call up the company to make sure they have the right data. If you have a surplus in your account, get them to send it to you so you can throw it at the debt.

Mobile phone............................ 25
PAYG?

Telephone (land line)................... 30 includes broadband bt
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 48
Internet Services....................... 0
Can you get all 3 in a package deal?

Clothing................................ 50 trimming this too
Every month? women!...

Car Insurance........................... 21
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 40
Check the price comparison sites to see if you are getting the best deal. Also check what you are paying for the utilities too. (uswitch, moneysupermarket)

Presents (birthday, Christmas etc)...... 50
Every month? Can this be cut back a little?

Holiday................................. 120 usually have at least to holidays a year
I'm not jealous

Emergency fund.......................... 0 very very bad i know
Take £10 off the pressies and put it in here.

Hopefully some of this will get you some savings.

Triggles

I'd recommend cutting the presents in half and putting £25 into your emergency fund each month. There are loads of ways to cut the expense of presents throughout the year! Not to mention just a simple cutting back in what is purchased, especially for Christmas. We've noticed it reduces a lot of stress over the holidays as well (not having to find the "perfect present" for everyone known to man practically!).

Lots of incidentals are often our downfall when it comes to things like groceries. For example, popping in to the supermarket for bread or milk midweek becomes a £30 shopping trip if you go when you're tired or hungry sometimes. If I know I'm only going in to pick up one or two items, I will only use a basket or none at all (and leave the children at home with DH) so I can get in and out quickly without the temptation of picking up extra items.

Farm Foods is great! We have one nearby, and we generally buy our bread, milk, toilet roll, and sugar there, as it's far cheaper than anywhere else locally.

Two holidays a year is nice, but is it necessary? Just a thought, but if you don't have a savings built up to cover for emergencies (such as redundancy or appliance replacement or whatever), this is a bit more of a luxury than maybe you can afford. Maybe take one nice holiday and put the money you would have spent on the second and tuck it into your emergency fund. I see that one of your loans is a payday loan, which might be an indicator that you're living beyond your means.

Put your grocery budget in cash, as well as your budgeted amount for personal spends... when it's gone, it's gone. If it helps, divide it into four envelopes - one for each week, to make sure you don't blow through it all in one week. It will force you to see what you're spending the money on. And put all the receipts in the envelope the cash came out of. At the end of the month, check to see what was really necessary and what was just frittered.

debtfreegonnabe_2

Hiya Georgeuk, Thankyou for reading and posting

£190 is for gas and elec, biggest part for gas, they did want £217:eek: but i do agree that £190 is still very high, I have paid this for about 10 month now, they said if I paid 12 months without missing a payment, they will credit my account with £100 ?

Sky and internet, I did sign up to bt broadband in a year contract but I am sure this must be very nearly up, I will check that out.

£40 life insurance, is for both OH and I is that still high ?

Yes presents can be cut back on, holidays...you not jelous....i may have two holidays a year but look at the mess I'm in ???

Emergency Fund, Yes that a definite too, must start that off.

Also, I have been paying extra on my council tax to clear arrears, I am going to give them a ring, see how its going may be able to reduce my extra payments a bit.

Thankyou for your comments, all constructive advice welcome :A

Triggles

Hiya Thankyou too for reading and posting.

I agree with all of your comments..........two holidays not a luxury its bl**dy stupid, when you don't have an emergency fund or any savings.

I have thought about different money for different things. I do internet banking with can I say names here ? tsb and Halifax and has from half hour ago, I now have...................6 bank accounts :rotfl: 4 with tsb and 2 with halifax, all for different things and I can move money around from one to the other. So plan is when we get paid, I put money in different account for different things. It also allowed me to rename my accounts, so I have

Bills
Housekeeping
Savings
Emergency Fund
Holidays
Christmas (this is also for presents)

I have said I have two payday loans, so I am going to cut back as far as I can and hope to be able to do without getting any again by the end of september. :A

DFGB

GeorgeUK

I would call the utility company up and ask if you are in credit - if you are, that money is better in your pocket than theirs. They have no reason to hold on to it and you have every right to request it be repaid to you.

You need to get rid of the payday loans asap. I hadn't noticed you mention them or i'd have been wagging my finger at you. Make sure you pay the minimum to all debts and throw anything left at these - the interest rates will be through the roof on them. I've seen some over 2500% APR

Dame_Washalot

Join the weekly spend challenge - until you get control of your day to day - weekly spend you won't get control

Set yourself a weekly limit and leave the cards at home - it's great

debtfreegonnabe_2

Hiya, been working overtime, so not been around.

This morning, in my mail box I had a renewal invite from a payday loan company. Tossed the idea around in my head, as I know I'll not get to pay day still having money in my account. Filled in all the form, came to press the submit button and thought better of it :j. Don't know how strong I'll be a week before pay day but no new application at the moment.

Only spent £10 since starting this thread, mind you car was fully tanked up and Ive been using freezer stuff.

DFGB

saltnvinegar

"Tossed the idea around in my head, as I know I'll not get to pay day still having money in my account. Filled in all the form, came to press the submit button and thought better of it"

Keep that will power going and don't do it!!! :beer:

If you get to the end of the month with just a penny it will be better than clicking that submit button!

gargrave50

Just a thought, if you are paying that much for Sky you should be entitled to their free broadband if you take sky talk. This will give you a big saving, we did this and have never had any problems with the broadband. Much better service than BT broadband, personally speaking.

With reference to the pay day loan application (which you didn't submit ), you can never take another pay day loan. They are supposed to be horrendous and are inviting you into a never ending loan.

You need to address this................look back at how well you have done since you just started the thread.

Don't make this into another time when you tried to sort your debt out, make it THE time

debtfreegonnabe_2

Hiya S n V, just read through your first post, brilliant. :T:T:T
I will be as strong as I can, I am soo tired of living like this. My debts are not huge but cause me huge problems all the same.

Thankyou for reading and posting

DFGB

debtfreegonnabe_2

Hiya GG, thankyou for reading and posting, I pay for all sky channels except movies (and Adult), I will be looking into free sky broadband, thanks.

Pay day loan, I do not have huge debts with these, one for £150 and one for £500, big enough though !!! I am going to cut back on everything I possibly can to get me through till the end of September. I will be short but will try and sell, hock or borrow from friend if I can ?

DFGB