Hi I'm new and want to be debt free!

pennypusher

Hi Fruit Gum here are a few initial thoughts from me: Try to cut down your Gas and Electricity usage, turn your heating down a notch and have it on for less time, don't use a tumble dryer, do everything you can think of to reduce these costs. Reduce your mobile phone use, ring the company up and tell them you can't afford it and ask to be put on a cheaper package. You can get rid of satellite t.v.

Go over to the Old Style Board for idea on how to cut down your Groceries. Maybe buy an older car and release some money that way. Check out your interest rates on your debts and pay off the ones with the highest interest rates first.

You have lots of choices just look at everything you spend on and see if you can reduce it without noticing any changes to your lifestyle. Good luck, hope you find something that helps from my ideas.

Fruit_Gum

Thanks Pennypusher

I recently changed gas and electric to British Gas and they promised me some sort of meter that shows you how much you use on certain things ie dryer, lights etc. My kids are a nightmare for lights being left on they must be sick of me nagging them to turn lights off, maybe one day they will manage to do it without me telling them. Can't wait to start work, then the tv and laptop wont be on all day.

The TV thing is a bit of a pain as well. My h loves his sport and he says because we rarely go out anywhere/spend anything on us that is his one pleasure in life. I am reluctant to nag too much, he has just supported me through 3 years of uni so I think it's a small price to pay for a quiet life

Will consider the mobile phone bills and I def intent to reduce my grocery bill by meal planning/buying cheaper brands.

I was browsing ebay and noticed that second hand leotards can go for anything between £10-20 each so I've raided my daughters drawers for her old gymnastics leotard and listed 8 of them so hopefully that should make around £100 if I'm lucky! More to throw at the cards.

foxgloves

Agree that monthly grocery bill is a good place to start. That could probably come down to 250 a month (could start by getting it down to 300?) and I know there'll be people on here managing on a lot less. We are having a challenge month at the moment to see if we can manage on 100 for groceries/household (we have a scary big bill coming due soon). There are only two of us, though, & as we've been 'old-style' for a while, cooking from scratch, etc, we do have a very full freezer which is helping. Think it may be worth telling Mobile contractors you can't afford it as surely it's in their interest still to get a cheaper contact out of you than risk being paid nothing? You can get a contract for 15 a month...I guess PAYG would work out cheaper still? I do have some sympathies re the TV package but we all keep hearing the 'I don't go out so that's why I pay a big sum to Sky' argument & the simple truth of the matter is that if you have debts to pay then they are priority & you can't afford a big package. We've made a hitlist of things that will definitely go when the u-know-wot hits the fan with the public services cuts & our cable contract is definitely no. 1 on the list. Best of luck with sorting it out. There are always savings that can be made once you start looking. The energy monitors are useful.....we have cut our monthly energy payments in half through being more careful and seeing the numbers whizz up on the monitor really helps with that!

Fruit_Gum

Thanks Foxgloves. New month tomorrow and I am aiming to spend no more than £75 per week in Asda, for the next few weeks, then cut in down even more. Might get my slow cooker out and get some receipes for that too.

foxgloves

That's a good idea. There are a few good slowcooker books been published recently. I borrowed 2 or 3 from the library as I hadn't used a slowcooker before. Now am total convert & it's become a useful tool in my arsenal of debt-busting/budgetting. Good luck with it all.

Primrose2004

Fruit_Gum wrote: »

Hi

My very basic understanding of it is that he can claim the VAT. the original cost of the van was 10k (bought four months ago).

I'm unsure about this to be honest, he does have an accountant who does all his tax returns etc.

I am unconvinced which is why I keep nagging him to sort it out, he doesnt explain it very well and my knowledge on self employment is very limited.

He'll be able to claim the VAT back and assuming it's a work van and used only for work he will be able to claim the cost back via capital allowances. Assuming he's either a sole trader or partnership he should be able to claim 100% of the cost under the annual investment allowance whic allows business to claim back 100% up to a certain amount for any assets bought during the year. There are some rules to all this as there always is with tax, but I would imagine he has run this past his accountant?

As an aside point self-employed tax is due for payment in January and July each year. If he's had a bad year he may have already paid on account? What I suggest, as you have said, is he gets his accounts in to his accountant ASAP so he knows what his liability will be. Then you can plan. Also you can go to HMRC and say you can't pay it all and ask for a payment plan to be set up.

isy1011

Morning. Just read through quickly but are you really only paying £25 month on MBMA card? Surely minimum payments are higher than that on that balance?

Fruit_Gum

Primrose2004 wrote: »

He'll be able to claim the VAT back and assuming it's a work van and used only for work he will be able to claim the cost back via capital allowances. Assuming he's either a sole trader or partnership he should be able to claim 100% of the cost under the annual investment allowance whic allows business to claim back 100% up to a certain amount for any assets bought during the year. There are some rules to all this as there always is with tax, but I would imagine he has run this past his accountant?

As an aside point self-employed tax is due for payment in January and July each year. If he's had a bad year he may have already paid on account? What I suggest, as you have said, is he gets his accounts in to his accountant ASAP so he knows what his liability will be. Then you can plan. Also you can go to HMRC and say you can't pay it all and ask for a payment plan to be set up.

Thanks for making it clearer Primrose, yes it is a works van used only for work purposes. He is in a partnership at the moment and has sorted it all with his accountant. During the tax year 09/10 he was sub contracting and they deducted his tax before he got his wages from them. The only income tax we will owe is from April 2010 to date.

Fruit_Gum

isy1011 wrote: »

Morning. Just read through quickly but are you really only paying £25 month on MBMA card? Surely minimum payments are higher than that on that balance?

Hiya, yeah it's right, I know I was shocked too, the smaller cc (Yorkshire) want £51 minimum, MBNA request £25 minimum.

Primrose2004

Fruit_Gum wrote: »

Thanks for making it clearer Primrose, yes it is a works van used only for work purposes. He is in a partnership at the moment and has sorted it all with his accountant. During the tax year 09/10 he was sub contracting and they deducted his tax before he got his wages from them. The only income tax we will owe is from April 2010 to date.

Ok well in that case you don't need to pay the tax until January 2012 so that's even better for you.

and if he was sub-contracting in 09/10 and has had tax deducted at source he may well get a refund. The reason being that CIS is deducted at a set rate and doesn't take into account his personal allowance or any other expenses that he can deduct, eg telephone, motor, travel etc etc, so a lot of sub-contractors actually get reufnds every year.

Has he filed his 2009-10 tax return yet? If not i'd get it into the accountant asap