Savings... Are you having a laugh!

Sparkle78

How is anyone supposed to save on my budget;

Salary £1324.10

Mortgage 336 can't reduce due to current deal
Council Tax 126 has to be paid
Loan 242 secured on house
Gas 40 already in arrears due to faulty boiler I can't afford to fix
Electricity 35 in credit by £23
Sky (telephone, broadband and basic Sky package) 33 can't reduce!!
House Insurance 20 lowest I can get
TV Licence 13 by law
Car (NEEDED FOR WORK) 102 on finance til Jul 2011
Car Insurance 18 lowest I can get
Petrol 100 varies due to government!!
Debt Repayment 150 lowest it'll ever be til repaid
Bank Charges (constantly in red) 5
Mobile Phone 25 tied into deal for another 9 months

TOTAL £1245

LEFT £79.10

No food budget taken into account and only have £79 to live off a month!!

Would be better off not working and living off benefits... I don't have any money for luxuaries as pathetic as a magazine at 95p and I am sick of having to watch every single penny for 30 odd days a month from payday to payday!

Soubrette

You are spending nearly £400 in debt repayment, if you had none of this, you would have £470 per month to live on, still tight but even possible to save a bit.

You've already spent your potential savings by living beyond your means in the past and now have to pay it back (I'm not assuming it was spent on frivolities etc as I don't know what your situation was, some people get into debt because of unavoidable crap that life throws sometimes ).

You might get some really good ideas on how to reduce your outgoings or if that is not possible just support in paying off your debt on the debt free wannabe board, they are a lovely bunch of people and lots of them are in your situation, repaying debt can be soul destroying at times.

Old style can help you live as cheaply as possible (but much harder to do if you work full time) and up your income might give you scope for a second or third string to your income bow.

The freebee's section is a good one too, when things were tight my husband and I used to go out using the free cinema tickets, sneaking in a drink and some sweets - a night out for less than a fiver including petrol, there's lots of other free things there too.

Good luck

nearlyrich

Hi Sparkle Soubrette's suggestion of the DFW board is a good place to get support, I bet they can help you to save a bit here and there and cut costs why not give it a go?

Sparkle78

Living at the moment is just so difficult! Thanks for your comments x

Soubrette

Sparkle78 wrote: »

Living at the moment is just so difficult! Thanks for your comments x

The point is that you don't have to do it alone

Start a diary either in a book or on the debtfreewannabe diary part of the board and then you can see how far you've come.

Triker

Hello and welcome, firstly well done on keeping up with your payments re your mortgage, you have a roof over your head which is an achievement in itself.

Additional money can be earned, ebay is a good place, either through selling what you have that you don't really need or scanning the car boots and re selling stuff. Plenty on here do this and make quite good money.

The other is a second job, evening work, babysitting, pizza delivery, etc not to be sniffed at, you could overpay your debt, get rid of it more quickly.

Keep posting, and believe me Oldstyle can really help with food budgeting in the extreme.

Good on ya for posting.

Triker

Some help to get you going...

debtfreewannabee and Oldstyle

Sparkle78

Aww thanks everyone, just finding life a struggle right now, hard living off toast all month n having to hide at lunchtime in work due to ashame that I can't even afford to eat out of Greggs x

Triker

Some ideas re food on a very strict budget.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/168963

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/152900

dianadors

Could you take in a lodger short term? I believe you can earn up to £4250 per year tax free

Lesley_Gaye

hiya Sparkle, tough times hmm

Weezl and friends have set up a website that shows how to feed 4 for £100 a month, all in, so £25 a month for one, that might give you some ideas, better than toast all the time anyways. I have tried loads of the recipes and they are totally yum

the website is here http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

the latest thread is on this board

if you fancied having a go, there would be lots of support

as the prev poster mentioned, if you have a spare bedroom, or if you could utilise your sitting room, you could maybe get a lodger. Even if temp to help you through

once your car finance ends, that would give you another £102 to play with, and if you can move your phone to PYG when you can, that would save a bit too

good luck and let us know how you get on