The journey starts here - don't stop believing

purple_butterfly28

Poor Kat!! I would've been scared alone in a dark car park aswell! Do you know what breakdown company your bank uses as they're supposed to put women first witha lot of them, if i remember rightly. I would write to the breakdown company and complain as 2 hours is really a long time.
Well done to your DH for using his initiative was good thinking with the bike lock and also kicking the door lock! lol What make of car do you have might be a known fault or could give other people some warning.
My car was pretty icy this morning and took ages to defrost!! Frozen rain drops aswell which are really hard.
I like your blood donor card reasons clever and may start doing that aswell!!

**Kat**_2

Thanks PB - I think it's RAC (it's either that or AA so a big company).

I have a Seat Leon (the middle aged one) - don't know if it is a fault - will google it.

Woowoo

Hi Kat

What an absolute nightmare, I would of been very scared as well.

I'm surprised the crying didn't prompt the breakdown company to respond a bit quicker - I think that's really poor.

Will you have to walk home on your own tonight though?

**Kat**_2

Yup - I'm hoping that one of the guys I used to give lifts to can drop me home. He has just bought a car and I think I'm owed some lifts - all depends if we finish the same time though. xx

moneyeditor

Hi Kat,

First of all, well done for taking such positive steps towards better money management. I also hope that you have be successful in quitting smoking.

I've had a look through all of the information you have provided and have a number of helpful tips for you (I write about this sort of stuff for compareandsave.com):

1. Avoid Convenience Stores

You mentioned in one post that you spent £2.60 one day in a corner shop - corner shops will usually always charge you more than the supermarket for the convenience so prepare your shopping list in advance and buy all you need (if you can) from the supermarket and cut back on these odd shopping trips.

2. Don't buy brand-name medications

I also saw that you bought painkillers for £2.00 and suspect that you bought a brand name product such as Anadin or Nurofen. Because these are brand names, you pay around 70% more for these medications because you are paying for the fancy packaging and the advertising to market the products.

Anadin's main ingredient is Paracetamol which you can buy in packs of 16 for under 30p in most chemists and Nurofen's main ingredient is Ibuprofen which you can also buy in packs of 16 for under 30p (they even come as sugar-coated tablets, just like Nurofen).

They work in exactly the same way as the named brands' products so you can make big savings here (if in doubt, ask your pharmacist if they have the 'generic' version of a brand named good)

3. Spread your council tax over 12 months rather than 10

Most councils usually let you spread your council tax payments over 12 months rather than 10 if you ask them. While this means you won't get the two months off paying council tax, it will reduce your monthly outgoings and reduce the shock of having to start payments again after a two month break where you've gotten used to having the extra money.

4. Contents insurance

I noticed you had buildings insurance but no cost listed under home contents insurance. It may be that you have 'buildings and contents' insurance and have listed it under the one category. If, however, you don't have contents insurance, it may well be worth considering getting some. Although it will add an expenditure to your list, it may well prove handy if the worst were to happen and you lost everything in your home and you had to fork out to replace it. It would be sad to see you put all this effort into getting out of debt only to have to get into debt again having to restock your house with furniture, clothes, toys, etc in the event of a disaster.

5. TV, Phone and Broadband

If you are able to, maybe you could try and move away from Sky to Virgin Media. You may lose some of your favourite channels but you could make some good savings because Virgin's bundles are very reasonable and offer free minutes on the phone, etc.

6. Benefits

As your annual household income is around £40,000 per year and neither of the adults in your family earn over £44,000 you may be eligible for more benefits than you are getting at the moment. You can check at the DirectGov website (I would provide you with a link but as a new user to this forum I am unable to).

Hope this helps and good luck saving money!

Moneyeditor

**Kat**_2

Thanks.

The home insurance is for both buildings and contents.

We have tried to get more help with the cost of childcare etc but the government says we earn too much - not sure how but c'est la vie!

We like having the 2 month break as it falls in a car tax month and the month before our son's birthday so we use the money for that (so as not to touch the "normal" budget).

We used to be with Virgin and didn't leave on the best of terms. Our sky is expensive but we need the top internet connection due to DH also doing website work and as we rarely go out (not so much due to money but due to having a young son) the Sky is our "entertainment" rather than meals out or the pub (however we are going out for a meal a week today but first time together since Nov).

I did buy branded, I think it was syndol as I get really bad tension headaches. I have a dr appointment Monday (different reason) but I will ask him what is cheap and will do the same job!

Thanks for your advice x

**Kat**_2

The Good - Paid over £40 into building society
The Bad - In reserve but still less than last month (not by much and was a 5 week month)
The Ugly - Finally had kays statement through. Loads I forgot about on BNPL - the totals include interest but will be paying them off before the interest free period runs out so that will reduce the debt.

Can't believe our full, unedited debt was over 10k - so glad even with the additions we are below £9k!! We have paid of 11.9% of debt so far so I am chuffed to beans.

Please don't judge that the debt has gone up - we didn't have a statement and I've been saying for ages I was going to add it on - feel a bit ashamed though (even though the stuff was bought pre lightbulb moment)

**Kat**_2

Got to be said, I am chuffed to beans that we only went £332.62 overdrawn - thats £7.38 less than December and it was 5 weeks 3 days between my pay days only a small reduction, but heck, it went in the right direction after all!

Lemon_Tree

Kat that's a major achievement, i still remember the first month i lived within my means and didn't use as much overdraft as i'd done the month before.

Woowoo

Very well done Kat, you've done great x