Help me my life sucks

nearlyrich

To those of you asking about my Car Insurance, I actually paid it off in full last october (when I had savings :P ) so im not paying it off monthly, but I think maybe I should be putting abit away each month for it anyway, what do you think?

I think you know what we think , you want to be in a position to pay in full next October right ? So you have to put that money away every month. When you do that budget you will have to divide it by 8, put the money in a high interest savings account you can get around 5% and it isn't immediately available from the ATM so you won't be tempted to spend it. Hopefully you will have some no claims bonus and it will be a bit cheaper than this year. As a parent of 2 new teenage drivers I know insurance is a nightmare, when you are looking to renew take a look at this .. I saved about £700 from the "students favorite" insurance company quote by using confused.com, don't assume that your current insurer will be the cheapest.

You are doing all the right things and you haven't started from a position of deep debt which is where most people start to think about their spending. Any money you can trim from the boring essentials can be used to buy the things you want.

Looking forward to hearing how it's going..............:)


Edited to add: Look at this site (fixtureferrets) for special offers and BOGOF's you can get a weekly email of things which interest you.

d726t9

brisck1 wrote:

Will this be automatically adjusted in April?

I believe so. You can find out a bit more at:
http://www.slc.co.uk/frames/lr/sss/repayov.html

They've always been helpful when I've called them so might be worth giving them a call to double check.
Steve

cath-w

Hi there,

Here are a couple of other suggestions to help hopefully:

- food bill can be reduced. I spend £140.00 a month of all food for two adults and this includes cleaners, washing powder, toilet roll etc. Look at buying the shops own brands goods as many as very good quality (buying expensive cleaners really are a waste of money). Cook everything from scratch as much as possible. I guess you can save about £45-£50 a month eventually on food and cleaning supplies (£540.00 a year).

- Mobile phone. Get rid of it, unless it is a real essential. I am sure that you will be able to manage without. This would save you £30.00 a month (£360.00 a year)

- look at the car loan and student loan and see which has got the highest interest rate (probably the car loan). Reduce the payment on the lowest loan to the bare minimum and throw all excess money at the highest loan and pay it off as soon as possible. Then once paid throw all the money at the other loan. You will need to do some sums and work out the best way to do this looking at how much interest you will be paying - get a mate to help or post the info on here and someone can crunch the numbers for you.

Hopefully these suggestions will help. Reducing the food costs and moble phone alone will give you an extra £900.00 a year approx.

C.

brisck1

£140 a month is quite alot! you sure you typed it right?

fazer6

Right well as Vicky said I know what it's like to be surrounded by people with more than you, we went to school with the sort of people who got given a brand new car for their 16th and had their own horse. I'd like to say you get used to it after a while, and that is partly true. I still think it's spooky that out of the 35 people in my class at school I meet one of them here, the internet's a small place.

I understand that you can't really cut down your social spending more for fear of becoming a hermit. So when you go out do you get into rounds and have to spend more than you want to? If you don't want to seem cheap in front of your friends why don't you tell them the reason you don't have as much money is because you're putting some cash away each month because you are determined to buy a porsche before you're 30. No-one can argue that it's a bad idea because obviously you've planned it from the age of 16 and are absolutly determined to do it. This way you seem cheap saving money but at least it's not for something sensible!

What are you doing for presents for everyone this year? Plan in advance and you can save some money. For mothers day or your mother/grans birthday get something from http://www.greatgifts.org/(nqu33045w41j0qaa2nd4rf55)/Default.aspx you don't have to spend much but the gesture is worth a lot more. Your mum/gran will appreciate that you think they've got to a stage where they have most things they need so you've given them the gift of changing someone else's life. Money saving and brownie point earning.

For everyone else there's things you can do, I think I wanna had a thread about filtering your own vodka. Someone mentioned that you can make your own flavoured vodka, put a mars bar/chilli/licorice/toffee in a bottle of vodka and put it in the dishwasher or heat it up in a pan of hot water to dissolve the sweet. Find a nice bottle (some wine bottles are interesting shapes), get some corks from a home brew shop and make a label from a brown parcel label. Selfridges have this sort of vodka for sale and it's well expensive so as long as it looks shop homemade no-one knows how much money you've saved. And if your friends like partying then vodka will go down very well.

For other friends why not buy some herb seeds and grow some basil and oregano in some pots (I'm planning this for my female friends). If they've a garden make them a planter from spare wood (or buy something cheap from a garden centre). Superb gift for gormets.

If you do all that along with cutting down on the household bills and food spending then you'll have spare cash eventually. I know you don't want to get another job but could you do perhaps one night a week in a video shop/off license/pub? It'd make a big difference to cash flow and you wouldn't loose that much time.

Sofa_Sogood

brisck1

It might only pay a few pence (as in my case - 35p in a two weeks lol) but try the online surveys like www.ciao.co.uk/

Some people have made over £10 in a month or so for a few minutes work and every little bit helps. Don't use your main e-mail add though, just in case of spam.

Good luck

TAZ

i notice you shop at sainsbury and are thinking of using tescos, well as a mother of 5 i find that i really have to save money everywhere i can , i have started to use Nettos , and am finding that i am saving huge amounts i'm not sure if you have such stores in devon but maybe you have an aldi or lidl. Nettos used to stock mainly dutch brands but has now taken in more brand names and you can often get some bargains.

i would also recommend cooking for yourself as its cheaper and also better for you. batch cook and freeze in one meal amounts that way its just a case of reheating

cath-w

brisck1 wrote:

£140 a month is quite alot! you sure you typed it right?

It is not that much for two adults for all meals and household items. It roughly breaks down as:

£110 - £120 food a month for breakfast, dinner and tea
£10 - £20 a month on cleaning products, toilet roll, shampoo, cosmetics etc.

You spend £80 a month on food for one person and we only spend an extra £30 to feed two. Plus we also live in quite an expensive area.

C.

WeirdoMagnet

TAZ wrote:

... i have started to use Nettos , and am finding that i am saving huge amounts i'm not sure if you have such stores in devon but maybe you have an aldi or lidl.

i would also recommend cooking for yourself as its cheaper and also better for you. batch cook and freeze in one meal amounts that way its just a case of reheating

Would agree with Taz. I get our veg type things from Lidl (currently, but have used Netto and Aldi too). You can click on the links to see where your nearest one is. You can also subscribe to their e-newsletters so you know if there are any particular bargains that week that you need.

Tesco is out nearest supermarket, but I rarely pay full price for anything (OK, maybe bread and milk!) - I must do the checkout girls heads in with all the yellow stickers which won't scan! Go straight for the reduced produce section and pick and choose, and make your meals around the bargains. Yesterday I got 8 chicken thighs for about a quid, which I made into casserole (with an onion, garlic, netto's sundried toms, and some reduced mushrooms) and will freeze, that will make two dinners for two people. I also got some sirloin steak reduced from £4.72 to £2.36 (put in freezer), and streaky pork (I think it's belly pork, also in freezer) which we love and was 36p and 42p - great for roast dinners!

Maybe you could make a dinner, freeze it, and invite your chums over for tea. Get them to bring a bottle each!

There's lots of good advice on here - good luck!

Georgina

elona

I agre with georgina that food does not have to cost a lot. Is part of the problem that you are out all day then go for convenience stuff which is more expensive?

I made a vegetable curry for about a pound in my slow cooker and it was ready to eat when I came home. If you do not have a slow cooker some people got one in a sale for about £9 and it could save you loads of money in fuel etc.

Have you had a look at moneysaving old style - there are lots of ideas for cheap meals there and also a thread on saving money on cleaning products.