Newbie advice please

sadmum_3

Thanks so much to all who gave advice and support, we are going to contact our energy supplier to see if we can change tariff and speak to our mortgage lender to explore options to bring down our monthly repayments. Again thanks to all xx

sadmum_3

Going through figures again and I have realised that I haven't included a loan for £100 pm! this is paid off in 12 months, belts got to get even tighter now.Feeling very low at the moment, seems such an insurmountable climb to make._pale_

moo2moo

Nothings even insurmountable. Take things day by day. I bet you have cupboards and freezers full of food. Use those up before buying more. Even if you only have a weeks worth of stuff around thats a quarter shaved off your shopping bill and your £100 found.

Start a family spending diary. Document every single penny you spend from the 40p for a paper to the £60 on lunch or clothing. Ask yourself if you really need it. You'll be quite surprised how much money you spend without realising it.

A couple of weeks before Christmas is always going to be the hardest time of the year to make any changes but since most people have long weekends off work it is also the easiest to make changes. Start by meal planning and batch cooking. You'll be surprised just how cheaply you can make a meal for four from scratch.

I assume you've done the obvious and destroyed all your catalogues and chopped up the credit cards to stop things getting any worse.

Do you have any money in savings acounts or in piggy banks that you've forgotten about?

sadmum_3

No, we haven't got any savings, yes the cards and catalogues are gone - just trying to hang on. I have gone throught the freezer and done a meal plan for the next week until we get paid again, got a list of essential items which should come in under £30 which is good as I only have £45 in the bank until payday. Thinking of ringing the Bank to see a mortgage advisor to see about extending the mortgage term and am also going to ring our energy supplier to see if we can get a cheaper tariff.

firesidemaid

if you do change energy supplier, try and get some cashback.

my dad rang up BG the other day, mentioned he was looking to move and they gave him £30 cashback and moved him to a better tariff.

re. £72 for phone/bband/tv etc. either post on here or on the relevent board, let us know what u r paying for what and i'm sure there will be immediate suggestions on how to cut that down (even maybe without losing any services) - the amount of knowledge, deals and know-how on these boards is amazing x

money_honey

There has been lots of great advice here and I don't have much to add except you can do it! My family and I have quite a lot of debts to pay off and we have really cut back so we can afford to get everything paid off. It is amazing what you can do without! I've sold quite a lot of stuff on eBay and Amazon lately and have put the money towards Christmas presents.

The main thing that worked for me is (1) doing a monthly budget - once we get paid we put all our money for that month's bills into my savings account so we don't accidentally spend it, then take it out again when the bills are due. That way we know whatever's left in our accounts has to pay for food and all our extras that month like petrol, meals out etc. (2) Food planning - we managed to cut our shopping bill by a third just by planning meals for each week and not randomly buying things when we got to the supermarket.

Anyway good luck and it is definitely do-able

sadmum_3

:jThankyou thankyou thankyou to all the kind people who have offered advice - recent update, I have spoken to our energy supplier and changed tariff to a cheaper one, and managed to reduce monthly payment by £25, I am also looking at their insurance for boiler/heating to save some money there. I have been to the shops with my planned list and managed to top up our existing food stuff with meals for the week for £30. Very proud of myself!
Have made appt to see Barclays on Friday to see if we can reduce our monthly payment to them, but if we can't then the belt will stay just as tight as it is now. Determined to get out of this mess now:T

firesidemaid

i don't know what you pay for your boiler cover now.

i started off with b/gas as they offered a discount through my employer. then they put it up massively the next year and wouldn't budge, so we moved to eon who we are with anyway - i managed to get cashback when we switched.

we just have boiler cover, and go for the deal which is cheaper per month, but we have to pay £50 if we did have to call them out.

glad to see you are doing well and are inspired by the forums - let us know what your current mortgage deal is (including any penalties or fees for increasing term) even if it doesn't look like a good deal. hope you manage to sort something.

katsu

sadmum wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2050
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1570
Benefits................................ 134
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3754
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1405
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 150
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 126
Electricity............................. 175
Gas..................................... 56
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 72 get a freeview box and cancel the satelite.
Mobile phone............................ 60 ask if you can drop a tariff even tho you are in contract
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 700 get your receipts and work out how this is broken down. Look at the OS board and find the link to their recipe website and make some efforts to reduce this. You should be able to cut £200 here to help you break even, even more in the longer term.
Clothing................................ 80 buy for the kids only for a while and look at charity shops etc.
Petrol/diesel........................... 120 stop making short journeys that are not essential, use the petrol prices website (link from Martin's motoring tab above) to buy cheapest, drive fuel efficiently etc.
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 43 use comparison and cashback sites at renewal time.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 100 can some of their christmas money from relatives go towards this trip?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30 what is this?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 44 seems high. Have you checked that you aren't over-insured on contents (I assume this is for both)?
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 32
Other insurance......................... 43 In a year this is over £500. My washing machine cost much less than that brand new. Martin has good articles on boiler cover if you feel you need that. I'd question if the washing machine cover is really worth it.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 cut this to £20. You don;t need to spend so much. Honestly. Try sale bargains, charity shops and homemade gifts.
Haircuts................................ 30 see if you can save any more by using a local hairdressing college if you don't already.
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3398

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 190000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 194000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 178000...(1405).....0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3288.....(150)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 181288....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next...........................294.......22........0
Comet..........................565.......23........0
Barclay visa...................7423......170.......0
Santander cc...................4400......90........0
MBNA Virgin master.............8644......206.......0
Coop...........................381.......32........0
Additions Catalogue............758.......35........0
JDW catalogue..................892.......45........0
Barclay Master.................4719......95........0
Barclay visa...................3070......70........0
Total unsecured debts..........31146.....788.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,754
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,398
Available for debt repayments........... 356
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 788
Amount short for making debt repayments. -432 does this feel right?
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 194,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -181,288
Total Unsecured debt.................... -31,146
Net Assets.............................. -18,434

Afraid you need to make some hard cuts to make the £400 shortfall but you can do it. Good luck.

Poorbuthappy55

Hi Sadmum

You're doing really well already. When I first signed up to MSE I used to spend far too much on food but with the help of the OS thread I now spend about £250 a month for 3 adults, cat, dog and 2 guinnea pigs. This includes everything including wine!!!

I meal plan and do a monthly online shop and top up with milk, fruit and veg weekly. The benefit of online shopping is that you don't get that sinking feeling at the checkout because you can go back and either delete items or go for a cheaper option to reduce the final bill.

We have freesat TV and use talk talk as our phone/internet provider which costs £22.47 a month for line rental, all calls and broadband.

I read some part of MSE everyday whenever possible and carry notebooks everywhere. I never buy anything on impulse anymore and always check for deals and vouchers.

We actually live a calmer life now - I don't spend hardly any time in the shops so have more time for other things. I do more home cooking which I now enjoy and have discovered some very simple pleasures in life. I have rediscovered knitting.

My daughter has accepted the change in lifestyle eventually ......!!!!

We still have a considerable amount of debt to pay off but I feel in control now.

I want to wish you the very best of luck and you WILL get there!!