My SOA - KATCHAMBERS

roswell

you can now tall your hubby you have found an extra 7.4% of your total monthly income you never knew you had.

all_hours

That new budget is a great start kat. Good luck with it.

Have you tried freecycle for a treadmill?

black-saturn

Good luck with the cutbacks. I'm sure you will get along fine with them and it will really seem so worth it when your debts are paid off.

Just a little note. Please don't take this the wrong way. Ebay have a plus size clothing category if thats what you need. I buy some of my clothes from it

Mrs_Sparkle

Well done Kat- you've done really well to come up with those savings. Trust me, the little savings really add up.

Glad you're sticking around. Don't let our bluntness put you off- you should have seen the response I got to my first SOA (I used to spend £100 on clothes and £400 on food...!!)

C x

Edinburghlass_2

Good on you Kat, now you need to work out which debts need paying off quickest, ie which have the highest interest rates.

Sorry just as I posted I noticed Martin's new look on his logo :rotfl::rotfl:

gallygirl

ata girl!!!!! well done you!!!!!

livinginhope

That's the spirit,we didn't mean to bully you ,well done and hope it all works out well

Rgc_3

katchambers wrote:

Right, so me and hubby talked through all our outgoings last night and have slashed money off here and there and hopefully this will help reduce our debts further, I have been listening to your advice and have taken it into consideration.

Sky:
Current cost = £50 per month
Decision - We are going to remove the second box from our account and not have multiroom (saving of £10), we are also going to remove sky movies (save £6) we are also going to have only one sky plus subscription (saving £10) and we will sell the sky plus box on ebay hopefully making an additional £50 or so. We are going to get a digital receiver so that sky can be watched in both rooms, these are about £10.
New cost = £24 per month (50% reduction)

Clothes:
Current cost = £50 per month
I am going to stop buying from next and will start buying from ebay and cheaper shops. The problem is that I always send back loads of clothes when I buy from next, due to not fitting right or not looking right and my concern is that I will waste alot of money buying clothes from ebay, it's fine if you are a perfect 12 but I am very far from that, however, I will give it a go.
New cost = £10 per month maximum (80% reduction)

Entertainment:
Current cost = £70 per month
We are going to reduce this to a more reasonable figure based on our debts.
New cost = £30 per month (60%ish reduction)

Birthday, Christmas & Holidays:
Current cost = £75 per month
We are going to give less, I am overly generous with presents, but I need to stop this now that we cannot afford it. I have gone through and worked out a budget per person and have now reduced this figure.
New cost = £25 per month (66% reduction)

Meals at work:
Current cost = £16
I am going to take packed lunches every day
New cost - £0 (100% reduction)

*Cinema is not negotiable, it is too big a saving and is very worth the small amount that we pay.

I am going to try very hard to stick to this new budget and I will report back on how it is going.

Thanks for your help and advice everyone

Kat x

Hi and well done on the in roads you ve made

So your business has a full ongoing p and l so you know where your going with that(the part time job and your business does well enough)

you ve made some serious in roads in your spending:T

have you looked closely at all your individual debts to see if any trimming of apr s can be done and maybe worth trying the snowball calculator to put a strategy in place

well done so far and good luck to you and hubby:beer:

lynzpower

well done for those cutbacks hun

I wonder, is there anything you can sell to get debt free even quicker ?

katchambers

We do have quite a bit of junk lying about the house so now that it is coming up to busy season on ebay I think I will try and sell alot of it and use to decrease our debts.

I sold one of the free gifts I got from a magazine for £10! Only a small amount but it all helps.

Thanks for all your advice, I do actually feel better today now that we have a plan in place.

I will try to reduce the apr's that is a good idead thanks.