How much do you live on per month?

Lucy1010

Greenqueen wrote: »

To the person who posted a SAO. Please think about getting a water meter. I think £30 per month for water is really high if you live alone. We are a family of four who got a meter fitted. we pay a monthly DD of £22.

Hi there

Interesting point you make, I have a water meter and I have been paying £47.50 p/m up until recently. I have argued with the water board for so long, I had them out to visit my premises to check for water leeks etc but they found no fault! I have now asked to be billed as per usage rather than per month so shall see what happens when I get my next bill. I live alone, washing machine on once per week, shower once or twice a day and I have hardly any washing up to do!!!

ms_london

Lucy1010 wrote: »

I think you've solved it for me Yes I am paying way over the minimum payments into debts, my goal is to have them paid off in 10 months (originally 17 months) but I will have to give myself longer time-scale to stay sane and happy I wish I was more like these other OPs though.

Thanks OrkneyS x

Hi Lucy

You sound a lot like me when I was paying back my debt. I had £19,000 to pay back in total, could have either paid the minimum payment and put off travelling, or just go hammer and tong in paying it back as quick as I could. In the end I decided to pay it back as quick as I could, so I took a 2nd job (on top of my full time one) and became a bit of a hermit. I cleared it just over 2 years, and then when I was debt free, I continued with the 2nd job and saved at the same rate, then I left to go travelling with £10,000 and was away for 2 years.

Had I decided to repay the minimum payment, I would still be paying it.

But it is about balance, you do need to have some kind of life - give yourself a bit extra to live on, but if one month you do end up staying in and not having any social events, transfer the money left to your debt at the end of the month. It is swings and roundabouts - sometimes I love staying in and doing nothing, but other times I hate it.

My travel adventure was worth having to have a 2nd job, obviously it was hard at the time, but that was always my motivation. Now my motivation is saving for a house deposit!

Don't be too hard on yourself xx

Lucy1010

ms_london wrote: »

Hi Lucy

You sound a lot like me when I was paying back my debt. I had £19,000 to pay back in total, could have either paid the minimum payment and put off travelling, or just go hammer and tong in paying it back as quick as I could. In the end I decided to pay it back as quick as I could, so I took a 2nd job (on top of my full time one) and became a bit of a hermit. I cleared it just over 2 years, and then when I was debt free, I continued with the 2nd job and saved at the same rate, then I left to go travelling with £10,000 and was away for 2 years.

Had I decided to repay the minimum payment, I would still be paying it.

But it is about balance, you do need to have some kind of life - give yourself a bit extra to live on, but if one month you do end up staying in and not having any social events, transfer the money left to your debt at the end of the month. It is swings and roundabouts - sometimes I love staying in and doing nothing, but other times I hate it.

My travel adventure was worth having to have a 2nd job, obviously it was hard at the time, but that was always my motivation. Now my motivation is saving for a house deposit!

Don't be too hard on yourself xx

Ahhh thank you MS_London! I desperately want to be debt free ASAP. I realise that I am going to have to stay home and pay off as much as I can so I am able to do more in the future - although the future is never guaranteed, I could die tomorrow! Life is not a guarantee!!

PinkLaydee

I eat loads of Tesco 10p value packs of chicken flavour noodles! Fortunately I really like them. Try adding to them, I add finely sliced spring onion and soy sauce. Good for cold days at work. I've also taken to Value Spaghetti hoops 36p on toast. If you shop online it's easier to find and compare all the budget ranges, Tesco Value, Asda Smartprice, Waitrose Essential etc. I do an online shop from just these ranges, surprising what you find. Best of luck!

kerri_gt

Lucy1010 wrote: »

it really hurts me to see a substantial amount of my salary disappearing every month to pay off credit cards when I could be saving that money for better purposes.

Hang onto that thought, but turn it into a positive reason for getting your debts paid off asap. The sooner that's done, the sooner you can start putting that money you were paying off debts with to something you choose - that's my motivator and it really does work. I paid off my car loan last year, although it was 'only' £5k over a manageable period, low rate and 'low' monthly repayments (£116) it was so nice when the DD stopped going out of my accout...even if that 'extra' is now going towards paying off my CC.

PinkLaydee wrote: »

I eat loads of Tesco 10p value packs of chicken flavour noodles! Fortunately I really like them. Try adding to them, I add finely sliced spring onion and soy sauce. Good for cold days at work. I've also taken to Value Spaghetti hoops 36p on toast. If you shop online it's easier to find and compare all the budget ranges, Tesco Value, Asda Smartprice, Waitrose Essential etc. I do an online shop from just these ranges, surprising what you find. Best of luck!

I like the value/basics noodles too. I have made an 'oriental' soup using them and left over chicken before, recipie is roughly like this;

2pt chicken stock
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger (I bought a frozen pack so have it to hand now - very handy!)
1 - 2 red chillies - deseeded and finely chopped (actually 1 is usually quite hot I've found)
4 spring onions - sliced
100g Pak Choi - chopped
100g baby corn - sliced
125g thick egg noodles (here I just use the basic chicken noodles instead)
100g cooked chicken

bring the stock to a simmer, add the ginger, chillies, spring onion, pak choi and baby corn (here I usually simmer for a couple of mins)
Add the noodles and chicken and simmer for 5 mins until the noodles are cooked.

(Serves 4)

I've used different variations when I haven't had spring onion, just left it out, and chucked in some baby corn and mange tout that I had in the fridge looking a bit sorry for themselves. The ginger, chilli and noodles give it a lovely oriental flavour, the rest I guess you can adapt as you wish.

bluebag

DEV1L79 wrote: »

I don't have much,

I get 609 per month wages, my boyfriend is on benefits and gets £120 every 2 weeks and £100 rent every 2 weeks so all together it is 1009 per month.

We pay
£450 rent
£75 council tax
£100 gas and electric
£320 shopping

It comes to about £940 a month we barely scrape by, and when something unexpected comes along such as TV licence (every 3 month) etc.. it is a nightmare.

Hi, you could reduce that shopping bill by at least £100 a month which would give you some savings. I feed a family of 4 adults on £300 a month and we eat very well, try the old style money savers board for help to reduce your food bill.

Budget in the TV license, it's not really unexpected is it if you have a TV? The post office have a card that you can save on to pay your TV licence, it's called Budget Card and it's free to use. If you put £5 a week on that it would help.

7roland8

I pay my TV every month by standing order - that way you have no large bils - same wth electric.

Aesop

If you are struggling with TV License, and Water Bills, and Gas and Electric, you can ask for payment card. They agree a monthly payment you must make for all them, but allow you to pay it weekly if it helps. I find it a lot easier to manage this way, especially if I manage to sell something then I use the money made to pay off the TV license or water bill.

mineallmine

Heard about this thread on the weekly email.

Feel very humbled by the responses (and a bit of a wake up call). We cleared a mammoth of debt a few years ago using MSE tips and I think I have taken my eyes of the steering wheel as it were.

I really fancied a takeaway or eat out tonight but I'm logging off and searching through the deep freezer! Keep the responses coming. All non judgemental stuff of course - everyones situation is different :A

Lucy1010

mineallmine wrote: »

Heard about this thread on the weekly email.

WOW, how cool is that?! I am really pleased that my topic is chat of the week!

It is fantastic that you lovely people are continuing to share your monthly budgets