Things are looking better... I think....

debtCollector_3

debtCollector wrote:

Total outgoings: £1,657.50

Total income: £1,288.14
Difference: -£369.36

Total debts - £47,539.00

Help help help........ Pleeeeeease..

Well its not even been a week since joining the forum and I feel like I've really got things moving, and its all thanks to the advice and encourage of all you :j I know I still have a lot to deal with but I'm going in the right direction.

Anyway, I have redone SOA after making a few changes:

• Frozen company pension – add an additional £45 per month to salary
• My son will contribute £70 a month housekeeping
• In the short term, my mother will make repayments to my car loan - £168 per month. This will be until I find a new job with a higher salary (can I do this? Cos surely you can't add more debt onto expenditure if on DMP?)
• I have moved my car insurance to another company saving £26 per month

And is this more of a realistic SOA??

Mortgage £209.00
Secure Personal Loan £205.00
Council TAX £100.00
ALLIANZ CORNHILL ! £5.99
CIS F&A INSURANCE ! £11.76
CIS OB INSURANCE ! £3.20
CORNHILL INSURANCE ! £23.98
SCOTTISHPOWER GAS ! £50.00
SCOTTISHPOWER PLC ! £55.00
SOURCE INS SCHEME ! £7.64
T-MOBILE ! £40.00
TV LICENCE MBP ! £11.50
House Keeping £200.00
Petrol £40.00
School Lunch £40.00
Road Tax / MOT £18.00
Car Maintenance £20.00
Clothing £40.00
Pets £20.00
Car Insurance £66.00


Total Out: £1,167.07

Salary £1,035.00
TAX CREDITS ! £227.00
Housekeeping £70.00
Family allowance £70.20

Total In: £1,332.00

Difference: £164.93

Weekly difference £41.23

I know I haven't included any of my bad debts but if I've done my sums correctly then I've got something to pay into a DMP, what do you think?

I'm going to email Payplan with spreadsheet, see what they think.

DC

chevalier

I think if you have more than £100 spare then you can get on a dmp with payplan. I saw your soa before, but remind me why is your gas and electric so high? Are they your cheapest providers?
Well done for switching your car insurance, did you do it through quidco to get the cashback?

debtCollector_3

I don't know why elec and gas are so expensive, that can be the next thing to look into........ however....... we do have a lot of electrical appliance plugged in..... 2 TVs, 2 PC, Sky box, washing machine, tumble dryer, elec heater, gas central heating, 3 lights, elec shower and other bits and pieces..... that's what is running just now.

I haven't changed car insurance yet, need to wait till I get paid at the end of the month, no didn't go thru quidco, I used confused.com to get cheapest quote, don't think company is listed on quidco...

DC

oops_a_daisy

find the cheapest insurance quote on confused.com and then go through quidco to get cashback if the insurance company is listed - confused.com is not listed but a lot of insurance companies are

chevalier

what is your thermostat set at for the gas? If it is 21C or 22C then you could turn it down a degree or two and I think and not notice the difference. I also turn my thermostat down to 18C when no one is in the house. It saves us a lot. Do you turn the tvs, pcs and sky box off or leave them on standby? Leaving them on standby uses nearly as much electricity as having them on and using the. I found that Lidl were selling sava bulbs (100w equivalent) for £1.94, so while there is an outlay, switching to sava bulbs will pay for iteself in a year or so. Do you have any doors/windows with a gale coming through them? No point in heating the outdoor! And a major way to save on heating is to check that you have enough loft insulation - I think the standard now is 10cm thickness. And depending on your circumstances you can get a grant I think to top up insulation.

One other tip I got from hear, is that say you are doing a sunday roast (and your oven is big enough), you could also be cooking say a casserole to freeze for later, so you use less lecy that way.

And one thing I found out for myself is that if you have to run cold water into the washing up bowl before you can put your hands in it, then the water temperature is too hot, so you could save money by turning the water temperature down too!

However it has been known for meters to run too fast, so they measure more than what you are actually using. So maybe worth asking your supplier to come and check the meter.

Ref confused.com and quidco, no confused won't be listed because they are an online broker, however who you got your insurance with might have been on quidco. When I was changing my house insurance, I checked on a comparison website, looked at who was the cheapest and then went through quidco to get the cash back. Perhaps you could do this with your utility bills.

Sorry it is so long
chev

bananakinz

The biggest tip that I got off here regarding the leccy is if you are on a economy 7 meter, is to use do your washing at night. I now do one load a night rather than 2 or 3 in a day.

EDF wanted to take £250 from my account in July, I phoned them upped my dd to £40 a month, started using the washing machine at night ... the night time usage went up to 56% ( 4p a unit rather than 16p) my quarterly bill in Sept (I know summer also) was only £35, and I the amount I owed was £80. I'm 'looking forward' to receiving my bill in Dec to see how much I have saved this quarter, as this quarter last year was £150.