had the lightbulb moment now need extra SOA help.

fififofum

been a lurker on here for a while, i have made my own budget upto the year 2037 but today i am gulp £19403.24 :eek: in debt

i owe:
first direct overdraft 1488 (1500max)
amex card 4210.00 life of balance 4.9% NOT USED FOR PURCHASES/TRANSFERS
fd unsecured loan 13705.24 paid in 279.76 a month until 01/02/2011

my soa is:

income:
1514.43 a month full time worker

out goings for february:
mortgage 250 (OH pays rest)
household bills 93.50
food 200 for 4 weeks / 300 for 5 weeks - we take it in turns to pay
petrol 45 a month
car insurance 36.96 a month
mobile 35 a month (contract ends 01/07/07) due £420 cashback but having problems with them!
life insurance 7.84 this is to pay off mortgage if i die
amex cc payment 110
od 254
stamps for competitions 23
flights for friends wedding in June 77
spending money 50
health and beauth products 50

i need some help please, i had a 2nd job last year which helped, then i after 12 months thought i could make do without it. I just need some more help to get me in right direction

Storm

When you have a five week month (£300 for food) you total £1612.02 a month, but in 4 week months you're breaking even, just! Firstly I would recommend that you & your OH put half in each month for food rather than taking it in turns - and you really shouldn't need an extra £100 for just 1 more week!

How many is your food budget feeding? This can probably be reduced.

You've just got the one amount for household bills - have you checked that you're on the cheapest supplier - try USwitch (go through pigsback for points back)

The £254 for overdraft - I presume this is paying it back at the max you can afford? It's probably right to throw any extra here as unless you've got a 0% o/d it'll be a higher interest than your cc.

The only other thing is £23 a month on stamps for competitions - do you really win enough good stuff to make this worthwhile?

Storm

BTW - sorry if the previous message sounded a bit abrupt, I'm at work & having a bad day :rolleyes:

Welcome! :hello:

fififofum

Storm, thats ok - thankyou for responding! And hope you have a better day today.

Feeding just the two of us, OH has agreed we dont need to spend this amount and we are going to Lidl at the weekend instead of usual Sainsburys.

The bills are for oil, rates, electricity, phone bill, alarm (2.50) have tried Uswitch but it does not cover NI.

The competitions thing is a hobby last month subscribed to a magazine (£30) which hasnt come yet so will try and cancel it as they havent taken the money yet. So that £23 for stamps can go towards OD as well - trying to get in my head if its not VITAL its not getting any ££.

yep £254 is to leave in account to bring od down.

Its not easy writing the amount down , but the more i do it the more real it is to me (i owe £19K) :eek: But its going down each month as long as i tackle my od that is!!
Had a chat with my oh last night and its made me realise i have cut back but not hard enough. He has been very supportive and said we dont need to go away on holiday this year (we usually stay in uk max £500 each).

The trouble is i look at things on a per month basis (ie April car tax £175) rather than average it out, so when I have paid back my od (first priority) I will then be able to budget for christmas/holidays/money for car.

So first thing this morning, anything that isnt a monthly bill ie mortgage/bills/loan payment/cc payment i will set to zero on my xcel sheet and throw more at my od as i want to clear all my debts ASAP and to do this i am going to have to not go to 2 of the weddings i have been asked to this year, also a break i have half paid for will just have to say no as need extra£210 which i just dont have.i have applied for a second job but have had two jobs all my life and i think my mindset needs to change rather than just earn more!

My car needs a service £90 and i am hoping that thats all it needs! If it needs anything else I simply cannot afford to have it fixed and dont want to borrow from OH so would have to sell it.

This forum and website has really showed me i am not alone and although £19k is shed laods of money, i am confident that i will have paid it all of by 01/09/2009 as i am going to save up (eventually) to pay off my loan early too as i want to be free of this weight around my neck.

spaghetti_monster

Hi there!
Just wondering how many people you are feeding with your food budget and also "health and beauty products" seems quite high??? Can you be more specific??

Alex x

lizzie12_2

Could you not have a different account for your bills and one for shopping? Work out over the year what your bills are per month and pay that ammount into the account to cover it ( partner as well) then you would know what you have left .

Have a look at the other boards on here - some great tips for everything....... just need a few hours to plough through but well worth it.
Good luck.

Sammz

If you like entering competitions then check out the Competitions Time forum. Lots to enter for free!

flowerofscotland

lizzie12 wrote:

Could you not have a different account for your bills and one for shopping? Work out over the year what your bills are per month and pay that ammount into the account to cover it ( partner as well) then you would know what you have left .

Have a look at the other boards on here - some great tips for everything....... just need a few hours to plough through but well worth it.
Good luck.

Good suggestion - I find it very useful to have more than one bank account - one is just for debt payments. Go through https://www.quidco.com or https://www.rpoints.com to apply for another account and get cashback for doing so. Also take a look at the Referrers board on here as some MSEs will share their referral bonus with you if you use their link. All these little things help.

Have you joined things like Pigsback? There is a great thread on the Freebies forum - you can earn points to exchange into vouchers which are invaluable for Christmas/birthday/wedding presents or to subsidise your health & beauty products.

Welcome and good luck!

fififofum

i have changed next months soa this morning to:

income:
1514.43 a month full time worker

out goings for february:
mortgage 250 (OH pays rest)
household bills 93.50
food 200 for 4 weeks
petrol 45 a month
car insurance 36.96 a month
mobile 35 a month (contract ends 01/07/07) due £420 cashback but having problems with them!
life insurance 7.84 this is to pay off mortgage if i die
amex cc payment 110
od 282
flights for friends wedding in June 77 (only going to this one now out of 3 / 4 weddings invited to)
spending money 50
car service 90

Feeding two adults on calorie controlled diets. OD will be paid off in July 07. Then I will chuck money at CC - eta May 2008. Then save to pay off loan early - i will check t's and c's re early repayment but eta: July 2009.

I have pigsback (670points) Greasypalm (£11) Boots points (2000). Unused giftvoucher from christmas £20 oasis.

fififofum

alex_w wrote:

Hi there!
Just wondering how many people you are feeding with your food budget and also "health and beauty products" seems quite high??? Can you be more specific??

Alex x

feeding two hungry adults one with red wine habit!

i am allergic to perfume and have been buying Dermalogica / John masters organics, simple. i am going to buy just simple from now on and have enough makeup to last me another 6 months!

am trying to go homeworking with work and this will also save on my petrol.

whatatwit

I think that you would be better doing an annual outgoings sheet and then dividing it up by 12, if you are paid by the calendar month.
Then you would have a clearer picture of your actual situation.

Rather than taking it in turns to pay for shopping, then each put a set amount aside for shopping at the beginning of the month, any left over could go towards holidays or be used to towards next months shopping.