More out than in - SOA

MartialArtMan

I found the break down for my loan too:

With Northern Rock

Loan £5000
Loan protect £775

Start date Sept 06
Interest 10.1%

Might call them to see if I can make overpayments. Is it worth making over payments on the loan and minimum payment on the credit card which is at 3.9%?

bananakinz

Do you 'need' the loan protection? Hubby is Self Employed so for us all the proctection policies are dead money - they don't pay out! It will be worth making a phonecall to see if you can over pay - also find out what the current balance is and if they can lower the rate - tis always worth the time to ask the question! Check out the snowball calculator to see how much you could save by paying more on your largest interest rate debt.

Good luck!

MartialArtMan

Thanks. My employer is experincing a few ups and downs at the mo and I'm not sure about my financial future hence the protection.

Has anybody got a link to the snowball calculator?

black-saturn

Heres my four penneth:

Credit Card - £100
House Ins - £38
Phone line rental (BT) - £11
Phone Calls - £3
Life Ins - £19 Could you cancel this, cash it in and use it to pay off the debt? You can always start it up again when the debts are paid off
Account Fee - £11
Council Tax - £110
Water - £33 This is high. Are you on a meter? If not a meter and a bit of carefullness might be cheaper
TV licence - £11
Gas/ Elec - £85 :eek: Blimey. Put a jumper on instead of the heating, cook 2 days meals at once, plan what you want to watch on TV and the rest of the time read, fit dimmer switches.
Loan - £122
Car Ins - £34 Do you really need a car?
Computer finance - £32
Broad Band - £26 (! Thought it was less than this, I’ll have to check details)
Petrol - £50 Do you really need a car? Could you walk, take the bus, cycle or car share?
Food - £350 How many is this for? Cook things from scratch, use value products.
Mobile (PAYG) - £20 Do you really need a mobile?
Kids savings - £30 Do as in Life Insurance
Mortgage - £390
Pet insurance - £12 (1 dog)
Works Lottery syndicate - £7.50 Forget that. Live in the real world not a dream world.

Fags (o/h) - £80 Switch to roll ups if she can't give up.

flowerofscotland

MartialArtMan wrote:

Thanks. My employer is experincing a few ups and downs at the mo and I'm not sure about my financial future hence the protection.

Has anybody got a link to the snowball calculator?

https://www.whatsthecost.com

Just my opinion but would never suggest that someone with dependents cancel life insurance

MartialArtMan

Thanks for the link Scotty. Snowball tells me to continue as I am.

I got my first reply from Barclays today saying that they will provide my last 6 years statements FOC although this may take some time...It was pretty easy sending the letter but I was quite nervous getting the reply. Hope this all pans out well

MartialArtMan

Just changed my house and contents insurance over to Lloyds saving myself £22pm and £150'ish a year!

Of course I done it through Quidco which should give me a return of £120, first time I've used Quidco though hope I done it right and it all goes through okay.

Gotta wait until I get paid to do the car insurance as I'm going to pay for that in a lump sum

MartialArtMan

A little update on my SOA.

I've had a payrise worth £35 a month (due another in May). I've also renewed my car insurance with Prudential at a cost of £202 which I was able to pay with some overtime I managed to get last month. Again I done this through Quidco who are paying out a massive £130 on car insurance!!! That means my car insurance was just £72 this year

So in total I have saved £80 per month and increased my income by £35 so thats £115 a month better off. Obviously still room for improvement, food and fags is still an issue and I haven't given up the works lottery or the kids savings.

Now about that life insurance thing. I'm thinking about changing it to another provider to see if I can save a few pennies and get some cash back from Quidco too (that site is addictive!). So if I cancel my current policy would I actually get money back?

Also I think that I will inquire about cancelling my payment protection on my loan. If I do then I could either make overpayments or pay less each month.

Have any newbies got any new ideas for me to make some savings???

Tustastic

MartialArtMan wrote: »

Also I think that I will inquire about cancelling my payment protection on my loan. If I do then I could either make overpayments or pay less each month.

Have any newbies got any new ideas for me to make some savings???

Hello MM, just read your thread. Congratulations on increasing the income and decreasing the outgoings so far.
You've just mentioned the only point I was going to add - getting rid of the payment protection.
I agree with flowerofscotland; as you have dependents you do need life insurance. Check the current policy carefully to see what would happen if you cancelled it. Also read the life insurance section on the main site to understand this type of insurance better.
As a lifelong smoker (one who hasn't smoked for a while), I agree that your OH needs to cut back on the fags. She is smoking the child benefit and the children's savings. The NHS offers local quit-smoking courses, ranging from a weekly group session for a few weeks to having one to one sessions with the local pharmacist or practice nurse. The course includes free supplies of one kind of nicotine replacement therapy as chosen by the smoker - gum, patches, inhalator etc.

Lydia.42

I agree with the previous posters. £80 on ciggies a lot of money to waste, especially if she isn't earning either!!!! Sorry to sound harse, but could she not do a part time job whilst the children are at school. Tell her you will get off her back smoking if she does :rotfl: