My lightbullb's on but so is my dimmer switch!

jwil

Good luck!

MJ41

Thanks JWIL - I think I'll need it!

MJ41

anh1904 wrote: »

Excellent start to the year.
We sound similar to you, except we have the kids! Two very healthy incomes, and previously, two even healthier spending habits. Similar levels of debt to yours, but have been up in the 70's at peak thanks to divorces and poor or lack of discipline when spending.
We do an annual financial makeover and assessment now - we look into what we spent, what got paid off, what we rate tarted (Barclays 18m 0% for an existing holder was a very welcome surprise), what insurance renewal quotes were and what we ended up paying, and that allows you to make a few targets for the following 12 months too. Works for us, and always good to put down the figures you've paid off, saved, etc.

It is good to see the debt coming down isn't it?

Do you have a diary - always happy to have another one on my subscription list!

MJ41

serious_saver wrote: »

With your Sky, have you just cut it back or are you cancelling completely? If you are in a position to cancel, but don't actually want to, then it's still worth calling them up and threatening to cancel any way. It doesn't always work but I know plenty of people who have been given some very good deals. Half price for 6 months etc . . .

If you they don't offer you a deal you don't have to go through with cancellation. Just say, "I'm going to think on it" and hang up.

EDIT

By the way, well done on your efforts so far.

Thank you

Will see what Sky have to say - only looking to reduce package not cancel, but will threaten to leave and see what they say;)

mum2one

I threatened to cancel sky the last twice, the 1st time they gave me the full package for half price, I hadn't got movies or sports at time, saved £5 per month on what I was paying had that for 6 months.

Then when I back to normal, decided wanted sky multi-rm, the trade of was get rid of the HD subscription and that £10 would pay for the extra box. They only wanted £250 to fit multiroom, but that was including the box, as they helpful salesman told me! So i said no problem, can you put me through to cancellations as I might as buy freeview for both rooms, then amazingly I could have multi room for free inc the box and as a "valued customer", he would uograde the spare box to a HD box, and he gave me the HD package for free for 6 months.
They offer to put you through to cancellations, really a retentions dept, there has been times got no deal, and I've jut changed my mind and said I'll keep sky for another month then see how i feel, leave it week or so, ring back and always got a deal. xx

jwil

Good luck with reducing sky!

clippy_girl

hi mj! welcome to the dfw club :wave:

re sky, i am out of contract but still stayed with them just paying the same each month. i only have basic tv, phone line and the half price internet so only paid £38.50 month, not eactly a big spending customer. a few weeks ago virgin had the cashback offer so i calculated what the difference would be. it worked out about £190 cheaper for virgin over 18 months (virgins minimum contract). i called sky up and told them i wanted to leave as virgin would save me £190 over 18 months. i was offered free line rental for 12 months and didnt even have to agree to stay for 12 months :j i think if you are informed when you ring up- eg virgin have an offer that will save me xxx, freeview box will only cost xxx then they take you more seriously and hopefully will give you a deal. my dad also got free line rental for a year :beer:

if you dont already do so, work out how much you spend on car costs eg mot, tax, insirance, things like birthdays, xmas over the year and divide by 12 and pay in a seperate account. that way none of these will eat into you budget and if you have an expensive month like 2 mothers days, 4 birthdays etc... it will all come out of the budget. obv if you have all your main costs coming up in the next few months you may have to top it up as there wont be enough in there yet :cool: then just buy the present using the card from that account or cash and then withdraw it out.

you mentioned the withdrawing cash idea which i think is great and i and many others do this. however i would be cautious about withdrawing all of it and paying any left as you find that just with a card it disappears (esp if there is a lot left)!personally i would work out a rough amount for food each month say £200, whatever your petrol is and then give you an hubby a spending allowance each week or month for nights out, coffee etc... it doesnt have to be much but at least you can still have a treat and you can always save it towards something bigger such as clothes if you need to buy something. then just withdraw this and when its gone its gone (although obv with some flexibility eg if you need to travel for work you cant exactly say sorry i have spent my allocated petrol money :rotfl:) i would then leave all the rest in the bank til the day before payday and then transfer it all over to your debt. that way its there for emergancies but less chance of it being inadvently frittered because you feel there is still lots left!

re the crisps have you tried homemade popcorn? bag of popping corn, bit of butter and some salt. less fat than crisps esp if you use a lighter butter/spread. i am addicted to this instead of crisps now! another random note is that as you will prob get some of the kernal stuck in your teeth it will encourage you to floss more so nice healthy teeth

MJ41

Thanks for the popcorn suggestion - I have a popcorn machine somewhere buried in a kitchen cupboard - I'll dig it out and give it a try.

Husband had manflu over the weekend so it's been very quiet and non spending . I am finding that taking control over 1 area of my life is encouraging me to be more proactive in other areas - I started a declutter of the house on Saturday and hopefully this enthusiasm to be tidy will stay with me!!

Sky is on my list this week - we have some movies already recorded which I want to watch before we cancel, but as long as it's done this week, I'll be happy.

Also need to chase up Deloittes re a PPI claim - they are really messing me about big time:( All infomration has been sent to them (recorded) which they confirmed receipt of on a call to them - now they claim they can't find it and are "looking into the matter"' A follow up call WILL be made tonight - this could be a massive claim and I want the money - will help hugely to get some jobs done on the house and more importantly will clear some debt.

Payday yesterday - along with a reminder that I'll be £40 worse off from next month due to NHS Pension increases - thanks Mr. Cameron:(. Will also be able to update my spreadsheet tonight though and see some debt being reduced - love updating it and recalculating the balances :T. Will update the balance on here tomorrow. Only 3 more payments to go on my HSBC loan, so soon 1 will be completely ticked off and will have the extra to throw at the Goldcard - can't wait to see that balance coming down!

I'm also going to do some meal planning tonight and order an online shop. I'm also going to withdraw cash to fund all our petrol this month and also a weekly spend amoutn - the rest I'm transferring to an online savings account which should NOT need to be dipped into! We will see if this approach works for us

MJ41

No updates this week due to having a mad time at work - never know anything like it!!

Had to go to London on Monday with work which cost me £25 so will have to wait until the end of the month for that, and another 2 day visit planned next week which will cost around £100 which again will not be reimbursed untl the end of the month:( BUT I'm determined not to put this on my cc and if I can manage to the end of the month without the money, then it's an additional £125 I can pay off my card next month:T

I'm part way through updating my debt summary - will finish this later tonight as I love to see the balance reducing (even if it is only in small ways!)

Epic fail on the diet front - work stress and dieting don't go together for me - need to work on this in March if I'm going to achive my 7lb weight loss

Sky will be getting a call on sunday once I've watched the final film I've recorded and I'll see if I can persuade them to offer some kind of deal - if not, at least I'l be better off by cancelling the movies package. I DID call Lovefilm to cancel this subscription - they've offered me 3 months free, no strings attached to see if I change my mind, so a little result there:D

Also good news finally from Deloittes regarding a PPI claim I have - after 6 weeks of messing me around they have finally confirmed today that they have all the information that I have sent them along woth my file (which they had "misplaced") and it has been sent for assessment, so fingers crossed there!

I have withdrawn enough cash for fuel and a weekend spend budget which will last until my husband gets paid in 2 weeks - if we can live off this then we will be in surplus at the end of the month! And even better I've factored in a trip to Starbucks for each sunday - but coffee only, no breakfast. As I posted in a previous post, I am aiming to be debt free, but want SOME sort of life whilst we do it - just on a planned budget:beer:

Goals for weekend:
Call Sky
Organise internet shop for meals which are planned for next 3 weeks
Arrange for a quote to fix our airbath:(
Update debt summary:j

MJ41

My list of unsecured debt as at today is as follows:

HSBC Gold Card 9200.00
Barclaycard – mine [STRIKE]9100.00[/STRIKE] 8936.46
Barclaycard – husband [STRIKE]995.00[/STRIKE] 950.71
Capital One card [STRIKE]7491.23[/STRIKE] 7286.23
Personal loan – bank [STRIKE]1086.78[/STRIKE] 724.52
Tesco Card – husband [STRIKE]2900.00[/STRIKE] 2852.62
Overdraft 4900.00
Loan to family [STRIKE]9500.00[/STRIKE] 9000.00
Total [STRIKE]45173.01[/STRIKE] 43850.54

% reduction 2.9%:j:j

HSBC Gold card still to be updated, additional payment on some will be paid once husband is paid mid month