Trying to lose the debt

ElleWoods

Hi Leah,
Welcome to MSE. As a couple of other posters have mentioned, it would help if you could complete a full SOA then we can see exactly where some savings can be made. For instance, you say you've got £284.90 left which is for food, petrol, clothing etc, then say you spend £250 per month on food, which would only leave you with £34.90 for petrol, clothes etc - is this correct? An SOA will help clarify things and let us help you better.

£250 a month for food is very high for just two of you. Do you both eat the same meals, or do you make something different for your child? I'm also a single mum and spend around £170pm on food, which I'm trying to reduce down to £120.

One thing that might be useful for you is to access your credit files from Experian and Equifax. There's a section on MSE that explains how to get a month's free access to them, and get cashback doing it. I accessed mine yesterday and thankfully it seems fine but doing yours will help you to see if you've got any debts you've forgotten about and if there are any other financial issues you weren't aware of.

Good luck!

chevalier

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Here is the SOA link. Hope it is helpful
chev

Blue28

Hiya
I shop online otherwise I spend both a lot of time and money in the supermarket!
I love cooking so I spend an couple of hours an evening a week going through my cookery books deciding what I fancy making that week. I add the essentials first (cleaning products, dog food etc) then start to add whatever ingredients I need to my list as I go.
Our budget (2adults,1dog) is £50 a week usually (£30 if we have a takeaway or eat out one night) so I stop when I hit the budget & if required go back through and change to cheaper products, or plan a cheaper meal. I don't plan to eat certain meals on certain days or anything, just roughly what meals I'll make sometime in the next 7 days.
Might not work for everyone but works for us. Hope this helps a bit!
Blue x