Haven't been on here in a long time

vix1978_2

Verbatim wrote:

Hi and welcome back.

The obvious areas are to reduce shopping, how many are you feeding on that?, mobile, perhaps pay you go, or a cheaper contract, (are you tied in?) and to work out whether you're getting £10 a month worth of services from your bank for the fee. If not change to a free account.

More painfully you could see if you need the car right now. Do you live in London, (the tube being the clue but Glasgow and Newcastle I think also have tubes tho probably not that expensive??) could you manage on public transport, and there's also the gym and sky. Maybe take up tennis or running or swimming and ask sky to reduce to the minimum or cancel.

Losing the car would free up around £420 a month alone plus you could sell it, with the permission of the finance co', and pay off the loan. I'm sure these are all areas you've considered so forgive me for stating the obvious. You're actually not that much awry on your budget so I'm sure you'll get it sorted.

I fogot to mention the food is for two of us.

As for the car, no I can't lose this. I currently live in Essex and whilst I am close the tube for work it's a bit of a nightmare otherwise. Our nearest walkable supermarket is Waitrose, to get to Sainsbury/tesco we need the car. Also, I can't really go visit my family without the car as they live in completely different areas to me and it's a nightmare to get to them from where I am without a car.

vix1978_2

Damn, I just got a message from Egg and my APR is going up to 17.6%

ifstar

There probably isn't an awful lot you can do until you move to the new place but once you move there then you should be able to cut out quite a bit.

Just now -
Unless you need it, scrap the bank fee.
Is there anything you can do with the mobile contract you are keeping or is it the right price plan for your usage? Are you near the end of the contract and if so you could try and get quotes from other providers and play them off against each other.
Car insurance - can you cut this down ? If its due for renewal then shop around.

Is that gym membership for you only? Seems very expensive. I know you have said you are going to move elsewhere when the 3 month tie in period is up but what price is the other gym? How often do you use it and for how long? It's worth working out how much it costs you for every hour you are there as this will let you see if it's really worth having.

vix1978_2

ifstar wrote:

There probably isn't an awful lot you can do until you move to the new place but once you move there then you should be able to cut out quite a bit.

Just now -
Unless you need it, scrap the bank fee.
Is there anything you can do with the mobile contract you are keeping or is it the right price plan for your usage? Are you near the end of the contract and if so you could try and get quotes from other providers and play them off against each other.
Car insurance - can you cut this down ? If its due for renewal then shop around.

Is that gym membership for you only? Seems very expensive. I know you have said you are going to move elsewhere when the 3 month tie in period is up but what price is the other gym? How often do you use it and for how long? It's worth working out how much it costs you for every hour you are there as this will let you see if it's really worth having.

I go five times a week for about an hour each time. I suffer from back problems and one of the things that helps is staying active. The new gym will be £56 per month which means I'll be able to use any of them in the chain.

When we move house we'll also be moving somewhere a bit cheaper that, oddly enough, is closer so I should be able to save quite a lot. I'll still need to keep my car though as whilst the new place will be closer to the tube it's still no good for shopping etc.

I'm still tied into the other phone contract, but when that comes up for renewal I shall see what deals I can do to get a better one. I do use my phone a fair amount, especially as we have no home telephone. This may change when we move and I can have a rethink - my phone contract isn't up for a while yet so I won't be signing into anything new.

I shall have a look at what the bank fee actually provides me with and make a decision from there. It did provide with the travel insurance that we used when we went skiing and it was invaluable as my OH ended up in hospital, but as we aren't thinking of taking a holiday I may scrap it.

Car insurance is due for renewal later this year, it was this high as I'd been involved in an accident a few years ago and I had 0 no claims as I got rid of the car shortly afterwards (I moved into central london so had no need for it).

I think I had a panic earlier, but actually things aren't as bad as I first thought. I do need to deal with my credit cards though as I want to be totally debt free (bar mortgage as and when that happens) so I shall still linger around

bandraoi

I think your debts are quite easily brought under control if you really think about where you move to in April.
From what you're saying
Rent £1000 - possible reduction upon moving
Internet £35 - Reduced by moving somewhere with a Land Line
Mobile £60 - Maybe reduced by having a land line
Car £114.17 (£50 + £9.17 + £5 + £50) - Can go if you find somewhere within walking distance of most amenities.
and maybe Car Loan £305

In addition
Gym £135 - I accept that you like to have a gym membership but this is over £1500 a year, you should definitley be able to get a better deal.
and
Sky £35 has to go.

Even if you end up paying slightly more rent to live somewhere with good public transport links, you could save over £400 a month by not having a car.

vix1978_2

bandraoi wrote:

I think your debts are quite easily brought under control if you really think about where you move to in April.
From what you're saying
Rent £1000 - possible reduction upon moving
Internet £35 - Reduced by moving somewhere with a Land Line
Mobile £60 - Maybe reduced by having a land line
Car £114.17 (£50 + £9.17 + £5 + £50) - Can go if you find somewhere within walking distance of most amenities.
and maybe Car Loan £305

In addition
Gym £135 - I accept that you like to have a gym membership but this is over £1500 a year, you should definitley be able to get a better deal.
and
Sky £35 has to go.

Even if you end up paying slightly more rent to live somewhere with good public transport links, you could save over £400 a month by not having a car.

Having the car is one luxury I'm not will to drop. I know it would help massively with paying my debts, but it really is something I would like to keep. As well as being something that I can use for my shopping etc it also helps me stay in touch with my family. Also, I'm going to keep this car till it dies so once it's paid off I won't be paying more to upgrade.

ifstar

It does sound like you will make savings of around a couple of hundred a month once you have moved.
cheaper rent and probably cheaper council tax, cheaper gym, cheaper internet plus you have already cancelled one phone.

When you car insurance does come up then do have a look about, I was going to just accept my renewal this year but shopped about and seen I could save about £180, so a phone call to Tesco (who were/are) my insurer seen them drop their renewal price by £160.

Car Loan £305.47 (total owing £4582.05, not sure of APR)
Sofas £94.84 (total owing £48.40, 0% APR)
American Express CC £48.00 (total owing £1900.53, it says 1.52% interest per month which i know isn't the full APR)
Egg Visa £19.62 (total owing £980.81, 16.9% Apr)
Egg money £16.59 (total owing £675.24, 16.9% APR)
MBNA £50.17 (total owing £3957.19, APR 16.9% APR)

Looking at your debts above, it might be worth trying to see if you can get a loan to cover a few of them as you should be able to get a loan for a fair bit cheaper than 16.9%

I would also agree with you and say keep the car, if it does mean as much to you to have it then you would be miserable if you got rid of it and it might cause you to lose some enthusiasm towards getting debt free.

As for the bank account helping with travel insurance, you would probably have worked out cheaper buying this each time you go (or on an annual basis) rather than paying the bank £12 a month. I did briefly have one of these sorts of accounts (Royalties through RBS) and it was offering money off on meals out etc, but I never ever used them so got rid of it after a couple of months.

vix1978_2

ifstar wrote:

It does sound like you will make savings of around a couple of hundred a month once you have moved.
cheaper rent and probably cheaper council tax, cheaper gym, cheaper internet plus you have already cancelled one phone.

When you car insurance does come up then do have a look about, I was going to just accept my renewal this year but shopped about and seen I could save about £180, so a phone call to Tesco (who were/are) my insurer seen them drop their renewal price by £160.

Car Loan £305.47 (total owing £4582.05, not sure of APR)
Sofas £94.84 (total owing £48.40, 0% APR)
American Express CC £48.00 (total owing £1900.53, it says 1.52% interest per month which i know isn't the full APR)
Egg Visa £19.62 (total owing £980.81, 16.9% Apr)
Egg money £16.59 (total owing £675.24, 16.9% APR)
MBNA £50.17 (total owing £3957.19, APR 16.9% APR)

Looking at your debts above, it might be worth trying to see if you can get a loan to cover a few of them as you should be able to get a loan for a fair bit cheaper than 16.9%

I would also agree with you and say keep the car, if it does mean as much to you to have it then you would be miserable if you got rid of it and it might cause you to lose some enthusiasm towards getting debt free.

As for the bank account helping with travel insurance, you would probably have worked out cheaper buying this each time you go (or on an annual basis) rather than paying the bank £12 a month. I did briefly have one of these sorts of accounts (Royalties through RBS) and it was offering money off on meals out etc, but I never ever used them so got rid of it after a couple of months.

Well i've been a busy bee (thank you everyone for suggestions) and I think in a few months I'll be able to free up a lot of cash. I checked, and the flat we want to move into (we've seen one that comes available around the time we want to move and we would be there for a substancial amount of time) is no only in zone 3 (we are currently in zone 5) but the council tax is also in the region of £95 a month so a whopping saving there. And because we will be there for over 12 months I shall look into cheap gas/electric etc and the possibility of a home phone.

I've also booked an appointment at the bank tomorrow to discuss my account and whether or not it's worth keeping - I know they can offer me the normal style account so if I decide it has to go I shall cancel. I've also applied for an M&S life of balance credit card at 3.9% and I shall transfer what I can to that.

bandraoi

vix1978 wrote:

Having the car is one luxury I'm not will to drop. I know it would help massively with paying my debts, but it really is something I would like to keep. As well as being something that I can use for my shopping etc it also helps me stay in touch with my family. Also, I'm going to keep this car till it dies so once it's paid off I won't be paying more to upgrade.

Since you've a fairly low usage, have you considered these sort of schemes instead? You get the benefit of owning a car but it costs alot less.

http://www.streetcar.co.uk/default.aspx
http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/default.htm

paige13_2

Hi Vix

I have switched to 02 online which gives me double the mins and texts for under £20 a month. My friend has a sim only online contract and pays £40 a month and gets 1000 texts and 600 mins anytime to any network. This saves serios money if you need a mobile. her bills used to be nearly £200 a month until she got this contract.

Good Luck