What do I do now

[Deleted User]

The only thing that stuck out, for me, was the £140pm for gas and electric.

Seems rather high?

taren

Bedsit Bob

Im with you on that, the £100 for Electricity and £40.00 gas, in the summer it goes down to £60.00 and £20.00, and its a battle with my wife who is at home all day, everything is on, lights, heating, tv you name it, its on.

I keep trying to encourage my wife to reduce and switch things off, but its something I dont want to force to much, since we dont really do much else. And believe me I have tried. Plus I work from home quite a bit.


All we use gas for is heating, but my wife hates the cold, so if I go without to esnure her happiness, then I will.

taren

Another mile stone today

My debts are now below £40k, well only by £500, but its still below £40k...
And my Mint card id now paid off. And locked away.

Come on ! I'm getting there, and the sun is out ! Mind you the urge to go and spend is awful, but when you look in here, and I look at my signature, it stops me dead.

Be strong and smile

Edwardsh32

Hi Taren, thats great news on your debts. i had the same problem and made sure i paid all the highest interest debts off first and the minimum payments on the others with less interest per month. I also Cut my credit cards up and binned my catalogues

Hovel_lady

taren wrote: »

Another mile stone today

My debts are now below £40k, well only by £500, but its still below £40k...
And my Mint card id now paid off. And locked away.

Come on ! I'm getting there, and the sun is out ! Mind you the urge to go and spend is awful, but when you look in here, and I look at my signature, it stops me dead.

Be strong and smile

You're doing really well, don't forget that :beer:

taren

Hovel_lady wrote: »

You're doing really well, don't forget that :beer:

Thanks, i'd love a beer tonight, but I have banned myself from Alcohol until the weekends.

But I'll drink to it this friday.. Cheers :beer:

theoretica

£100 for electricity seems high, especially as you have gas heating. Have you tracked down what is using the electricity (water heating, tumble driers, things on standby?). Or an expensive supplier of course.

Are you familiar with the gadgets which measure power useage for your appliances?

[Deleted User]

theoretica wrote: »

£100 for electricity seems high, especially as you have gas heating.

I think both gas and electricity are high. :eek:

I don't sit in the cold, or in unlit rooms, but my gas payment is barely half what the OP is paying, and my electricity is a sixth.

taren

Bedsit Bob, I guess if you live in a bedsit (only a joke, but it is your user name) then those costs you mention may well be the case for you, however, the average costs for a 3 bedroomed house with 2 adults and one child, was per month in 2007, £70.00 for Gas & Electricity in the UK.

See thread -> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/501715

And since then all our bills have gone up, on average 10% per year, I understand that you are trying to help and I appreciate it.

However I have reduced down our costs, and I budget £150 per month, most months it is well below this figure, and anything left over goes onto debt, however over the past few months now my wife is at home looking after our children the costs are higher, plus I am also at home at present, I expect the electricity costs will go down once, im back at work, my wife returns to work, and the children are in nursery/school.

So thanks again for your posts.

taren

A huge update today !

I started my new job 2 weeks ago :beer:
And my redundancy money came thru, so today I have paid off these debts
1) Lloyds Credit card and told them to close the account, also put it in writing.
2) Lloyds loan
3) Barclaycard Debt - managed to get a Full & Final of £4,384 a saving off £1878

I am not debt free, but with a huge chunk of my debt gone, I will be able to breath for once, enjoy my knew job and hope to clear the remaining £5k by this christmas, and my reward will be then to save for a holiday for the family in 2013. Havent had one in 6 years, so this is my goal.

Thanks again to all who have encouraged me and gave me the strength to keep focused on my goals. :j

Thanks again your all stars xXx