SOA...it's worse than I thought :(

saterkey

Hi there, well done on your work on your budget so far.
A few things
Hair ive cut mine short and have a wet cut about every 4 months or so, which costs about 12ukp only. Really you could cut your lads or buy a trimmer, i do sometimes, and just do everything above the fingers together, it doesnt look too bad if i say so myself and then every other time take him to hairdressers/barbers can be cheaper on certain days, for a little lads you could get his done for 4ukp.
Ask for hamper pressies for xmas, to help your budget a little.
Do competitions, surveys, market research, I do tesco review panel and get free products to review, anything like that helps a little.
good luck

ps when my kids had lunches, they picked something generally with chips, didnt eat alot just so they could get a certain pudding or treat that came with it, how much is he really eating? I used to do a friday lunch treat once a week for my two to keep costs down. You could give him a drink, so he only has to buy meal and pudding, which might bring price down a little.

Heffi1

Hi DMP,

Re the smoking, I admit to still smoking and I know I shouldn't, there are 100 reasons to stop and not one single one to carry on, but still I do it i can't even say I enjoy it, for the most part it is just habit. I was spending £180 per month on cigarettes :eek::eek: I changed to roll ups and have reduced the spend down to £60, it is still too high, but I have over £100 saving and I still smoke although not as many as it is a PITA to roll them :rotfl:

For me this was a painless way to save some money until I feel able to stop completely, which I have to admit, I keep saying I am going to stop, but I am just not ready right now, one day though one day...

DMPhereIcome

It's gone a bit tits up...(If I'm allowed to say that?!)

Went to Aldi on saturday for pumpkins...spent £34...didn't have £34 in the bank but used my debit card anyway as I wasn't brave enough to tell her to stop scanning (WIMP!!) managed to transfer every penny I had to cover this : ( hopefully HSBC won't whack on £25 charge

Capital one have added interest which has taken me £29 over my limit...I don't have £29 it until payday on wednesday...

I said lots of rude words to myself today and called myself lots of not very nice names...

The only bright side it's only £29 over limits and not hundreds...and Capital One are pretty good about not charging/adding default charges until you've been over a while

But still... what a "(&%^(" idiot

Heffi1

Have you given any more thought to the DMP it certainly looks like things are tough right now, what happens when there is no credit available and you still need to eat.

Seriously you need to take control of this NOW before any more things happen, you are looking at bank charges, late fees, heavy interest payments.

What do you need to do to stop the rot and start living again.

Would you like to have enough money to cover the food shopping and essential bills like rent and council tax, gas and electricity.

I think you know what you need to do, so I am going to give you a bit of tough love now and say get it sorted out this week!!

girlatplay

In some of my darker, very low days I used to have just £20 for the weeks shopping. I used to go to Mr T's and count up all the shopping as I went round. One day I mis-counted and was 5p short. Just as I was looking through the stuff to put something back the woman behind me in the queue asked the cashier how short I was and then gave her the 5p! I burst into tears and couldn't thank the lady enough, her kindness was such a big thing as I had so little. I then rushed off as I was so embarrassed. ANYWAY, my point is, did you need all of the things you paid for with the £34? If you had taken enough cash just to buy the pumpkins (assuming you didn't need anything else) then you wouldn't have been tempted to buy more. Perhaps if you are going for something specific, take just enough cash for that.

lizzy23

i think you have to accept that you're getting deeper in debt each month if you need to use your credit card to meet living expenses,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

immie

Are you home with your little one most evenings? Maybe you could do some babysitting on the side?

Also it may be worth calling the SRA to find out exactly what is 'allowed' and what isn't. Don't just take these companies' words for it...

With your tv and phone package, how long have you got left on the contract? Have you asked how much it would be to pay your way out? I've seen people pay around £90 to get out of their virgin media contract, so if it saves a lot of money it might be worth it:)

DMPhereIcome

Evening all...payday tomorrow which means I'll be that teensy bit less in debt next month (I'm thinking mortgage, catalogue, sofa payment and laptop...the credit cards will be briefly away from their limits..:o)

Lizzy23 you're right - I am getting deeper into debt

Heffi - the DMP is always on my mind...(name that tune)...I've not written the idea off, not at all - but as you can probably tell I am trying to avoid it if possible, even though it doesn't make financial sense with regard to interest charges and, most likely, quality of life without all this stress!

I have absolutely got to take those cards out of my purse so they just AREN'T there - they're like a security blanket and it's a mindset I've got to get out of. I spent £34 in Aldi just because I started chucking stuff in the trolley, it will all get used, I'm not wasteful with food (and made a rather lovely parsnip soup cos they were 10p a bag I might add...!) but if I'd only had the cash that wouldn't have happened..simples

Spending diary hasn't started in earnest yet, but I did count the receipts in my purse today just from spends in the local shop on milk, tobacco and god knows what over that last two weeks...that was motivation if ever I saw it :eek:

I have labelled five jam jars up, week 1, week 2 etc...for food shopping etc...gonna give that a whirl, and if I'm on a DMP that's how I'm going to have to operate in any event so it's practice

The problem with this month is I know that all my payments on to the credit cards are going to be used for the holiday fuel, hotel stay and spends

Have to go to put little one to bed...

[Deleted User]

DMPhereIcome wrote: »

...I have absolutely got to take those cards out of my purse so they just AREN'T there - they're like a security blanket and it's a mindset I've got to get out of....

I think you need to accept you *must* cut up any credit cards and leave the debit cards at home.

Any ways you can make a few quid are worth trying - ebaying, car boot sales etc. making a few £s actually is a better buzz than buying stuff!

lizzy23

Can i just say, we avoided DMP for 2 months, once we finally admitted that in order to live we needed the cards it was a no brainer to start, after all its not really livingi is it? its existing, just as a case in point and i posted this on the DMP thread, we had a wedding to go to at the weekend, this would have gone on the CC in times gone by, because we now have a budget for such things we were abale to attend without extending our debt. Rightly or wrongly i had 1 month of token payments and squirrelled that money into savings, i also made sure that i put everything i could in our budget, because personally i would rather it take longer to pay off and have a life back. Yes its scary, but you know what i have had one phone call before M & S got the letter other than that i have heard nothing from any of them, so what the credits gone, credit got me in this mess (don't get me wrong i did my bit) i accept that i'm crap with money, so just let me have what i have and i'll live within it, i know you're trying to avoid the DMP route, but ask yourself are YOU living or are you existing, and what are you trying to protect? and is it really worth it?