Debt is the bane of my life, but need OH and DS to get on board

gilly1964

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Your life assurance is incredibly high, do you need it all? Do you have any cover under your works (i.e. death in service benefits?).

My wife and I have £160k critical illness and life insurance for £27pm. Plus I have 5 times salary for death in service benefits under my works policy (which costs me an additional £3 pm).

Unfortunately it is needed as is endowment policies linked to the mortgage - they will underpay as it is, but did not qualify for mis-selling as I work for a bank in IT and apparently should have been aware of the pitfalls :mad:

We are also old g*ts :rotfl:

gilly1964

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Not entitled to any benefits?

Unfortunately not as he is considered in full time education so only has his student loan to pay for the fees and then the minimum amount of grant to live on. This would not pay the accomodation fees, never mind everything else, which is why he has stayed at home.

gilly1964

DCFC79 wrote: »

Is the tv and internet on the cheapest price plan, same for mobiles too ?
Petrol seems high but i guess thats the driving to do the golf right ?
Does he car share for the golf ?

[STRIKE]You say you do internet shoppig but have you thought of shopping at the discounters eg lidl/aldi etc ? [/STRIKE]

Just seen about this ^^^. In that case then consider dropping the brands for shops own brand/basics brand but take price into consideration as well.

This sounds like a good time for the OH to maybe learn how to cook, even if simple foods, pasta is easy, mashed potatoe too, lasagne as well, even chilli is easy. Could even batch cook it, theres recipes on the old style board.

re your OH not coping with the house stuff, why not draw up a rota in excel for certain jobs split between your OH and your son (his gf could mabe help out too).

TV and internet is on the cheapest plan, but will look around again as we have a TV with FREESAT so will see if we can find a cheaper broadband provider and ditch SKY altogether.

OH can cook it is the time management that he is struggling with as now back to work himself. DS and GF do help out but they are limited in what they [STRIKE]can[/STRIKE] will do alongside their uni and college work. But it is a good idea about the plan as it will help them all

gilly1964

Taking on board the suggestions made so far -

Meal plan is done for the next 5 weeks, with details of what needs to be bought to make it achievable included

Household plan is done, [STRIKE]suggesting[/STRIKE] detailing who needs to do what and when

Cupboard inventory is done, 20 cans of baked beans anyone - they were on offer at half price

The cupboard inventory has made me realise where some of the overspend has come from and I know it goes back to my childhood. Dad was a single parent with limited cooking skills and even more limited budget so if things he used regularly were on offer he would stock up. This is so me but I am not as limited in cooking skills so need to use what we have before starting again. I also need to overcome my dislike of "gravy dinners" as these are cheaper and would probably give more variety in cheaper cuts of meat that we could use.

Next jobs for today are to phone Sky, BT and Virgin to see what they can do for me with regards BB, TV and telephone. Off to the other boards for recommendations.

Thanks again for your input

RAS

gilly1964 wrote: »

Unfortunately not as he is considered in full time education so only has his student loan to pay for the fees and then the minimum amount of grant to live on. This would not pay the accomodation fees, never mind everything else, which is why he has stayed at home.

Hi

He may be living at home but it is about time he learned to be grown up. He has a student loan which is his basic income. he needs to work part-time, holidays, occasionally.

That means he pays for his own phone, sports activities and insurance for coaching etc.

What is University £250???

gilly1964

RAS wrote: »

Hi

He may be living at home but it is about time he learned to be grown up. He has a student loan which is his basic income. he needs to work part-time, holidays, occasionally.

That means he pays for his own phone, sports activities and insurance for coaching etc.

What is University £250???

His student loan does not give him enough to be able to get to Uni, so it would not cover the other stuff but he does have the DDs coming out of his own account so that we can stop the payments into there for when he is earning.

He has applied for an average of 5 jobs every week for the last 3 months, but gets nowhere as he is in that spiral of no experience means no job, no job means no experience. He is applying in our home town and the uni town.

The University £250 is the what we budget to cover the above, but will stop once he is earning.

RAS

have you made sure that he is using all the studenbt discounts that he can to gwet cheap travel? Is there a local travel card for students?

My travel is £99 per month; the same journey on a student card is just over £20 per month. The daily cost is £7.

Pee

Beans on toast or with a jacket potato is a good meal option and one your OH or even DS should be able to manage.

Well done with the meal plan, though.

At least you have enough money coming in to cover the budget, so if you could stick to the budget, all would be well. (I know that is easier said than done, but it's better than going through the figures with no way to make them add up.)

pineapple123

Why are you paying for your son when he gets student grants for his tuition and to 'live on' even basicloan to live on is alot if you live at home. My daughter shares a flat but manages on her basic maintenance loan and has some savings. Shes very money savvy and a member of MSE but still has fun evenings and days out, clothes etc but usually with a voucher 2 for 1 or discount card, voucher etc.

Sorry you need to get abit tough on your son to pay abit and be responsible with his money (spending your cash on his G/F indeed) but seriously I know you love ,care and want to support and treat him but the best thing he should learn is how to be money aware and responsable and that means paying for some of the things he takes for granted now.
Your husband may be harder to change mine is work in progress:rotfl:

Generali

gilly1964 wrote: »

His student loan does not give him enough to be able to get to Uni, so it would not cover the other stuff but he does have the DDs coming out of his own account so that we can stop the payments into there for when he is earning.

He has applied for an average of 5 jobs every week for the last 3 months, but gets nowhere as he is in that spiral of no experience means no job, no job means no experience. He is applying in our home town and the uni town.

The University £250 is the what we budget to cover the above, but will stop once he is earning.

Is there a pub he goes to often enough to know the manager/landlord? If he does then 20 minutes instruction will be enough for him to understand how to pour a pint and the m/l might provide him with a reference.

That's how I got my first bar job as a student.

When I was younger I got a shop job by starting at one end of the High St and walking to the other with a load of CVs and asking for the manager. That worked too.