Help! I'm drowning!!

emzig123

Or, use https://www.quidco.com and search for dvd trials. You can get paid for having a one/three/six month trial. just remember to cancel it after the free time is up

Storm

samsampotts wrote: »

Ok Here it is, my SOA. (All monthly unless stated)

Loan £479.11
Council tax £99.00
Sofa (interest free) £41.37
TV Licence £11.37
Water rates £15.16
EDF Elec £19.00
EDF Gas £17.00
BT Line rental £11.00
Orange £50ish usually
Gym £11.99
Primus Telecom £5.64
Telecoms World £11.69 (freephone number for my business)
Food £350
Credit Cards £600
Fuel £150
Car insurance £17
MOT, tax and 2 services £40
P.O Box for my business for the year £9.50
Blockbuster £15

TOTAL: 1953.83

Hi Sam,

Right, I've converted everything into monthly amounts & got a rough total for you - I tended to round up rather than down for stuff. The biggest thing missing on your SoA is your average take-home salary you're drawing from the business - have a look at the last 3/4 months to get an average.

With the credit cards, i know you said you pay more than the minimum, but what is the minimum each month? This is the amount you should include in your SoA as you'll be able to better work out what you need to be drawing from the business every month to break even.

As you're working from home you can definitely draw tax relief on many of your expenses such as telephone, broadband, fuel for work stuff etc as well as utility bills - have a look at https://www.directgov.gov.uk for guidance or contact your local tax office to get this sorted out - you may well be able to claim back stuff for a couple of years, but the sooner you get on to this the better.

So, cutting back... Food can definitely come down a lot, £150 a month should be enough for 2 people, and I know some people do it for less - have a look on the Old Style board for inspiration, but menu plan, have storecupboard suppers etc.

Keep an eye on Martin's utilities article for when the best time to switch is, and go via Quidco or Pigsback to USwitch to change suppliers.

How useful is the freephone number to your business? Could you maybe change this back to a normal phone number that won't cost you extra, or a lo-call rate one?

The other areas to look at are the gym & Blockbuster - these cost you £324 per year when added together - if you can go running instead of the gym, and try out the free trials of LoveFilm etc to get the DVDs instead.

Wow, this has turned into a massive post, so will stop now!

samsampotts

Thanks

Unfortunately the fuel is becuase of my work as freelance trainer - it used to be even worse! I do walk and cycle whenever possible but I have to take weights, bench etc to my clients home so the car is necessary. How do you live on £100 per month for food!!!! I do cook from scratch, nothing I buy is processed or pre packed but I do but organic, fair trade etc, maybe I need to set my morals aside until I'm in the black. I'd really hate to do that. I'll have to pay very close attention to meals and shopping lists from now on, I agree I'm spending far too much!

samsampotts

Wow, I never thought of adding up my gym membership and the blockbuster thing for the year. Obviously, as a fitness trainer, I have all my equipment at home and could easily train at home and I'm going to look for more free trials for DVDs now! Is there anywhere on the forums for people to share menu plans? I did subscribe to a thread in Jan but it seems to have fizzled out and I did find it helpful.

Storm

The key to getting your food bill down is to menu plan and write out a shopping list first, and yes, maybe let some of the organic stuff go. I personally tend to not eat that much meat, because I refuse to buy value stuff - but I will get the cheaper cuts from a good butcher (had some gorgeous liver the other night...)

Have you got an Aldi or Lidl near you? Very good prices in there. Also, go through your cupboards & freezer and make a list of everything you already have. You'll probably be able to make up several meals just from stuff you already have, and by keeping the list someone to hand it will hopefully stop you popping into the supermarket becausee you don't know what you've got at home.

Different people work different ways too - I personally prefer to withdraw cash, and when it's gone, it's gone - when shopping it really makes you decide on what's more important (and it's better for my waistline too as the first thing to get put back on the shelf is the bottle of wine!)

samsampotts

Lazy Jane

You're right, I'm glad someone agrees with me because Ornage certainly don't. I haven't even technically signed a contract. With Orange its all done verbally over the phone so they probably don't realistically have a leg to stand on if I make a stand. Which is exactly what I'm going to do!!! I'm not going to stop prodding them in an irritating manner until I get what I think I should be entitled to!

Thanks Lazy Jane - maybe I should start a new thread about this and see if anyone else has had similar problems?

learntmydebtlesson

Hi there and welcome

You're certainly in the right place.

Just a suggestion.... I know you're trying to clear your credit cards and the loan, which is fab but perhaps this is making you short each month and it's only going to get you into more debt.... So, couldn't you perhaps spread your loan over a slightly longer term to reduce the monthly payments and also pay less monthly on the credit cards?

Also, do you have Insurance protection on the loan? Perhaps this can be cancelled to save money each month too.

You could try this for 3 months or so and see how you get on in order to get yourself back on track, just whilst your business is quieter.

Good luck.

samsampotts

Thanks Storm

I often have the good intention of sticking to my shopping list but using debit or credit cards makes it all to easy not to, I like your idea of drawing out cash- I'm going to try that for the rest of the month.