can you help me save some cash????

gazzad11

Thanks KiKi i think i am spending more than i think because i am always overdrawn.

Things i think i need to cut back on:-
Food
Drink
Takeaways
spending on cards then spending the money AGAIN in my account

a spending diary sounds like a good idea and is the only way to find out what is actually happening.

FireWyrm

gazzad11 wrote: »

Thanks KiKi i think i am spending more than i think because i am always overdrawn.

Things i think i need to cut back on:-
Food
Drink
Takeaways
spending on cards then spending the money AGAIN in my account

a spending diary sounds like a good idea and is the only way to find out what is actually happening.

This ^^^ is your issue. Your SOA HAS to be wildly innacurate since you clearly dont have £1600 a month spare after paying your 'debts'.

My first step...get a spending diary up for one month. While you're at it, buy some highlighter pens and get your bank statements for the last 3 months. Dollars to doughnuts, you're actually frittering hundreds more a month than you think. If you go through you statements and highlight categories like Petrol, Groceries, Food shop etc I bet by far, the most highlighting will be for 'cash withdrawal'. You have a massive income and there is no reason on earth you should have any debt at all, even a mortgage, so now is a good time to take control once and for all.

The same rules we advise to all, still apply to you. Cut up your cards, start a spending diary and start to pay attention to all those 'little' spends you dont even realise.

KiKi

And get the kids involved. As you give them pocket money they're probably a good age to be involved with this sort of thing. Instead of £100 on a big day out, get them to spend an hour or so picking through their toys / clothes - which ones do they no longer use and could they sell on Ebay? Get them to sell their stuff (and they can keep the sale money / a percentage of it) and sell your stuff that you don't want. Helps to teach them the value of money, too!!

DCFC79

gazzad11 wrote: »

Thanks KiKi i think i am spending more than i think because i am always overdrawn.

Things i think i need to cut back on:-
Food
Drink
Takeaways
spending on cards then spending the money AGAIN in my account

a spending diary sounds like a good idea and is the only way to find out what is actually happening.

You mentioned the bundle from Virgin, how long ar you into the contract ? If its close to the end you could try to get a better deal and in conjunction with cutting the drink, food and takeaways you could shave alot off the expenses..

ginnyknit

Personally I think if you had a frugal month with no clothes buying, entertainment, newspapers, cinema, day out. lottery and premium bonds you could save £612 and pay off all the small debts you would still be in pocket. many on here would love to have that much money to live on never mind leftover

A bit of re-training needed in the fact that you could easily save for a couple of months and pay cash for more. You certainly could get a day out for less than £100 especially if you take food with you and find somewhere cheap or free to go. Its all about setting your mind on becoming debt free and if you have to go without some luxuries it will pay off in the long run.

Maybe if you read what others are going through you will see how easy it is to get further into debt. You also need to teach the children that sometimes you cannot have what you want right away - of something is worth having its worth waiting for which will help them appreciate money for when they are grown up.

Bertrum

I'm a lurker I shall tell my story shortly

But I have noticed your error

You haven't put any monthly repayments in here:- hence the result makes no sense.

gazzad11 wrote: »

Statement of

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
argos..........................538.98....0.........0
next...........................144.......0.........24.99
debenhams......................61........0.........29.99
littlewoods....................50........0.........24.9
tesco..........................713.......0.........0
very...........................41........0.........0
newlook........................184.......0.........28.9
Total unsecured debts..........1731.98...0.........-


Why have i got no money left at the end of the month.?

DCFC79

Bertrum wrote: »

I'm a lurker I shall tell my story shortly

But I have noticed your error

You haven't put any monthly repayments in here:- hence the result makes no sense.

Good spot, hadn't noticed that. Welcome to MSE.

theoretica

I suggest you look through your last few month bank/card statements to see where your money has really been going. You might even mark everything that looking back on it a couple of months later you don't really think was worth it/you would be just as happy now without.

I also suggest a change of mindset - you have lots of cards, catalogues, laptop, furniture etc payments, all fairly small in their own way but adding up to a habit of falling for buy now pay later. You should have enough money to pay these all off, start saving and only buying things once you can pay for them now. Much easier to keep track of too!

gazzad11

Well spotted bertrum what we tend to do is pay what we can afford off each card as the bill comes in.
Again not a wise thing to do

gazzad11

Spending diary starts today i am going to report back at the end of the month to see just what is happening to my cash.
I'm also going to go through my stuff and ebay what i don't need.
I have also changed my gas and electric paying £95 instead of £120
the virgin bundle is as cheap as i can get it basic tv, basic internet, and the full phone calls free at anytime (believe me my wife can talk so this is good value).
I have looked through my statements and yes there are a few cash withdrawls so i am going to give myself a budget of £60 a week ( £30 for diesel and £30 for my pocket)
My wife will take £200 for shopping/ kids/ petrol etc.
and see how that goes.
Goodluck to everyone else who is trying to clear some debt.