How to become debt-free?

Sammywr

Oh and the debts aren't 0%, I just don't know the interest rates on them all off hand. Just the overall debt and monthly minimum repayment. Only one of them is 0% - The one for £3445, which we did a balance transfer to, to clear another card we had, which we got rid of.

ChopinonaBudget

I actually agree with you with your pets, I have pets too, and will move heaven and earth to afford the vets bills for them (including, sadly, a very recent euthanasia for my elderly rabbit). It might be worth you looking around or talking to the Vet about cheaper options though - maybe only one of them needs the monthly vets expense and the others can get away with normal insurance?
(I don't have insurance, being back garden city bunnies whose vets bills mainly consisted of antibiotics and operations for malocclusion (exluded from every bunny policy out there), I don't know much about the market)

Are your water companies anything to do with Thames Water? My mum lives in the South East, and she says that they are the highest water rates in the country.
I have extortianate water rates too, but my bathroom is stupid, my landlord is a ar*e, and we have no shower here - I did an online quote for meterage, and it worked out more expensive. You might want to check your water company, you might be able to get a water meter quote to see if it's worth you getting one.
We;re better off on rates, however much the £40 month (yes, for a 2 bed house) hurts. Round here, even the sewerage would be £27, before the cost of water is factored in :eek:

Go and look on the old style boards for help with feeding a family on a budget - they have excellent ideas there, great recipes etc and lots of support. It can be done, I've cut down my food budget recently, and my daughter has an expensive specialised diet

Good luck!

FireWyrm

Sammywr wrote: »

but I will not cancel my pet insurance - My pet is part of the family and I will not have him put down unnecessarily!!!! I find that completely barbaric that someone would suggest that and question your morals, therefore I will not follow 'advice' from someone I have no trust in! How can you even suggest that I have my pet 'put down'!!!!?

You really should take the time to read a post before you fly off the handle especially if someone has taken time to reply to you because the bottom line is that you asked for help. You are living way beyond your means and say that it cannot continue.

I said nothing about putting down your animals unnecessarily, I simply said that if you are needing the services of a vet on a regular basis, you should consider the quality of life for that animal. I dont know what is wrong with them so I cannot judge what is necessary or not. However, if it is a case of cutting something then I mearly said to cut pet insurance before you cut your own life insurance.

Life is about priorities. Obviously, yours are somewhat out of balance since you are in a financial mess. You have obviously understood this clearly, or you wouldnt be here. To discount advice on cutting and making do is foolish simply because you dont want to hear the truth.

Dont question my morals again, you dont know what you're talking about.

sugarcube84

I would say put a note in your diary to cancel the phone contract when they are due for renewal and swap for PAYG ones (you can still keep your number hubby managed to anyway)

Look on the oldstyle board for ways to cut the grocery bill, i manage on £200 for 2 adults one child and a dog and that includes all toiletries, cleaning products, nappies etc and dog food. I use stardrops to clean everything and one bottle lasts ages as i dilute it in a spray bottle, shampoo etc is all value and i use tesco value baby bath as shower gel. I use less meat and more veg/lentils in my cooking, cook from scratch (no jars) and bake flapjacks/scones/cookies/biscuits at the weekend instead of buying snacks. I have also swapped my shop from @SDA to @ldi/lidl fruit and veg is much cheaper

Life and home insurance seems high, have you shopped around recently? i saved loads when i swapped and i got £140 cashback.

Use the cashback sites, i've made at least £350 in 12 months. Car/pet/life/home insurance and buying prezzies online. Don't buy anything without checking whether you can get cashback first. I also got £70 for swapping gas and elec.

I agree with with not cancelling the pet insurance, make sure you shop around for things like flea stuff, wormers and food. I found that the best deals were online and you also got free delivery and cashback.

I would cancel the sky and swap to freeview now if you can or at the end of the contract.

That should cover the shortfall and give you some extra which can be split between paying off the debts and saving for an emergency. Good luck!

Walaboobah

There's absolutely no need to "swap Sky for freeview". If you cancel your Sky contract then your Sky box becomes a freesat box with loads more channels than available on Freeview, including some kids ones (Tinypops, Pop, Popgirl etc in addition to cbeebies, CBBC, CITV).

Also freeview may require a purchase of a set top box if the TV is an older model!

FireWyrm

Walaboobah wrote: »

There's absolutely no need to "swap Sky for freeview". If you cancel your Sky contract then your Sky box becomes a freesat box with loads more channels than available on Freeview, including some kids ones (Tinypops, Pop, Popgirl etc in addition to cbeebies, CBBC, CITV).

Also freeview may require a purchase of a set top box if the TV is an older model!

Woah! Can you explain that more? I didnt know you could do that.

pelirocco

FireWyrm wrote: »

You really should take the time to read a post before you fly off the handle especially if someone has taken time to reply to you because the bottom line is that you asked for help. You are living way beyond your means and say that it cannot continue.

I said nothing about putting down your animals unnecessarily, I simply said that if you are needing the services of a vet on a regular basis, you should consider the quality of life for that animal. I dont know what is wrong with them so I cannot judge what is necessary or not. However, if it is a case of cutting something then I mearly said to cut pet insurance before you cut your own life insurance.

Life is about priorities. Obviously, yours are somewhat out of balance since you are in a financial mess. You have obviously understood this clearly, or you wouldnt be here. To discount advice on cutting and making do is foolish simply because you dont want to hear the truth.

Dont question my morals again, you dont know what you're talking about.

To be fair to the OP , you posted

Get rid of the pet insurance instead. You can put one of them down, you cant replace a productive family member, its the cold hard truth

That can easily be read as put the pets down

Heffi1

I reduced my sky down from £88 per month, to £10 I have 3 sky boxes in the house, we spoke to sky and asked for freesat, it was a one off cost of £25 and then no more payments, all of the boxes pick up the signal through the box, but not the pay for channels, so no sky one, sport, movies etc. I changed about a year ago so have saved £900 at the very least, and I can say I do not miss what I used to pay for.
Sky will try to keep you as a paying customer, but I kept repeating I want freesat please change it over, and eventually they did. I kept my card in the box, I pay £10 per month for the recordable function on the sky box as there are still some things I want to record, apart from that it is completely free.

FireWyrm

pelirocco wrote: »

To be fair to the OP , you posted

Get rid of the pet insurance instead. You can put one of them down, you cant replace a productive family member, its the cold hard truth

That can easily be read as put the pets down

That's the truth. You can put a very sick animal down and its a tragedy, but if you loose a family member who WAS paying a portion of the mortgage with no backup plan, that's a distaster...you lose the house. If you have to choose, chose the life insurance, not the pet insurance.

pelirocco

FireWyrm wrote: »

That's the truth. You can put a very sick animal down and its a tragedy, but if you loose a family member who WAS paying a portion of the mortgage with no backup plan, that's a distaster...you lose the house. If you have to choose, chose the life insurance, not the pet insurance.

I didnt say it wasnt , you accused the OP of not reading what you had wrote , I was just pointing out that you had implied what she thought .