I cant get my head around my money please help!

MOGGYMALONE

The thing that sticks out to me is the car insurance cost and the tax - id get a few quotes and maybe change car if poss to something cheaper to run but of course that's easier said than done at the moment. good luck. moggy

[Deleted User]

Thomas85 wrote: »

Monthly income after tax................ 2120 (paid weekly so based on a four week month)

If I understand you correctly, you have obtained this figure, by multiplying your weekly wage by 4.

Perhaps a better figure to work with, would be your average monthly salary, which is £2,296-66.

Also, to balance things up a bit, you could try, on the long months, putting aside everything above £2,296-66, to be used to top up the salary on the shorter months.

[Deleted User]

Thomas85 wrote: »

I was told that edf take £127 a month on a house based on this size and it averages out over the year?

What were the balances, on your latest bills?

RAS

Thomas85 wrote: »

We moved in December, I did yes though I don't remember what they were off the top of my head (I'm sure they're at home some where) but we gave them to the energy company.

good. Now read them again and check out what you have used in the last few months.

Thomas85

smancslad wrote: »

The monthly income here is £2441 (assume the 3 was a mistype)???

You need to pay that loan off somehow. It's killing you and as others have said you never paid the debts off you took the loan out for, you simply just moved the debt burden (and probably lowered the payments at the time). This will have made you feel better off, but in reality you're still in the same amount of debt (if not more considering that you'll be paying interest over a longer period).

Have you been paying PPI on your loan / any past loans? If you have then this could really help you out and get rid of some / all of your overdrafts. Do not go through a claims company though. It's really simple to do it yourself. Took me about 10 mins to fill in the forms and 2 months later I had £2000 without having to pay fees to a claims company

If you do get PPI money back then you must use it to clear some of the overdrafts (as I assume you're paying the bank fees each month and this is just adding to the debt). The money you then save on the overdraft fees you need to plough into MOT (you have got to have this) and I'd also suggest Xmas as you sound like you could do with at least one week of things feeling good.

You also need to work to get those bills down and that mobile phone bill is a silly price. You can get a much better deal than that - again money saved needs to be put into paying off debts / overdrafts.

You can become debt free (I did it in 2 years) but it takes dedication and you gotta keep the faith.

Thanks, I do need to look into PPI for credit cards in the past, will set some time to do it on the weekend.

Thomas85

soontobemrsg wrote: »

If the OH cooks from scratch you can certainly get this down dramatically. I spend less than this for a family of 5 and a dog on a raw diet (so all meat and bones) including our toiletries and cleaning products. Granted I don't buy formula or nappies.

No need to cut the meat out of your diet...slow cookers are a godsend when it comes to cheaper cuts of meat and cooking in batch will also sort out your packed lunch needs too, I always take leftovers to work to heat up!

Thanks, I do take the left overs to work and get a few cans of soup for days when there are no leftovers. Maybe it's because we buy packages meat (so rather a pack of chicken breasts than a whole chicken for example) an buy diced stewing steak etc?

Thomas85

MOGGYMALONE wrote: »

The thing that sticks out to me is the car insurance cost and the tax - id get a few quotes and maybe change car if poss to something cheaper to run but of course that's easier said than done at the moment. good luck. moggy

That's the lowest quote we can find, renewal quote is £1756.64. Getting something cheaper to run is definitely something we need but getting the money to pay for it is another!

Thomas85

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

What were the balances, on your latest bills?

I'm not sure, we've never had a bill, apparently we will only have them yearly. however I will do a reading once I'm home.

RAS

Thomas85 wrote: »

Maybe it's because we buy packages meat (so rather a pack of chicken breasts than a whole chicken for example) an buy diced stewing steak etc?

Invite your missus (or pop over yourself) to the Money Saving Olsd style forum and read up on rubber chicken. The general rule is that a whole chicken will provide the bones of three meals and one soup for 4 people.

[Deleted User]

Thomas85 wrote: »

I'm not sure, we've never had a bill, apparently we will only have them yearly.

In the meantime, you are probably many hundreds of pounds in credit, and getting further into credit with each passing month.

Send them a reading today, and insist you want a bill/statement, based on that reading.

I take it you realise, you are paying them £1,524 per year?