In a Little Pickle

Little_Pickle

Hi LF!
Many, many thanks for all of your thoughts... lets go through it.!
The food is for me alone. My partner and I put £25 each per week for food (this covers dinners and weekend food). It's not something I want to scrimp on (the only thing) as I think it's really, really important to fuel your body with good food. Especially when you are going through something challenging. You need the right food to help you think clearly and keep your emotions etc in check.
The £60 for breakfast and lunch is £3.00 per day (work days only). For that I can get a good breakfast and hot meal for lunch. I am looking to cut this down by doing more packed lunches, but this is an honest figure for what I spend at the moment.

As far as shops go, we live in Chiswick and there are only very expensive shops here. I don’t have a car and would have to look for cheap shops in the area which I can get to on the bus or maybe do some price comparisons. I will be following this up in the next few weeks and hope to get this down! I’ll definitely look at the Old Style Board… thanks for the tip!

We live in shared accommodation (there are 3 of us) and the bills include: Gas, Electricity, Telephone (line rental etc), Internet, T.V Licence, Council Tax.
We have spoken to the landlord but he wants us to keep the providers the same and we have the best deal we can get for our internet at the moment. It’s slightly restrictive, but for all of those, I don’t think it’s an amazing amount. My OH already pays more rent than I do as he has a larger salary.

And finally with regard to the gym, I go everyday (swim / gym / classes). I can look at seeing how much it would be to swim only (say, twice a week) and get a DVD and run around the park… hmmm… my brain is ticking!!

My mobile is fantastic as I get £180 of credit to use per month and this includes international and other mobile calls. My OH gets to call his family on the other side of the world on my mobile and I never go over that amount. Besides, I have an 18 month deal with them and am only 3 months in! I might be able to downgrade in a few months… shall look into it!

Nothing on travel (I cycle to work)
Going out – sorry, the sticky guide of SOA didn’t suggest it, as it’s not a necessity each month. So I didn’t include. I can do the maths based on the past few months and post back here later.

Thanks so much for your suggestions LF!!! Fantastic! Really got my brain working!!!

Little_Pickle

okay... I'm hearing ya!!! I know there's about 1000 left over at the end of the month, but this is based on my new salary with my new job.

I am starting this whole debt process today, so this is only based on what I will be getting.

Also, I am a temp. Therefore I do not get sick pay. I do not get holiday pay (it's put into my hourly rate) and I also don't get any public holidays. (there are a lot at the moment!)

I get paid weekly and If I bring home £370 per week (normal week of 40 hours), it gets spread out like this…

Wages £370.00
Rent £75.00
Bills £19.00
Dinners £25.00
Breakfast and lunch £15.00
Creditcard £25.00
Old overdraft £30.00
Parents £25.00

TOTAL LEFT AFTER BILLS £156.00

There is still Mobile Phone and dentist and Gym to pay for monthly as well which is another £78.50.

I have also just managed to stop smoking (my second week…) and that used to be another £2.80 per work day and about £8.40 at the weekends. That’s another £22.40 that I’m saving per week!

3 weeks ago I got my mums old bike from her house to use for cycling to work.
As a result I now save another £15.00 per week on travel.

I hope with this new job and salary I will be able to get on top of it all. With this much left at the end of the week, I can try and get the debts paid off quicker!

It’s a BIG pay increase, so it will make a huge difference!

lady_fuschia

it's really, really important to fuel your body with good food

Oh you're absolutely right- but it is amazing how cheap it can be to eat well with a little planning. A good filling meal like a lentil bolognese, or a thick stew with wholemeal bread can be really cheap to make.

Nothing on travel (I cycle to work)

Good for you! (I'm a huge advocate of the no car lifestyle!)

Now you have your new salary you just need to draw up a new budget based around that amount and stick to it - working out the absolute maximum you can afford to throw out debts. Provided you don't up your expenditure more than necessary, with such a substantial payrise, you really should be out of debt in no time - it's just a matter of self-discipline and determination really. You have a really good attitude about it so I have every faith you should be able to do it!

david_hellier

Hi,

According to my figures you have £218.65 per week to spend on food, clothes, social and anything else. I suggest you write this amount in a little note book on a Monday (a spending diary, ebay) and keep a track of what you spend by subtraction. If you have any left at the end of the week use it to pay off your most expensive debt (BC). Stop using a credit card for any more purchases. My figures assume a fixed payment of £100pm to BC, £50pm to your parents and £20pm to the OD account. Once you've got Barclaycard off your back, start saving for a house.

Otherwise you're doing quite well. Good luck, the figures are as follows:

income weekly monthly
self 370.00 0.00
partner







total 370.00 0.00 divide by 4.33
£-

£370.00 total weekly income

spend weekly monthly
rent/mortgage 75.00
council tax 0.00
elec 0.00
gas 0.00
water 0.00
secured loans 0.00
TV licence 0.00
fines 0.00
bills 19.00
cc1 100.00
parents 50.00
mobile 30.00
dental 12.50
gym 36.00
OD payoff 20.00

















total 94.00 248.50 divide by 4.33
£57.35

£151.35 total weekly spend

Start= income - spend = £218.65 per week

James&Shell

Just wanted to say hello and good luck/

Little_Pickle

oh David, thank you!
That's very sweet of you to do the sums..
I have put together a spread sheet on a weekly basis as I get paid weekly.

thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions.

I know that my problem isn't big, but it still worries me and I was in serious trouble a few months back... I couldn't get money for food let a lone anything else!

So, again, thank you thank you thank you!!!
:j

Siamese

[QUOTE=Little Pickle;5204496
As far as shops go, we live in Chiswick and there are only very expensive shops here. I don’t have a car and would have to look for cheap shops in the area which I can get to on the bus or maybe do some price comparisons. I will be following this up in the next few weeks and hope to get this down! I’ll definitely look at the Old Style Board… thanks for the tip!
[/QUOTE]

The shops in Chiswick are expensive(M&S and Sainsbury for those who are interested!) but if you hop on the E3 bus up to Acton you'll find a Morrisons, a Netto and a couple of Pound shops for your cleaning stuff,toiletries plus asian grocers for cheap spices, pulses etc.
Morrison is located just off King st and the others are in the small precinct just down the road.
Its worth thinking about ordering online from Tesco or Asda if you can get free delivery vouchers and also trawl for the cheap stuff in Sainsbury just before closing time.

Little_Pickle

Siamese, thank you so much for the heads up! I guess I don't have to trawl for the cheap places now!
I didn't know there was a Netto! I used to use Netto when I lived in North London! Fantastic!!! and the pound shops too! great information!!!

I hope I can give advice and help others as you guys have helped me today!

kudos to you guys!
xox

Swishter

Just wanted to say a huge well done on both joining and quitting the smoking!

I can't really add to the advice but I do think that with just a few months of knuckling down you could clear all/most of the debt.

I'm having a bit of a 'hit' month this month, strict budgetting, overtime, selling stuff, using up etc. I could not keep up the pace every month but being able to clear a big chunk of debt in one go helps to keep the old motivation going!

Swishter

Queen.Bess

Welcome aboard LP! Keeping a spending diary really does work! Also not carrying cc's around too! I've done this now for a while and it really makes you think about what you buy and then what you shouldn't!

Good Luck! MSE is a great site, so I'm sure there'll be lots of advice and help here!