Buying a car on my credit card

DAVETHE_CARDBOARDBOX

You definitely do not need a new car, you will manage, use the buggies, use the pushchair only when walking short distances, the baby will be drain on resources as it is and will not be thankful of having a stressed mum who is adding another worry to herself by more debt. It'll all work out. It usually does. Advice from more intelligent people will follow on how to cut your spends.

Snaggles

Hiya, I've got a micra - it's 12 years old, so smaller than some of the newer ones. I can easily fit a pram in the boot (it's not a tiny little pram either, it's a big travel system type thing), the boots are actually a really good size. And the seatbelts in the back are long enough to hold a rear facing baby seat in the back. I carry a 1 month old and a 7 year old in the back of mine.

Not saying you're wrong, just saying it might be worth giving it a go with your current car before you make any decision. Congrats on the pregnancy too

angelavdavis

Hi Sarah,

Congratulations on the baby and well done for getting this far posting your soa!

My comments on saving money would be:

1) Contact Lenses - someone on here mentioned that Asda are an excellent deal for contacts - check on their website.
2) credit cards - provided you have maintained your payments, I would see if you can switch them for a cheaper life of balance deal that will attract less interest while you are paying these off.
3) Sky - if you are serious about getting the debts down as quickly as possible, cancel sky and use freeview for a while. They will no doubt offer you a free deal if you phone and cancel anyway.
4) Groceries - you should be able to reduce this with careful shopping and using the tips on the Old Style board on here. Do you have a Lidl or Aldi nearby - most people find they are cheaper for lots of things like veg and meat, etc.
5) Start a spending diary to identify where the £50 + £180 (leftover monies) are going to and see where you could save in other areas.
6) Find out what your apr is for the loan as well and check the terms and conditions to see if there is any way you can pay off more some months without penalty to bring the overall debt free date nearer.

If your salary is due to drop dramatically when you go on ML, I would recommend trying to chuck as much money onto the credit cards as possible and switch to lower interest rates to get the minimum payments down during this period.

Have you anything to ebay that you could then throw at the credit cards?

If you need further incentive, check out the snowball calculator at http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx and enter your debts and minimum payments, then see how paying an extra few quid a month makes a difference to your debt free date

Once you have the baby, I would check on https://www.entitleto.co.uk to ensure you are getting all the benefits you are entitled to.

Good luck!

SarahFx

Wouldn't qualify for any cheaper credit card deals as I've tried and was turned down but will follow other hints. Will think about reducing sky package.

I HATE Aldi and Lidl but will go to Asda instead of Tesco and I'm turning into a frantic coupon collector to reduce food bill.

Thankyou for giving me reality check!

SunderlandBlackCat

Hi & welcome to the board

You can try phoning your card companies & asking them to reduce the APR - some will & some won't but you get nothing if you don't ask & the worst that can happen is they say no.

looneyleo

I HATE Aldi and Lidl but will go to Asda instead of Tesco and I'm turning into a frantic coupon collector to reduce food bill.

Have to say that Aldi and Lidl are a huge shock to the system when you are used to shopping in the luxury of Tesco and Sainsbury's! However, it is worth persisting. Once you know where everything is, what's good and what's not you do get used to it.

i'm not very good with Aldi and Lidl, but I try my best to get there once a month for the basics!

SarahFx

Just rang HSBC to ask re reducing interest and they asked me to put it in writing. You never know! Good tip.

The food just all looks like crap in Aldi and Lidl. Is it really cheaper? I suppose I could get toilet roll and tinned tomatoes in there.

GettingThingsDone

Just rang HSBC to ask re reducing interest and they asked me to put it in writing. You never know! Good tip.

Now that's a good idea - I always ask on the phone and they always say a polite no (All I hear is 'erm, why should we? - where else you gonna go!'). I'll try in writing too.

ta!

gtd

pinkshoes

This will probably be similar to what others will post, but here goes:

SarahFx wrote: »

Okay my SOA. All are monthly.

Mortgage £450 (tied in until Sept 08)
Home insurance £14
Council tax £99 (lowest band)
Water £24 meter
Gas £38 (just switched lowest I could find)
Electric £75 (bill was wrong so paying higher amt until Sept)
Home phone £15 inc internet wireless
Mobiles £14 (mine) - do you need this after baby is born, because you have a home phone, and can use Skype on the internet. PAYG would do.
Mobiles £35 (H's 18 month contract)
Life insurance £12
Grocery shopping £200 - try cutting this down and cooking all meals from scratch!
Breakdown cover £3
Car insurance £19
Car tax £9
Petrol £90 - this will be reduced once baby is born, although will no doubt be spent on nappies!!
H's lifts to work and back £43
Loan £188
Credit cards £200 for mine 19.9%APR balance £5k £150 for H's 15.7%APR Balance £4k
Sky £37 - this is a luxury item and not essential! you'll be too busy looking after a baby so won't need it! you ought to cancel it!
TV Licence £11
Next payment £60 balance £180 will be paid off soon
Clothes £40 - wow! that's almost £500 a year on clothes!! Shop at Matalan and Tesco instead!
Medication charges £21 - you can buy a yearly prescription thingy (PPC) for £98.70 which covers all NHS prescription costs for a year saving you over £150
Contact lenses £16
Savings to cover household maintenance, car servicing, xmas, haircuts and other general misc expenditure £50

Total £1913

Income Me £1264
H £930 basic (just started new job and that's his basic, we don't expect commision for another couple of months, might increase to £1400 pm in time)
Total £2194

Any money left over is used for treats.

wherediditallgo

SarahFx wrote: »

Just rang HSBC to ask re reducing interest and they asked me to put it in writing. You never know! Good tip.

The food just all looks like crap in Aldi and Lidl. Is it really cheaper? I suppose I could get toilet roll and tinned tomatoes in there.

I haven't got an Aldi locally, but the last time I went into Lidl I paid 14p for olive oil, 3p for lemonade & 6p for cordial drinks, & the quality was fine on all three, & they do a lot of non-food items too. Anything you can save money on there is better than spending more elsewhere.