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Time to wake up and smell the free work provided coffee...

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  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    maharani_m wrote: »
    I don't understand why some seem to miss the point when it comes to clearing debt or saving money ... You need to make sacrifices (i.e. lottery, Sky TV, mobile phone bills, buying meals out, cinema, etc) to save money. With the amount of debt you have, you both will need to tighten the belt by a few more belt holes. Personally, I would try to minimise my spending rather than stopping saving for the children. Likelihood is that the difference wouldn't be paid back to their accounts. Apologies if I sound harsh. :-(

    I don't necesarily think your comment is harsh, however I do feel it is rather critical, especially considering the picture you have under your user name....

    However, We had the mobile phone contracts before our LBM, we are tied in to those, I have already stated this, our Virgin TV we are also tied in, again before our LBM. We rarely eat out, but we do have some takeaways, we have already decided that we will not have any takeaway meals, however we may on occasion buy a bag of chips to go with something. Just once a month for a treat of sorts.

    We are going to be working as hard as possible to reduce our spending. Every other person has recommended that we reduce the kids savings, I disagreed at first, however the more I have thought about this the more it makes sense, for now.

    In an ideal world we would like to save more for the kids, and when the debt is gone I will work out what they are owed and will set up a direct debit to run for X months until it is back in there. It is not so much repaying them , as it is our money and we chose to save for them.

    The kids are 5 and 3, so we have a long time to put our mistakes right and also, to make sure they see us putting things right so they do not make the same mistakes as us.
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    Happier_Me wrote: »
    Hi Ianise

    Lots of good advice on here which should help you make some real inroads into your debt. Not sure if anyone has suggested keeping a spending diary. Tracking exactly where all those little spends are might be a good idea for a short time.

    I really struggle with my food budget but I am slowly getting into batch cooking and the savings really are eye opening. A month ago, I would have spent £3.50 on lean mince for one home made lasagne - that same amount of meat now makes three lasagne's, and the only difference is we aren't overeating or filling the bin with leftovers anymore. Batch cooking and meal planning also means we are less tempted to buy takeaways in the week.

    I would also sacrifice the children's savings until your debts are paid and you have your own emergency fund (I can't see any cash savings in your SOA).

    Good luck!

    A have read about spending diaries on others posts. I will get a notepad, in fact I think I have one, and will start making notes.

    Do people do breakdowns, i.e £20 at asda. £5 clothing, £15 food?
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    I meant to ask. In theory, if our plans go as we want them to, we would have £400 at the end of each month left over.

    Should we wait until we have a month in hand, i.e End of December (eek shocking month paid way too early!!)

    Or should we just set up a direct debit to take it out on payday, or half on pay da, half at the end of the month manually....
  • tallyhoh
    tallyhoh Posts: 2,307 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Sorry if I have missed something her but only £60 PCM on petrol? You really can't go very far on that, is it worth keeping a car. Local transport or even taxis would be cheaper.
    Tallyhoh! Stopped Smoking October 2000. Saved £29382.50 so far!
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    tallyhoh wrote: »
    Sorry if I have missed something her but only £60 PCM on petrol? You really can't go very far on that, is it worth keeping a car. Local transport or even taxis would be cheaper.

    Hi Tallyho,

    I have a fully financed company car. The other car is my wife's and it is a very economical diesel. So basically if we need to go anywhere at weekends or evenings my company car is used, that includes when we visit family in Glasgow or Essex, so we are lucky enough to not have to pay the £60 it would cost us there, or there and back in Glasgow's case...

    A taxi every working day would not be cheaper in anyway, shape or form.

    All in all we pay around £103.50 Tax, Insurance and fuel so for arguments sake there are 20 working days in a month. £103.50 / 20 = £5.18 per day. a taxi 1 way to my wife's work would cost us £6, then the return journey another £6 so over double the cost.

    We are quite lucky that our kids were accepted to the school that my wife works at so no running them around to child minders etc.
  • tallyhoh
    tallyhoh Posts: 2,307 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Ianise wrote: »
    Hi Tallyho,

    I have a fully financed company car. The other car is my wife's and it is a very economical diesel. So basically if we need to go anywhere at weekends or evenings my company car is used, that includes when we visit family in Glasgow or Essex, so we are lucky enough to not have to pay the £60 it would cost us there, or there and back in Glasgow's case...

    A taxi every working day would not be cheaper in anyway, shape or form.

    All in all we pay around £103.50 Tax, Insurance and fuel so for arguments sake there are 20 working days in a month. £103.50 / 20 = £5.18 per day. a taxi 1 way to my wife's work would cost us £6, then the return journey another £6 so over double the cost.

    We are quite lucky that our kids were accepted to the school that my wife works at so no running them around to child minders etc.

    Ah, that explains things a bit more. Do you have to pay for MOT, repairs etc as they are not on your SOA. I usually pay for mine in the 2 months council tax break.
    Tallyhoh! Stopped Smoking October 2000. Saved £29382.50 so far!
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    tallyhoh wrote: »
    Ah, that explains things a bit more. Do you have to pay for MOT, repairs etc as they are not on your SOA. I usually pay for mine in the 2 months council tax break.

    The MOT would add £2.08 a month to that total and repairs, so far we have had none..... Touch wood.
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    And if we do, our friend is a mechanic who just happens to work for Vauxhall, so parts are cheap... As I say though, hopefully nothing goes wrong.
  • runforlife
    runforlife Posts: 444 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 21 November 2013 at 9:45AM
    Ianise, To help you budget use the Stepchange Debt Remedy tool. It is totally anonymous so no worries about a credit check etc. There is an incredibly detailed budget sheet which goes down right to newspapers and even religious contributions. Makes you think!
    I have opted to go with SC and have a monthly expenditure sheet from SC I can email you if that helps. I will PM you. Again filling that in each day really focuses you on saving and expenditure. Some may say its a bit OCD but for me it does the trick! I am beginning to find financial freedom.

    http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx
  • Ianise
    Ianise Posts: 85 Forumite
    runforlife wrote: »
    Ianise, To help you budget use the Stepchange Debt Remedy tool. It is totally anonymous so no worries about a credit check etc. There is an incredibly detailed budget sheet which goes down right to newspapers and even religious contributions. Makes you think!
    I have opted to go with SC and have a monthly expenditure sheet from SC I can email you if that helps. I will PM you. Again filling that in each day really focuses you on saving and expenditure. Some may say its a bit OCD but for me it does the trick! I am beginning to find financial freedom.

    http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

    thank you for that Runforlife, it is very much appreciated.
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