where to cut?

litespend

Thanks all, I know I could save on food by doing packed lunches for both myself and my child, so that is high up on the list for cutting.

£5 is for my photo website hosting and while I know I could plug that off, I don't want to, as it's my only hobby and I had that website since 2005. I did already cut my photo mag subscription, I think £5 for a hobby is decent.

On mobile, I can't change it until early 2015.

TalkTalk contract runs until 2015 and only the TV bundle is not on a contract and that's £15 - so I could knock off £10 of that, keeping the kids bundle which is £5. The international calls bundle is £3/month and covers free landline calls with all Europe and North America, basically I only pay if I call mobiles from my landline, but I don't tend to. And in the £60 I also included 1 or 2 on demand films that I watch monthly.

@grumbler: building insurance is included in the service charge, it's a leashold flat.

@silverwhistle: I think I'm way behind the Joneses, and not trying to get there, but I'd like to somehow magically strech my income to lead a normal life and not feeling like I have to cut all the time.

litespend

@getmoreforless: the £6.50 bank acct fee includes extended warranty appliances (all of which I bought last year when I also bought the flat - that's where part of my debt is coming from) and it also includes mobile phone and photo camera insurance. I've already made use of the mobile phone insurance...

dotdash79

litespend wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm looking for areas to cut spending as I've started racking up debt.. £3500 as of now, but it looks like it's not going down (luckily it's at 0% interest until 2015). I'm a single mother with one school-age child living in London.

mortgage: £1208 (hopefully this will reduce to £1050 in May next year when I renew the mortgage deal)

Are you locked in with fees? If not you might want to try and switch now. that would be £150 per month extra which can go towards paying the debt without making any other changes.

litespend

Yes there is n ERC charge believe it's 2% now. It's a 2-yr fixed deal that ends in May.

litespend

There's one more thing I forgot to mention. I'm contributing about £60/month to a pension plan (if I don't, my employer doesn't contribute 8% to my pension plan so I can't cut that one). But that comes off my pay so I don't even think about it anymore.

My employer also provides life assurance and accident and sickness insurance cover, but I'm not covered for unemployment... and I know I need to sign up for some mortgage insurance, as I don't have savings either. It will be another £40-50 per month when I do.... probably next year at mortgage renewal time.

getmore4less

You need to do a proper budget for a 12month period min.

Split into 3 groups
Essential : these you look at making smaller
Optional but contract : these you plan to reduce/eliminate on renewal or sooner if the penalty makes overall benefit.
Optional : These you will have to prioritise

if you want to balance the budget you need decide where you spends are more important.

You can't deal with them one at a time you just end up justifying everything and get no where

Do this on an annual cost basis so you have the true relative cost.

redo the monthly SOA with the things in the 3 groups and in the priority order.

you will have to start a spending diary.

You also need to breakdown your £500 left over since you have rejected ideas for the stuff listed do far.

opinions4u

council tax: £100 - make sure it includes single person discount.

gas & electric: £80 - put a jumper on and turn it down 1 degree. Get paranoid about lights and standby TV.

Internet, TV, home phone, intl calls £60 (contract 2-yr) - switch to freeview when the contract ends.

mobile: £25 (contract 2-yr) - look out for £5 sim only deals. You don't need internet on your phone.

bank account charge incl mobile phone insurance: £6.50 - does this really add value?
before/afterschool club (childcare): £200 - can you change working patterns, work from home, share childcare responsibility with friend / family / father?

afterschool activities (swimming & music): £40 - are the kids truly committed to these? If not, scrap them.

groceries including school dinners & work lunches: £450 - I agree with the poster who says you can lunch for £1 a day, and healthily. I think £450 for two people is very high. Scrap crisps, cakes, biscuits, sweets. Plan meals carefully and have what's planned to reduce the risk of waste. My supermarket shop for a family of including 3 adults is £400ish a month.

Some may be possible, some may not be. I'd start with phone, TV and food though.

PasturesNew

opinions4u wrote: »

I agree with the poster who says you can lunch for £1 a day, and healthily. I think £450 for two people is very high.

There are some hidden/secret children somewhere in the mix as childcare/after school club was mentioned .... so the makeup of the household's not been given clearly.

litespend

@getmore4less: thanks I know I have to start the spending diary to include the above and the £500 'everything else' money.

@opinions4u: yes I'm on single person council tax discount. gas & electric - I'm keeping 20 degrees when we're at home and 18 overnight, I don't know if I can go lower as I'm hypothyroid and have issues with cold.

before/afterschool: I'm working at home one day per week so I'm only paying 4 days/week. No family around, I do have a friend I exchange babysitting favours with. The fee for afterschool comes to £4/hour which is the cheapest I could possibly find, in the area where we live (SW London). Ex partner pays child maintenance, but he only sees her once per week (his choice) and doesn't cover any of the holidays. There are 13 weeks holidays in the year plus 4-5 inset days. I currently use a combination of vacation + flying my mother over here over the summer (which is way cheaper than holiday clubs - food for mother included - and much better as they get to spend time together, while I get some time off).

afterschool activities: I already cut dance and to be honest these ones would be the last to go, I'd rather cut for myself than for my child.

So yes will have to cut food exp (packed lunches for both) and £10 off the TV bundle. Mobile and TalkTalk services have to wait until contracts end. And I will start a spending diary as I'm probably in denial a bit...

I'm also hoping for a 4-5% pay increase and lower mortgage payments starting next May so perhaps come next year it will look a bit better...

@PasturesNew: there is no secret, it's just that I don't buy the most inexpensive food that I can find on the supermarket shelf, I try to buy good stuff... I don't buy prepackaged, cook everything from scratch, no takeaway, no juices, no alcohol, I do drink coffee but only at home.

dotdash79

How often do you go to the shop and which shops do you go to?

Online shopping might help to reduce temptation.