Time to pay the piper, butcher, the baker and candlestick maker!

threepenny_bit

oops forgot to say - I have enough for 1 plane fare always saved but like to build this up in case we need 2 flights. The rest of the money we use to go away in caravan during the summer.

threepenny_bit

done the main Christmas food shopping and only have fresh stuff like milk to get.
Decided that from January I will go back to having cash for the food shop so I can see exactly where it goes and how much I have left.

dancingfairy

While the amounts may not make sense to someone here, I'm sure you can adopt a lot of the techniques.
A few thoughts from me:
1) Do you need to overpay the mortgage? Would the money be better spent on paying off your debts quicker?
2) You will be much better off soon when you HP goes down. That should start to have an impact.
3) Start a spending diary. This should give you an idea where your money is going but also might make you think twice before you buy something unnecessary.
4) Using cash for purchases sounds like a good idea. A tried and tested method
5) Have you tried meal planning and cooking in bulk? Both these can save quite a lot of money. Head over to the OldStyle board on here and I'm sure they will have lots of ideas for you (although you might have slightly different ingredients over there).
Best of Luck
df

threepenny_bit

A few thoughts from me:
1) Do you need to overpay the mortgage? Would the money be better spent on paying off your debts quicker? you are probably right about the overpaying but it takes a couple of years off the term and I like the mortgage to be an even number lol!
2) You will be much better off soon when you HP goes down. That should start to have an impact.only 3 more left now
3) Start a spending diary. This should give you an idea where your money is going but also might make you think twice before you buy something unnecessary. Thankyou - I am going to be starting this on Monday
4) Using cash for purchases sounds like a good idea. A tried and tested method
5) Have you tried meal planning and cooking in bulk? Both these can save quite a lot of money. Head over to the OldStyle board on here and I'm sure they will have lots of ideas for you (although you might have slightly different ingredients over there).
Best of Luck I do some bulk meals now and have a ton of stuff in the freezer so will really be more diligent and organize the freezer so that I know exactly what we have left in it
df[/QUOTE]

LannieDuck

A couple of thoughts -

* What does your 'other insurance' cover? (Is this the medical insurance you mentioned?)

* Have you been putting $50/mth aside for emergencies already? i.e. have you built up a pot? If you've got a couple 100, I would stop doing this, or maybe reduce it to $20 and put the rest towards the debts.

* $25 per month is a lot for presents. How many birthdays are you having to cover with that? Could you do token/homemade gifts for a couple of years?

* Difficult to comment on utilities for outside UK, but have you checked on appropriate comparison sites?

* The $200/mth parking is huge. Do you need 2 cars? (I know US is very different to UK in this regard.)

threepenny_bit

LannieDuck wrote: »

A couple of thoughts -

* What does your 'other insurance' cover? (Is this the medical insurance you mentioned?) It covers medical and a very small life insurance on myself

* Have you been putting $50/mth aside for emergencies already? i.e. have you built up a pot? If you've got a couple 100, I would stop doing this, or maybe reduce it to $20 and put the rest towards the debts. I only have this months money in the pot right now but that is a good idea - If I collect for the next 3 months I will then apply the $50 to debts I think.

* $25 per month is a lot for presents. How many birthdays are you having to cover with that? Could you do token/homemade gifts for a couple of years? This year we spent a lot as we had some big family birthdays and I used the average for this coming year. I have trimmed it down to $15 which will include everything. I am going to do more knitted gifts this year - hats, mitts etc. Will weave scarf and try to make some matching sets using wool in my stash. I think I will make a homemade food hamper for my BIL this year - did one a few years back and it was well received. I just added a jar of jam, a jar of pickles, fruit cake etc every time I made something for us and it cost hardly anything extra at Christmas time. I

* Difficult to comment on utilities for outside UK, but have you checked on appropriate comparison sites? We are using one of the cheapest companies but there is very little difference here at the moment. I do keep checking though We are trying to cut down a bit on lighting etc and I have turned the heating down 2 degrees and none has noticed so far.

* The $200/mth parking is huge. Do you need 2 cars? (I know US is very different to UK in this regard. That is the parking for 1 car lol! Here there is very little public transport and so we need cars to get from work to home etc. Many people pay around $500 per month for parking in the city so we have a good deal )

Thankyou so much for your ideas

threepenny_bit

organized the money tonight and paid off cc2 totally. We have some money for Christmas from family which we used and I jiggled the rest of the bills a little to pay the cc.

LannieDuck

Dincanada wrote: »

I have trimmed it down to $15 which will include everything. I am going to do more knitted gifts this year - hats, mitts etc. Will weave scarf and try to make some matching sets using wool in my stash. I think I will make a homemade food hamper for my BIL this year - did one a few years back and it was well received. I just added a jar of jam, a jar of pickles, fruit cake etc every time I made something for us and it cost hardly anything extra at Christmas time.

That sounds like a great plan. And a bit of fun too

Have a look at the OldStyle boards or the Christmas boards for other home-made gift ideas. They have threads specifically dedicated to creating hampers.

threepenny_bit

LannieDuck wrote: »

That sounds like a great plan. And a bit of fun too

Have a look at the OldStyle boards or the Christmas boards for other home-made gift ideas. They have threads specifically dedicated to creating hampers.

Thanks so much - I did peep at the hampers thread this year and made mistletoes bags for dd and ddil
I used all sorts of bits and pieces making dd a cooking hamper - bought some stuff but also added recipes I use, some cookbooks I have bought and never even looked at, etc and it looked great.
I need to expand on this and collect for hampers at the sales etc during he year and maybe everyone will get one lol!

threepenny_bit

sitting here looking at the bills again and trying to see which challenges to join here on MSE lol!
Also trying to see where some of the loose change has been going and how to stop that spiral.
Quick trip to shop after work - to buy an odd thing here and there seems to add up to a small fortune. No mid week shopping Using cash for grocery shopping and if no cash then no shop! I will go once a week and shop or try to roll an extra day in there sometimes so I have less shopping trips; more No spend days.
Magazines - hmm I seem to have a few on the table that have pretty covers and I flick through once or twice then ignore. I will buy NO more magazines
Travelling - we own a caravan and love to go away on the weekends.The money for the site fees will have to come from extras so I need to be selling items and using that money or we can't go. Hope this will be achievable .
Meals & drinks out - We seem to pop in here or there quite a lot and have a meal or a drink etc. Need to really limit these and use the mountain of food we already have in. Perhaps a really nice meal for every $2000 paid off the debts would be a good incentive?
Presents - Have to face it that I can't keep bailing out the kids with extra gifts or paying for stuff. By the time I was their age we had 2 kids to support and no-one helped us. This is where I get the people pleasing from and feel I don't want them to suffer etc. I have made a spreadsheet for 2014 birthdays and christmas gifts and will buy/make during the year to offset the cost a bit. I have loads of yarn etc and need to be using it rather than storing it in boxes as extra insulation!!