Where do we start?

retepetsir

xsussax wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I was going to ask whether you think we should wipe these debts out one by one each month or split our monthly surplus over a couple of debts. Moneyway is a credit agreement for some furniture that I bought from Pay4Later (or something like that). It finishes in 10 months and is 5% interest so I would think the credit cards need focusing on first?

Overdrafts - I bank with Lloyds and to reduce it I have to call them (even though it's easy enough to increase online!). I would like to reduce it by £50 every month. Do you think my bank would let me easy enough without trying to persuade me otherwise?

Kids - We have 8 nieces and nephews and 2 Godchildren so Xmas and B'days are expensive. They also all live away from us so I took into consideration the petrol money we use on travelling to see them.

400pm on food. Think I'm being a little generous but with us both working full-time and me doing a degree / going to the gym etc, time is sometimes precious so we don't really think about what we're putting into our trolley or where we shop...until we get to the till! I know we definitely need to be more savvy with this.

£30 month medical - my contact lenses and my partner's asthma medications.

Mobile phones used to be higher believe it or not and they would be higher still if I didn't get a 30% NHS discount - they're now £22 each for both of us per month. Both ours finish next year so there's not really much I can do about these at the moment.

I'll look into what Sky can offer us in terms of reducing our package and also cancel Netflix.

Experian and Equifax - I'll cancel these as suggested.

Thanks

Yes hit the highest rate of interest first as Bedsit Bob has mentioned. I originally looked at Barclaycard but assumed Moneyway was a typo and possibly 50% interest not 5% going by your figures!

[Deleted User]

xsussax wrote: »

£30 month medical - my contact lenses and my partner's asthma medications.

You partner could get a 12 month pre-payment certificate for £104 (equivalent to £8-66 per month), compared to £8.05 per item, when paid for individually.

Put simply, if your partner gets 14 or more items per year, a PPC would be cheaper.

xsussax

He does have a pre-payment card for his scripts; I think it's £30 every quarter. Moneyway is definitely 5% and our sofa and Very are 0% so it's the credit cards that are the main interest-sappers. I've been musing to myself about how much credit seems to be on tap - it's so easy to think I'll pop this on my credit card / account then before you know it you're into your hundreds if not thousands. Even if you have poor credit like I have there's still subprime credit card companies wanting to take advantage and the temptation gets the better of you. It was a wake-up call doing the SOA and I'm very uncomfortable with how much goes out on debt every month. I knew we spent a lot on the kids as well but I didn't realise how much until yesterday. I've looked into cancelling the Park account but I can't. The only good thing about it is that with it being a work initiative I do get £35 extra to spend than I put in. Can anyone advise me on how Lloyds might be when I ring them to say I want to take some money off my overdraft?


Thanks.

[Deleted User]

xsussax wrote: »

He does have a pre-payment card for his scripts; I think it's £30 every quarter.

It's £29-10 for three months, but you can save £12-40 pa, by buying yearly.

dancingfairy

Mmm.... I'm not too sure about phoning and asking about reducing the overdraft.
1) it brings attention to yourself and possibly increases the risk they could cancel it and
2) I've heard that in order to lower your overdraft some banks will credit check you for the lower amount (presumably because people's circumstances change). I'm unable to verify this. I don't know if anyone else has heard of this?
Could you not reduce the overdraft yourself? At lest if you do slip up you won't have to pay any exhorbitant fees (whereas if you get the bank to reduce it and you go over you'll probably pay a large fee).
df

Steerpike88

xsussax wrote: »

Here's my SOA. Better late than never!


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1185
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2153
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3338
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 599
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 88
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 42
Gas..................................... 67
This is quite high, have you tried shopping around for a slightly better price?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 49
If you're not on a water meter it might pay to ask to have one fitted in. You can control your water usage and how much you spend.
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 44
This is a little high, even for the two of you. Again it might pay to shop around or get a PAYG.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 83
Wow, this is really high. I'd just go with free-view at the moment while you're in debt.
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
This is VERY high, my partner and I spend around 150 pm. I batch cook and freeze. bake a couple of things for lunches on a Sunday, make risottos and soups with leftover scraps. It does take some time and effort, but batch cooking is a life-saver. I also carry extra snacks for times I'm caught hungry.
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 350
Road tax................................ 16
Car Insurance........................... 53
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 37
This is a little high. Can you look at that?
Buildings insurance..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 21
Entertainment........................... 16
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Gym Membership.......................... 60
Unite Union............................. 13
British Gas Homecare.................... 24
Experian................................ 15
Equifax................................. 9
Tesco Food Stamps....................... 15
Park Christmas Savings.................. 45
Total monthly expenses.................. 2343

I think you should save quite a bit with a little phoning round and keeping an eye on the pennies. Invest in something like YBAB and get your OH involved in updating his stuff. It's worth spending 20 mins a week going through your receipts and tallying it up.
It seems the people that do best are the ones that put down every penny they spend on their diaries. It really does help to make yourself accountable.

hampsterpoo

Hi , well done for posting and wanting to make the change.

Cancel the gym, you can't afford it.
What classes do you do ?
Is this both of you or just one of you?
Get a second hand bikes and ride them. Look on freecycle.
Cardio classes , go jogging in the park. Go swimming.

Or pop on ebay and get some cheap stuff for the home,then once you can afford to rejoin the gym sell it back on ebay and get your money back.

Tesco food stamps ? Put the money in an Isa then you get the interest rather than lining the pocket of Mr tesco.
But do use your points wisely when you can double up and more.

If you really want to keep sky rather than getting freeview.Drop it to the lowest package you can. Or look at freesat.

Groceries £400 what are you eating ?
I'm a sains boy so dont know about other stores.
But even without meal planning in great detail I can save just buy using the offers.

Use the offers 3 for £10 on meat , steaks/chickens/diced beef /mince/pork chops . Meal planning & saving it doesnt have to be boring.

Look the amount per unit on the shelf. Ketchup salad cream, mayo etc a larger bottle is more expensive but once you look at the price per unit its cheaper in the long run.
Buying a bigger size more often than not is cheaper. Own brand pasta.is a good one for that.
Toothpaste , Colgate do a huge range and the prices vary a lot. From £1 to nearly £5. Check yours.
Sugar , fairtrade sugar used to be 10p cheaper that the normal names was like it for years , now they have swapped the prices over. Look out for things like that. It might seem a chore but within weeks its second nature.
Buy the shampoo/soap/shower gel when its on offer, stock up a little dont go mad but if its 3 for 2 or half price it makes sense to get 2.

Use your vouchers get the extra points , take your bags to get the points.

Where does your money go ? Keep a spend diary.
On your trip to the gym, do you buy bottled water to take or buy it there. Or fill up from the tap at home.
Every little thing adds up.
Do you buy newspapers and mags , they add up. Once you jot it down your see all these little things add up.
read books use the libary - charity shops

Do you sell on ebay ? I sold an old ripped newspaper to a radio station in the USA for about a fiver a few years back. I found it in an old box of stuff I was going through in the loft. All the little £'s add up.

Do a Bootsale , use the money you get to treat yourselves.
Music magpie , sell those unwanted cds and dvds

There's loads of little changes and things you can do to find where its going , and how to make it go further.

Speaking from experiance (56K cleared in less than 5 years) , we could have cleared it sooner but we didnt cut back on everything. We kept sky but have always had the lowest package.
We did the odd boot sale , sold on ebay.

Stopped the magazines each week , brought one or two a month and actually read all of it rather than flick through.
Still had takeaways and meals out but not to many and it went back to being a treat.

Buy a slow cooker ,thats a good one for the autumn/winter as you can get it ready the night before turn it on in the morning and then its done when you both get in.


You can really go for it and cut right back on everything
or cut back a little here and there,
try to earn a few £'s here and there extra, with the bootsales & ebay.

Do online surveys - takes a while but adds up.
Nothing like a "free" £10-£15 Amazon voucher in your account every few months , helps out for birthday presents/christmas time.

Like I said we didnt cut back on everything we would have gone mad, just stick to it.
You can have a treat every now and then without breaking the bank or budget.
But it has to be now and then rather than "I just fancied it" .

TALK TO EACH OTHER . thats very important you have to be in it together.
Then if you want some thing you say and visa versa then its not a case of well you brought that so its okay for me to buy this.

Got a Makro/Bookers near you ? Know someone with a card you can go with ? Buy bulk packs of Toliet rolls, kitchen roll ( if you really need it, do you really need it or could you cut that out and save that little bit extra)
Big boxes of washing powder are normally on offer each month.

Use the snowball site to track your debt payments and watch them come down.

All these things I picked up on this site , it takes a while to get your head adjusted to the new way of thinking /shopping
But once you start seeing results you know its right and wont look back.

Good luck and keep posting on here to get even better advice from all the lovely people here.
cheers. :beer:

xsussax

I think the £100 pw partly surmounts to my two cats: one of whom is elderly and requires a special diet and the other one only eats premium brand food. We do get the 3 for £10 meats and always buy the offers on toiletries and cleaning products, not exceeding £1 if we can help it. What we are guilty of, however is buying sandwich meat from the deli and about £25 alcohol a week but I did an online shop yesterday and spent £75 for 10 days' worth food including food for 1 x cat. Also canx Equifax, Experian and we're looking into pet insurance (my elderly cat costs £25 per month for his). Email invite for the Next VIP sale: deleted and Cap 1 I've decided is getting half the balance paid off when I'm paid along with a bigger payment on B/Card.


We always use our own tap water when going to the gym; I know we ought to cancel our memberships but we really enjoy going and I can't bring myself to do it yet I'm sorry to say .


What we are rather upset about is that on the way home from work last Thurs my partner's car finally gave in on him with £70 petrol in the tank as he'd just filled up (2 garages have said it's only good for scrap). As he needs a car for work, we had no money saved to put towards a new 'banger' and already owe £9k to our parents, we really had no option but to get a new car on finance through Ford at a whopping £250 per month due to the amount of mileage he does! This is going to delay settling our debts and give us less disposable income so it's imperative that we are now stricter with our outgoings. I really can't believe that a couple of days after the serious discussion of getting our finances in shape our car goes and does that!!! Will keep you posted.

dancingfairy

You might have been better off desperately asking your parents to borrow 1-2k and buying a cheap runaround. With the £400 'spare' a month you could have paid it off fairly quickly.
Is this an option at all? Can you cancel the car finance? I just worry it's going to cost you a fortune and you've announced that you owe your family 9k plus you've now taken out another loan.
df

ViolaLass

This is small change after the car issues but don't buy your cat food from the supermarket, get it online. I go to Zooplus and spend about £40 every three months to feed two cats - I don't get the cheapest I can as one of them needs a certain diet to help with allergies. Because you're buying in bulk, that brings the price down too and their postage is free if you spend something like £23.