Should i get a wonga loan

summer33

kindofagilr thanks for reply. Yes tax credits are claiming back from current claim.

FireWyrm

summer33 wrote: »

Thanks for all suggestions so far.

I think the only place for improvement is trying to reduce the shopping, and entertainment type stuff.

Any ideas on the gas and elec though, I know it is high, dont know why,

The TV running all day will cost 2p per hour. It doesnt sound like much, but you will notice it at the end of the month. A washing machine is 34p per hour, non-energy saving bulbs, slightly less than a penny an hour. Looking at your bills, what is your overnight spend? How much electricity are you using at night? Are you sure everything is turned off? In our house, the lights dont go on until dusk. The heating is off and will remain off until autumn next year now. I spend roughly 3p per hour during the day and less than 1p per hour at night. I know this because I have a digital meter. I believe you can request them from most large energy suppliers, so it might be worth the telephone call to ask the question. Once you get a month on the rolling graph, you start to see where the spikes are and you deal with them as they happen. The dishwasher was costing 26p an hour...it went. We wash up by hand for instance. You get the idea.

summer33

My youngest is 3 in June, so come September she will go the pre school. So will get the 3 hrs then. The nursery she currently goes to will be able to collect and pick up as it is over the road. My fees will reduce to £20 per day then, but problem is i wont want them to pick up everyday, as would mean fees would be £100 a week, wereas currently £90 a week.

I work 4 days a week you see, 9am -3pm, so i can do the school run.

Danni-R

Edit, didnt realise it was school dinner money not pocket money.

Can you not get free dinners?

With the leccy and gas, do you make sure you switch off all appliances etc? Charge phones at work when you can etc?

I know with kids its not ideal but I got rid of sky and because I didnt have that (and no freeview) I was able to bin the TV licence all together. Saved about £50 a month. I rely on netflix and catch up etc.

kindofagilr

summer33 wrote: »

My youngest is 3 in June, so come September she will go the pre school. So will get the 3 hrs then. The nursery she currently goes to will be able to collect and pick up as it is over the road. My fees will reduce to £20 per day then, but problem is i wont want them to pick up everyday, as would mean fees would be £100 a week, wereas currently £90 a week.

I work 4 days a week you see, 9am -3pm, so i can do the school run.

Can your daughter do 2.5 days at nursery? (my sons preschool they can do 2.5 days or, 5 mornings, or 5 afternoons)

Just then if she did 2.5 days then could you get her after work and you would just need childcare for her for 1.5 days?

Does that make sense xx

FireWyrm

summer33 wrote: »

Thanks again.

The tv licence is correct, as failed to pay, so went on new arrangement.

Ditch the TV package and the license...watch catchup...you dont need to pay through the nose.

summer33 wrote: »

The other childcare costs for £64.00 is my 2 older childrens dinner money. £8.00 each per week.

You can buy a lot of bread, butter and fillings for sandwiches for that. It is a luxury you cannot afford at the moment. Please seriously reconsider it.

summer33 wrote: »

The council tax is high, as owe £458.00 from last years.

Agreed this must be paid. However, does this include additional charges leveled by a bailiff? If so, how much...they have been know to add more charges than they are legally entitled to.

summer33 wrote: »

Mobile phone is on a contract, and that includes my phone also, with texts and calls.

If you are locked into a contract, there isnt much you can do...but when does it come to an end?

summer33 wrote: »

I have the last 2 weeks started shopping in Aldi and seen the difference in cost as use to shop in asda.

Oh you'd better believe it. I refuse to step food in Tesco unless I am going for something very specific. I simply dont shop there. I meal plan, I budget obsessively and not a penny gets spent that wasnt carefully considered first.

summer33 wrote: »

Fuel is high each month, i put down as £30, but can vary from £25-£30 a month. Main problem with this, is kids go to a school were my husbands mum lives, (different area to us) as she use to collect them. She no longer collects, hence high childcost fees now, so I am travelling with them to school, then back on myself to go to work. This is a huge chunk of our fuel, but we have decided to move the kids school in Sept, but may consider doing it sooner, to a school closer to home????? Dont know

Yes. Absolutely. I know it is a hard decision when the kids are settled, but you are in deep and sinking right now. You simply must get out any way you can.

summer33

FireWyrm thanks for that. I have started to cut down with lights as much as i can, we use to leave outside light on all night, but have stopped that. Kids have tv each and xbox each (both 2nd hand presents for xmas and birthday ) they are on when come home from school, till about 6pm, and then of a weekend if we dont go out. ......dont get me wrong we are a outdoors family, so not on it all the time.

We do have a dishwasher, but have started using my hands more the last 2 weeks, when new things getting tight.

I do use the washing machine a lot, maybe twice a day. think that is normal though for 5 people, or not? dont know.

I have candle lit, and try and not put lights on till late on, so where else is this elec going?

I try and save to put the heating on till kids come home, and have turned all the valves down upstairs so not as much gas being used. It is only a 2 bed house.

summer33

I agree with what you are saying about school dinners, no not entiltled to free One of my sons will go packed lunch, but the other wont, but suppose it is tough isnt it.......

No council tax is just that, no bailiff charges, for once it has not been attached to our earnings, as I have really tried this year to keep it upto date, but with xmas on top of us, jusgt couldnt manage it.

phone is a contract, not sure when it ends as in my husbands name. Will check though.

?Yes i like shopping in Aldi now, could not beleive the low prices. Kids ok about the stuff too. Also been using the chickens for 2-3 meals, and the past 2 weeks, been freezing any left overs.

Last night i made homemade wedges and were lovely, even oldest son liked them. This was from reading the old style board.
So big thanks for that

summer33

Can your daughter do 2.5 days at nursery? (my sons preschool they can do 2.5 days or, 5 mornings, or 5 afternoons)

Just then if she did 2.5 days then could you get her after work and you would just need childcare for her for 1.5 days?

Does that make sense xx[/QUOTE]

I dont think she can do as the half day, I would need to collect her for 1pm, and I work till 3pm, so dont really want to reduce my hours.

FireWyrm

summer33 wrote: »

FireWyrm thanks for that. I have started to cut down with lights as much as i can, we use to leave outside light on all night, but have stopped that. Kids have tv each and xbox each (both 2nd hand presents for xmas and birthday ) they are on when come home from school, till about 6pm, and then of a weekend if we dont go out. ......dont get me wrong we are a outdoors family, so not on it all the time.

I know its hard, but perhaps gentle encouragement to read or do something else instead? Can they earn time on the game machines by doing odd jobs?

summer33 wrote: »

We do have a dishwasher, but have started using my hands more the last 2 weeks, when new things getting tight.

Same here, I just never went back to using it. It was acting up anyway and it hasnt been high on my list of things to fix.

summer33 wrote: »

I do use the washing machine a lot, maybe twice a day. think that is normal though for 5 people, or not? dont know.

Not as often. Are you using the tumble dryer? We air-dry from about now all through the summer now, otherwise, we have a warming rack that costs less than a penny an hour to run.

summer33 wrote: »

I have candle lit, and try and not put lights on till late on, so where else is this elec going?

I thought the same, until I got a meter and suddenly realised that we were simply leaving lights on, the hallogens in the kitchen were costing a flipping fortune, the freezer door never really shut properly etc. Even stuff left on standby at night eats electricity. Leaving an Ipod on a dock on charge is a penny an hour. It all mounts up. The best and only way to know is to get a meter.

summer33 wrote: »

I try and save to put the heating on till kids come home, and have turned all the valves down upstairs so not as much gas being used. It is only a 2 bed house.

Standing charges via BG will also be accounting for much of this. Switch to the Co-Op or another independent. BG are notorious for savage price rises and horrific standing charges. With NPower, as much as £350 a year was going straight to that before I even used a watt of power - same with the gas.