Help needed to set one off budget

chunky79

dianadors wrote: »

No need to wait until Christmas - The summer sales are just about to start! I'm hot footing it to La Senza after work - thier sale is currently on with 5 pair of knickers for £5 - usually £5 per pair!! They box them up nicely for you too!! also, on their website they have PJ's reduced from £20 to £2!!! Ive also stashed away some great bargains from The Book People. I got a great boxed set of cookery books for £4.99 containing about 10 books - all should have been at least £5.99 each. Also - if you are really canny, you can blag lots of freebies from the freeby thread that make absolutley great (and free) gifts. So far this year, I have obtained for free - (From Nescafe - lifted from the labels of coffee in our canteen) A bath robe, slippers, towel and 3 jars of beauty products, Pantene hair care set(5 full size products) Various Dove products, (Fairy washing up liquid) manicure set - its gorgeous! Books, Mens and Ladies Razors, Beach bag, 2x lip gloss, £25 free cosmetics and loads more!!!

*runs into freebie thread lol*

Cheers for the tip hun. Unfortunately i have to wait until xmas i only get my first wage after returning to work from AML at the end of this month. But i shall save this tip for next year, never thought of the summer sales. its been a costly month too:mad:

Blackangel I do believe card warehouse are all over the country i have spotted them in lots of places.

chevalier

blackangeluk wrote: »

Hi Miss Poppy

Our house insurance with Halifax is £42 a month, I did a lot of quotes about 5 months ago and found nothing cheaper so not looked around since. It is up for renewal in October so I will start having a look around again.

Don't forget when you get a quote with x company to see if that company is one of the ones on quidco that give you cash back!
chev

blackangeluk

Ok I am back with revised list:

My birthday/xmas list is atrocious - my family clearly breed too much :rolleyes:
I have decided close family I will spend £20 each, not so close family £15, friends (x2) (I have more *honestly* but only buy for 2) £10, friends children £10. Me and DH have agreed to try and stick to £65 each for DS and DD and only token presents for each other until debt is repaid. Also these are just guideline figures as I am hoping to follow the advice here re shopping in sales etc over the year.

New list
Car Insurance - £400 approx
Car Tax - £300 per year (2 cars)
Home Insurance - £400 approx - will try and get cheaper when renewal due
Car Maintenance - £400 approx
Birthdays & Christmas - £1010
Vets - £150
Dentist - £200
Clothes/Shoes for Children - £600 (shoes are needed approx every 3 months and they are still young so a lot of growth spurts but wll try and cut back whenever possible and ebay used clothes too)
Clothes for me and DH - £200
Emergency Fund - £500 (?)

Annual Total - £4160 :eek: Monthly amount - £346 :eek: :eek: :eek:

This would mean with wage increase and decrease in childcare, we will have £240 a month for general living and can put an extra £100 a month to the CC debt. If we don't spend the £240, then any left can also pay the debt as well.

Does this sound reasonable? I would feel better knowing that I have a "buffer" for the just incases. This would also mean that DH's annual commission would not be used on servicing the above but could go directly to the debts. It would also mean that if I am frugal and spend wisely I could have money left over that also go towards paying a lump sum off.

Honest opinions as always.........

Oooh and also - we are currently paying the monthly DD's re car/house insurance so we would be better off in 6-9 months when the policies are renewed and even more to pay our debt with :T

swinstan

On the Christmas card costs, a few years ago I decided to give money to charity instead (after hubby had cancer). I now email all friends or remind them that they won't get a card but be part of a donation instead. I then give what I can but as a rule try to make it half what I might have spent on cards and postage. In this way the charity benefits, I feel good about it and several friend have also followed suit. After all, we only bin the cards a couple of weeks later.

angelavdavis

blackangeluk wrote: »

Hi Miss Poppy

Our house insurance with Halifax is £42 a month, I did a lot of quotes about 5 months ago and found nothing cheaper so not looked around since. It is up for renewal in October so I will start having a look around again.

Martin has an article here providing tips on reducing the insurance costs.

Margaret54

Hello blackangeluk, Congratulations on starting and there are truly many different ways to budget for Christmas etc. I have also started to look in the summer sales for presents cards were bought very cheaply in Jan:) for next to nothing and you can pick up bargains all over the place. It is fun trying to see how well you have done with a certain budget too i think.I also buy my 2nd class stamps early on and so when the time comes to post the cards it is not so painful:) Even a little gift can look special with the way it is wrapped and need not be costly either All the best with everything.