Statement of Affairs

the_cat

hi spirit

re the food - can you clarify how many you are feeding? you ask about an average budget for 3 adults, but if you are paying accomodation for your daughter at uni, presumably you are really catering for 2 most of the time. I would personally set a budget for the two of you if this is the case and up the budget by approx £20 per week when DD is at home. This will give you a more realistic figure to aim for. (For 2 people a food budget of £40 would seem to be fairly generous according to many on the Old Style Board, pop over to get some ideas)

The pony on loan - is it full loan or are you liable for any expenses at all? Hard as it is (and I know having had horses on and off all my life!) if the pony is ill/lame or the loaner's circumstances change, the pony returns to you with all associated costs. It may be that you would be better looking for a really good permenant home for him/her especially if he/she is now too small for use in your family. Perhaps the loan family would be suitable??

Sorry if the following sounds harsh, but I think you will have to look hard at the amount of 'propping up' other peoples finances you can really afford. There are very few people in this world who can completely pay for their childs uni education, and even fewer who can also pay for elderly relatives mortgages at the same time. The level of you debt seems to me to be saying that you can't do all of this and keep afloat yourself. I appreciate that you may not be ready to change this yet, but I really think that you will need to address this in order to get back on an even keel.

HTH

ltm07

Re the food. I think you could cut this by at least £200-£250 pm. The one thing we did to cut our food bill is try buying supermarket's own brands instead of top brands. You will find that their own brands taste just as good & are half the price. We rarely buy the top brand of anything anymore & have started buying economy beans,tinned tomatoes etc. Obviously it's about trial & error,as some economy brands you may not enjoy,but we have found that every single supermarket brand(the brands in between economy & top brands) are virtually no different to top brands,saving us a fortune.

Spirit_2

Thankyou - I have just snowballed the credit cards alone - and it was amazing to get back a plan/schedule of repayments. I have had a lot of kind but salutory advice today and will include the credit card plan in a revised family budget.

taxi73

Hi Spirit...thankyou for breaking this down as this is where we can help...there are plenty of savings here for you.
BT phone/broadband £75p/m seems very high have a look at the price comparison sites you may be able to shave quite a bit off this.
Electric £62 seems very high also look at price comparison sites
house and car insurances again comparison sites
If you look on the very first page when you log in you'll find out the beat way to save money on all the above.
You have a lot of scope for saving on the food budget try having a look on the Old Style boards..they're a mine of information...
You are obviously a very kind person both with your daughter and elderly relatives but you cannot sacrifice everything for them as much as you want to help them...can your daughter not do a part time job while studying to take some pressure off you?
I don't know the situation regarding the elderly relatives but £500+ is too much for you to be shelling out in your situation..given the good incomes it seems you should be living comfortably if it was not for helping others.As hard as it is you need to think of yourselves...

betti911

Has your daughter got a job at uni? Maybe she could help you out with the fees in the summer holls while she's working full time? Are there any additional grants she could be eligiable for.

Re your nails I used to get my nails done every month or so for a treat but I've stopped since I've started this. I now make a point to sit down one night, totally relax and have a pamper night with the bathstuff etc which I've accumulated. I also do my own nails at the same time with the numerous nail polishes I've found round the house.

tallyhoh

What about the sports car- used only in the summer. Can you really afford to be this sentimental? or could you use it and get rid of another car?

Spirit_2

ltm07 wrote: »

Re the food. I think you could cut this by at least £200-£250 pm. The one thing we did to cut our food bill is try buying supermarket's own brands instead of top brands. You will find that their own brands taste just as good & are half the price. We rarely buy the top brand of anything anymore & have started buying economy beans,tinned tomatoes etc. Obviously it's about trial & error,as some economy brands you may not enjoy,but we have found that every single supermarket brand(the brands in between economy & top brands) are virtually no different to top brands,saving us a fortune.

Thanks again - I have just joined the Old Style Grocery challenge for August and set a goal of 400.

A money saver sent me a waving smiley it made me smile.Daft as it may sound and I felt quite overwhelmed. Not quite so alone with my debts.

A lot more to do but I feel more positive

SarahNeedle1872

Spirit wrote: »

Thanks again - I have just joined the Old Style Grocery challenge for August and set a goal of 400.

A money saver sent me a waving smiley it made me smile.Daft as it may sound and I felt quite overwhelmed. Not quite so alone with my debts.

A lot more to do but I feel more positive

Hi Spirit, welcome to DFW, where u are definately NOT alone with ur debts.... I'm gald ur feeling more positive about things. This is definately a rollercoaster ride, but there's always loads of people around to share the good times and the bad times

Sarah x

tooties

hi Spirit,
im new here too but feel really inspired to shift these debts once and for all
good luck keep with it
im off to join the august grocery challenge too

tooties

beanielou

Hi & welcome
Take care