Avast, me maties! Debts away!

Miami

Hello!

After much lurking, I decided to finally start a MSE diary. I only have small amounts of debt (which should be cleared in just a few months) but I don't have an emergency fund for when problems occur or proper savings for the big things in life (I'd like my own house one day, so better to start saving early).

I've been saving small amounts, but they keep getting spent on necessary expenses :mad: For example, I started my job in November and moved into my own flat in December -- used my savings to pay the first month's rent in advance (£495). Did Christmas overtime which was meant to be saved, but got used to buy a washing machine and chest freezer and some small bits and bobs for the flat. :A Saved £300 from my wages and £245.25 from my money pot, but the £300 is going towards my car (another £300 from my next payday and I'll own the car outright ) and I'm considering using the £245 to bring down my catalogue debt (more on that later) so at the moment I just have £245 in savings, and that's not guaranteed. :undecided

I know that using cash to pay for all those things is much better than being in debt, but if, for example, my landlord informs me he's decided to sell up and wants me out at the end of my tenancy -- I'll have to find money to pay the new deposit until the current (unprotected ) deposit is returned, a van to move my stuff, admin fees for the new flat, potentially a rent increase if I can't find anything at the same price. At the moment, if he told me that tomorrow, I'd have to borrow money to cover all these expenses, hence why I'd like quite a high amount of savings. Better safe than sorry

This month will be more expensive than normal due to the car purchase, and a weekend break away, but I've decided to use it as an opportunity to look at where I can cut my bills further. I'll post a SOA later, and see if I can get my bills down so that April can be a fresh start money-wise...

Miami

Kicked off my new crackdown on the bills with a look at my electricity bill

I'm an EDF Energy customer on their Blue+ Price Promise April 2016 (E7) tariff. Recently I wanted to check if I was on the cheapest available tariff, so looked on the EDF website but all I could see was "You can save £X if you switch to Y tariff" which is useless as it takes a year's history into account (including six months when my flat was vacant before I moved in) so I contacted EDF to find out the specific tariff cost per kWh.

EDF claimed that they have two tariffs that are cheaper than the one I'm currently on, May 2016 and January 2017.

May 2016: Standing charge 18.90p a day; day rate 16.31p per kWh; night rate 6.17p per kWh.

January 2017: Standing charge 18.90p a day; day rate 16.65p per kWh; night rate 6.29p per kWh.

The tariff that I'm currently on, April 2016, charges me 18.00p a day, day rate 16.63p and night rate 6.30p. So the first thing I noticed is that the "cheaper" January 2017 tariff is going to cost me more

The May 2016 tariff is certainly cheaper per kWh, but the difference is less than the increased standing charge, so my initial thought when looking at it was, "That should only save me money if I'm a high day rate user?" I thanked EDF for the information and said I'd take some time to work out the maths (needed to get ready for work) before deciding if I wanted to switch or not. EDF seemed very keen for me to ring their customer services (I was talking to them online) who apparently would give me all the sales patter information I needed to know... :think:

It's now my day off, so time to calculate the difference. Luckily, I've just received a bill so decided to work it out using the May 2016 tariff and compare the bills.

Current bill:

Day rate 16.63 x 52 kWh = £8.65
Night rate 6.30 x 405 kWh = £25.52
Standing charge 18.00p x 35 days = £6.30
Total amount before VAT = £40.47

(I tried to work out VAT, but my calculations didn't match EDF's bill so I'll leave that for another day and just work out the bills without VAT)

If I had been on the May 2016 tariff, my current bill would have been:

Day rate 16.31 x 52 kWh = £8.49
Night rate 6.17 x 405 kWh = £25.00
Standing charge 18.90p x 35 days = £6.62
Total amount before VAT = £40.11

So, although I would have saved 36p before VAT if I'd switched last month, the fact that this month was high use (my day rate was almost double) proves that if I reduced my bills by using less electric, I'd end up paying more if I switched -- especially during summer, when my usage will drop significantly due to the heating being off.

I shall stay on my tariff and work on reducing my usage, this is what will reduce my bills in the long run. Feeling quite proud of myself for not listening to the EDF adviser and/or looking at the saving per kWh and assuming I can save :j

Although that reminds me... According to the same helpful adviser, I can save if I switch my (nonexistent!!) gas supply to them and take advantage of their dual fuel discount... :rotfl:

Miami

Finally got around to my SOA. It's not perfect, but I've added notes that should clarify things If anyone is willing to give some advice, I'd appreciate it very much

Statement of Affairs

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595.83
Benefits (PIP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329.33
Benefits (Housing Benefit). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319.37

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.28 Currently fixed into a 24 month contract ending sometime in 2016, but negotiated 50% discount with phone company (it's for an iPhone 5S) and will look at sim-only deals after expiration
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.95
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Included with home broadband
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 The law of averages says £40, but I'd rather overestimate and pot the rest instead of panicking if it goes slightly over like it did this month (£42 and pennies)
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 South West Water have lost my meter information :rotfl: Cannot pay without knowing amount to pay
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 None at present but need to take out policy ASAP :eek:
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495.00
Insurance for freezer and washing machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.80 Also includes an annual service; both last 5 years and only 10 monthly payments then it's sorted -- paid 1/10
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.58

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Mother is paying for this for the first year as she's impressed with my first five months of savings / sensible purchases of savings
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Parents paying for the first year, same reason as above
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.67 :eek:
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,244.53

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681.28

Underspend: £563!! :eek:

TV = Communal terrestrial aerial is rubbish in my flat, I keep getting an extremely blurry picture. Considered getting a freesat/Sky box secondhand or in a deal but the communal satellite aerial isn't installed in my flat :mad: While that's being sorted out, no TV-related costs

Bus = Am eligible for concessionary bus pass but keep putting it off, looking at the amount I spend as a maximum though I'm off to the county hall first thing next week :eek:

Internet = Currently tied into iPad sim-only contract, despite the fact I get no signal in my flat :mad: (Took contract out while living at mum's where I get a 4G signal) However, will cancel when it expires in June, and use the money currently budgeted for iPad to save for paying next year's broadband line rental upfront :A

Motoring = Car won't be paid off until the end of the month, then father is borrowing it for a month or two, so won't know what petrol costs are until I actually get it. Will need to take out breakdown cover this month though Parking should be free -- work's car park don't charge and not planning to drive in town, although if I should need to, my dad works in town and his work reimburses car park fees

Food and pet expenses = As I don't have a consistent budget each month (spend fortune stocking freezer and cupboards and pennies on daily essentials eg milk, teabags, biscuits, while working through the lot, top up when cupboards are bare) I just spend using the money that hasn't been allocated to bills etc. Which probably explains how I'm always broke :rotfl:

Debt = No consistently monthly plan atm

FINANCIAL TO-DO LIST:
-Apply for concessionary bus pass
-Take out home insurance
-Take out breakdown cover
-Work on plan to pay off catalogue debt

Any other suggestions?

asparagus1968

hiya,welcome, wheres the rest of the SOA?......


I've just switched from EDF using the Martin Lewis Energy Club thingy.
Have you looked at joining either topcashback.co.uk or Quidco, both are cashback sites that'll get you a little cash on insurances, breakdown cover and online shopping. Oh, and if you get AA home insurance you get breakdown cover free (I didn't realise this and have been paying for another breakdown service too, fool)
Have you/do you do meal planning/batch cooking?,esp now you have a lovely new fridge freezer:)
good luck.

Miami

They were all £0 so I deleted them to make the form look tidier and minimise the risk of something being overlooked

I did use to have accounts with both these sites but forgot about them :whistle: Will see if I can dig out my old accounts...

Ooooh I didn't know that about the AA I know I can get money off something with the AA through work, not sure what but will definitely investigate that, thank you

I do batch cooking, although not as often as I should/could. I'm a freezer too -- go around the supermarket looking for reduced date stuff and if I can't eat it before the date, put it in the new chest freezer (not a fridge/freezer... Would've liked one but the LL has a fridge as part of the flat ) and scoff/cook at a later date

Thank you! (And I hope you managed to cancel the unwanted breakdown cover! :eek:)

debtfreeoneday

[QUOTE=

Although that reminds me... According to the same helpful adviser, I can save if I switch my (nonexistent!!) gas supply to them and take advantage of their dual fuel discount... :rotfl:[/QUOTE]

Well come on - that's a deal to be had there.. can't understand why you aren't considering it!!:rotfl:

debtfreeoneday

Re your SOA.. echo what the previous poster said about cashback sites.. not only for insurance, but for anything you do..

Appreciate you aren't being charged for water, but is it worth allocating some amount as it will catch up at some point surely?? Or if they wipe the slate clean then you are used to putting that amount away and would have a nice lump sum towards next flat deposit?

Will subscribe to follow you along the way!

Miami

So, all of my best intentions got waylaid by overtime at work (72 hours spread over 11 days in a row) but on the plus side, tomorrow's pay should be quite generous as a result

Still have the £245 in savings, as my debt has been passed to a debt collecting agency I'm thinking about using the work overtime to pay off the debt, so that I can keep my savings, but it won't be enough to cover the whole amount, so will contact the agency to see if they'll reduce the debt in return for a full pay-off (not sure what it's called) which should help.

Water has now been fixed and on Tuesday I shall be reading my meter and working out my monthly/quarterly payments using the first month's readings as an average consumption figure

FINANCIAL TO-DO LIST:
-Apply for concessionary bus pass
-Take out home insurance
-Take out breakdown cover
-Work on plan to pay off catalogue debt

Must do those ASAP!! :eek:

Also adding to the list:

-Switch bank to Halifax Reward Account
-Close old ISA and set up a new one

According to Halifax, I'll get £125 for switching to them, then £5 monthly if I pay in £750/£800 a month (don't have the paperwork to hand) and have two direct debits on the account. If I use the Reward account for paying everything in, and set up the DDs on that account, I can then have a second "normal" account to take any money not allocated for bills from the Reward account to use for spending.

I'll have to sacrifice one of my NatWest accounts for the switch, but I'm planning to keep the other and find a use for it. Don't want to close that account as I've had it since I was 16 and my mum's with NatWest, so we can do still automatic money transfers if needed (Plus, if I ever save enough to buy my own place, I should still be eligible for any customer-only offers on mortgages that NatWest have, which broadens my options )

Now I'm off to find an ISA that will not allow online access (or at least not online withdrawals) and let me access my money with the little banking book that I'm prone to losing, so I won't be able to get my money out to spend on unnecessary purchases :rotfl: