need help

free_but_in_crap

MEM62 wrote: »

We done for taking some very brave steps.
A couple of things for consideration - giving up smoking would have you quite a bit. Also, do you need to be a Union member? Also, you should be able to get a sim-only deal on your mobile for less than £10 a month.

I only allow myself 20 cigs a week the rest of the time I smoke baccy as I discovered this saves about £25 a week my phone is £18 monthly contract ends in DEC so will be looking to reduce that the other £10 stated for phone is for my son and I keep union for protection as there's always redundancies at work mainly affecting those not in union

free_but_in_crap

Followed tips found elsewhere and only spent £27.46 on grocery this week saving £12 on my normal budget gonna try keep it below £30 in future

Willowpop

Just a thought, what cleaning products do you use that come to £10?
Bleach is bleach so supermarket value stuff will do the job just fine, Stardrops is great for loads of jobs and costs around a quid (Certainly less than £2) for a bottle that you dilute so it lasts for ages.

I think the only products I have in to clean is a bottle of value bleach, a supermarket own loo cleaner, diluted Stardrops and diluted zoflora disinfectant.
I know it wouldn't be a massive saving, but perhaps that is an area you could save on and it'd pay something towards another bill?

MallyGirl

£25 pm for Christmas is too much on your current income - same goes for satellite TV
£30 for home phone? does this include broadband?
can your son get a part time job while at college so you don't need to give him so much pocket money?

submarine76

I found I spent a lot less on smokes when I switched to an e-cig in January, smoked that for 2 months and then just stopped, it only bothered me for the first day.

katy_ann

I think the luxury satellite tv should be one of the first things to go, home phone, can this be lowered to a different package? What does this include?

lovehackney

Pocket money of nearly £90/month?!! That needs to go surely!

rising_from_the_ashes

Well done for getting it down ......

Unfortunately as you can see - the books don't balance ..... even though the loan is due to finish soon (yay!) they still won't - so you must reduce everything possible to avoid debts building:

free_but_in_crap wrote: »

Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00 when do contracts end? Switch to SIM only
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 very expensive! Look around for a deal / hopefully some cashback for moving
Cleaning products......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 quite high when you add
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33 the 2 together
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.33
union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00

Motoring & Public Transport


Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.00

Debt Repayments

Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.00
marisota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.00
jd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.00
ambrose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00

Savings & Investments

Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33

Family

School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 Sorry but you can't afford this atm - how old is child? Could he/she do a paper round etc?
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00 If Sky switch to FreeSat - one off payment (££25 last time I looked) and a decent amount of channels
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.58
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67 Try to reduce
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67And this
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17£35 when you add them all together
prepay prescription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Big One-Offs

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 Ouch .... sorry needs cut

Odds & Sods

Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33 try to stop - you should be able to get stop smoking aids on prescription - esp as you get a pre-pay anyway this it would be hugely beneficial

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,625.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,801.08

dancingfairy

free_but_in_crap wrote: »

Monthly Income Details


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,625.00
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,801.08

This says all you really need to know. At the moment you are sinking to the tun of just under £200 a month. Yes, there are some savings to be had, but finding that much in savings/extra income is going to be hard. You might find it worth considering a debt management plan (dmp). It might be worth getting in touch with one of the debt charities such as Stepchange or payplan or National Debtline or you local CAB to chat through things.
df

kendall17

£103 per month on a DMP, but reductions would be required in:
Birthdays/Xmas
Smoking - not saying stop, but show willing
Pocket money
Regular saving

Possibly increases in things for like sports, hobbies & entertainment.

Think the rest of the expenses are there or there abouts.