My Lightbulb moment - advice?

sexki11en

Sorry, I did put sentences and punctuation in my last post but it wont save it like that!

david_hellier

Hi,

I'm sure you'll take heed of the others advice on cutting back.

According to my figures you have £271.39 (£135.68 each)per week to spend on food and anything else. I suggest you write this amount in a little note book (a spending diary) on a Monday and keep a note of what you spend or withdraw by subtracting. Try to get to the end of the week with some left to carry over to the next week. Try to build an emergency fund in the book. I have included £50 pm towards the od so you need to ignore your bank balance and go by your book.

Stop using credit cards for any more purchases and set up standing orders for fixed repayments not DDs. When you want to buy something use what's in your book.

Good luck, the figures:

incomeweeklymonthlyself £ 2,000.00 partner £ 1,500.00 total0.003500.00divide by 4.33 £ 807.70 £ 807.70 total weekly incomespendweeklymonthlyrent/mortgage £ 875.00 council tax £ 127.00 elec £ - gas £ - water £ 40.17 secured loans £ - TV licence £ 11.00 fines £ - bc £ 7.00 visa gold £ 148.00 sofas £ 26.95 bank loan 1 £ 244.00 bank loan 2 £ 108.61 house ins £ 40.00 mob £ 35.00 laptop ins £ 8.00 telly £ 41.03 s loan 1 £ 64.00 s loan 2 £ 35.00 telewest £ 108.00 car ins £ 28.25 car service £ 35.00 contacts £ 27.00 mob oh £ 35.00 gym £ 110.00 petrol £ 120.00 od payoff £ 50.00 total0.00 £ 2,324.01 divide by 4.33 £ 536.31 £ 536.31 total weekly spendStart= income - spend = £ 271.39 per week

sexki11en

David

Thank you, that is really helpful. I think £271 per week is rather high for 'odds & sods' (ok food isn't an odd or a sod lol but you get what I mean) so I will have a careful look at this later and see where I can be putting maybe £71 a week to better use (paying off something else)I'll let you know what I decide.

lynzpower

Honestly? the quicker you SLICE and i mean SUFFER, the quicker this whole shebang will be over.

If youve got clothes you can no longer fit into ( dont we all!) then flog them on ebay

Does your OH REALLY NEED 2x 1k mountain bikes? If he sold one,( or both!) it would be interesting to see how much quicker you would get debt free by.

if you have 271 per week, Id be looking more like paying off debt with the 200 and using the 71 for spends. I dont know what youd even need that much for do you?

sexki11en

lynzpower wrote: »

Honestly? the quicker you SLICE and i mean SUFFER, the quicker this whole shebang will be over.

If youve got clothes you can no longer fit into ( dont we all!) then flog them on ebay

ALL of my clothes no longer fit me lol

Does your OH REALLY NEED 2x 1k mountain bikes? If he sold one,( or both!) it would be interesting to see how much quicker you would get debt free by.

No, he doesn't NEED them but I would never ask him to give them up. Downhilling has been his passion since he was a teenager and I really think that would be a step too far. If we get to the point where we can't manage monthly payments then yes, but we aren't that badly off right now - just looking for ways to get the debt down faster


if you have 271 per week, Id be looking more like paying off debt with the 200 and using the 71 for spends. I dont know what youd even need that much for do you?

I'm not sure how we'd manage food and other stuff with £71 a week unless we never left the house or went and did anything! I moved to Bristol to be with OH and have no friends or family here of my own. If we couldn't go on the various weekends we do to see my friends and family then my life would be a long and lonely one. We never go out in the week and we don't go out every weekend but £71 a week won't go far!

My OP says we do live a good lifestyle and although I know this needs to be curbed, I wouldn't want to stop it altogether! Am I wrong to be thinking like this even given that we're not financially badly off?

lynzpower

It really depends on you and how you feel.

my approach has been something of the hardcore I tohught, right im paying off X per month at the mo, the sooner I get shot of this the sooner I have this "spare" money to save/squander, whatever.

Foodwise, we got to 25 a week with toietries & cleaning it can be done, by using up what youve got in and shopping savvy ( the odd meat free meal a week, shopping in cheaper places - some people have cheaper butchers than supermarkets etc, wasting nothing) and toiltries, from glitches/freebies/ using up the Xmas gift sets

We dont go out much in the week either, but socially we'll have people round to us, they can bring the wine and ill knock up a curry/ bbq whatever.

theres nothing wrong with having a social budget- as long as thats what it is. we have a budget ( quite loose at the Mo) with 25 per weekend between us. We dont go out boozing ( prefer to have people over/ go to other peoples houses) but can be used for cinema ( if we dont get free tickets-freebies board) going out for a meal ( theres plenty of places you can get a meal for 2 at 25 if you hunt them out- small trattorias etc.

We have famliy & freinds all over the country, and use megabus/ megatrain/ national express funfares ( start from a £1!) to get out and about.

Museums, galleries etc are free, and can be a romantic thing to do

Put it this way, me & OH went to Madrid for 3 days! and it cost 81 quid including flights, accomodation and transfers - so living poor doesnt mean you have to have a crap life, just that what you do do you do cheap

GettingThingsDone

Hi there! I think going through this exercise helps put things into perspective though.

It's ok to want to live a good lifestyle, it's just sometimes we don't realise what it really costs a) in terms of "it all just adds up and you don't see where the money goes" and b) if you paid off debt instead of doing 'x' you would be closer to being debt free by now.

I just keep looking forward to the freedom of being debt free

good luck though!

gtd

juliapenguin

Hello - I've just read through your thread and it's really interesting - how much should you cut back???? Only you can decide!

I would be with lynzpower on this one personally - having got out of debt, I have to say it is the most amazing feeling to know that no one is going to take any more scandalous interest payments off me ever again (apart from the mortgage...) I would rather be really strict for two years than a bit strict for three, if you see what I mean!

The key to it all has to be the spending diary - it has worked really well for us. I have identified all the areas where I used to fritter money away and now buy only things I really, really want. I am much happier and don't feel a bit deprived - anything is better than that nagging guilty feeling of 'can we really afford to be doing/buying this?' If you've done your spending diary, you'll know whether you can afford it, and really enjoy yourselves.

Good luck - the best thing is that you and your OH seem to be really working together on this.

Julia xx