My very scary SOA

Lellylion

The reserve account is attached to the Mortgage (secured on the house), we have a limit of 21,500 on it and the interest is the same as the mortgage rate. There is no set amount we have to pay each month, as long as its all repaid by the time the mortgage finishes in 19 years. Currently, we only have £500 left available on it and the interest each month at present is £145

david_hellier

Hi,

What is the repayment on the Barclay loan and is the Mortgage reserve secured on the house?

Thanks

Lellylion

The account fee is for the current account. It gives me free borrowing upto £500 Overdraft, but I have much higher than that..... The only reason we still have the account fee is incase the car breaks down, we get free RAC cover... I will look into seeing how much roadside assistance is seperately. More than likely mush cheaper than £174 a year.....

Lellylion

Barclay Loan repayment is £454.94, and the Reserve account is tied to the Mortgage, so yes its secured on the house

Yorkielass

We're in arrears on our water due to problems when moving into our newly built house so I can sympathise there.

You can't change suppliers until you aren't in arrears but I'd advise reading Martin's article about reducing engery bills and have a look at one of the comparison sites to see if you can get the bills down. Other things to think about are electricity/gas useage in your house. Do you use a tumble drier, do you leave lights on/chargers etc plugged in when not in use, how many tvs do you have? Just the sort of things to think about when considering energy bills.

Menu planning really is the key, and taking a list and sticking to it - I'm very good at this - OH is much worse - I prefer to go shopping on my own if I can but we tend to go on the way home from work so not an option really.

Good luck - you've made the right 1st step

tigtag02

Lellylion wrote: »

Blimey...... I must admit we are a have what you fancy kind of family on food, rather than a plan and stick to the list kind of shopper. I thought £150 on the family shop was about right.....

£150 pw is most certainly a BLBM (Before Light Bulb Moment) kinda figure :rotfl: :rotfl: even before mine I only spent about £80 and at that will have included nappies.

Dont get me wrong - I dont scrimp, there are always treats in and we eat well (5 a day and all that) - we never have bare cupboards/fridges - I would say my average is about £50.

tigtag

knightswhosaywi

Lellylion wrote: »

Blimey...... I must admit we are a have what you fancy kind of family on food, rather than a plan and stick to the list kind of shopper. I thought £150 on the family shop was about right.....

Have to jump in here and just say that we are a family of 6 with two dogs and a baby still in nappies/formula and our food bill is never more than £70 a week (incl all cleaning household bits etc and dh's lunch to take to work) so it can be done and we still eat very well with treats and even the odd bottle of good red

We also home educate our kids so are in the house all day with 2 computers running a tv, games system, electric cooker etc etc and our electricity bill is £40 and gas (for 4 bed house with no shower only bath) is around £55-60! We halved our electricity bill by giving up the tumble dryer and switching to energy saving bulbs..also switching stuff off at the wall really makes a big difference too.

Best of luck with it all, sounds like you have got lots of room to save some pennies

Lellylion

Thanks to all so far that have replied..... I can't believe how much more we spend on food than the rest of you. I think we need to plan better and OH needs to cut the beer bill down....I have just IM'ed the OH and told him what were gonna do tonight after work. Straight home and get that list written and research done to change to cheaper suppliers. Can't believe how motivated I am right now to get going and start my financial diet. Will keep you all posted on how we get on.

Thanks again for all the encoragment and motivation. It may be along way off, but I think there may be light at the end of that tunnel.

3LITTLEPIGS_2

Hi, don't know where you shop but you can convert tesco clubcard vouchers into rac recovery membership-you get 4x the amount on your vouchers if you do this- there are so many ways to build up your points so you can get this!!! you can get extra point codes for internet shopping-this is also a good way of just buying what you need.
i have a family of 5-1 in nappies and i never spend more than £75 and we have lots of treats and don't scrimp. Next time-just take £80 with you then you will be more concious of what you are buying.
Good luck- i know exactly how you feel-it is liberating i think once you write it all down and get so much good advice!:T

Yorkielass

That's fantastic Lellylion :T

With the shopping planning I found doing an online shop with tescos helpful to see the approx cost of my shopping and then emptied the basket before checking out and went to store to do it - Last week I was only a couple of pounds out (lower) than predicted too - alternatively if you're finding it hard to stick to a list then online shopping might help.

Before I make my list I draw up a meal plan for the week - getting OH involved too - if you're children are old enough ask them what they'd like and try and plan the weeks meals together on a big piece of paper and then make a list from that - just thinking of ways to 'get what you fancy' and cut the costs down.

btw OH and I spend £45 a week (that's most food for the week, cleaning, cosmetics) - more than a lot of people on here but it's a level we're comfortable with.