Ready to get back on the sensible train

Kebby

Hi Lacherlich,

Honestly you're not being nosy at all!

Our house is a new build, but we didn't do the help to buy (although did look at this option). We were just very fortunate in that we made a bit of money on the house we had previously, and we managed to put a £58k deposit down, and then since moving in it looks as though our house has increased in value by almost 30k already (according to Zoopla anyway), so that explains the different in mortgage vs house value!

In terms of the car, it's £377 a month, we put a 3.5k deposit down but Audi actually paid a 4k contribution towards the deposit as well, a deal they were doing at the time, and think still do actually. So I guess that might be what makes it cheaper? Not entirely sure if I'm honest! We basically said to the dealer we want this car for under £400 and that's what he did! Maybe interest rates are different also?

Unfortunately our Sky is in contract still at the moment, so we can't look to cancel without a hefty fee. I also think my husband will flat our refuse to get rid of it completely, so I think it's going to be a sticking point

Thanks for the advice on the groceries, I think that's exactly the problem we have - go in for a few bits and end up spending £50!! :eek: I'll give that a go, thank you!!

In other news, spoke to Eon and they've reduced our direct debit by £27 :T Also sold a few bits and got another £30. However my parents paid a trip to Ikea on Friday, and them trying to be helpful picked up some mirrors they'd heard us talking about a while back, thinking we hadn't got them because Ikea is a bit of a journey a way - when really we just had decided to leave it for the money reasons! So now we owe them £65 for the mirrors Completely appreciate their heart was in the right place and they were trying to be helpful, but it's set us back again now Oh well - onwards and upwards!

Lacherlich

Hi!

Oh wow thats good how your house increased in value - Im guessing you live down south? I think ours is only just about worth what it was 4 years ago when we bought it brand new. Maybe a bit more if lucky!

Oh okay - Ill have to wait until March before I can realistically look at changing my car - but defo worth looking elsewhere I think!

Ah thats a shame about Sky, but think you can sports packages with now TV so you can watch the same channels, just for cheaper. I think. Yeah worth trying online shopping to see if it makes a difference.

Congrats on the EON reduction, everything helps! Ours always seems to go up.... I dont know why!

Kebby

We do live down south yes, around an hour on the train from London. It seems house prices just keep on rising here - it's ridiculous! (Although I can't complain if ours has gone up too!)

You look like you're doing really great with paying stuff of Lacherlich, keep up the good work

A bit of an update:

A few wins this week, today I worked from home so no fuel costs! Also had lunch at my parents so no food required for lunch, and the other half is away on a course tonight so he didn't need any dinner.. all little savings but every little helps

We did a weekly shop at Lidl on Monday and only spent £61 - quite an achievement for us! I've already got this weeks food all planned out, and bought a lot to cover us for next week too, so hopefully should only be the fresh bits we need to buy next week.

Struggling a bit in general at work this week, feeling like I'm not enjoying things at the moment.. oh well, I'll power through I'm sure!

Still waiting for balance transfer to clear properly so we have a final amount to work with!

Happy hump day everyone

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Kebby wrote: »

And I've also just noticed as our house is a new build we were automatically put with Eon - this doesn't appear to be a fixed rate tariff, so going to have a look around and see what we can do here as well!

Any other advice appreciated

Kebby wrote: »

In other news, spoke to Eon and they've reduced our direct debit by £27 :T

Hi Kebby and welcome to the Forums. Hope you don't mind me sticking my nose in but thought I might be able to give you a few pointers to help save money by saving energy.

Have a look at the 'Saving Energy' pages on our website. Some great tips to help you cut back. Watch out for those vampires - devices that continue to suck energy when not in use. I know Halloween's gone but they're still about (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!). Check out the 'Saving Energy Toolkit' too. Might give you an idea of how you're doing energywise.

Good news on the lower Monthly Direct Debit. You can keep an eye on how things are going through an online tool called the 'Direct Debit Manager.' This gives you more control over the arrangement including being able to alter the amount paid each month. Comes in handy should circumstances change. Provided the account is billed up to the latest meter readings, you can change the amount by up to 20 per cent up or down. By up to 5 per cent up or down without readings. Before confirming the new amount we'll let you know by how much we anticipate the account will be in credit/debit by the annual review if the amount is altered but usage doesn't change as expected.

Have you registered with our website for paperless billing? There's discount of £5 per fuel per year for doing this. Pop your usage in kWh on to the independent comparison sites too. Make sure you're on the best deal for you.

When you spoke to us, did you opt in to the Rewards scheme? This lets you earn up to 1500 points each year. These can be exchanged for either Tesco Clubcard points or High Street Shopping Vouchers whichever you prefer. Might help with those shopping bills. It's a free scheme but you'll need to opt in. If you haven't already, you can do this through our website or by giving us a quick call (lines are open from 8am to 8pm weekdays and between 8am and 6pm on Saturdays).

Hope this helps Kebby. Let me know if you need any more details. Helena and I can usually be found lurking around the Energy Forum and will be happy to help. God luck with the saving and have a great time in Australia.

Malc

Kebby

Thanks Malc, that's really helpful - I haven't signed up to the rewards so I'll make sure to do that!

Just an update on our totals, finally got the balance transfers confirmed.. also booked the last few bits for Australia (minus our visas's), so have a total of what we'll be needing to pay on hotels when we're there! Annoying managed to get some interest charges on the card we just balance transferred! So although it was at £0 this has now gone to £81.20, which is very frustrating, not getting very far this month!!

So drum role....totals to pay are:

Owe parents: £65 (damn ikea mirrors!!)
Barclay Card: £9114.31
Halifax card: £81.20

Savings for Aus:

Spending money £600/£2000

And the outstanding amount for Australia will be around £3106 (dependant on exchange rate when we're there!). This would take us uncomfortably close to our £12,700 limit, so I'd like to aim to pay off £500 from the Barclaycard before then.. but with the Ikea and halifax card payments popping up and ruining this, this is probably going to have to be more realistic at £300. Not ideal, but it's going to be the best we can aim for before Aus. Better than nothing I guess!

So in terms of how we're getting on with the food budget so far this month, we're at a total of £178.06 - I have however included another damn interest payment that's appeared from nowhere for £15.51, we were unfortunate in slightly overlapping on both of our cards on the 0% running out, my stupidity for not noting the dates down! Oh well.

So I've got another 10 days until payday, so I think one more shop will get us by, which means we should hopefully come in under our normal £400 budget for food this month!!! So excited at this possibility, but going to continue trying hard in this area and crossing my fingers. This month even saving £100 off of the food bill would really make me feel accomplished, alongside the £27 from Eon and we'd be in a good place!

Still lots of bits we've got lying around that I'm trying to sell, so hopefully we can get some of these out the way and a little bit of extra cash as well. Managed to come in £4 under budget on the family meal we had last weekend, we've got the second meal we had planned on Tuesday, so will be aiming for under the £50 mark again. Wish me luck

Heading off now to plan out our food diary for the next week or so and start a shopping list to accompany this..feeling much more hopeful this week that we can do this!

Kebby

£31.15 long awaiting cashback just came in from Quidco! Still waiting for £40 from Sky for a claim, which has been successful but no cash yet, and also various amounts for our hotels in Aus but we won't receive these until after the stays. I am shocked at how many people still don't use Quidco, it's pure genuis!

Also just founded out we have just shy of £30 tesco clubcard vouchers, and apparently are doubling them at the moment. Feelings much more positive this weekend!

DFW240980

Hi Kebby,
I came across your post by chance and couldn't help thinking that was me 8 or so years ago. I, like you loved the finer things in life. Luxurious holidays, cars, houses you name it we had it on finance. Me and my Ex partner had an excellent income together and life was bliss for a time until we lost sight of our outgoings. One of the credit cards I kept bouncing around on a 0% balance transfer came to an end and the monthly repayments sky rocketed leaving me in a very precarious position. I began only making minimum payments on all my credit cards and soon enough struggled to afford even the simplest of pleasures such as a meal out or a few drinks after work. All this started to have a negative impact my relationship and in the end we split up after a 10 years together, I was 26 at the time.
Because of my situation I had no choice but to enter a debt management plan just so I could start to get my life back on track again, which was great but of course all of those credit cards and loans defaulted leaving me in a credit abyss, I haven’t been able to get any credit what so ever so I've had to simply live within my means. Only after 7 years have I just finished my debt management plan and my credit file is just starting to heal as those defaults have come off. I constantly regret those spending decisions I made in my 20’s, the upgrades to first class on a trip to the states, car’s I bought to impress people. At the end of it all the only thing I value now aside from my wife and kids is financial security, the rest is meaningless.

Remember you have a life time to experience a once in a life trip don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. I note you are trying get your house in order which is more than I did but all it takes is one issue to cause a snow ball of debt and before you know it your struggling no matter how much you earn, your debt is only relative to your income.

Best of luck and I hope you get back on track.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Kebby wrote: »

Thanks Malc, that's really helpful - I haven't signed up to the rewards so I'll make sure to do that!

You're welcome Kebby. Glad to help and good luck with the savings. You know where I am if you need any more help.

Malc

Kebby

Thanks DFW - really appreciate you sharing your story, and I'm glad things are getting back on track for you! I just hope we've caught it soon enough to turn things around - I'm hopeful at the moment so fingers crossed!

It's pay day tomorrow so I'm looking forward to being able to sort things out! Due to being super super busy at work unfortunately I've let the food budget slip and ended up sending the husband for a food shop which didn't end as well as planned - however we have still come under budget at £350, a saving of £50, however I must admit this £350 did include some birthday presents and £15 interest from last month, so overall not too bad. Must push better for next month though! I'm looking forward to being away most of January - it means we'll have most of the food budget left!!

Managed to sell a few more bits and bobs and had a £11 cheque from HM Revenue (woo!), so have paid my parents off the £65 we owed :T

One thing I'm extremely annoyed about is that the other half had a trip to both liverpool and bruge this month, and has failed to put aside any of the money for the petrol (2 tanks worth!!) - so I'm currently scratching my head on this, determined to figure something out - I don't want all my hard work (even if it is small) to have to go on sorting this! We definitely have had words and he's promised me he's going to sort his act out.

And one other thing that's cropped up is despite changing the credit card details for our Aus hotels, they took it from our old one! They have since issued a refund, but it could take up to 10 days, however not sure how this will work for the interest - will we will still get charged interest on the amount? :huh:

Will give another update once the pay days have both come in and the final figures are up!!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

When you spoke to us, did you opt in to the Rewards scheme? This lets you earn up to 1500 points each year. These can be exchanged for either Tesco Clubcard points or High Street Shopping Vouchers whichever you prefer. Might help with those shopping bills. It's a free scheme but you'll need to opt in. If you haven't already, you can do this through our website or by giving us a quick call (lines are open from 8am to 8pm weekdays and between 8am and 6pm on Saturdays).

Kebby wrote: »

Thanks Malc, that's really helpful - I haven't signed up to the rewards so I'll make sure to do that!

Just a quick reminder Kebby. Have you signed up for our Rewards scheme yet? Totally understand it's probably only a tiny drop in the overall scheme of things but better to have it than not. As above, you will need to opt in to receive the points and you can do this online.

One thing I forgot to mention before is the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). This is a Government led scheme that aims to cut usage by providing help with energy saving stuff like loft and cavity wall insulation. There might also be help replacing a boiler depending on its age and whether or not it's faulty. Who knows, if you're eligible, might help give the energy saving a bit of a boost. If not, sorry to waste your time.

Best of luck.

Malc