Worse than we thought......

MoneyMission

foolofbeans wrote: »

Thank you so much. This made me cry a little but in a good way :beer:
My biggest problem is the amount I spend on groceries. I can cook and I know how to budget but we do eat well and feeding two grown men isn't cheap. I am doing a monthly meal plan and costing it online but I find it's the extras (loo roll, shampoo, washing powder, pet food) that add the costs. I would love a grocery-reduction-buddy!

Right then. A grocery reduction buddy you have! :T
Bizarre fact number one: I thought online shopping saved me money as I could see what was in my trolley and a total amount spent before I checked out. Have realised that by going to the shops I can see more alternatives to the meal plan. For example, tonight is pasta bake. I got mushrooms and was going to chop up some gammon steak into it. Found some reduced bacon instead so went for that. Saving of £2.01 on that item alone!

cowboymum

Perhaps I can join as a grocery reduction buddy as well?!!! If I manage to stay under £500 this month I will be amazed! That's for 2 adults, 1 teenager and a fussy 9 year old, plus a multitude of childminded children. I am doing the grocery challenge but I think I have almost the highest budgt of any one. Realised today it might be the amount we actually eat - portion sizes are fairly large, but we are all fairly active and therefore hungry!

Foolofbeans - well done for cutting back and trying to pay off your debts. With regards to the snowball, I think psychologically it can be better to start with smallest debt first to see easy wins in paying off debts.

MoneyMission

Cowboymum - I'm over on the grocery challenge too. This month (5 weeks) is set at £532. Pretty high when I compare to the others over there. Am aiming to bring it down though.

Grocery Buddies R Us!

pennystretcher

Move the expensive CC debts to a 0% and use the saved money to chip off the catalogue debts. (And close those catalogue accounts as soon as you can.)

See here for deals: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards#longestdeals

Jon_B_2

foolofbeans wrote: »

I have realised most of the above is true. Maybe not quite the life of Riley as we haven't had a holiday in years, our cars are old and we don't have surplus money to do whatever we want. I would think that in the past few years we have spent a majority of our income just paying back minimum payments. As you can see we spend over £1000 a month just on debt and we have not defaulted on it yet but also haven't paid any off.
Of course we may have left it too late to own up to our debt problems but I am hopeful we have caught it just before it is beyond the point of no return.
Your post came across as a little accusatory. I don't need anyone to tell me how embarrassing it is that we don't pay rent or mortgage and couldn't afford to if we had to. I know we have a decent income and it's heartbreaking that we spend most of it on debt repayments which only cover the interest costs. There are things I have done in recent years as I got desperate to stay treading water that I can't even admit to on here and putting it all down in black and white is REALLY scary. But I've done it....and I'm feeling positive about tackling it. Hopefully I can come back and say "I was stupid once but am now money smart".

My post was quite harsh and perhaps it was aimed more at your OH who doesn't seem to have a full grasp of the situation.

I do worry that although you say your OH is on board that it's not really the case and it is a tragic story of one person on the ship in a force 9 gale trying to keep it afloat, whilst everyone is sat down watching the world go by.

With no mortgage to pay there is no real consequence of your household not paying your debts - maybe that is why their a general apathy within the family unit (not you) to get these debts under control.

Maybe you need to work out a worst case scenario for your debt problem and open a few people's eyes to the situation. Your kids sound like they are old enough to understand as well, so maybe open their eyes to luxuries they have now, that if it carries on means that life could be grim in the future. Afterall, when your kids fly the nest - your debt doesn't fly with it.

MoneyMission

Hey foolofbeans. You still there? I'm hoping you're OK. Changing habits is really hard - just got to keep plugging away at it.
MM