Debt Advice- SOA Posted

theoretica

westlothian wrote: »

It would be an eye opener to see where our cash goes. I can only imagine as there are lots of cash withdrawals made for between £10-40. It seems to just disappear.

Not 'it would' - 'it will'. Many people find a pencil and paper to jot down all spending is useful to change this.

enthusiasticsaver

You could point out to your wife that you are spending more than her monthly salary just on unsecured debt and HP for your car to make her see how indebted you are. As you say no doubt the problems have arisen in that you are still spending the same now you have kids even though your income has decreased and expenditure increased. Eventually this will break you when you get to the point where your debt payments will impact on your essential expenditure not just the little luxuries like £100 per month on hair (honestly who spends that much?) and a Sky package costing £78.

You need to both be on board to get debt under control so I suggest you print this out and add up your debt payments per month so your wife can see she is just working to pay credit cards and also how long it will take you to clear the debt if you continue at the current rate. Treats should be cut right back until the debt is massively reduced.

cms-help

westlothian wrote: »

We eat out and also have regular take aways. That is the habit we have been in for a long time. I am going to make a plan to be able to attack the credit card and discuss it with my wife. This will involve cancelling Sky and a few other savings including better meal planning. I spend about £4 a day on food at work. That is going to be a personal challenge to reduce.

I have to ask - how do you spend £4 a day on food at school? Are you in a secondary school by any chance? And that's over £80 a month right there.

enthusiasticsaver

westlothian wrote: »

We eat out and also have regular take aways. That is the habit we have been in for a long time. I am going to make a plan to be able to attack the credit card and discuss it with my wife. This will involve cancelling Sky and a few other savings including better meal planning. I spend about £4 a day on food at work. That is going to be a personal challenge to reduce.

The answer to not spending £4 per day on food at work or £80+ per month is to take packed lunches from home.

westlothian

cms-help wrote: »

I have to ask - how do you spend £4 a day on food at school? Are you in a secondary school by any chance? And that's over £80 a month right there.

Yes, our local authority had a huge increase in non-pupil meal prices. I used to buy breakfast roll at interval and then lunch and supervise the canteen (not part of my management remit but a real cost saver for the authority having staff do this for free)

westlothian

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

The answer to not spending £4 per day on food at work or £80+ per month is to take packed lunches from home.

Yeah that is my plan as of tomorrow! No more canteen food and no more having my free labour and good will exploited.

westlothian

theoretica wrote: »

Not 'it would' - 'it will'. Many people find a pencil and paper to jot down all spending is useful to change this.

Not sure my wife would agree!

westlothian

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You could point out to your wife that you are spending more than her monthly salary just on unsecured debt and HP for your car to make her see how indebted you are. As you say no doubt the problems have arisen in that you are still spending the same now you have kids even though your income has decreased and expenditure increased. Eventually this will break you when you get to the point where your debt payments will impact on your essential expenditure not just the little luxuries like £100 per month on hair (honestly who spends that much?) and a Sky package costing £78.

You need to both be on board to get debt under control so I suggest you print this out and add up your debt payments per month so your wife can see she is just working to pay credit cards and also how long it will take you to clear the debt if you continue at the current rate. Treats should be cut right back until the debt is massively reduced.

Yes we still have a chance to turn things around without too much pain, the credit card needs to go. The loan will then be the next target. I am hoping that if we can find an extra £300 a month by budgeting better it will be enough to clear our credit card and by then the loan will be lower and we can start to target that with overpayments every month.

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

This was our first year of foreign holidays in four years due to age of the boys. It was expensive and to be honest far too warm for our boys and we spent so much time hiding by the door of our rather lovely apartment. We also went a few Scottish/UK breaks.

If you've been on a few Scottish/UK breaks, in addition to an expensive foreign holiday, then, given there are four of you, I wouldn't be surprised if you spent considerably more that the £2,400 you've listed in your SOA.

Bear in mind, the true cost of a holiday isn't just what you pay the travel agent, but also the incidental expenses, such as taxis to and from the airport, public transport while you are on holiday, souvenirs, Duty Free shopping, etc.

Ask yourself this:-

How much foreign currency did we take on our holiday, and how much did we bring back?

As for the food you are throwing out, don't think of it as food, but as money you are throwing into the bin.

westlothian

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

If you've been on a few Scottish/UK breaks, in addition to an expensive foreign holiday, then, given there are four of you, I wouldn't be surprised if you spent considerably more that the £2,400 you've listed in your SOA.

Bear in mind, the true cost of a holiday isn't just what you pay the travel agent, but also the incidental expenses, such as taxis to and from the airport, public transport while you are on holiday, souvenirs, Duty Free shopping, etc.

As for the food you are throwing out, don't think of it as food, but as money you are throwing into the bin.

Yeah the amount is just the things easily visible on the bank statements. We used travelodge in Fort William and Inverness and got good deals on our Highland adventure, but yeah we did eat out every night and our trip to Lythan St Anne's was in a more expensive hotel. That figure does not include petrol for either trip which is in the general fuel figure in the SOA.