Debt Advice- SOA Posted

westlothian

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

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.

Think I still have a 1000 zloty upstairs from a trip to Poland in 2012. Did not think it would be so cheap!

cms-help

westlothian wrote: »

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

Ha ha! I don't think the Head could afford to run our school without exploiting the good will of staff! You don't need to stop helping, just stop buying food whilst you're there. Have breakfast at home, fruit at break, take your lunch etc. We pay £2 a week to the tea bar and there is always a lot of fruit, bread for toast and biscuits/cakes available for staff in the staff room.

I think some of the staff at our school are cheeky though as they rely on pupil absences and have their lunch at school every day for free (we're primary). I think it's fair enough every now and again, we all forget our lunch from time to time or run out of things but every day? And our Head is the worst offender!

westlothian

cms-help wrote: »

Ha ha! I don't think the Head could afford to run our school without exploiting the good will of staff! You don't need to stop helping, just stop buying food whilst you're there. Have breakfast at home, fruit at break, take your lunch etc. We pay £2 a week to the tea bar and there is always a lot of fruit, bread for toast and biscuits/cakes available for staff in the staff room.

I think some of the staff at our school are cheeky though as they rely on pupil absences and have their lunch at school every day for free (we're primary). I think it's fair enough every now and again, we all forget our lunch from time to time or run out of things but every day? And our Head is the worst offender!

We used to have a staff room tea bar, this was stopped due to efficiency savings and staff have abandoned the staff room as a result.

We used to get a free lunch on the days we were assigned supervision duty through a voluntary rota. That ended a while ago though.

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

I think my wife thinks that soon she will be back full-time and we can sort any debt out then if we keep things ticking over.

That fine until, heaven forbid, one of you is taken ill, or injured, and ends up on long term sick.

That £140 left after debt repayments, doesn't look so comfortable now, does it?

Our food shopping and waste is not good, especially as we eat out every Saturday and have Sundays with the in-laws.

Have you looked into vouchers for the Saturday restaurant?

We have no plan- can have chicken breasts in freezer and still head into ASDA to buy them after work as had no plan to defrost them in the morning.

Be honest, if you went through your freezer right now, how much of the food will be laying there, but you went out and bought more of the same?

Likewise, how much of it would be past its Best Before/Use By date?

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

I have already upped the payment to the Credit Card.

Have you run it through the Snowball Calculator, to see how many months, and how much interest, your increased payments will save you?

Seeing the effect of increased payments, can be a strong mental encouragement, to improve your budgeting.

MrsSave

I think you and your wife need a proper sit down and a discussion now notig down all the changes you are going to make. Just think, if you pull your belts in a little now and manage £1000 a month towards your debts, in just over a year and a half you'll have an extra £1000 money every month to do with as you please.

The money you say you spend on birthdays ets, are you puttig it away every month? You need to decide on your budget and put it aside every month. I find YNAB a fab app where you "give each penny a job", though a spreadsheet or pen/paper work just as well.

Do you still spend on your credit card?

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

I think that I need to present my wife with a plan to avoid adding to debt and to find maybe £250-350 a month extra to attack the credit card.

An extra £350 pm on the Credit Card, will cut the repayment time from 21 months to 11 months, and, perhaps more importantly, the interest from £1,181 to £535.

That's £646 in interest you will have saved, and you will have virtually halved the repayment period into the bargain.

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

I spend about £4 a day on food at work.

Did you include that in the entry for Groceries?

If not, then we've just established where ~ £80 of that vanishing money is going to.

£4 a day doesn't sound much, until you convert it to a monthly figure, then it's a :eek: moment.

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

That figure does not include petrol for either trip which is in the general fuel figure in the SOA.

What about the foreign holiday?

How did you get to a from the airport?

If it was by taxi, how much did that cost, there and back?

If by car, did you use the airport car park? If so, how much did they charge?

Were the transfers, from and to the hotel, included in the price, or additional charges?

How about when you dined out? Have you included tips?

€5 or €10 in tips, per meal, soon adds up.

[Deleted User]

westlothian wrote: »

Think I still have a 1000 zloty upstairs from a trip to Poland in 2012. Did not think it would be so cheap!

But how much did you actually spend?

It's all part of the cost of the holiday.

An £800, two week holiday for four people, can easily cost double that, when you factor in all the additional expenses, such as taxis, meals, admission to attractions, souvenirs, Duty Free, etc.