Kazzz1969 DFW Diary (newbie)

kazzz1969

Hi everyone!
What a fantastic site! You all appear to be so friendly, open and honest. It feels so refreshing to be able to talk about my debts without feeling as though I want to die of embarassment. I found this site recently and have been lurking until today I have been reading some of your ideas and money saving tips and it has been very therapeutic. I feel as though I have been walking under a black cloud for way too long and now feel it is time to motivate myself and start thinking positively.

Anyway, here are our monthly incomings and outgoings....

Hubbys take home wage - 946.00
CTC/WFTC - 384.00
Child benefit - 169.20

OUTGOINGS

Mortgage - 532.00 (includes PPI, house and buildings ins)
Council Tax - 78.00
Gas - 48.00
Electric - 92.00 (we are 260.00 in credit, will be claiming
this back in Oct to pay towards Christmas)
Car insurance - 35.81
Phone/broadband - 29.00
Sky - 21.00
Water - 24.14
Life assurance - 15.92
TV licence - 11.37
Food/expenses - 320.00
Tobacco (rolled) - 82.00

Debts

Lloydstsb CC - 973.47 (Hubbys, currently pay 30 pm)
Lloydstsb CC - 3,860 (mine, currently pay 200 pm)
Virgin CC - 5,065 (mine, currently pay 120 pm)

I am currently concentrating on paying off the LLoydstsb CC and have paid off £2,000 in the past year.

I really want to cut down on my weekly shopping bill. I make the mistake of going to the local supermarket every couple of days and seem to spend at least £15 - £20 each time

We both smoke roll ups. Naughty I know. We both want to give up but never choose a definite date yet. Always making excuses like 'after Christmas' or 'in the new year'

I have been a stay-at-home mom for four years. However, my daughter is about to start school(nursery) and I am looking for part-time work. I have handed in an application at my local hospital for a weekend domestic assistant job.

kazzz1969

Forgot to add, monthly interest on my CC's is 2.210% per month
Minimum payments are :
Lloyds 122 with PPI
Virgin 114 without PPI

shell_girl

Welcome to the boards!! A couple of quick points...

Hubbys take home wage - 946.00
CTC/WFTC - 384.00
Child benefit - 169.20
Look at the Sticky re maximising income- cashback sites, clickthroughs and mystery shopping all add up- as does selling any old [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] treasure on ebay!

OUTGOINGS

Mortgage - 532.00 (includes PPI, house and buildings ins) Make sure that you're not paying too much for your PPI and insurances. Check how much of this figure is PPI and insurance and then do a price comparison search. If you find it cheaper make sure you buy it through a cashback website
Council Tax - 78.00 Is this over 10 or 12 months? If it's over 10 months switch to 12
Gas - 48.00
Electric - 92.00 (we are 260.00 in credit, will be claiming
this back in Oct to pay towards Christmas) Be careful here- they will probably not give you any money back but will reduce your payment. It might be better to reduce your payment now rather than build up credit with the Electric company that you can't access.
Car insurance - 35.81 Again make sure that this is as cheap as you can get it
Phone/broadband - 29.00 Ditto
Sky - 21.00 If you've been with them for longer than a year it's time to negotiate! If you're not fussed about keeping Sky get a Free to Air card from them for £20 one off payment. If you want to keep it call them and tell them you're thinking of leaving- and watch them offer you deals!
Water - 24.14
Life assurance - 15.92 This could probably come down- and again you can buy it through a cashback website
TV licence - 11.37
Food/expenses - 320.00 Have you tried doing online shopping? This stops 'impulse' buys and makes it easier to meal plan so nothing is wasted. Also, how much is food and how much is expenses- and what are they?
Tobacco (rolled) - 82.00 Don't beat yourself up about this... but do ask around re buying it cheaper. If any of your friends are going on holiday, ask them to pick you up a box- I've managed to only smoke duty free tobacco for a whole year!

Debts

Lloydstsb CC - 973.47 (Hubbys, currently pay 30 pm)
Lloydstsb CC - 3,860 (mine, currently pay 200 pm)
Virgin CC - 5,065 (mine, currently pay 120 pm)
What are the APR's here? Maybe transfer to 0% deals?

You'll get lots more replies- these are just the things I could see straight away. WELCOME AGAIN!

kazzz1969

There are some wonderful ideas there. Thank you so much.

The expenses include petrol for hubby (about £15 per week), bus fare for my 2 teenage children to get to and from school (£2.80 per day). I would probably save with bus passes but wonder how long it would take my children to lose them!!

contents insurance 18.00 (I will shop around)
buildings insurance 11.00 ( " ")

C Tax currently 10 months will change to 12

The electric is complicated. We used to be all electric until 15 months ago, hence the high monthly DD. Fifteen months ago we had Gas Central Heating fitted but N-Power will not reduce our monthly DD, even though are monthly usage is now approx 35.00 per month!! They told us they pay back any balance 'in credit' that is above £200.

Will definitely be phoning Sky and try to get some sort of deal from them

Car insurance. My hubby had an accident (his fault) 3 years ago which resulted in our car being written off. I did lots of shopping around and this was the cheapest deal I could find.

I will go back to shopping online and cut out some of the snacks that the children think are essentials!!

Not sure about the APR's on my credit cards, will check them out and shop around.

Plenty there to keep me busy and motivated. Thanks again. Your a star!

skint_spice

Hello and welcome,

Warning - this site can become addictive!

Could you have a look and see what you'd be paying for electricity elsewhere then either switch or call n-power and say you're thinking of switching and hopefully they'll drop price to match. it seems unfair to charge you so much knowingly.

Good luck cutting the shopping budget, have a look over on the oldstyle board for tips and recipes for everything. I found cutting down my shopping by about a fiver a week per month was doable for a few months rather than just drop it by a huge amount straightaway - worked for me anyway.

floss2

If the kids are teenagers, they are old enough to be responsible for their own bus-pass - especially if they find out that THEY will have to replace it if it gets lost! The advantage in having bus-passes can also be that they can use them at weekends too, so no ferrying them into town!

kazzz1969

Thank you all.

The money handling and worrying is often left to me so I definitely need to 'toughen up' a bit on hubby and children.
I have always been a bit of a book addict and have literally hundreds of books around the house. I think it is time to have a good sort through and list the unwanted ones on ebay or Amazon.

I did count the 1p and 2p coins that were in various locations today and counted £17!! That will be going into the bank tomorrow!

peb

I had a similar situation with NPower - they owed me a small amount (£150 ish I think) and stated that they would deal with it at the end of the accounting period - ie the end of the year. I pushed the poor lad on the end of the phone (he seemed to be about 12 - probably his parents are MSE ers and sent him out to work!) and asked if they would match my savings account interest. They paid the money over. Might therefore be worth pushing. If you threaten to go from DD to payment of paper bill so you are not over paying this also may assist?

HTH