Tight budget and debt free aim

theboakster

Hi everyone,

I have an aim to be debt free by end of 2018. I think I can do it, just about, but my budget is very very tight. I have literally nothing left after food, bills and debt repayments. I live quite a simple life and am very happy at home but I do sometimes have a tendency to splurge on buying stuff, and I'm trying to avoid that. I'm just worried that by having such a tight budget it's going to go pearshaped. I have no contingency at all... no savings...
However, I am paying over the minimum on all my CCs and my Next account. And if all else fails, I can get rid of the car, because actually I only use it twice a week. I do have a bike and if I got a bit fitter I could cycle the 7 miles into the nearest city.

I've just bought a YNAB subscription too, so I'm keeping a good track of my finances.

Is it worth struggling through this next 2 years to be debt free? Or maybe should I accept a little slack, put in some fun money/contingency money and be debt free from mid-2019?


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(If you're interested I've put my outgoings at the end here - a large proportion is going on debt repayments mostly credit cards, CC1 and CC3 are 0%, CC2 is nearly paid off after balance transfer to CC3. Next account is high percentage so that's a focus for any extra money)

Rent (to partner) £238
Car Ins £31
C Tax £147
Next account £80
CC 1 £135
CC 2 £10
CC 3 £90
Tax credits overpay repayment £35
Electric £115
Car Tax £21
Specsavers £7
BT Phone and Internet £80
GiffGaff £12
Phoenix comic £10
iPhone payment £17
Food £90
Travel/petrol £50 (I work from home so this is low)
TOTAL: £1,168
INCOME: £1,169

Whoknowskt89

Hi There,
Just a quick from the above. Is there anyway you could call BT and lower the package you're on?
My Internet and phone line is 18.99 a month and I know there are other deals out there.
The regulars will be along soon with much better advice though.

Good luck

theboakster

If I got rid of the car, I'd save £51 per month and probably about £15 petrol, so £66...

if we needed a car, say for a holiday (which my partner normally pays for, within the UK) we could rent one for £100 for a week. Even if we did that once a year I'd be £692 up....

Interesting, very very interesting

theboakster

Whoknowskt89 wrote: »

Hi There,
Just a quick from the above. Is there anyway you could call BT and lower the package you're on?
My Internet and phone line is 18.99 a month and I know there are other deals out there.
The regulars will be along soon with much better advice though.

Good luck

BT is the bane of my life!!! So we can't get any other phone service, as we live in the middle of nowhere...
Last bill was £70.73 (I put £80 in the budget as it fluctuates).
It breaks down as:
£18.99 Line rental
£2.25 1571 answer service (needed for my partner's business)
£20 Broadband and calls
£8.50 add-on for anytime calls
£49.74 total

Then the rest is calls from my partner's business use (he phones a lot of mobiles, but for short calls). I pay this bill, because he pays other stuff such as vehicle maintenance, water bill etc.
I'd LOVE to reduce this bill if I could....

Whoknowskt89

I'm not sure if it would help but it may be cheaper for a mobile contract for the extra calls to mobiles?

Just a thought, is it your debt or both of your debt?

zenshi

theboakster wrote: »

BT is the bane of my life!!! So we can't get any other phone service, as we live in the middle of nowhere...
Last bill was £70.73 (I put £80 in the budget as it fluctuates).
It breaks down as:
£18.99 Line rental
£2.25 1571 answer service (needed for my partner's business)
£20 Broadband and calls
£8.50 add-on for anytime calls
£49.74 total

Then the rest is calls from my partner's business use (he phones a lot of mobiles, but for short calls). I pay this bill, because he pays other stuff such as vehicle maintenance, water bill etc.
I'd LOVE to reduce this bill if I could....

I am very rural too but you should be able to get another provider! Anyway, I switched from BT last month, they couldn't match the price I was offered elsewhere, so I started the process of switching. Lo and behold 2 days before the switch, they can to do a deal and get me to stay
The only reason I didn't was my new provider includes free mobile calls in their anytime phone package which BT don't

I would seriously ring round and see who else you can get

Online, it said Sky wasn't available in my area but on the phone, it was

theboakster

Whoknowskt89 wrote: »

I'm not sure if it would help but it may be cheaper for a mobile contract for the extra calls to mobiles?

Just a thought, is it your debt or both of your debt?

My other half has Electro Hyper Sensitivity, which means he can't use mobiles :sad:

It's my debt...

theboakster

zenshi wrote: »

I am very rural too but you should be able to get another provider! Anyway, I switched from BT last month, they couldn't match the price I was offered elsewhere, so I started the process of switching. Lo and behold 2 days before the switch, they can to do a deal and get me to stay
The only reason I didn't was my new provider includes free mobile calls in their anytime phone package which BT don't

I would seriously ring round and see who else you can get

Online, it said Sky wasn't available in my area but on the phone, it was

Oh that's interesting! I did do a good look round and ring round but that was a while back now (over a year I think) so I could try that again.

Who was the other provider, if you don't mind me asking?

EssexHebridean

Does the answer service have to be the 1571 thing, or could it be a cheap add-on answerphone that you can dial into remotely, if this is required? Is there an option to change your BT contract so that mobile calls are included, if changing is not an option? It may be cheaper than paying the extra for the calls individually?

Can your OH's business not make a regular payment in respect of the phone bill? He's presumably claiming it against tax - and if it is at least in part a business expense, then it should be treated as such?

It looks like the other provider mentioned above was probably Sky.

theboakster

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Does the answer service have to be the 1571 thing, or could it be a cheap add-on answerphone that you can dial into remotely, if this is required? Is there an option to change your BT contract so that mobile calls are included, if changing is not an option? It may be cheaper than paying the extra for the calls individually?

Can your OH's business not make a regular payment in respect of the phone bill? He's presumably claiming it against tax - and if it is at least in part a business expense, then it should be treated as such?

It looks like the other provider mentioned above was probably Sky.

We could get an add-on answerphone, yes, but it wouldn't save much.
I will be phoning BT to find out more about packages, but I don't hold out too much hope with them... I have tried that before, but I shall try again!

He doesn't pay it against the business but he should. But I can't really ask him to give me more money because he already pays for stuff I can't afford. We work on the basis where we keep our finances separate, so basically pay for 50% of everything each, except that at the moment I don't earn as much as he does so he kindly pays for stuff like car maintenance, holiday, extra food/meals out.

pollyanna24

Can you not get the tax credits overpayment paid over a longer period?

There's no interest to pay on it as it's not a "debt" as such (that's what they told me anyways).

I pay £4 a month over 10 years.