skintscotslass - my lightbulb moment!!!

skintscotslass

Hi folks

Another newbie and if you'd humour me while I ramble on about my situation, I'd be very grateful.

I've been lurking on the boards over the weekend, reading loads. I'm so encouraged and downright amazed in how everyone is managing to reduce their debts. I'm so inspired!!

Anyhoo, first of, a huge thank you to southernscouse who saved me £8k. My LBM came on Thursday 27 Sept. I had a terrible sleep (this rarely happens to me, I'm usually lucky enough to fall asleep when my head hits the pillow, but check the time of this post!!). I decided to get up at 6 am to contact the bank to make arrangements to release £10k of equity from the house onto my mortgage. I'm not sure why, but I decided to check this site out (I've been receiving the emails for months, but hadnt ventured any further). Thanks to southernscouse, I checked out the snowball site and hope to be debt free by June 2010, much better than I thought. Here's my SOA:

Income
Salary £15000
Child Support £100
Child Benefit £72.40
Total £1,672.40

Outgoings - Direct Debits
Mortgage (incl insurance) 508.42
Gas 24
Electricity 22
Elect back payments interest free 24.50
Loan 117.92
Gym 27.50
TV Licensence 11.61
Car insurance 27.08
BT 18
Action Aid 24.88
Debenhams 4.00
Sky (inc broadband) 40
council tax 88
mob 18.75
loan for gas boiler 33.97
Total 959.12

Debts
Mastercard £6,750 ish 0% on balance transfers and 1.24% on purchases
Lombard Direct £3,065.92 (6.4%)
Debenhams £84.10 (26.78%)
Daughter £180 (interest free)

Leaves 713.28 - out of this I pay 210 to mastercard, 30 xmas savings, 37 bus pass, 10 repaying my daughter. This should leave me with 426.28 for food, petrol and misc living expenses. However, its the first of the month and I'm left with £150!! Where did the £276.28 go in just a couple of days???? I've started a spending diary, which has horrified me. I think its the best thing I could have done.

My budgetfor the month is £10 for a night out with the girls, £40 for petrol and £100 for food and everything else. I plan to take the cash out of the bank tomorrow. I think if I have to pay cash for everything, it might stop me frittering money away.

So, I'd be grateful for any advice. I look forward to chatting to all you lovely people over the coming months. I'm in this for the long haul.

Night night, I need to get up at 6 am :eek:

tealady

Cancel the gym and the charity for a start, you are paying interest on the money you are giving them. You can always start again when you are no longer in debt. Check you are getting the best deals on gas and electricity and car insurance (go via a cashback site). I would also clear the highest APR debt 1st. Also a spending diary is a must if you cannot see where the money goes (back of an envelope is true MSE style and then you can update onto a spreadsheet daily if you are organised). Good luck.

floss2

skintscotslass wrote: »

Hi folks

Another newbie and if you'd humour me while I ramble on about my situation, I'd be very grateful.

I've been lurking on the boards over the weekend, reading loads. I'm so encouraged and downright amazed in how everyone is managing to reduce their debts. I'm so inspired!!

Anyhoo, first of, a huge thank you to southernscouse who saved me £8k. My LBM came on Thursday 27 Sept. I had a terrible sleep (this rarely happens to me, I'm usually lucky enough to fall asleep when my head hits the pillow, but check the time of this post!!). I decided to get up at 6 am to contact the bank to make arrangements to release £10k of equity from the house onto my mortgage. I'm not sure why, but I decided to check this site out (I've been receiving the emails for months, but hadnt ventured any further). Thanks to southernscouse, I checked out the snowball site and hope to be debt free by June 2010, much better than I thought. Here's my SOA:

Income
Salary £15000
Child Support £100
Child Benefit £72.40
Total £1,672.40

Outgoings - Direct Debits
Mortgage (incl insurance) 508.42 does this include buildings or life insurance?
Gas 24
Electricity 22
Elect back payments interest free 24.50
Loan 117.92
Gym 27.50 get walking & cancel this for now
TV Licensence 11.61
Car insurance 27.08
BT 18
Action Aid 24.88 for the moment you are the charity, until debt-free
Debenhams 4.00
Sky (inc broadband) 40 can you get this reduced?
council tax 88 do you pay this over 10 or 12m?
mob 18.75
loan for gas boiler 33.97
Total 959.12

Debts
Mastercard £6,750 ish 0% on balance transfers and 1.24% on purchases
Lombard Direct £3,065.92 (6.4%)
Debenhams £84.10 (26.78%)
Daughter £180 (interest free)

Leaves 713.28 - out of this I pay :
210 to mastercard
30 xmas savings
37 bus pass for whom if you have a car?
10 repaying my daughter.

This should leave me with 426.28 for food, petrol and misc living expenses.

No money in budget for MOT / car tax / repairs, or birthday presents for family.

Take a look at the Old Style board for help with household expenses - food, cleaning etc.

Good luck & welcome! :hello:

elantan

how do you get your council tax that cheap i'm nearly £200 a month...im asking purely to see if i can save some myself

skintscotslass

Hi folks
Thanks for the replies.

Elantan, my council tax is over 12 months, rather than 10 and I get a single person rebate. I also dont live in a city and our council froze council tax this year as it was an election year. No doubt I'll be moaning about the increases next year.

Tealady, I was at the bank today and the gym is cancelled w.e.f next month, 1 Nov. I know I need to cancel the charity as well. I just feel really guilty. Oooh and I have started a spending diary using an old notepad that I acquired at work.

Floss2, my mortgage includes home and contents insurance. My life assurance comes off my salary, so I didnt count for it. However, I've got £14 a month that comes off my salary for work policies that I dont really need, so I'll cancel those tomorrow. I'm going to write to Sky. I've phoned them before, but no luck. However, when I wrote to them with a complaint a few months back, they refunded £20 into my account, so I think I'll give that a go. The bus pass is for me. I used to take my car to work, however the free parking spaces were taken away from us and I wasnt prepared to start paying for parking. I've budgeted £40 for petrol for this month as I'll be visiting my boyfriend in Liverpool. I am seriously thinking about selling the car. My dad had my car for a few months while his was off the road and I dont really need it. Only for my trips to Liverpool. But then if I sell the car, the savings I make I could maybe hire a car for the weekend? I've just negiotated new deals with the gas and electric. If I keep the car, the insurance is up in Nov I think, so I'll shop around for that. Also, home and contents insurance due at the end of this month, so I need to start shopping around for that.

Now for a really thick question! How do I access my pms? I cant believe I cant work it out!!!

floss2

You should just be able to click on "private messsages" at the top of the screen.....hopefully!

Whereabouts do you live? Can you get the Megabus to Liverpool from anywhere near? Will only cost you a few quid to get there then, it stops & goes from the side of the Adlephi in the city centre.

elantan

wow need to move me thinks i'm in south lanarkshire and married....and it's painful

SarahNeedle1872

Hi SkintScotLass, welcome to MSE and congrats on ur LBM!

I'm not the greatest at SOA's, so can't really comment any further than others already have, just wanted to say welcome :hello:

Sarah x

duchy

I gave up my car-well really it gave up on me but I decided not to replace it and see how I did for a year without it. I really and honestly didn't miss it-a couple of times I could have hired a car but found other ways to get where I wanted to go so didn't need to. At first I was getting the odd cab but now I rarely do that. After a year I added up what it would cost to get back on the road and that was it-I decided I could not justify spending that kind of money so I've stayed carless and carefree. No worrying about price of petrol-no parking tickets. I recommend it !

NekoZombie

With the gym just make sure you send them a cancellation letter - unfortunately its not as simple as just cancelling the d/d. Have you already been with them for a year - they often have minimum contract periods that tie you in for 12 months at least...

bandraoi

With the car - investigate car share schemes, there might be one in your local area, though if you mostly use it for the whole weekend, then it might be cheaper to just find the best place to hire one.