Where is all my money going?

bobcat2

As far as I know none of Scottish friendly's plans are particularly good so putting £71 a month there whilst you are paying 29.9% APR on other loans is madness. If you're listing it as expense it should also be listed as an asset so your SOA gives a true reflection, Also, while its sensible to have an emergency fund saving £225 a month while having debts makes no financial sense. Put this money to the highest debts to clear them as quickly as you can.
Whilst making charitable donations is admirable, when you have that amount of debt and paying that much interest its not really affordable. Why not use the money to get the debts that you are paying interest on paid off first and you will then have more money in your budget to give to good causes later. At the moment the savings and donations look to be the reason you are in debt.

horseygirl2014

I think a lot of people have covered many of the things I would say.

tithes - we are a catholic family, and give regularly to the church - HOWEVER we believe charity begins at home. We dont give money if we cant afford it, and in giving money we cant afford we would be a 'burden' on others. Please don't take this the wrong way. Stop paying that 10% to the church until you are in a stable financial situation - ie living within your means AND dept free. Does your church have a food bank or homeless food collection point? We give a donation of food once a month. We are savvy shoppers so can collect only the offers over a month and give this. we spend about £10-15 per month in 5 or 6 carriers full of food. This has a much more direct impact on our local community, without breaking our budget. This way you would dramatically reduce your outgoings, whilst still giving to your church. (just in a far more cost effective way) - whatever you choose to do - reduce this number and use the rest to pay off some of your debts
Husbands income - is written down as 1500. - is it really?. Your wages figure after tax is very exact, and his is not. you also said that rent comes out of his wages directly - is this still included in the 1500 or has it been reduced after rent and tax to 1500.
How Many weeks are in the month for your calculator - 4 weeks or 5?
groceries - you said 50/week at lidl, so how does it jump to 300 for a 4? week month or even a 5 week month.
hair cuts - eekkk. this needs to take a cut all of its own

Someone mentioned a spending diary - i think its a must in your case, as money is trickling away and you can't pin it down - keep all your receipts and then double check they are listed in your diary - also look at what you actually spent money on - how much food if any do you throw away? how much is essential and how much is luxury (starbucks/costa etc)

Lastly - dont plow through all our posts and think I can't do this. You've done the hardest part - now you just have to tackle it bit at a time. If you need more help, i'm sure we'll all try and help

FatVonD

I'm with Iolanthe07 here in thinking that the OP's husband is the vicar/minister/whatever they are called in whatever faith and, as such, it might be a bit difficult/embarrassing to cut back on the tithe, particularly if they are getting free accommodation.

takman

FatVonD wrote: »

I'm with Iolanthe07 here in thinking that the OP's husband is the vicar/minister/whatever they are called in whatever faith and, as such, it might be a bit difficult/embarrassing to cut back on the tithe, particularly if they are getting free accommodation.

The church don't know who pays or how much;

Vincygirl wrote: »

So we are not contracted into it... So we can stop or decrease it at point and the church does not actually know if I pay and how much I pay as an individual. However if I am honest with myself I believe there are other clear places I can make cut backs before I decide to make a reduction here.

So there wouldn't be any issues if they stopped paying completely.

She also stated;

Vincygirl wrote: »

As mentioned in the beginning because my of husbands job rent and council tax are taken from his gross salary hence it not being included in the SOA, we are also not liable for water charges. Yes I know we are very fortunate.

So they are paying rent and its not free accommodation.

slashlover

Could you cut the tithe by £100 per month and throw that at your debts? Then then the £200 rent payment stops you could add that to the tithe to make up the 'shortfall'?

Malthusian

If you have the opportunity to pay off a credit card or other open-ended high-interest loan with no repayment penalty, and instead donate the money to charity, it is no different from borrowing money from your credit card lender and giving to charity. Which isn't charity. Charity is when you give away your own money, not a bank's.

If you plan on being equally charitable in the future, not paying off your credit card debt just means you will have less money available to give (as you will pay much more interest). So giving a charity money that could have been used to reduce a credit card debt means your credit card lender is profiting at the expense of the charity.

elsien

That's unnecessary and unhelpful. The OP came here for support not for cheap cracks like that. Whatever your view on religion, this board is not about making people wish they'd not come here in the first place.

Edited to remove the idiot.

CapricornLass

Good for you, Elsien.

Vincygirl, a question for you - does this tithe have to be in monetary form? Are there opportunities for providing support in other ways instead? Cleaning/helping with repairs/gardening - that sort of thing? if you are saving the Church money in other areas, doesn't that count?

EssexHebridean

elsien wrote: »

That's unnecessary and unhelpful. The OP came here for support not for cheap cracks like that. Whatever your view on religion, this board is not about making people wish they'd not come here in the first place.

Usually best not to "quote" offensive posts - just report them instead and the forum team will get rid when they see the report.

Totally agree with your comments however - "Debt free wannabe is for support, not judgement".

thepurplepixie

If the £200 to MIL stops in 8 months it will be a big help, reduce spending on clothing and haircuts, you could easily save £100 a month on this. I understand your commitment to the tithe but does it have to be monthly? If you don't pay for a year you would save £3,120 then add 4 months of the £200 a month making another £800 and £100 saving on clothes/hair cuts making £5,120. You could pay off lots of little debts and maybe for the next few months give more to the church? Getting rid of the high interest debts would make so much sense. The church wouldn't lose out and saving the interest would give you a real boost.

Good luck.

Just thought if you use your savings and surplus you could pay nearly £10k off by this time next year. Just think what a fantastic position that would put you in, all the little loans paid and a chunk off the big one.