Don't Know Where to Begin!!

SBarras

Yes i agree we could cut back on the food bill - we alredy shop in aldi and lidl if anyone could recomend any further tips on how to cut food bills this would be very helpful

I just want to point out this is the first property me and my partner have had to manage, we have never had to manage money before or budget.. hence why we are struggling so much im open to advice on how you manage monthly spending and get the best deals on household utilities

MrsSave

Do you meal plan? I find the weeks/months when I meal plan I generally spend a lot less than when I don't. We don't buy loads of extras/treats. Don't get me wrong, we do have a few, but if someone is hungry mid afternoon, then they have an apple.

It's a little confusing to add your oh on to the soa, but not to count his wages towards the debts. I would re-do the soa showing exactly what you pay each month. Your half of the bills, the mortgage, the food, etc. Does your oh know about your debts? Do you have any joint accounts?

bexster1975

Hi

MSE energy saving club for gas and electric, but not whilst in arrears.

If annually, the car maintenance then frees up another £140 per month.

You say you don't want your partner to pay your debt. Quite right if they had nothing to do with it. But your SOA includes both wages and presumably the bills for gas, electric, water, CT for the household. Maybe a personal SOA if that's required?

When is the wedding? How much do you already have put aside? I'm sorry, but if you are considering a DMP this has to be done as affordable as possible, if completely necessary.

I would certainly contact SKY. if all you owe is £120 and you cancel, unless in contract you will only need to pay less than a month and a half of what you currently pay to clear the outstanding. You should, n theory, have sufficient excess in your SOA to clear the arrears on this anyway if they get sniffy with you. As a customer paying £90 a month for TV, I'm thinking they will try to negotiate!

I cannot imagine how you are able to spend £65 per week for two of you to eat from Lidl/Aldi. Meal planning is the way forward. Use the freezer, use up food before you have to throw it out.

Again, I really don't see why a DMP is required. Just a bit of cutting cloth to fit.

Either way, I think a spending diary is needed. If you are honest with yourself, I suspect there is nowhere close to £700 left at the end of every month which is what your SOA states. Keep a diary of all spends for one month and then complete an accurate SOA. I'm also not sure how Moorcroft became involved really.

Bexster

bexster1975

sorry MrsSave, cross posted so we have said similar things!

Bexster

SBarras

I will get on the phone to SKY as soon as possible im more than happy to cancel the tv subscription as long as we still have the internet , i think its uneccery costs, we only signed up to sky when we first moved in as there was a 6 month deal at a discount rate however that has expired and now we are getting robbed!!

I really struggle at meal planning, as we do a monthly shop not weekly, how do you meal plan for a whole month? I don't even know what i want to eat tomorrow lol

My OH knows about all of my debt and is really supportive about it all, however, he is also terrible with money like myself! We often find we should have money left at the end of the month but by the 3rd week after pay day literally have nothing!

ok so i will do a SOA based on just my income and half all the joint payments, yes we do have a joint bank account which all house hold bills come out of.

I basically got into most of this mess of when I was a student and instead of admitting I was struggling with money i took out credit cars with high interest and a couple pay day loans not mentioning store credit, a huge lesson to be learnt!! Instead of dealing with the debt and actually payign them back I just ignored it for sooo long and its just eventuallly snowballed out of control until the point of gettin debt collection letters

bexster1975

Hi

Your situation is not uncommon re: debts. I just think a DMP is throwing the baby out with the bath water at this point. Tell sky to shove it as it sounds like you are not in contract. Can get Netflix or now TV if you want something. Depending on your current set up TV wise Netflix costs me about £5.99 a month. Bit less than £87!

I wouldn't meal plan for a month. But surely there are a set number of meals you regularly eat. Certainly for breakfast and lunch you are likely to have similar things across a month. Honestly, I don't know where I'd store £250 worth of Aldi/lidl shopping if I only shopped once a month. Presumably you need to shop for fresh each week anyway?

Sort an SOA for just you. Get the interest rates for the unsecured debts as they wont be 0%.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5680653

Thread to help with food budget. The Old Style board in general is very good and friendly.
Bexster

SBarras

we can out of contract in May so does this mean we wouldn't get charged anything on top for leaving?

To be honest we end up throwing a lot of the food away! Meal planning would defiantly help even if we do it on a weekly basis depending on what we have left that week.

Also please can you recommend how to do a spending diary I know we spend a lot on unnecessary rubbish! I might give it a couple month and see if cutting back and just watching the pennies helps me start to pay off the debts!

Sorry to ask soo many basic questions its just I've never had to do anything like this before!

bexster1975

If your contract has ended, I assume you will need to give 30 days notice and that should be it. Ask the question of sky directly.

A spending diary. Small notebook and pen. Write down EVERYTHING you spend for a month. For shopping I keep receipts when I do these ( they are often eye opening to look at come the end of the month:eek:). No sneaky coffees from the coffee shop unless they end up in the diary. No can of coke/ bag of crisps/ choc bar ( delete as appropriate) is missed off! Just keeping the diary is likely to deter you from spending.

The forum is here for questions. Just because they seem basic, doesn't mean they don't need answering. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Bexster

kelpie35

Phone sky up now, tell the you cannot afford their fees and ask how much it would be for the basics you need ie internet only.

I took them up on an offer they were running, as soon as it expired my bill doubled. I just could not afford it so told them I would need to leave them as I would not get into debt for a phone, tv or internet.

They immediately reduce my bill by half and now I am paying less then the original deal.

Good luck.

thriftylass

SBarras wrote: »

To be honest we end up throwing a lot of the food away! Meal planning would defiantly help even if we do it on a weekly basis depending on what we have left that week.

So ask yourself why do you shop monthly, what do you buy if you don't know what you'll want to eat in 3 weeks time. I would definitely change to a weekly shop. Even without a strict meal plan, just buy for instance enough meat for 7 dinners, no matter when you'll have them that week. Save the leftovers for lunches. Use your freezer, a lot of food can be rescued to the freezer just before it goes off. Chop wrinkly veg up and save for making soup. Last week of the month rake through your freezer and see what you can make without going shopping, that's when I usually create the most interesting meal and deviate from the usual. Definitely check out the grocery challenge threads. The only things we throw out are the ends of bread once it's proper stale (or mouldy), vegetable peel and the odd leftover from a plate too small to save and we don't strictly meal plan.

Good luck