Its time to sort out this mess!

mick1234_2

It was higher 2 weeks ago! it was 18%

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Brilliant - well done! Another lump every month to go to the debt then!

The cash idea works for a lot of folk - the one thing I will say is check what cover you have for cash at home in your contents insurance policy and never have more than that sitting about at home. Withdraw weekly instead of monthly if you need to.

For some reason I thought your existing Barclaycard rate was higher than that - sorry for giving you false hope!

mick1234_2

So one of the big things for me is shopping, I am now shopping from Aldi as the saving here is a lot, I used mysupermarket last month but found that I bought double of a lot of things in the long run i guess it saves money but if I had spent the same in Aldi I would have a lot more, I do like to make sure the quality of my meat and eggs are a good standard but I understand that sometimes this will drop.

So my questions to everyone are -

Do you weekly shop ? ( my freezer is not massive )
Monthly shop ?
Daily shop - only buy what you need.

Also do you meal plan ?

I have started to pre make meals, I need to get the slow cooker out and start ustilising that a lot more, I eat most things and my LO does aswell

enthusiasticsaver

We shop weekly, meal plan and do generally one top up shop for bread and milk as we don't have a large freezer. We use up leftovers either for lunch or dinner the next day or freeze it in old takeaway containers to make freezer meals. Once a month I buy household cleaners, dishwasher tablets and washing liquid but I refuse to be sucked into this bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner etc. I bottle of flash and 1 bleach but I do like the separate toilet cleaners.

Slow cookers are great.

mick1234_2

What kind of prices are people paying for gas and electricity ? I was paying £61 for both which was really good but now they have hiked it to £142 after a meter reading, looking only the others say they will save me money but the DD is like £200 + it makes no sense! is £142 still ok ? that is for both Gas and Electric

enthusiasticsaver

That is really high. We have a 4 bed detached and my DH really feels the cold and we are retired so the heating is on lots. We do have new loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and the windows and boiler are newish but we pay £115.52 for gas and electric on a fixed deal with PFP which tend to be cheap for higher usage customers.

I would say, depending on how big your house is that £61 is cheap so are you sure you have not been underpaying and they have hiked it to recoup? Contact them and get them to explain.

mick1234_2

yes I think that has been the issue that they have not taken a reading for a long time, I guess I need to start sending them myself.

enthusiasticsaver

Yes, we send a monthly reading.

EssexHebridean

Monthly readings are the way forwards. If you have a smartphone then try downloading an App to keep track of your useage too - that can really focus the mind!

Get you on the meat and eggs thing - we only buy higher welfare meat and free range eggs - and would go without if neither were available. Having read a lot on the subject though we refuse to pay a premium for organic - there is relatively little evidence to suggest that organic produce is any better than the high-welfare equivalents as far as meat/eggs are concerned. For meat make sure you focus on buying British as our welfare standards are FAR higher than those in the rest of Europe - we avoid Danish bacon like the plague! There is a good range of British meat available in Aldi so it's definitely worth you looking there I'd say.

To answer your questions
- weekly shop for us - and only rarely do we do a top up shop.

- Meal plan is a yes - I start by making a note of anything that I have about that needs using up and then plan according to using those items first - so if I know I have eggs that need used I'll incorporate omelettes into the meal plan for one day maybe - and if I'm planning on cooking a roast on the sunder there will be a meal later in the week to use the leftovers of the joint. Remember to check the fridge regularly as that reduced food waste by stuff getting overlooked.

mick1234_2

Happy New Year everyone hope its a good one, my is going to be a Debt pay off one!

So I have now made a £250 payment off my Barclay card ( the highest interest account ) this is now set as a DD - the standard payment is about £167 so its a start, budget is getting there I have drawn all my cash out for fuel and shopping as this seems my biggest spend I have a budget of £70 this is for fuel and food so I will see how that goes, £40 for fuel and £30 for food a week from Aldi that's £120 on food instead of £200!

A question I have on my CC I have done an eligibility check for a balance transfer and my credit has improved slightly, I can get an HSBC - 32 months 0%, 1.4% fee it is showing me 80% chance of approval. My question is my balance on my Barclaycard is £8500 - the chances of them giving me this are slim should I wait another month to let me credit improve further ? what I do not want to do is apply and they offer me a £1500 which is good but I could really do with a lot more.

thoughts.... thank you

mick1234_2

What kind of emergency funds do you have? at the minute I have nothing and I really want to get this up.