Day 1

wheely

fatbelly wrote: »

Are you signed up to topcashback and quidco?

You will have to do a bit of work to compare prices but I note cashback up to £80 possible

I'm not, but I'll give it a go. Thanks for the advice. Every little helps

pennystretcher

Well done with the work you have done so far.

Next time your buildings and contents insurance is due, do comparison for those as well. I have both with John Lewis and with all the bells and whistles like legal etc - £350 a year. (And look into paying one off payment - cheaper than monthly, maybe use the emergency fund to take the initial hit and divert the monthly monies you had allocated to top it back up..)

Also - worth talking to your wife about it as well, even if it is the initial conversation about having to cut down on somethings without going into too much detail..

EssexHebridean

wheely wrote: »

The £120 goes into a savings account. It currently sits at about £500.

Gets used occasionally for holiday money, or appliance purchases or house repairs.

Start viewing that account as your Emergency Fund - holiday money needs budgeting for, there is NO circumstance where it's an emergency is there! As mentioned above though using money from there to pay an insurance upfront might be a plan though but you'd then need to remember that you would have to budget for 1/12th of the following years insurance AND an amount to rebuild the EF savings. It's a good way of doing things though.

You're doing SO well on all this - and I'd suggest that you redo the SOA now to reflect the changes you've made as that will start to show a different picture for you to work from. when you've done it there is an option to "Format for MSE" in there - use that and paste it in here and you'll see something like what Bob put together for you.

pennystretcher

EssexHebridean wrote: »

- - - I'd suggest that you redo the SOA now to reflect the changes you've made as that will start to show a different picture for you to work from. when you've done it there is an option to "Format for MSE" in there - use that and paste it in here and you'll see something like what Bob put together for you.

I agree about re-posting the new SOA - the number of people here are likely to spot something that can be reduced further (excluding the newly negotiated contracts of course). And it's motivating as well to see the progress in actual figures.

I have a spreadsheet covering my budget for the next few years and just being able to save a few pounds on monthly costs on one bill alone can make a real difference over few years. (that's my motivator..)

wheely

Thanks for the encouragement one and all.

I fell really encouraged by all of your help, advice and the progress so far.

By keeping full track of what I am spending on Fudget, I want to be able to give a true view of expenditure when I update my SOA. It may not be pretty, and I fully expect some harsh truths, but I need it. I wouldn't be in this place if I was a money saving god, and great with my finances, so it is clear that I need advice and guidance.

I have now got a comprehensive spreadsheet showing all planned (and by that I mean committed) expenditure, all debts, minimum payments, actual payments, current balances etc, and I've updated it to show where I have made, or can make savings, including the amount saved. Gives me a little boost to see I've saved money.

Will post it all at the end of Feb, when I've gathered a months worth of incidental expenditure.

Thank you all.

The_Analyst

wheely wrote: »

Thanks for the encouragement one and all.

I fell really encouraged by all of your help, advice and the progress so far.

By keeping full track of what I am spending on Fudget, I want to be able to give a true view of expenditure when I update my SOA. It may not be pretty, and I fully expect some harsh truths, but I need it. I wouldn't be in this place if I was a money saving god, and great with my finances, so it is clear that I need advice and guidance.

I have now got a comprehensive spreadsheet showing all planned (and by that I mean committed) expenditure, all debts, minimum payments, actual payments, current balances etc, and I've updated it to show where I have made, or can make savings, including the amount saved. Gives me a little boost to see I've saved money.

Will post it all at the end of Feb, when I've gathered a months worth of incidental expenditure.

Thank you all.

Well done Wheely - it's amazing how much can be saved when you are properly motivated. It's quite cathartic to go through your SOA and start shaving bits and pieces off your out-goings. Keep it up and whilst it seems a long journey ahead, you are already on your way. It's a bit like losing weight - once you start to see it reduce, you become eve more motivated to keep it going.

Lonire

Hi Wheely,

Welcome to the forums, I too found myself in a difficult situation of accruing debt through overspending generally. I have now moved all my card debt to interest free periods and overpay on the shortest term card first. Have you tried to balance transfer to any cards? The moneysaving expert eligibility calculator can help assist in applying for the best one.

trailingspouse

Well done on the story so far. A thing begun's half done.

Where do you shop? I find I'm saving about £25 a week by shopping at Aldi rather than Sainsbury's (used to be £75 a week, down to £50, with no loss of quality).

Do please include your OH in all of this - if she's unwittingly spending money because she hasn't been told the severity of the situation, that's likely to breed resentment (either from you because you're saving and she's spending, or from her because you haven't been honest with her).

Money really is the subject that couples feel least able to talk to each other about. If you don't feel up to telling her all the gory details, at least talk about the money saving you're doing - you can tell her it was your New Year's resolution, and invite her to look at how well you're doing.

And going forward, agree a rule that you discuss 'big' purchases with each other before going ahead.

Exbankclerk

Unlike others who have said not to remortgage, if you can it might save you 1000's in interest. On 30k of debt at approx 20% per annum that's 6k.youre paying. You could save the extra money to make extra payments on your mortgage instead. However it is secured debt so you would need to be disciplined enough to cut up the credit cards for good.

enthusiasticsaver

The interest on those cards is almost £7000 each year. So out of the £12500 roughly repayments you are making only £5500 is reducing the debt. That is a sign of how urgent this now is.

Cut the cards up if you have not already. I do not think there is loads to cut in your soa but you seem to have made a start in cutting back so that is good. Whilst you do not want to talk to your wife about this I think you have to as really you cannot afford holidays etc until this is lower which will impact on her too. Does she have debt?

If you cannot get any 0% deals I would contact your credit card companies direct and ask if they have any deals open to you. Getting the interest rate down would be the single most effective thing you can do to sort this out.

Make sure you continue to save for emergencies as I do not think you should use credit at all and certainly not put it on your mortgage. You need to start living within your means and paying the debt down.

Having a secure job has lulled you into a false sense of security and you have allowed the debt to continue rising. At some point you will want to retire or you may get sick and lose pay and this large debt will impact even more then. It may also impact on remortgage deals.