Long Time Lurker

pidge04

You have some real positives then - Grandparents providing some childcare, your wife!!!8217;s tutoring role and the fact you can do some paid marking in the future.

You can do it!!

Scott-Weiland

I tend to agree with what has being said re your income/expenditure.

My five penneth is I would cancel the british gas boiler thingy and I would use the money to set up a saving account for an emergency fund. I recommend this for two reasons firstly it costs say 50-75 quid to get your boiler serviced annually, and 400 quid per year for a boiler that may potentially not break is a lot to pay out.

Most of the guys on here you will find have an emergency fund for boilers breaking/high mot bills/unexpected bills etc, you would be better of imo paying 15- 20quid per month into a savings.

If you wish to continue with the policy get yourself on topcashback.co.uk and look for another policy 35quid is expensive, me and my ex paid half that for our boiler breakdown policy when we had one and it covered everything.

I would also look around re pet plan there will be cheaper policies on topcashback that will give you exactly the same level of cover.

60quid on these insurances would be better spent paying say 30-40 into an emergency fund the extra cash pay it off your cards.

MJhami59

Lots of interesting advice for me to consider.

The British Gas boiler, pipes, radiator cover has served me very well and our boiler is over 20 years old and they had to replace the computer in it last year so I think I've got my moneys worth out of them!

Our cat's insurance covers ongoing conditions which I doubt will be covered if we move but I'll look into it.

I've looked up Dave Ramsay and have decided to pay the minimum on all my debts and build up the £1000 buffer ASAP.

We have 2 months where we may get into more debt as my wife's earnings are so low (in June she's earning nothing but keep in touch days and tutoring) but I'm prepared for this. Hopefully my back pay will cover any shortfall and the debt won't grow over the £26,656 mark!

On the plus side I've moved gas and electric over and received a cheque for £40 from my old company today. That is going to kick start my saving towards £1000!

MJhami59

Hi!

Payday tomorrow, I'll be putting my budget on here.

I have made 3 positive steps today.
1) I have set up a savings account where my emergency funds will go.
2) I paid in a £40 cheque which will be my first contribution to the savings account when it clears.
3) I have started to switch bank accounts from Halifax to HSBC. I will be rewarded with £150 if I sign up to internet banking. I am encouraging my wife to do the same! If we do this then that is an extra £300 and almost our lowest CC paid off. They have offered me a 0% balance transfer CC for 32 months which I have accepted but I am planning on not even touching it!

Jobs for this evening are to get phone numbers for MBNA CC (I have a £12,000 limit), British Gas Services and Pet Plan and to cancel all of those. It will save me nearly £50 a month which I can put towards savings and then debt. - Thanks for the advice! I am also going to cancel my Now TV as we have Netflix off of my wife's brother's account!

I will update tomorrow with budgets and how I have got on with phone calls.

beanielou

Going against most of the advice given thus far I would pay off the gold card first as it is the smallest & then start on the emmergency fund.

MJhami59

Hi Beanielou, thanks for your advice.

I will look at my budget tomorrow and I'll let you all know what I decide! I know I have car and home insurance going out in August (for mine and the wife's cars) so I might save to budget for that first (£600 or so).

MJhami59

We were paid! I'm still waiting for my back pay but that will be fun come the end of June!

I have £2526 in my account as we speak. I plan to leave £2200 in my account and save whatever is left over at the end of June.

I will put £150 into my personal account for petrol and social spending.

That leaves me with £150 to go on the Monzo card (for food shopping). This doesn't seem much but will be topped up by my wife's tutoring money. When my wife gets paid for her tutoring she either transfers me the money or puts the cash in the shopping pot so we can control our spending this way.

Sticking to this budget will mean we will have paid £400 off our debts this month by paying our minimum commitments.

The debt will not grow :j

kuratowski

That sounds great, hope it all goes according to plan

pidge04

You are doing well!

MJhami59

I haven't been as productive as I wanted to be over the past two days.

I have cancelled Now TV (saving me around +£50 a year as the £3.99 was for 3 months only and then it reverted to £9.99).

I have paid both my loans for the month and I have received my debit card for HSBC.

Another plus is I have been given a ticket to watch England at Wembley tomorrow. It's in a box with free drinks and food. The train there is less than £10 and I will drive and park at the station so another £10. Not bad in my opinion!

I have to phone British Gas and Healthy Pet Club to cancel these tomorrow!