Tips to save money to pay debt off quicker

monnagran

I can't see why it should be a problem if you are paying the bills. It rather sounds as though you and the conscientious housemate are singing from the same hymnsheet. If you two find a better utility provider I think the 'discussion' with the pain-in-the-bum should be a bit more along the lines of this is what we're doing. It doesnt sound as though the PITB will be bothered either way.

[Deleted User]

I almost fill the conditioner bit in the machine with the vinegar.

Another thing I found, I shop once every two weeks, I take spilt my hk money into two amount, empty my purse of any change from the previous shop into a piggy bank. Take the allowance shopping. At the end of 3 months you could empty the piggy bank and pay the money off your debt.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

NelliePie wrote: »

Have you guys thought of getting an eco egg? 720 washes for £20! We were dubious at first but for almost everything we wash it works fine. There's only my husbands cricket whites which get covered in grass stains that need an extra boost. This has saved us huge amounts in laundry detergent already and comes in (2?) different fragrances and plain. We got ours on Amazon.

Stupid question but How do you know when it's run out? It's not like you are going to count them all lol. Is it bio or non bio?

[Deleted User]

I have used white vinegar for many years and never had a problem I also use half the amount of the Aldi liquid detergent with a handful of ordinary soda crystals in the drum.My whites are white and my clothes are clean I wouldn't want to put conditioner on any of my clothes it ruins towels anyway and makes them like sandpaper.

I use cash for shopping and literally only shop for whats needed and not wanted when I am cutting back. Full food cupboards mean empty purses and you bought the stuff to eat in the first place so why hang on to it I am working my freezer and tinned stuff down at the moment so my shopping bill is very low but my purse has quite a bit in there from my monthly budget of £60.. which is just for me. Anything left over at the end of the month goes into my holiday fund.

Lots of ways to save a few bob here and there I was brought up with Rationing and my children are convinced that I can streetch a quid to do the work of two :):) probably right and there is zero wasteage in my house

JackieO xx

Nicki

For lightly soiled stuff you could try just washing with vinegar given you share the machine with flat mates. As a real nappy user I occasionally had to "strip" them of detergent build up by doing a vinegar wash and was always amazed by the suds I could see in the machine from detergent residue from earlier washes.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Nicki wrote: »

For lightly soiled stuff you could try just washing with vinegar given you share the machine with flat mates. As a real nappy user I occasionally had to "strip" them of detergent build up by doing a vinegar wash and was always amazed by the suds I could see in the machine from detergent residue from earlier washes.

Thanks for the tip. I use cloth nappies and was thinking the other day about ways to keep them at their best. I thought about using vinegar but wasnt sure if it would work with the water proof outer. I will give it a go.

B17c

Thanks for the tips everyone!

PITB flat out refused to even look into switching utilities, said he was happy with what he was paying and he didn't have time to look into it, which is cr:p coz he's been out of work since March he's just lazy.
Looks like I'm probably going to end up moving again...

JackieO maybe I should put myself on rations, would deffo save on the food bill! I seem to remember a thread called Black Saturn's meal plans or something which will be very old now but she was very thrifty with her food shop! Considering that's the only thing I can really cut back on in my budget it's worth a shot! I order mine online, I shop for the month and I try not to get stuff in between. I would love to be disciplined enough to shop only for YS but I can never find a real bargain and if I was doing it on a daily basis I'd worry about ending up spending more!
Xx

PipneyJane

Hi B17C

B17c wrote: »

Lessonlearned and JackieO, I went through my bank statement online yesterday afternoon and totted up all the non essential spends eg that weren’t bills/DD etc since I got paid in May and I ve spent £270 :eek: on b*gger all!!!!!

All things like little supermarket spends for £2/3/4, maccieDs where I forgot my food for work a few times, a movie on amazon prime... all adds up!

That’s £270 that could have gone on debt, or €€ for when I go home in October for 2 weeks... im annoyed at myself! :mad:

That was quite a shock, wasn’t it? Have you worked out your spending triggers yet, i.e. not just where the money goes but why? When I was flat broke, I worked out that the things I was haemorrhaging money on were all ways to distract me or prevent me going home in order to avoid how miserable my home life was making me.

Do you have a locker at work? Or a desk drawer that you can lock? I always kept a couple of Hunger Break Hot Pots in my desk for those times when I didn’t bring lunch. I can usually pick them up for £1. (Now, if I’m desperate, I could always drive home. I work that close now.)

There’s been a little talk about snowballing. I have a couple of ideas for you but first, please note that the card with the highest minimum payment may not be the one with the biggest interest rate. (Crapitall-1 always demanded double what everyone else wanted, even when 0%.)

You mentioned that you didn’t know which credit card had the highest interest rate or whether you could get a 0% card for a balance transfer. Firstly, your interest rates have to be quoted on your statements. If you “only use the apps” then dig around - the Tesco bank app has credit card statements filed under Account Activity. Once you know which card has the highest interest rate, you know which one to target first.

Before you go out and apply for another credit card, are you at the maximum on all your cards or do you have some headroom? There are two reasons I’m asking:-

1). If you aren’t maxxed out, is there enough wriggle room to do even a small balance transfer from the highest rate card to one of the lower rate ones? Reducing the overall amount of interest you pay will help. Also, you don’t have to transfer the lot to one place.

THIS IS NOT A 0% BALANCE TRANSFER STRATEGY so don’t contemplate it if you can get a lower%/0% balance transfer (see my second point, below). If you are carrying a balance and do a 0% balance transfer to that same card, most banks will roll up the interest on your existing debt while using your repayments to reduce the amount at 0%, which won’t save you money in the longer term.

2) However, I noticed from your signature that you list a Tesco credit card. Even during my deepest debt days when I was carrying a large balance on that card, they frequently offered me 0% balance transfers. Do they do that to you? Then this is the card to transfer the debt off. Keep it clear of debt for two statements - so their computer doesn’t get confused and think you’re carrying a balance - and then transfer your highest debt back at 0%. You can always phone them and ask for the 0% offer, if they don’t have one on their website.

Other thoughts: one good friend had great success phoning her banks and politely asking for them to lower her interest rates. “Umm... I noticed the rate on my card is a bit high. Is there any chance you can lower it? No? Then tell me, please, what do I have to do for your bank to lower my interest rate?” Rinse and repeat every few months. (Admittedly, this was in America, but it’s worth a try here.)

Have you drawn up a budget? Would you like to post it here? You mentioned needing Euros for going home later in the year, how much money are you setting aside to pay for that trip? Where are you putting that money - is it segregated in an account that is hard to raid?

Quarantine is a very useful concept: segregating small amounts of money, in their own savings accounts, so that you have the money for a specific expense when you need it, say for your trip home or your 40th Birthday Party.

At the very least, quarantine £20/month for an Emergency Fund. Everyone needs an Emergency Fund for when disaster strikes. I remember hearing about a study recently, which reckoned that huge portion of the UK population would struggle to get their hands on £500 in order to pay for a real emergency. (I didn’t have it. I had to borrow money from my ex’s parents in order to fly home when my mum died.)

Also, everyone needs a small monthly Sanity Fund, for spending without remorse or setting aside for later. At my brokest, I quarantined £5/month for yarn (I’m a knitter), £10 for clothes/makeup and £10/month for a pair of decent boots. These were my Sanity Funds. (After years of being too broke to buy warm boots when I needed them in winter, I had a light bulb moment and started a “Boot Fund”. The next winter, i bought my boots.)

HTH. Apologies for the essay.

Pip

[Deleted User]

Its babysteps really B17c, even if you start by menu planning for say the next three days and using up what you have at the moment.Don't buy anything foodwise at all,just imagine if you were suddenly housebound and what you could eat to get by on, so that would be three days with no spending at all.

Work out your three breakfasts, lunches and dinners and then see what you have got in the cupboard/freezer to eat after that trust me I told my DGS when he was struggling at Uni this and he said it was good as he suddenly found he didn't starve and he got through a tough week when he was awaiting his grant to come through I had many emails back and forth at the time telling me what he had and asking how he could streetch it a bit :) I could have sent him some cash but I thought no he has got to face up to the facts of life and going to the pub with his mates then finding not a lot of cash left to feed yourself made him quite inventive with what he had in store (I knew he wouldn't starve ) He has just graduated and said finding out how to feed himself on very little was a great life lesson He apparently can make all sorts of stuff with a bit of pasta and a few veggies that he hadn't thought of trying before.

Living with war time rationing was a fact of life for millions of folk for 14 years and my late Mum was an expert by the time rationing finished in 1954 Cheese grated up goes further than sliced is one good trick and a few spuds par-boiled then sliced thinly an onion diced, and grated cheese will, if layered into a dish and shoved into the oven make a filling meal with some greeen veg.I dice or shred cabbage and steam it (I prefer sweetheart cabbage as it is lovely with a cheese, potato and onion bake ,add a dollop ofchutney or pickle on top of the cabbage or a slurp of sweet chilli sauce and you have a tasty meal made without having to use any meat .Even the humble cheese on toast with a half a tin of beans on top will fill and empty tummy,you can use the other half the next day heated up to go with a sausage or two and an egg, voila another meal for very little :):)

JackieO xx

P.S don't forget to have a 'Happy cash stash put aside for a small treat ,even if its only a couple of quid a cream doughnut will raise your spirits when you're feeling down xx

B17c

Hi Pip, thanks for your essay! :j

My credit cards are nearly maxed, they were maxed but I took on an extra two jobs and worked 70hrs a week for a couple of months to get them down a bit! Unfortunately I burnt myself out and couldn't keep it up so I'm selling stuff, doing car boot sales and overtime at work as well as reviewing my budget again!
The only area really that I can cut back in is groceries/food, I'd say that's where I overspend... I love cooking and love eating and we celebrate everything with food and drink! Had a cr*p day? Eat! Had an amazing day? Eat! :eek:

I was buying food pretty much on a daily basis, not including a weekly online shop, lots of wine and takeaways too, I've cut my budget by more than half, no takeaways, switched to a cheaper supermarket, switched to the economy ranges, only shop online, once a month, on a cheap delivery day (£1)

This area is definitely my weakness... I don't shop/buy new clothes, I don't go out drinking... my money goes on rent, bills, credit cards, bus fare, food and contact lenses. I cancelled Apple music. The only things left I could cancel would be Netflix and the gym but I don't have a tv so the only thing I watch is Netflix on my kindle (daily) and the gym is my one 'splurge' as it makes me feel better mentally and physically (plus my job is pretty manual so the extra strength is welcome!)

I will see if I can find out my interest rates, yup, I do everything via an app or online! I know my Tesco intro offer runs out in August so I guess my monthly min payment amount will go up...

I made £200 roughly on fb/eBay sales this week, £160 in cash so I've put that in a drawer to go on €, I've already got 110€ left over from last time... I want to take about 800€ if I can which will be more than enough, then I won't need to use my card.

I'll hopefully be picking up chaperone work over the summer but I'm not factoring that in yet until I have a definite go ahead.

I meal prep and batch cook as much as possible so I'm prepared (I work nights) and I've started keeping snack bars and crisps in my work bag so if I forget to take something from the fridge I won't starve!
Xx