Advice needed for reducing monthly outgoings

Katieellen23

We probably spend around £300 in entertainment a month, this includes meals out, baby classes, going out for coffee, trips to the cinema etc. I did not include this figure as it is never consistent and all depends on how much commission my partners receives. Our primary focus of late is saving to pay off debt. We would like to know the best way to pay off our debt, whether it would be to consolidate the debt or not. We would like more monthly cash available to is to allow us to live the lifestyle we would like without needing to feel worried

Willing2Learn

Katieellen23 wrote: »

We probably spend around £300 in entertainment a month, this includes meals out, baby classes, going out for coffee, trips to the cinema etc. I did not include this figure as it is never consistent and all depends on how much commission my partners receives. Our primary focus of late is saving to pay off debt. We would like to know the best way to pay off our debt, whether it would be to consolidate the debt or not. We would like more monthly cash available to is to allow us to live the lifestyle we would like without needing to feel worried

Like I said, your SOA indicates that your debts could all be repaid within 15 months. But the real problem is that you are not budgeting properly. You need to have a fixed budget amount for things like 'holidays', 'presents', 'entertainment' and 'baby classes'. Then you will be able to develop a strategy to move forward with. Does that make sense?

datlex

Do you need to spend £30 a month on baby clothes? Could you chat with ladies you know who have babies and see if you can all arrange a baby clothes swap system?

monetxchange

Like W2L said, it looks as though the healthy surplus you should have is being eaten up by things you don’t include in your budget, yet still spend anyway. It doesn’t matter if you don’t “want” to spend on them - the reality is you do. The only way to stop more debt accruing and clear what you have is to budget realistically and stick to it.

For example, budget for entertainment, but reduce it down. Maybe to £75 a month? Realistically with a baby, you’ll be taking them out. But have a look for free baby groups. Same with baby clothes - buy second hand through ebay and Facebook, look out for NCT sales, people doing clear outs on Freecycle and Gumtree.

You also need to budget for those “one off” expenses that come round all the time - such as presents for birthday and Christmas, dentist appointments, car maintenance. How are you going to fund them otherwise, other than going into more debt because you haven’t budgeted? Car Maintenance sticks out to me as you do a lot of miles judging by the petrol spend so will be hard going come MOT time.

Get a Monzo (or similar) bank account and set up savings pots for these expenses that you deposit into every month. Then spend it when it comes up. Can’t recommend it enough. Well done on taking the first step of debt clearing, this is very much within your reach!

Thrugelmir

Katieellen23 wrote: »

We would like more monthly cash available to is to allow us to live the lifestyle we would like without needing to feel worried

Then spend a period of time focusing on reducing the debt you owe. How long before interest starts getting charged on the 0% credit card. Eventually rejigging and consolidating will run out of road. Easier to take action while you have choices.

getmore4less

all depends on how much commission my partners receives.

This seems to be part of your problem, if you really want to only spend on things if you have surplus money then decide what will come out of this variable commission and prioritize them when you know how much money that will be(Ie. spend it after the income has come in not before)

The regular fixed income needs to pay for everything else and be part of the debt plan.

Your current surplus of £740pm does not exist it is getting spent.

Try a SOA that only include the fixed money/min commission and see if you can get that to balance.

Then have a guess at what the next 12 months extra will be and you can allocate that to some of the discretionary spending.


You could get the mobile costs down to <£10pp and fuel seems quite high.


With variable income and no budget tracking a lot can get lost.

DO a SOA for the whole of 2019, add up all income and change in debt then work out where it all went.

qjess

Hi,

I feel your pain!

I struggle keeping debts down and having enough surplus spending money.

Having a child is a HUGE game changer.

I notice that you didn't add anything for haircuts/beauty products/treatments - do you really spend zero?

I have found that buying my mobile and switching to giffgaff has REALLY helped - I only spend £8 pcm on my phone now! I use social media, texts & calls all the time, but £8 is plenty for me. Only thing I can't do is send loads of emojis in texts, or write v long messages (can still do this on WhatsApp) & can't enter prize draws!!!!

Maybe cut down on meals out for 6 months? It's def do-able and you'll be glad you did it if you can cut out a credit card.

You could consolidate all the cards/loans with a Zopa loan. I've found them to be brilliant. Very easy - think the APR is around 3% but you'd need to check.

Good luck!

monetxchange

I wouldn’t advise following the above advice and getting a loan to consolidate. They rarely work as if you don’t work out where your money is being frittered away, as all you’ll do is clear the debt with the loan, carry on spending the way you were and stack up debt again. In fact, Zopa is one lender you’ll see again and again on this forum as being one people have run up debt with and are now struggling. Just don’t think about it until you’ve accepted that the overspending is your responsibility and not just “the way life is”. £700+ is disappearing a month and just changing your mobile phone contact is not going to solve that.

Vikipollard

Do you not receive child benefit for the LO? I can't see it listed in your "income" section.

Groceries could be reduced by a bit. Not huge, but possible.

Agree that, if you believe you spend £300/month on entertainment, then include it in the SOA.

You also need something in for presents, even if it's just for the LO.