New year new me? I hope so!

livewire82

A couple of easy decisions to help trim the fat. I have cancelled the following due to surplus requirement:

Travel insurance / breakdown cover: £216 per year (£18 p/m)
Mobile internet access dongle: £98 per year (£8 p/m)

I've also put a stop to payments in to my 2 kids saving accounts. It's not a necessity and we treat them to days out and things quite regularly:

Savings standing order £600 (£50 p/m)

After the comments about my home insurance, I've already started looking into switching that and it is apparent that our premium can be lowered quite considerably. My term also ends soon so it looks inevitable that I'll be switching that soon.

DrEskimo

livewire82 wrote: »

As for the insurances, I signed up for all of these following advice from a FA but I do wonder if it's all a bit OTT. You just know that if I cancelled something I would then need it. It's all a bit of a risk but I'm not sure what the best decision would be.

Ah OK. On the face of it, it does seem like quite a lot, but perhaps it's needed given your circumstances. I can't help but think there might be considerable overlap though, but I am certainly no expert. Was the FA independent? If not, I would advise you to get a second opinion from a independent FA.

My building/contents is quite a lot cheaper though. Think this year was around £144, so worth shopping around.

livewire82 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. My first step is to cut up my credit cards and be stricter on myself. I rarely carry cash on me ode to the fact I dont actually have any budget, yet I still find myself making contactless card payments and that can get out of hand because you never see the physical value of what you're spending. I'm going to see if I can trim my outgoings and if that frees up any cash for necessary spending then I can withdraw that from my bank account, although debt repayments will always be the priority.

Yea a budget is a must. I don't have any debt, but I always track my spending month to month using a pretty simple Excel spreadsheet.

There are debt snowball calculators that can help you map out how to prioritise paying off each debt. I think you might want to focus on the overdrafts, as they can be recalled at any point I believe. Others will be able to advise on the details!

clearmydebts

Wishing you the best of luck with your journey!

Unicorn_cottage

Read this article to make sure you are getting appropriate insurance quotes. People often vastly undervalue or overvalue the contents leading to a skewed quote.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/home-insurance/

monetxchange

Do you have a packaged bank account? I know Barclays have one that offers breakdown and travel insurance cover in the monthly price if this is something you want to keep cheaply.

I never use cash either. But I do have a separate spending account for day to day expenses into which I transfer a monthly spending budget. That way I can see exactly what I’m spending even on all those contactless purchases. Monzo works for me and even pops up every time you spend and tells you how much you’ve spent that month on that particular outgoing, how much you have left. Many of the free app based accounts do the same so would recommend. Definitely has helped me having a dedicated account for bills and direct debits that my wage goes into and is never spent from. That way money doesn’t just “disappear”, leaving you short. Once your spending is gone, it’s gone.

livewire82

Hi Monetxchange

It's actually the Barclays travel pack that I had. I know I'm forfeiting the breakdown cover too but as far as the travel insurance goes, I don't expect to be travelling abroad this year and possibly not next year either so it's just not worth me paying for. As far as the breakdown cover goes, I'll check out my car insurance premium to see if it already includes this or when my policy is due for renewal.

Regarding the weekly spending, I did go through a brief period of budgeting but now I feel guilty to even do that. As far as I'm concerned, with all this debt, I can't justify giving myself anything for weekly spending. I'm referring to general spending like buying the family lunch in the local cafe at the weekend, things for the house, clothing, gifts, etc. I just feel guilty doing it. The only thing I can't avoid is petrol. Problem is, even though I can't bring myself to go to a hole in the wall to draw money from my bank account, I still spend on those things using a credit card. Is it normal to feel like this? Should I just man up and withdraw the money each week?

db2016

imo, cash is what i use most.

theres that feeling of spending being an "event" or a process, even if it just is, pocket, wallet, open, cash out, and hand over.. it feels like its leaving my hands and into theirs, so its more mindful.

a recent MSE survey said that i'm an odd one out in my age range though - M-30s

monetxchange

I also recently got rid of my Barclays tech pack. I realised it was expensive for what it was, and insuring an old phone and crappy laptop for £15 a month wasn’t worth it! Definitely check if your insurance has breakdown cover. I think mine did first year. Last year I got a years multi trip travel insurance for about the price of 2 months of the pack, so you can definitely get cheaper if you need travel insurance for a short trip for example.

In regards to “spending” money, I should have been clearer. I mean money to use on day to day expenses - so for me it’s groceries, petrol, parking, train, any other shopping bits, odd snack/drink out. I don’t do the “fun money” monthly allocation yet as I too don’t feel I can justify it when I’m still in debt. Buy the essentials only for a while as you get on top of things. But don’t deprive yourself completely. An odd coffee or pair of socks budgeted for won’t sink your debt clearing efforts.

100% stop using the credit cards. Cut them up now. This was me - being really frugal on everything but then sticking big things on credit cards and pretending like they didn’t exist. Definitely bite the bullet and get either a day to day expenses only account or just take the cash out monthly and stick it in allocated envelopes for each expense. I’ve done this too and it also worked.

You can do this.