2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

LollopyBear

Forgot to add earlier that I've spent 99p today. DH took me out to the local cafe to treat me to lunch (I'm only counting my spending in this challenge) and I found a cute small basket in Wilkinsons that will be the basis of a birthday hamper for a good friend of mine.

I'm dreading tomorrow though, and all of this week. I'm not able to use my young persons railcard until after 10am on this route, but I have to be in Uni at 9am. This means I am paying £4.80 a day rather than £2.30. It's not worth me getting a season ticket until I'm on my block placement in school and I'm in 5 days a week instead of 4. *sigh*

mumzyof2

kayharcombe wrote: »

Mumzy, I read on another thread that banks cannot deduct charges from benefit money, as its supposed to be the minimum you have to live on. Maybe if no joy you can go to citizens advice, or try the benefits agency who deals with your OH. My local council has a benefits advice line and a law centre run by the council, so you could try locally on your councils website if theres an advice centre.

Hope you get sorted soon, must be worrying for you both, They do like to turn screws and wind people up, I think youre making a more than reasonable offer as he`s on benefits. If they went to court they would get £2 a week.

Kay

Hi will this count to my oh tho..as the benifit money goes into my account and not the lloyds one we are having probs with..as he doesnt use it anymore

Frugaldom

Hello all, just catching up with the threads.

Mumzi, I think the best thing you can do is get OH to talk to Citizens Advice asap and seek some professional help before things get totally out of hand. £20 per day is a lot of money! If you don't mind my asking, what was the original amount on the overdraft before all the charges started?

BALANCING MY BUDGET
I try to keep up with how every penny spent impacts on my budget. This is only the 6th of January and I have already reassessed my budget twice. This has been necessary because of the housemove and not knowing the extortionate cost of heating this place! Various prices have gone up over the past 12 months and every price change has an impact on a personal budget. We each have a different set of circumstances, we each have a different lifestyle and we each set out different needs from wants. My budget is for a household of 3 (sometimes 5) living in a 3 storey, 4 room house plus kitchen, utility room & bathroom. Anyway, the following is the latest review of my 2008 estimated budget:

Heat & Light - 1000.00 (Switched to online account to try and reduce this)
TV License - 135.50
Internet - 215.00
Telephone - 275.00
Mobile - 60.00
Groceries & household - 1500.00
Gifts - 500.00
Everything else - 314.50

So, it's going to be a tough year in 2008. Even if I won £100,000 tomorrow, I woulod still do this challenge until the year ends! I WILL succeed and I WILL increase my savings

mini_huny_money

hya mumzy, a few years ago I was in the very same situation. It was like a vicious circle. I was getting in deeper and deeper. Id phoned the bank a few times to ask them to stop charging me but it wasnt till I plucked up the courage to see them face to face that the bank realised I was really struggling and was serious about getting my money sorted.


I say plucked up courage cos I hate talking to anyone about my money......even though Im in a much better position now.

If you'll notice my posts dont actually mention how much money I pay to what. The prospect of even doin a mini SOA gives me the heebies. Even posting what I did this morning was a real achievement for me. Thgough I spent the last coupla days dreading it !!!!!!

I think you're doing really well to ahve money left over from this week

XXXX

mumzyof2

Thankyou so much mini huny,
Nyk.. i think his planned overdraft was £200 but each week when he got paid they took it down £10 and i think he left when it was £50 as on letters it says Overdraft £50..unplanned overdraft £500 and something, but last month it was onyl £300 and something and now me paying off like £600 of debt since joining a few months back (well will be £600 tomo when i pay 2debts off) seems like i have done it for FA. sorry to swear iam so mad about this. what is the point in me trying to do something about my debt when all my oh does is not ring them...i told him months ago!

sashacat

I've spent £39.37 this week which is great. I have deducted all the monthly DDs before I calculated that I had £193.32 left for each of the 12 months. I have lots of food in the freezer so I should be ok....although I have to pay buildings insurance this month (I pay it as a lump sum because it works out cheaper) so I may struggle to keep within the total for the month, but I will make it up next month.

Frugaldom

Mumzy you are doing this for you and your family, so you can become debt free and so you can afford to go visit your mum in a few months time. I'm not qualified to offer you any financial advice but I can understand what it's like. Would it be possible to clear the overdraft by using the money you are saving from the 2 months of not paying rent? I realise that it will upset your original budget but it's easy to start over again and by then you'd have 3 debts paid off Just a suggestion, feel free to yell at me if it's an impossible one.

mumzyof2

we will see what the bank says tomorrow then i will come back and tell you what we shall do...NOOoooooo im not going to shout i know your only here to help and get us through the year lol :P your a star

skintwellie

Hi everyone!
Have browsed through the threads and you all seem to be doing really well. Before the challenge commenced, I looked at my extra expenditure to see where it could be trimmed down. I was subscribing to 2 competition mags and
one online subscription. I have cancelled two of these which has saved me nearly £10.00 per month. (Last year was quite a good year for prizes, so hope I haven't cut off my nose to spite my face!!!). We have £86.00 per week after DDs for pet ins/house ins/etc.
On Tues I used up all of the manky veg in the bottom of the fridge and made soup - delicious.
Thurs - I discovered Asda. My friend took me to this amazing place where 8 huge bags of shopping only cost me £32.00. I also put £5.00 on a Asda savings card as I remember reading somewhere on MSE about their bonus ( due 19th Nov).
I have an Achillies heel which is IRONING - I hate it with a vengence and I hate to say pay someone £10.00 an hour to do it!!! This week this cost me £25.00 which is a massive bite out of the weekly budget. I can't give her up completely but have resolved to iron the easy stuff myself (this being the equivalent of pergatory) and make lazy son do his own stuff - watch this space!
Ended the week £5.48 overspent due to Asda card, try to do better next week.
p.s. done wonders for my diet 7lbs weight loss.
p.p.s aiming to walk home from work (3.8 miles) at least twice a week.

Frugaldom

If I was a star, I'd be one of those big bright orange fluorescent ones, with big black letters advertising a special offer or cut price :rotfl:

Good luck with the bank tomorrow

Just another point that some of you might like to check up on - previously, I paid my telephone bill monthly online by debit card. I was checking the last bill, which was since moving house, and noticed there's a £4.50 'payment processing fee' added that I have never noticed before. Well, I got straight onto the BT website and there it was, for all to see... they now charge you £1.50 per monthly bill or £4.50 per quarterly bill to process your payment!!! Have now set up a direct debit to get rid of it. Result - saving £18 over the year.

Also checked out the Internet package we have - wireless broadband with family package. I got on to live help and they have now removed the dial up part of the package, reducing it from £24.99 to £19.99 but also gave me a £5 discount from February for 6 months. Result - saving £85 over the year!

Both of these minor changes have been incorporated into my newly reassessed budget posted earlier