Stopping the backsliding… a family of four no longer living beyond their means

Bluegreen143

No, neither of them seem to offer this. I’ve always paid for Scouts annually but this year they seem to have switched to asking for £50 twice a year instead.

Sarahwithlove

Could you get rid of the credit card debt before you remortgage? It takes a month or two to update though on your credit file so something needs doing sooner rather than later. I'd do your own looking around at potential rates for mortgage to see what's being offered so you can compare to broker. But it is scary how much they jump especially if you have a mortgage over 100k. 

Bluegreen143

Our main mortgage is £101k currently, due to end in Feb 25, second mortgage (which we took out to build a conservatory - no regrets there as we use it constantly!) is £27k and due to end in Mar 25. Both currently on really low rates, around 1.8/9%. We pay £530 a month for the two (they are with the same lender). 

I’ve paid £183 off the credit card today which is all that’s in the emergency fund. If we have an emergency we will need to make it work somehow. As every white good we have and the car and our kitchen tap have all been replaced or repaired recently we are hopefully due a break now! 

This brings our balance to £1,385 (69% of the credit limit - apparently it being over 50% is harming my credit score). 

I’m due to make a payment of £659 on Friday (I get paid on Thurs) which will bring the balance to £726 so well under that 50% mark.

The rest will be paid off in Dec. We have money coming from our Help to Save accounts maturing so that’s definitely the case. 

Spending update
Spent £47 on Amazon on books for my sister (two second hand) and games for the kids - Christmas gifts. I dislike using Amazon but all lots cheaper compared to toy/book shops. I can have principles when I have savings!

Also spent £22 on tickets for our local independent cinema to see Home Alone the weekend before Christmas. I booked now as I could get the cheap “kids club” tickets which are £5 each (there was a small admin charge too). If I’d wait we’d have either missed our or had to pay £40 for normal tickets. We are doing this instead of spending £80 on the panto this year - the panto we were going to see is visiting the kids at school anyway which is good! We could watch Home Alone at home for free of course, but we wanted to do some kind of Christmas show or entertainment and the kids will love it, it’s a real favourite movie for all four of us and going to the cinema is a rare treat. The local independent cinema is lovely too, really comfy and fancy inside.

We don’t do any other festive outings or events - no Santa visits etc - with two December birthdays we have no time! 

Baileys_Babe

Bluegreen143 said:

No, neither of them seem to offer this. I’ve always paid for Scouts annually but this year they seem to have switched to asking for £50 twice a year instead.

Could you contact them and ask if they could do this? I'm sure many parents would appreciate it.

I am very surprised it's not offered, all the clubs/uniformed organisations my children have attended so it this way.

Bluegreen143

I don’t mind paying in the bigger chunks tbh as over the year it costs the same. I have a pot for subscriptions which includes amounts building up for annual subscriptions. Obviously it’s only in the last couple of months I’ve set up the budget this way but by the time I’m due to pay the next batch there should be enough money in the pot. It’s always a pain the first year after setting up a proper budget because you’ve not had the full 12 months to save. 

beanielou

Bluegreen143 said:

No, neither of them seem to offer this. I’ve always paid for Scouts annually but this year they seem to have switched to asking for £50 twice a year instead.

This is very poor. 

Bluegreen143

I’m not sure how we’ve gotten onto a lengthy discussion about the billing practices of Scouts 🤣, but to clarify I’m perfectly happy with paying them £50 twice a year (as they want now), or £100 once a year (as I used to), or whatever works best for them, as it’s the same amount of money over the year for me in any case. 

The local Rainbows told me they charge once per term (I haven’t established if this is two or three payments a year yet, as I don’t know if they count Jan-Jun as one term like the scouts do or split it at Easter as schools do). I have signed a gift aid form for both organisations, to answer an earlier point.

QueenJess

Just to throw my hat in the ring, our Beavers is 3x payment a year which they describe as termly.  They've cancelled the auto payments now through their Scouts system so no idea what they are doing...

KajiKita

Well at least you know about the credit rating now and can take action! (To be fair I wouldn’t have known that either … 😳).
Perhaps the broker was seeing the same effect and that was affecting their search ability? 

I agree with the idea of having a look for yourself to compare with the brokers’ options. 

I would give the brokers a good prod! The one we were working with gave me three potential options (based on the parameters we’d given him) each and every time he contacted me over the past few months. I don’t think they are working hard enough for you … 😉

KK

fionaandphil

I would be asking for a few options from brokers too, they should be trying to get some different options for you to look at.

Our financial guy when we took our life insurance about 20 years ago suggested looking at offset mortgages which we hadn't considered. It has been great for our own personal circumstances and has saved us a lot. The advisor found one but we also looked around ourselves and found something we liked better.

My brother also looked at long term fixes and went with a 10 year deal, it was about 0.5% more than the lowest deals at the time. He was looking to fix his costs so it would be a known amount till the kids finished school.

It all comes down to what works best for your own family. It's worth looking at brokers as sometimes they offer exclusive deals but you go have to do your own research too. Our favourite comparison site was https://www.charcol.co.uk