Money Makers ''trying'' it again diary 2008

moneymaker2

Hi All,

I started a diary last year but never really ended up using it.
This year I want to condense some of those nasty debts that you can see in my signature. These currently total just over £80k.

I have added my SOA incase anyone can help slice some of our monthly costs.
Thank you in advance.

Laura

angelavdavis

Hi Laura,

Congratulations on picking up the challenge again and good luck with it.

Look forward to seeing the SOA.

Best wishes

moneymaker2

Mortgage: £754.51 (Variable rate-Pymts go up or down by approx £30 everytime the rate increases/decreases)
Council Tax- £90 (Paid over the full 12 months to reduce payments)
House Insurance - £28.88
Water- £20.00
Gas- £39.00
Electricity- £47.00
Home Phone - Approx £20.00
O2 Mobiles- Approx £75.00 (1 due to be cancelled 8th Feb)
Orange Mobile £35.00
AOL: £14.99
Joint Lifecare: £23.90
Car insurance: £45.45 (Only for 1 car, the other is paid up till August 2008)
Sky £47.00
TV Licence Approx £10.00
Cinema membership£11.99 (Usually £23.98 but not fully payable till March 08)
Shopping: £200.00 (Based on 2 adults 1 child and a 6 month old)
Petrol: £120 (for 2 cars)
Childcare: Varies between £350- £400
Pocket Money £25 per month (put in high interest account cannot withdraw for 12 months)

First Plus £343.14
a & l creditcard: £9.00
Barclaycard: £100.00
Barclaycard: £53.00
HSBC Loan: £327.21
Next Bill £85.00
Blackhorse £68.91
Citibank: £170.45
Capitalone: £15.00
Gym Membership £26.00 (As of March work will start paying £20 towards this per month)
Cheques £14 for each one that is rolled over for another month

Outgoings:£3155.43-£3259.42per month

Income:
Wage one: £1200Plus bonuses and overtime
Wage two: £1200 plus bonuses and overtime
Tax credit £80 (Will halve in June)
Child benefit: £120.80
Functions: Approx £2000 per year as and when they are needed.

Income: Approx £2790 Basic Approx £3090 with bonuses and overtime.


As you can see it's not good!!!

Any help is greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

hypno06

Good for you. and good luck for 2008 x

spud30

Good luck Moneymaker :beer:

tealady

Gas and electricity seem high, have you checked via a cashback website to see if you can get them cheaper.
Ditto for car insurance.
Ring Sky and tell them you are thinking of cancelling, see if you can get a better deal.
Cinema - have you looked into Orange wednesdays?
Mobiles - how many do you need?
Petrol - look at petrolprices.com (think thats what its called)to see where sells it cheapest locally
Oh and welcome.

duchy

Happy New Year Laura
Seems that if you rolled your phone and Sky into one package with Broadband onto Virgin Media you could get the "3 (services) for £30" deal -plus Quidco. Gas and electric seem high considering you are both working and the house is presumably unoccupied during the day (unless your childcare comes to you). Have you shopped around lately for a better utilities deal (and Quidco again of course )
Do prioritise your debts-mostly in terms of highest APR but sometimes paying a smaller one off altogether is a big phsycological <bleah new years day spelling>boost too.
Good luck-hope to see you posting more often.

findingmyownway

moneymaker2 wrote: »

Mortgage: £754.51 (Variable rate-Pymts go up or down by approx £30 everytime the rate increases/decreases)
Council Tax- £90 (Paid over the full 12 months to reduce payments)
House Insurance - £28.88 have you check that this is the cheaest you can get? use comparision sites and get cashback for any switches. ditto for utilities, phones etc
Water- £20.00
Gas- £39.00
Electricity- £47.00
Home Phone - Approx £20.00
O2 Mobiles- Approx £75.00 (1 due to be cancelled 8th Feb)
Orange Mobile £35.00
AOL: £14.99
Joint Lifecare: £23.90
Car insurance: £45.45 (Only for 1 car, the other is paid up till August 2008)
Sky £47.00
TV Licence Approx £10.00
Cinema membership£11.99 (Usually £23.98 but not fully payable till March 08)
Shopping: £200.00 (Based on 2 adults 1 child and a 6 month old) This isn't bad, but check out the Old Style board for ways to cut down
Petrol: £120 (for 2 cars)
Childcare: Varies between £350- £400 can this be cut down?
Pocket Money £25 per month (put in high interest account cannot withdraw for 12 months) Although i know you want to save for your childrens future, right now the money would be better used towards debts.

First Plus £343.14
a & l creditcard: £9.00
Barclaycard: £100.00
Barclaycard: £53.00
HSBC Loan: £327.21
Next Bill £85.00
Blackhorse £68.91
Citibank: £170.45
Capitalone: £15.00
Gym Membership £26.00 (As of March work will start paying £20 towards this per month)
Cheques £14 for each one that is rolled over for another month i dont't understand this bit sorry!

Outgoings:£3155.43-£3259.42per month

Income:
Wage one: £1200Plus bonuses and overtime
Wage two: £1200 plus bonuses and overtime
Tax credit £80 (Will halve in June)
Child benefit: £120.80
Functions: Approx £2000 per year as and when they are needed.

Income: Approx £2790 Basic Approx £3090 with bonuses and overtime.


As you can see it's not good!!!

Any help is greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

Welcome to the boards.


My first thought would be can you switch to a phone/TV/internet package? You are currently paying £82 + £12 cinema = £94/month:eek: . Even if you got the biggest sky package (with movies) you could reduce that to £46 i think. Have a think about if you REALLY need it all - the basic sky+internet+phone package is only £18/month which is a saving of over £70 already.

You also spend £110 on mobile phones (for 2 adults?). This really needs to be cut. Phone the networks and get them to cancel / reduce to lowest tariff. If you have the handsets then get them on Ebay.

Are you making the minimum payments on the CCs? If so then have a look at www.whatsthecost.com to see which you should be overpaying on first. (usually highest APR so you will need that info)

Are the functions a separate busniess? Can you get more of these?

Welcome again, stick around :beer:

moneymaker2

I have just switched my gas and electric again as it seems the one i'm with is not as cheep as it was 2 months ago.
I have signed up through quidco for a staggering £42 Cash Back.
The cinema cards are not an option to get rid of unfortunatly. Me and my husband work throughout the week so cannot use orange wednesdays and this is the only time that we have as entertainment as we do not go out clubbing/drinking etc.
One of the O2 bills will be cancelled on the 8th January and the contract will expire on the 8th February. I am trying to find the old phone so that I can get it on ebay.
The functions are great when they happen but they are few and far between. Some are what my father in law does, thus only gaining us approx £70 per function and the ones that my husband does are for the rugby so it depends on whether they are playing at home etc.
The house insurance we cannot reduce yet as ''oh yes'' is the only company that will have us after our 3 break in's even though they didn't pay out the last time. (Hence where some of the debt has come back from)
The savings account we cannot close for 12 months as this is the shortest lengh of time we can keep it for. However it will be used to by xmas presents for xmas 2008 rather than faffing around scrapping money together in December again.
I am signed up and my snowball tracker is up on whatsthecost so everything is getting paid in it's order (So to speak)
The cheques were something we took out last month to help pay for a function that we have not yet been paid for.
With my overtime this month I managed to clear £700 worth but for every £100 you cannot pay at the time they are due you get charged £14 so currently I need to clear off the £300 next month otherwise I will be charged £42 (In interest if you like) to have the money for another month. (Does that make sense?)
I'll be on most of the day here cause I want to get some of this sorted.
I will updat on the whole sky/virgin saga a little later

susany2k5

Hi MoneyMaker2, well done for finally posting your SOA's!. You have made the first step in conquering your debt free journey. At this time of year, it really is hard to stay focused because you're still recovering from Christmas but with 2 young children you must plod on!. I'm not really an expert in this as i have large debts myself but i can advise you to transfer all credit card debts to 0% credit card deals. If you were refused then see if you can ring up any current credit cards and ask for a LOB transfer where they only charge you low interest rates for the rest of your balance. That way you can concentrate on overpaying your highest APR loans. Let us know how you get on. Good Luck!:T

moneymaker2

Hiya again,

I have looked into aol and found that my contract has finished with them however i am still in contract with tesco home phone till the 22nd Jan.
I am going to call sky tomorrow and see if they will talk to me cause its my husbands account and see what deal they can do with tv broadband and phone package.he's been with them for 10 years so they had better do something...
We cannot go with virgin media unfortunatly. We purchased a new house a year ago and bt put all the cables down during the building process, ntl however did not and they have now been told that they cannot dig up the road so we can't get it in our area. Boo!!!