Calm not chaos

birdsfoottrefoil

Oh god endo is a nightmare!! Well done on paying the 10k off!!

canvascamper

OK I have a quiet hour or so, so lets try doing this SOA...

Monthly Income 
Job 1 - £2284 net
Job 2 - variable but ranges from minimum £900 to maximum £2400 net per month. Pay is per day and I usually do between 2 and 5 days per month depending on school holidays. 
Child benefit - £242.20
Payment from H for half the bills - £1182

Total monthly income - between £4608 and £6111

Monthly fixed outgoings
Mortgage - £1254
Gas and electric - £237
Council Tax - £212
Life and critical illness cover - £165
Pet insurance - £41
Water - £70
Internet and BT sports package - £78
TV licence - £15
Kids music lessons - £136
B7 swimming - £37
Kids gymnastics/parkour - £96
D11 drama classes - £170
Netflix - £5.99
Disney - £12.99
Spotify - £11.99
Lottery - £16
Private pension - £15
Cleaner - £152
Milkman - £64
Credit card repayments - £565
Total -  £3353.97

Monthly variable outgoings - averages taken from last 3 months
Food - £506
Eating out - £400
Days out - £155
Kids clothes - £145 (this included 2 lots of high school uniform so not usually this high)
Tram to work - £35
Cat food - £60
House and garden - £92
Birthdays and gifts - £106
Petrol - £35
Kids pocket money - £55
Kids toys and treats - £84
G11 dinner money - £80
G11 bus money - £20
Total - £1773

Total outgoings - £5126.97

canvascamper

Also whilst I'm looking at numbers, current debt totals -

Monzo Flex - £788.31
Paypal Credit - £397.70
Virgin CC - £1269.32
1st MBNA CC (0%) - £11465.25
2nd MBNA CC (0%) - £5912.47

Total - £19833.05

Scott_Weiland79

okay so re your soa a few things jump out at me

Netflix - £5.99
Disney - £12.99
Spotify - £11.99
Lottery - £16
Cleaner - £152
Milkman - £64

This lil lot being the main ones

£262.67 pm


If you trimmed this lil lot that paypal or monzo card could be gone in 3-4 months.

Are you on the most expensive package re Disney? We pay £5.99, and i googled theres a 5.99/9.99 and premium package.

Spotify could you not perhaps use the free version.

Lotto yip briliant i get it we all want to be millionaires but thats 192 quid per year could you cut that or do it once a fortnight maybe.

Cleaner i get it also but 152x12 thats 1824 py your paying. Could you same again do it yourself or ask them to come in once a fortnight or shop around see if you could find someone cheaper.

Milkman the same 768 py. Could you not just buy it in the supermarket and bin this.

I get supporting local business etc etc, but if you want out of debt sooner hard choices at times need making. If you could even half this lil lot, thats 100-130 extra to clear debt quicker and that will save you months and months in time.

canvascamper

@Scott_Weiland79 thank you for taking a look, much appreciated!

I've had a look at the Disney plus again and I think I can go down to the £9.99 package. The cheapest package is no good because there's no downloads, and the kids often download marvel movies to watch when we're camping or on a long car journey.

The other things, I will defend as follows (and I know this is not helpful for my finances 😭) 

Netflix - £5.99 - for Stranger Things and Bridgerton 😅
Spotify - £11.99 - my son uses at night to sleep, he listens to podcasts and the version with ads wakes him up because they come on really loud with music, we've tried this before
Lottery - £16 - suppose I could cancel this. Then I'll never be a millionaire. Chances are tiny I know!
Cleaner - £152 - this is already for fortnightly. We have a big house (3 floors) and grubby children and 2 longhaired cats. I've cancelled this before and tried to divvy up jobs etc. It didn't work and the house was grim. Could have led to divorce, which is very expensive.
Milkman - £64 - tried cancelling this before and it was more expensive overall because when we ran out of milk we went to the shop and invariably bought more things than just milk. 3 children drink a lot of milk, and it's oat milk (2 are dairy allergic) so it is more expensive than cow anyway. The delivery fee works out at £3 a week which is way less than I would spend if I went to Aldi every day. 

canvascamper

Changed the Disney package 🙌🏽 that was easy ☺️

Scott_Weiland79

Small savings can make a big big difference

Bin the lottery lol or half it 

https://www.comparethemarket.com/credit-cards/calculator/

Pop some figures into here then you will get where i am coming from.

I get re the kids and the milk i have a 23 year old and a 4 month old. But look at what your paying via a dairy and what you would pay in a Supermarket.

Or although i am not a fan of the company ie Amazon a friends is the same as your kids. I messaged him earlier he buys 8 litres of oat milk on amazon. He gets the alpro one and spends 10.69 under the subscribe and save thing.

re the cleaner I would just look at other companies. I get the house not being tidy my partners not the tidest and it can cause issues i get that.  Shop around thats all i would say.

Other option Tidal might a plan instead of spotify or pandora 

I use tidal 10.99 no ads and podcasts

Get out of debt is about lil wins, i am not saying skint yourself or have no life. But you need to be realistic about the budget.

Save ten here, cut 15 there, 3 quid here and there then fire that off debt 

canvascamper

Totally agree @Scott_Weiland79 I'll look at all those options for sure 😊

enthusiasticsaver

So on a low income month you have a £500 deficit so presumably some of those outgoings change?  There is a lot of kids treats in that soa alongside their activities, clothes, dinner money, bus money, pocket money, subs etc.  If you add up all essential bills and things like food and things for kids etc half is way more than the £1182 that your husband gives you. Can that be upped? How is that worked out? 

Sarahwithlove

When working out the bills versus what hubby pays you there's a massive difference. Is there any way he could give you more? I also agree that's alot it extras for the kids, is there any way you could cut it back? Do you meal plan and do shopping list from that? Might be worth considering to see if you can bring those costs down. 

Could the cleaner go to every 3 or 4 weeks? Not ideal but would all help. Or like Scott said, shop around, are there cheaper companies out there? Lottery needs to go, once you are out of debt you can go back to it.