Should I cash in my great grandparent's premium bonds?

zxzx1974

Thanks for all your comments so far.

> Gas £40.00 - have you tried uswitch?
> Electric £30.00 - as above
I pay my landlord £200 and £116.23 for half the bills inc. council tax, electric, gas, water and cable tv.


> Housekeeping £152.00 - what is this for, if you don't mind me asking?
That's a really good question. My budget was completed with the help of National Debtline. They suggest that a single person needs £152 a month as a minimum to live on. It goes toward groceries and cleaning and other day to day expenses.


> Meals at work £25.00 - packed lunches? £25 is a lot of money for a part time job
I work in a school and get 3 free lunches a week during term time. The rest of the month and during school holidays I need to budget for some lunch.


> Did your great-grandparents buy them in YOUR name?
Yes they are in my name and back in 1974 £25 was a lot of money.


> Can you switch any cards to 0% cards or is your credit rating shot?
Well my credit record is fine except that I only paid Barclaycard £1 when I should have paid them £18 today.

My Barclaycard has been on 0% since I started with them last year. It's about to come off though but I don't know the exact date.

As I'm on a low income if I did apply for a new credit card I wouldn't get very much in the way of a credit limit or balance transfer?

I'd rather not borrow any more money right now anyway.

Do think I should apply anyway?

Also in about 3-4 weeks time my income will have gone up but my how much I don't know yet. I'll be doing 50% more hours a week though.

A few weeks ago I put in a claim for Housing Benfit. I chased them up today and apparently they could not read my signiature on the form even though I signed it in front of them when I handed in all the paperwork. :mad:

oscar52

zxzx1974 wrote: »

A few weeks ago I put in a claim for Housing Benfit. I chased them up today and apparently they could not read my signiature on the form even though I signed it in front of them when I handed in all the paperwork. :mad:

Never heard so much rubbish in all my life - not from you, from the council. Most peoples signatures are not easy to read, it makes them harder to forge. Further, nearly all forms, and im sure benefit forms are no different have a second box for PRINT NAME - couldnt they read that one instead?

carrottopsuk

zxzx1974 wrote: »

> Housekeeping £152.00 - what is this for, if you don't mind me asking?
That's a really good question. My budget was completed with the help of National Debtline. They suggest that a single person needs £152 a month as a minimum to live on. It goes toward groceries and cleaning and other day to day expenses. I'm sure if you look on the old style board, they will provide you with some suggestions on how to keep the costs down

> Meals at work £25.00 - packed lunches? £25 is a lot of money for a part time job
I work in a school and get 3 free lunches a week during term time. The rest of the month and during school holidays I need to budget for some lunch.Can you not take a packed lunch for the other 2 days? How much is it for a loaf of bread and some cheese/meat. it won't come to £25! :money:


> Did your great-grandparents buy them in YOUR name?
Yes they are in my name and back in 1974 £25 was a lot of money. Won't they only be worth £25 at today's value whereas you may win something if you don't cash them in. Have you checked to see if they have won yet?

Good luck!

ZTD

floss2 wrote: »

Put it this way, I've had £20-worth for almost 44 years and haven't won a bean yet.....

I have £4 worth. They were also from 1974, I used to have thousands, but sold them all apart from those 2x£2.

Then I won £50. On £4 worth...

rayday2

I think you should keep them if anything I would be double checking to see if they had won in the past lol!

Seriously if I had something my grandmother had given me I would treasure it now she has gone they were bought with such a lot of good intentions at the time and would impact you only marginally now but who knows in the future!

zxzx1974

Latest update:

Housing Benefit claim: I got a letter asking for my payslips for my second job. I replied telling them that I'm a volunteer and didn't have any. No reply since. I don't have the time to go to the office anymore because...

Second job has now gone part-time and at 8 hours a week. My first pay should come through on Thursday later this week. I've send a letter to council housing benefit office notifying them about my change of income. A quick calculation on their website suggests I no longer qualify for HB. I've spent over 12 hours sorting out HB now!!!

I've opened a Cash Transactor account at Yorkshire Building Society and a Step basic bank account at NatWest. The pay for both my jobs goes in the YBS account.

I spoke with First Direct and they have transfered my credit card to my current account with a very large overdraft with an interest rate of base+1%. I have arranged to pay £29 per month to them starting 1st April.

First Direct have now charged me £25 for going over my original £250 overdraft last month because my direct debit to their credit card went one day early. It seems my statement date got change sometime last year and I didn't spot it. For years my direct debits went through through in the 5th or later but now it seems they can change them at will.

Barclaycard have been hopeless. I have to call them back later this week. I just about made to pay the minimum amount just in time this month.

My latest SOA is:
First Direct Current Account: -£2707.37 (EAR base-rate +1%, 6.25%)
Barclaycard: -£796.37 (APR 0% not sure when ends then APR 14.9%)
Nationwide FlexAccount: -£248.23 (EAR 9.9%) (Limit is £250)

NatWest Step: +£1.15
YBS Cash Transactor: +£0.99

Take home pay:
Job 1: £502.91
Job 2: £229.19
Total: £732.10

The amounts aren't certain. I sometime get a little overtime at job #1(not included in figure above) and job #2 is a temporary 12 month contract)

Expenditure:
Rent: £200
Gas: £30
Electric: £25.64
Water: 20
Council Tax: £34.59
Total I pay my landlord: £316.23 every month not gone up since I moved in Dec 2004.

I then need to budget for:
Petrol
Car Tax(Due next month)
Car Insurance(Due in Dec)
Car breakdown cover(Due in Dec)
MOT (Due next Feb)
Groceries
Lunch at work
Mobile
I'm sure there's more but can't think straight.

It's doing my head in trying to work it all out, which accounts to use, overeating and making me ill.

I have now used gnucash(I used to use MS Money, but my laptop broke and can't get it working. I'm now using a new laptop(went out spent £500 last Dec. on new one!) I've entered most of my expenditure for the last 12 months or so. Most of it seems to have been cash withdrawls and food, well eating out and take aways.

Job #2 will pay me this Thursday and Job #1 will pay me Friday next week.

What I want to know is which accounts I should use for what and how do I work out what to budget for and where to put the money for the budget? Does any of this make sense?